Halloween Party Pictures

We had the best time at Maw's house yesterday afternoon! So thankful that Maw opens her home up & allows our little homeschool group to come have parties there. We always have such a good time together & yesterday was no exception.Jesse & Taylor....aren't they just the cutest little hunter & witchy that you've ever seen?!
Cori, Alli, Taylor & Jesse

Taylor kept checking on Max outside....she said he was like her Chichi dog at home.

Who could resist this cute little face? Max kept standing outside of the dining room window on his hind feet like this just a-grinning & begging us to let him in!

Taylor, Summer, Daniel & Jesse digging into their candy treats...YUM!

We commented on how pretty the table always looks & that it is just tradition now to make sure we snap a picture of the table & all the yummies before everyone digs in.

I asked Ashley to try & get a picture of everyone around the table...it's always hard to get everybody in. L-R: me, Sarah, Shelly, Mike (who is hidden behind Danielle's head), Maw & Danielle's back. ;-)

Our cute little Goblins: Anna, Alli, Cori, Daniel, Jesse, Summer & Taylor

Mike is such a brave soul to come & put up with all us CRAZY women & the 'Menopause Stories' LOL.....you had to be there! I also love how Jesse got right into the edge of this picture....so cute! What a sweet family picture....I just wish Ella's kiddos had gotten in it too. Mike, Shelly, Alley, Summer & Danielle.

Quite a bit accomplished...

Well, I'm tired...but I must say that I'm pleased too with all that I got done today. I folded about 4 baskets full of laundry, helped the kids with their pumpkins, started a fire, baked a double batch of cookies, fixed treat bags for the party, supper, did my chocolate dipped pretzels & finished some last-minute decorations.Here's what we ended up with for the pumpkins. Jon is the only one who was actually able to carve his. After Michael cut his finger, he & Alli resorted to paints for their faces.

Jon asked if he could go over to Mason's this afternoon because he had a piece of cedar wood that he was gonna let Jon have for a project. He came home after a while & gathered a few tools & told me he would be out in Clay's building finishing his project. He wouldn't tell me what it was. When he was finally done, he came in to show me his little treasure box that he had made. Isn't that something else?! The wood is gorgeous & it SMELLS so good! He had everything all planned out....measurements & everything when he went over there....Mason just cut the boards for him. Mason is so good & patient to work with him & teach him this stuff. He even gave him the tiny little brads that he would need & let him borrow his drill to do it with too. Jon told me all about how you didn't want to split the wood, so you drill tiny little holes first & then tap the little brads in place. He did an excellent job & he's also informed me that he wants a table saw like Mason has....to go in his own wood-working building. He's over here at the table as I type drawing up plans for his next project.....making his own gun stock.

Busy Monday

Goodness, I have a busy Monday ahead of me, but first let me back up a bit. We DID end up going over to Mari's for a while Sat. afternoon. Just Alli & I went....she REALLY wanted to go visit with Katelyn for a while & see her new room, etc. We had a really nice time...Mari & Rinnie are always excellent hostesses & everything was decorated so nice! Most all of our neighbors were there...Buddy, Ena, Leslie & her two little girls*Paul, Lisa, Brett & Jesse Carter* Faye & Skippy* Mason & Gail* Joe McGrory* Jerry, Carolyn & Emma. We had hotdogs, chili, taco soup & TONS of home-made desserts. Just a good time of fellowship & visiting. Nice for a rainy Sat. afternoon!!

Yesterday, after church & lunch I took my crocheting outside for a while. It was 70 degrees yesterday & so nice out in the sun! I have finished up three pairs of mittens so far, crocheted a blanket for Sanji to sleep on & now, I've started a pair of fingerless gloves. So, I'm coming alond with my Chirstmas goodies.

Now, my list for today........
~Bake a double batch of white chocolate chip cookies
~make Halloween cards for the party
~fix the treat bags for tomorrow
~help the kids carve their pumpkins
~put chicken/stuffing in the crock pot for supper
~do some laundry in there somewhere along the way
~work on my Scraptoberfest challenge for today (I'm current now! Yay!!)

