Pictures from October

Grace has gotten into the habit of turning on her lamp to do some after-bedtime reading, and then falling asleep with the lamp on.  One night when I went in to turn off her light, this is what I found.

And here she is before school.  Her outfits have a lot of variety!

And another sleeping baby picture.  He's not asleep when I go in very often, so I catch the moments when I can.

Every once in awhile, in the evening, the kids think they need to lay down on the driveway and "skywatch."

Jonathan isn't the only one who knows how to cross her eyes!  And, this is Grace's picture of a Pac-Man ghost.  Where they learned about Pac-Man, I'm really not sure.

Benjamin and I do have a little fun at home while the big kids are at school!

A Few More from September

One night, Grace said her tummy was hurting and that she needed the throw-up bowl.  Now, I was convinced that  she didn't need the throw-up bowl, but on that issue, it's always best to err on the side of caution, right?  When I got her up the next day, this is what she was wearing, and this is who was in the throw-up bowl.

A friend of mine got a secondhand baseball glove, and then realized it was for a lefty.  So, guess which lefty was the lucky girl who made a home for the glove!

This is how they read…sometimes.

A Day at Apple Hill (October)

We had a Saturday with everybody home at the beginning of October and decided it would be a good day to go to Apple Hill.  We hoped that it wouldn't be too crowded since it wasn't too close to Halloween.  Well….it was still crowded, but since we prefer the quiet apple farms to the crowded ones with flea markets, craft fairs, etc., we found those and still had a really fun time.

Our first stop was at a little ranch that war purely for apple picking.  The woman who owned it operated out of her garage.  She charged by the box, and encouraged us to get the box as full as possible.  (As you can imagine, Jeff enjoyed that challenge!)  She also said to make sure to eat apples while we picked…and we did!

Our second stop was for pie.  This was the part I had been looking for.  We had two big plates of pie a la mode and split them between the five of us.  Mmmmm!!!

The last place we chose was a little more crowded, but it appealed to the kids and had free activities, so it was perfect.

This woman was demonstrating how corn was ground into grain in the mid-1800s.  The mechanical aspect appealed to Jonathan, of course.

The kids painted mini pumpkins, which they all enjoyed in their own unique ways.

With all the interruptions our weekends have had lately, especially with Jeff's work, we really enjoyed this family day!

Jeff's 40th Birthday…In August

In August, when Jeff turned 40, he wanted to go to Mammoth Lakes and Mono Lake, so that's what he did.  Also, my mom asked him what kind of birthday cake he'd like, and when he described it, this is what she made.  Mt. Whitney was delicious!

Here are lots of pictures with very little description, but you can see that we enjoyed celebrating Jeff.  You'll also notice that Jeff held the camera on this trip, so the pictures are mostly of the rest of us, but that's the way he wanted it this time.

Jeff wanted us to do jumping pictures, but the concept was lost on the kids.  And also Jeff kept cutting my head off.

Happy 40th birthday, Sweetheart!