Fall Update and Thanksgiving Adventure

Since it's almost Christmas I figured I should update on where the rest of fall went after Halloween. In reality most of it was just wet. All in all we had a pretty quiet but fun fall. For Thanksgiving we drove over to NY to visit with Grandma and Grandpa Ostrom. It was a good visit with a yummy dinner. We even had fun braving Black Friday and got to enjoy a nice lunch at FoCastle Farms. It was the trip back home that really began our adventure. There was a light snow but hey - we live in New England by Thanksgiving weekend you just kind of expect it to be part of life for the next 5 or 6 months. We left at about 2 in the afternoon because I was supposed to teach in Primary on Sunday and we still had some shopping and cleaning etc. that we needed to do that evening. We were driving merrily along (I think the kids had fallen asleep) and started climbing the mountains when we reached our first accident. After waiting for probably about 20 minutes in traffic that was more stop than go Mark decided to try going around the mountain instead -so we managed to turn ourselves around (did I mention that we also happened to be pulling a trailer we were getting from Mark's parents). A little while later down the road there was another accident. This time though it was just slowing a bit so we kept on going and thought how lucky we were since it seemed to be a bad day for accidents. Thankfully we stopped and filled up at the next town we came to and kept on our way home. It must have only been 4 or 5 PM by then because we didn't stop to get food even though it was close to eating time. After we had been out of the town for bit and into the middle of nowhere we came on our 3rd accident of the trip. This time it was a solid line of cars at a stop for as far as we could see and the only ones that seemed to be coming from the other direction looked to be ones from up ahead that were turning around. Probably over an hour after being pretty much stopped it was getting dark, the kids were up and hungry (thank goodness for the distraction of portable DVD players!), and the roads were getting slick with ice. We had inched close enough to see lights from the emergency vehicles but never actually saw them. At last we cheered as we cautiously edged our way back up to a crawl and then a fraction of the actual speed limit. Probably no more than 5 miles beyond where we had seen the lights traffic stopped once again. It was just too much after nearly 6 hours on the road on what should have been a 2.5 hour drive we were still over an hour from home and stopped with the roads just getting worse. Finally we crept up the road enough to a motel that proclaimed a resteraunt. Perfect - a bathroom, dinner, and sleep. We pulled off the road and up the hill to the sanctuary - and got stuck. The weight of the trailer was just too much for the van with all the ice. I ran Alicia up the hill to see about a bathroom and check out the place. Turns out the people that were running it had had it for less than 2 months and were in the process of a major rennovation so no food. We were out of options though so we asked if they happed to have any rooms left. We got their very last room - one that under any other circumstance they would not have offered. It did have a fridge and microwave but the television and phone didn't work and there was no internet. It all worked out okay though, the kids were just glad to be out of the car and in addition to sharing some of their own food with us they talked a pizza place into delivering for pretty much the whole motel - most if not all were in the same position as us. The next morning one of the other guests we had met the night before helped Mark with the van and tailer and we headed off into a morning that was clear, bright, and beautiful.

Kids Halloween Pics

The annual Trunk-or-Treat was packed with lots of fun chaos. Since Halloween was on a Sunday this year Saturday was pretty much all of our celebration. Still the kids had a good time. This year I even had pretty much everything prepared before we were trying to head out the door. Our biggest rush was when it was decided that this year for a change I must have a costume so I could be part of the family.

With all of the usual chaos and meyhem that the promise of large amounts of candy usually produces we didn't really get many more than these of the kids. I thought they were cute though. Of course I would think that after spending an hour on A__'s hair so she could have curls. It's what she wanted and she loved how they looked but each one was a battle for her to let me finish them. A__enjoyed being the pretty witch and getting a prize for her costume (the little owl pictured with her) R__ was super excited to arrive and find that one of his most favoritest people ever was dressed as Supergirl. Unfortunatly, that meant that he didn't leave her alone most of the night - after all Superman and Supergirl belong together right? Thankfully she's a really good sport about it!