Is that it? I'm sure I've left some little things off, but you get the idea. School today is NOT coming from the books....but is Life lessons 101. ;-) BTW, just off the wall...Ashley was reading the box of pancake mix last night & it was saying how many 4" pancakes each batch would make.....at first she thought that meant 4" thick, but I told her that was the Diameter......Aaahhh....a math lesson, I see. Well, believe it or not, she ran to grab a ruler & was over there measuring my pancakes to find out the diameter & of course we talked about how the radius was half of that. And just for the record....my pancakes were pretty much right on....about 4" in diameter. First pizza math & fractions & now pancake math with diameter/radius. How fun is that?!

Halloween Craftiness

Lots of Halloween craftiness going on around here. Just had to snap a quick picture of my 'Dining Room' table......our dining room is so NOT for dining...it's for school & scrappy/crafty projects. It's where we work. ;-) You should see the whole thing.....it's covered...just like you see here in the picture. This is just Ashley's side of the table....Alli was opposite her (in my spot) making her Halloween cards. Ashley told me yesterday that she knew it was kind of early....& absolutley NO Christmas music until Thanksgiving....but she was really getting the itch to start working on some Christmas projects. I told her it was time. As soon as we're done with the Halloween crafties we're gonna jump into working full force on our Christmas hand-mades. I just love the time we spend together around this table working on our crafts & goodies that we make for the ones we love. Good times, good times! It's so rainy & yucky outside today. We were supposed to be having a neighborhood picnic over at Mari & Rinnie's today, but since it's raining the 'picnic' has been moved inside. I can't decide how bad I really want to go. It just seems like the PERFECT day to stay in & have a movie/scrappin' marathon. The kids are wanting to watch all the old Halloween movies on TV today......I mean REALLY old ones....Frankenstein, Dracula, the Werewolf, etc. What to do, what do? Guess I'll see how bad the rain is in a few hours.............

More Scraptoberfest

Just a few more of my favorite layouts that I've done recently for Scraptoberfest.Love how this one turned out...so fun & funky! The challenge was to use the word 'Happy' in your title. It's hard to see it, but I took the cloud & rainbow idea from the front of Ashley's shirt.
Ashley took this amazing picture on one of her afternoon walks. Isn't it just gorgeous?! This challenge was to use any product from the Tinkering Ink line.....of which I had absolutely nothing. But thanks to my friend Penny, I was able to complete the challenge. She sent me an envie filled with goodies including the squares of TI patterned paper. For some reason I thought the blue design in this paper just mimicked the butterfly wings perfectly. Thanks Penny!!

And last but not least...a sketch challenge. It just seemed to work perfectly for this shot of Bunny enjoying his little piece of BD cheesecake.

**How many excalamation marks did I use, Dana?**

Tag, you're it!

I was tagged...

Here are the rules:

1. Link your tagger and list the rules on your blog.

2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog-some random, some wierd.

3. Tag 7 people at the end of the post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.

4. Let them know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

I was tagged byMartha http://mavansavans.blogspot.com/

So let's see, 7 random facts:

1. I graduated from Liberty University in 1987 & now my oldest son is attending there.

2. Beverly Lewis is one of my favorite authors.

3. I was baptized at TRBC by Jim Moon.

4. I met Clay in History class at LU.

5. Sleepy Hollow is my favorite Halloween movie.

6. My middle name is Blair.

7. I went to Costa Rica when I was 15...with my Spanish class at school.

And I'm going to tag.....

1. Jules-http://julietds.blogspot.com/

2. Ken-http://cutesyglamdesigns.blogspot.com/

3. Donna-http://www.donnamusing.blogspot.com/

4. Dana-http://homeschoolhome.blogspot.com/

5. Kristi-http://whendidiorderthis.blogspot.com/

6. Robin-http://rocknrobn92.blogspot.com/

7. Steph-http://overatstephsplace-steph.blogspot.com/

Can you guess what we're reading?

'It was the very witching time of night that Ichabod, heavy-hearted and crest-fallen, pursued his travel homeward along the sides of the lofty hills which rise above Tarry Town,and which he had traversed so cheerily in the afternoon.'

