Pumpkin carving

Last night Aaron and the kids carved their pumpkins for Halloween. The kids thought it was so fun, except for the part of having to clean out the pumpkins. Will asked Aaron if he could do that part of it next year. They started with a big spoon, but found the hand worked better at cleaning it out. The only problem is it feels disgusting and is messy! That part they didn't like!

They all drew their own faces on the pumpkins and Aaron carved them out for them. They were thrilled with the results...

Fall Festivities

Fall has to be our favorite season. Here's why:

• Soccer
• College football
• Halloween
• Cooler temps (but not too cold yet!)
• Apple picking
• Pumpkins
• okay, leaves are not so fun when you have an acre and a half full of trees
  

Last Friday night we went to the fall festival at the park in Warsaw with some friends. They had a little petting zoo which the kids loved and we were able to go on a hay ride.

Saturday and Sunday was General Conference so we stayed home and watched/listened to conference. It was great to spend the whole weekend together as a family and we enjoyed lots of good food too! Aaron and the kids made "buckeyes" on Sunday (rolling peanut butter balls and dipping them in chocolate). The kids have been begging to make them for weeks.

Justin is playing soccer in the city league here and Will and Bruce play at the YMCA. It makes for busy Saturdays, but it's fun for them. Will has scored at least one goal every game so he thinks soccer is pretty great.

Thursday I took the three younger kids to pick apples with some friends. They had so much fun running through the corn maze and the pumpkin patch. It was 75 degrees and beautiful. We are loving this indian summer while it lasts!

Happy fall!

World's Worst Mom!

Bruce came home yesterday from pre-school and informed me that it had been his turn for show and tell that day. I told him I was sorry I forgot to send something and told him he would have to pick something out for Thursday. He proudly replied, "that's okay Mom, I showed them my coat!"

Aaron and I got a good laugh out of this as we tried to envision Bruce presenting his jacket to his class. Perhaps he showed them all of the nifty features: pockets, a hood, a zipper... The sad thing is it's last year's jacket and it's even getting too small on him and it was dirty! I wonder if he modeled it for them or if he passed it around to the class like they usually do the fun toys so that everyone can see!

It's times like this I wonder how I am going to keep track of another child and I have to wonder what the teacher thinks of this poor boy's home life!

A Town With Backbone: Warsaw, Indiana

The Early Show on CBS did a special on Warsaw back in 2006.

Light the Night

Our family participated in the Light the Night walk for Leukemia on Thursday night. This was our second year to participate in the walk. We were happy to be able to enjoy the walk with some of our good friends. Each employer sponsors someone and this year Aaron's employer was walking for Jillian. There was a big group of us. Last year Jillian had only been diagnosed with Leukemia for about two months when we did this walk. It is so amazing to see the difference in her from last year to this year. She is in maintenance now and still undergoing chemotherapy, but is a shining example to all of us. She (and her family) are great examples of courage and faith through such a tough trial. Here's our little gang of walkers - all sugared up. They provided hot dogs, chips, and an endless supply of popsicles for everyone. I think each kid had a minimum of about four popsicles (notice the red lips!) Jillian is holding the white balloon in the picture above.She was so proud to have her own bag of chips.

A Man and His Chainsaw

Our neighbors had several trees cut down and told us we could have some of the wood for our fireplace. Aaron is thrilled to have an excuse to use his chainsaw and all of his gear. I couldn't resist taking a picture of him at work last night. This weekend he has big plans to cut down one of our trees (yikes) and hopefully split lots of wood.

What a man!

Chalk art

Our family has thoroughly been enjoying the cooler weather. Last night we were outside and the kids were busily trying to fill our front driveway with sidewalk chalk. Will came home from pre-school this morning and realized they missed a few spots so he had to get the chalk back out. We have some aspiring artists who will be so sad when the rain washes away their hard work. Madelyn even joined in on the fun and pretended she knew what she was doing.
Aaron made good use of the time to hang his Buckeye flag in preparation for this weekend's big game against USC.