Red Ribbon Week

Red Ribbon Week is a spirit week but based around drug free choices. A__ had great fun dressing up for it. Her class won twice for having the most participation.

Monday - Red, White, and Blue Day

Tuesday - Team Jersey Day

Wednesday - Crazy Sock Day

Thursday - Crazy Hair Day

Friday - Twin Day (it also happened to be a p.j. day for the 1st graders who were finishing up a study of nocturnal animals and having a pajama party!)

Once there was a Piggy

The other day A finished her breakfast and immediately decided to give herself a project. She took out a sock puppet craft book and supplies and began to make herself a piggy. She worked quick and in about 15 minutes we had a new adorable addition to the creatures that live at our zaney zoo. I don't think it has a name yet, but I'm sure that won't take long!

Family Pics

We went to a nearby park with some friends and traded taking family pictures. Unfortunatly the light wasn't very good when we had planned to do it so a lot of them didn't come out very well and we didn't have much time. Still it was a lot of fun and there were some nice ones.

Honey of a Fall Day

Our good friends are beekeepers... among many other things that just make them way cool. This year they invited us over to come help with the honey extracting. A__'s been dying to see how they get the honey so of course we said yes. First the guys all hung around doing their thing with the honey while I enjoyed seeing how it was all done and keeping track of the kids. Then the kids decided to head outside and M__ came out to help me. I should have guess it wouldn't be long before we had...

the battle of the knights...

the battle of bravery... who will win???

oh no... Night R has fallen... whatever will we do?

never fear... Knight Z to the rescue...

ahh... Knight Z victorious!


After some of the grownups left A__ gave up on the boys outside and decided to take her turn at the extractor. She had a great time spinning and didn't want to stop.

Thankfully she decided to give R__ a turn when he decided to come in later. He got bored pretty quickly and handed it back over to her more willing hands.

The delicious results....

and just because she's so cute! Knight Z's littlest sister giving up on all of us...

Fairy Fun Birthday

One of A__'s friends from school had a joint celebration for her and her younger sister's birthdays. The two girls are so sweet and we had such a fun time. The theme was fairies, unicorns and rainbows. The girls also ended up being princesses for the day. R__ was the only boy but it didn't faze him in the least. He loves both girls and the other friends that were there and promptly decided he was the prince.

I believe in fairies!

pondering the presents

R__ being the uh... true prince that he is, trying to assist the girls in blowing out their candles on their beautiful cake!

okay... so we know what he was really after... the goodies!!!

Apple Picking Primary

Our Fall Primary Activity was to go up to the local orchard and pick apples together. It was really a lot of fun. Aside from all the friends from church we even ran into some friends from school too. Only downside was that the hill was closed so we didn't get the beautiful view. Thankfully they still had the tractor rides going so the kids had fun with that.

First came the apple picking (and eating)

even after the tractor rides the kids took advantage of a free ride!

then the silly pictures

and of course, the petting zoo

he's smiling at us!

love... with hesitation

yes bunny, there's a reason you're in the cage... it's just safer in there for you

there's got to be a place in heaven for these poor animals subjected to the torture of too much love - notice the poor bunny trapped in the corner combined with the look of pure satisfaction

A__ and one of her friends from school feeding the sheep

It was just after this that the battery on my camera died. Unfortunatly that means we missed some great pictures, they have some pretty neat animals there. As it was we spent twice as long in the petting zoo as planned so it's probably a good thing anyways!

Birthday at the Fair

As usual we celebrated M--'s birthday by going to NY to spend time with Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle M--. On the way there A-- was actually awake when we drove through Greenwhich and saw the annual fair that takes place on their birthday weekend. Saturday Morning she insisted that we go there to celebrate their birthdays. Overall it was a mixed first experience for her. She enjoyed the couple of rides she got to go on. R-- was still too young for most of them. I think overall they probably enjoyed the animals the most. Because we spent most of the time chasing after the kids I didn't get a whole lot of pictures and A-- was a lot easier to get to stand still so most of the ones I have are of her.