Don't you just love how this 'sounds'....this particular quote always reminds me of that Andy Griffith show where he's trying to read this to Opey & he keeps getting interrupted & having to start all over again. Oh & in case you didn't know....it's from 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' by Washington Irving.

Little Blessings

Little Blessing number 1...Thursday evening was our Scaremare adventure. My whole reason for choosing to go on Thurs. night was to hopefully avoid the weekend crowds....ya know, thinking that it was a school night. Well, get this...we were in & out in about an hour & 15 mins. total! Unbelievable really considering past experiences where we've waited in line for at least 2 hours before even going through the house. Got in line at 6:45 with only about 25 people in front of us...we were the second group to get to go through. Got to see Chris & some of his friends in action. ;-) We were done by 8 & home by 9pm. The only 'sad' part to the whole evening was that Ashley & Jon had none of their friends to go with them. Hopefully next year we can get a good group together to go. Just makes it more fun for the kiddos getting to go & hang with their friends, ya know! A few statistics from Chris....the first weekend he said they had over 6,000 folks come through & of that number 403 got saved!! PTL

Little Blessing number 2....yesterday was such a chilly, rainy day. Praise the Lord, we got our Scaremare adventure in BEFORE the rain came! And even though we had to paddle around in the rain yesterday doing our usual errands & grocery shopping...I had prayed that it would be over & done with by the time we needed to load/unload all those groceries...I really hate getting soaking wet & all your stuff is sopping wet, etc...& what do you know.....not a drop of rain on us by that time!! Sometimes it's the little things that mean the most.

And speaking of 'little' things....another blessing that I just HAD to share here involves a friend of mine & HER little blessing...I'm so glad she was willing to share. I keep thinking about Shelly's yellow flowers & it just brings a smile to my face. How God really does care about even the smallest things in our lives. She had REALLY wanted some yellow mums, but didn't have the extra money to go out & buy some, so she prayed. And lo & behold if God didn't GIVE her some yellow flowers FOR FREE! She was taking her son to work & saw that the city was replacing their yellow marigolds with pansies out in front of a McDonald's. They were just pulling the yellow flowers up & pitching them, so she stopped & asked if she could have them. They gave her a whole garbage bag full....enough for her to have & even share with Danielle & Alley! Now how awesome is that?!

Today in Pictures

These days have been so nice for hanging clothes out to dry & I just couldn't resist this picture of Ashley's Halloween PJ pants blowing in the breeze.
I baked two loaf-sized apple cakes & an apple crisp with the apples that the goats nibbled on.

Here you see the trees beginning to change colors.....this picture just does NOT do it justice!

Clay, Jon & Michael have worked REALLY hard these past few days getting our wood supply ready for the winter!

Sparky thinks he's King of the Mountain!

Dumb Goats!!

I wanted to strangle them this evening! They had gotten into the pump house & ate my apples! They know we keep the sweet feed in there & they're always nosing around looking for an opportunity to sneak some, but today it was like 'forget the sweet feed.....we've got apples!' And of course they wouldn't just eat one whole apple & be done with it.....NO.....they had to nibble out of about 15 apples! I had Jon pick through & bring them into the house for me. I washed them off, cut off the nibbled on parts, peeled & cut up all the rest. Guess I will have to do some baking tomorrow. I have 8 cups of apples in the frige now! Can you say apple pie, apple crisp, apple cake, apple muffins, applesauce.................

Today's scraptoberfest challenge was to use a white circle on our layouts.....in honor of the full moon tonight. ;-)

Happy Columbus Day

Jon came in from hunting Sat. & said Mason wanted to know if he & Michael could go to the junk yard with him on Monday......if Mama would let them 'skip school'. Of course I said yes....it IS a 'field trip' after all, right?! Well, they were up & out of here by 8:30 this morning & didn't get back til about lunchtime. They had an absolute blast! Jon told me all about how they weighed the truck when they got there & then unloaded all the scrap metal onto a conveyor & they got to watch it being sorted & smashed....all that really cool GUY stuff. Then they weigh the truck again to determine the weight of the junk & how much Mason gets paid for his junk. See, pretty educational field trip. ;-) After the junk yard, they went to a hardware store & Mason let each of them pick out a treat that was $3 or less. Jon came home with this huge magnifying glass & Michael had a hand saw. Then they spent the rest of the afternoon doing Woodshop. Jon worked on making a rubber band gun & Michael worked on making a boat. Will have to get some pictures of their tools & their projects.....both really nifty! And speaking of projects....here are some of my latest. I'm always making stuff for gifts, etc & never anything for myself. So, my first project was this granny square scarf to match my LL Bean coat Maw gave me last year. And I also made myself the mittens to match. Then I decided to make all the kiddos on my Christmas list either mittens or fingerless gloves this year. I've gotten two pair finished so far.
Today's Scraptoberfest challenge was to do your journaling in the form of a letter. I just couldn't get myself in the mood to write any kind of serious letter, so instead I chose this more comical route. Love this pic of Sanji sprawled out in the laundry basket. The journaling reads- To Whom it may Concern: Thank you so much for washing up this nice basket of clean laundry for me to sleep in. I really appreciate it...it's so nice & comfy. Love, Sanji

Pictures

Clay had told Jon & Michael to clean up the front yard.....from all the branches/limbs, etc from when they built their forts. Anyway, Jon decided that he was going to drag & pile all of his over by our old burnt tree stump so we could have a huge bonfire one night. I came outside & this is what I found. Another 'work of art!'
The sun was really bright on this side of the house yesterday afternoon & I love the cool effect it had on the screen. Sanji was too cute just sitting there trying to figure out what I was up to.

The beginnings of our wood pile for the winter.

Bootsie just had to pose for me on one of the logs.

And last but not least....today's challenge for LM's Scraptoberfest....to use felt on your LO. Those cute little felt flowers came from the Dollar Bin at Target. ;-)

Creative Day

That's what I had yesterday.....a really creative afternoon/evening. I actually got THREE layouts done! They were each done for a specific challenge over at LM.....for Scraptoberfest.This first one was a sketch challenge & I must say that I LOVE the way it turned out. Jon wanted a picture of 'just the boys' last Sunday before Chris went back to school & when I saw the picture, I immediately knew the title I would use........Anybody remember that old TV show 'My Three Sons'?
This challenge was to use a list of at least 10 items on your page. The title is Fall Break & the list reads:
1. Oct. 1-5
2. No classes
3. video games
4. late-night movies
5. listening to music
6. looking at pictures on facebook
7. home-cooked meals
8. catching up on homework
9. doing laundry
10. just hangin' out together!!
And a little side note here....ALL the stuff used on this LO...paper, chipboard, stickers, etc are all from the Dollar bins at Target. ;-)


The challenge on this LO was to use a 'MIXED title'....

Take Me Home Country Road was done using a Dymo label, hand-cut letters, hand-writing & alpha stickers.

Boy, Jon's got the bug

He had said something to me last night about going hunting this morning, but it was just kind of in passing & nothing definite. At least I didn't think so, until I woke up this morning about 7:45am & Jon's bed was empty. I can't believe that I didn't even hear him get up or leave! He told me his alarm went off at 6:30am & he was up & out. That boy is a SERIOUS outdoorsman!! Didn't see anything this morning but a bunch of squirrels, but I'm sure he enjoyed his time up in the tree all the same. ;-)

Success

Jon just shot his very first deer with his bow! Talk about a HAPPY KID! Granted, it was a small one...but his FIRST with a bow nontheless. Clay just ran home to show me the polaroid that Mason took & Michael had to hop on the scooter & go back over there with them while they clean it. Isn't country life exciting?! Off to make a blackberry cobbler. Yum!

Randomness

* More 'Kitchen Math' yesterday. I was making a double-batch of oatmeal cookies...some for Chris & his room-mates & some for us to keep, of course. If I need 1/2 tsp. of salt, twice.....how much is that? 1tsp. And if it calls for 1 1/2 c. of flour how much will I need when I double that? 3 cups! Isn't Kitchen Math so much more fun than text book math? And I'm sure the whole visual aspect of actually SEEING it in real life makes it stick in the head a whole lot better. At least that's my hope. ;-)

* A funny from Michael......I was teasing them the other day about how much tea they drink. I swear sometimes that's all I do all day long is make tea. Anyway, he & Jon had just come in & poured HUGE glasses of tea....drinking up what was left in the pitcher & I made the comment (just teasing them) that my boys were 'Heavy Drinkers' & Michael instantly, without thought says, 'You cut me deep, Mom!' I tell ya......I thought Clay was going to fall in the floor laughing!! Doesn't sound quite as funny as I type it out here, but I tell ya, it sure was funny the other night!!!!!!!

Buried with Him in Baptism................

Raised to walk in newness of life!Chris got baptized tonight at campus church. About 40 kids were baptized...PTL! Dane Emerick baptized him & what is so wild about that is that he was there as Dean of men when Clay & I were in college!

We are so proud!

Love ya big bunches, Chris!!

Pizza Math

Michael is just beginning to learn fractions & Jon & Ashley are a little more advanced...adding, subtracting, multiplying & dividing fractions....learning about reciprocals, improper fractions, mixed numbers & percents.Anyway, the boys were eating frozen pizzas for supper last night & as I cut & served it up, I made them do a little practicing. As I put one piece on Michael's plate, I asked him what fraction that was.....1/4. Then I added another piece.....2/4 & what does 2/4 equal? 1/2 of a pizza. Yay Michael! I did the same with Jon.....one piece on the plate is 1/4.....ok, tell me what percent that is........25%. 3 pieces on the plate is what fraction.....3/4 & what percent is that? 75%.....excellent job, my young mathmeticians!! Now, you can go eat your math lesson! ;-)

Fall Break

Well, we have all enjoyed having Chris back home for a few days over Fall Break. It's been so nice just hanging out & staying up late watching movies & the boys have enjoyed playing video games with him & what-not. I told them I wanted a picture this afternoon before Chris left since I really didn't get any good pictures to document our Fall Break. Everyone was happy to oblige..........................except Alli, as you can see. Oh well, happy or not, she's in the picture.
Jon wanted one of just the guys! 'My Three Sons'...............Hmmmmmm, does that sound like the title for a scrapbook page or what???

Lazy Saturday

Blueberry muffins & coffe for breakfast*computer time*took my shower & washed a load of clothes*took my lunch outside & ate it then read for a bit....I'm reading a cool book I found at the library called 'Real Lives'...eleven teenagers who don't go to school tell their own stories. Obviously it's about Homeschooling/Unschooling. Loving it so far!!*Scrapped for a while...did my Scrpatoberfest challenge from yesterday*Looked after a wounded goat....insert rolling eyes here....it's a long story*Jon went hunting with Mason*sat under the Dogwood & crocheted on a pair of mittens to match my scarf I made*Picked a bunch of greens to cook for supper*fixed fried chicken, greens, mashed potatoes, ronis,corn muffins & salad for supper*chatted with Maw online*getting ready to head upstairs & read now.

Insert Catchy Title Here

Just a couple of pictures that I took early the other morning. Love how you can see the fog hanging in the background & the dew on this spider web was just beautiful. The pictures just don't do it justice.

Clay snapped this picture of Jon up in his treestand on his first day of bow hunting. He saw one but wasn't able to get a clear shot at it.

Have you ever watched 'Patch Adams'? If you haven't, you should! It was such good/feel good movie! I loved it & it's definitely one I'll watch again. Chris had to watch this & write a short paper on it for his psych class. So he, Ashley, Jon & I watched it last night after Michael & Alli went to bed. Two thumbs up!

Scraptoberfest

Well, I did it...I decided to sign up for Scraptoberfest over at Lifetime Moments. A challenge a day for 31 days. Now to see if I can keep up & get them all done. I did this two years ago & actually managed to finish them all, so we shall see.... This was today's challenge....very simply to use Cosmo Cricket. Thankfully I had several sheets of Cosmo that I had picked up from AC Moore, so this was easy.
Oct. 1 challenge- to use a star/stars on your layout.