Winter Recital

Collin and Logan at their Winter Recital last Saturday

I'd love to show you how it sounded

but this DARN thing won't let me download the videos

 AARRRGGGHH!!

So just take my word for it...

they did great!

I was very proud of how well they played

and how hard they worked to prepare.

(Maybe someday I'll get the videos to download)

Now Where Was I?

Remember last year when my friend, Alyson, talked me into this project?

Well... she did it again!

(Oh YES, she did!)

This time we decided on the book, "Each Peach Pear Plum"

(Alyson was in charge of making 30 peaches, plums and pears, and I was in charge of the characters)

and somehow between Thanksgiving and out of town visitors -- TWICE

I managed to finish them.

Here they all are:

The Three Bears

 Jack and Jill

 Cinderella and Bo Peep

 The Wicked Witch and Robin Hood

 Mother Hubbard, Tom Thumb and Baby Bunting

 There you have it...

 12 of my newest, closest friends
(we've spent A LOT of time together)

that I happily loaded in the car for a quick trip to Concord

so that they could hang on THIS TREE

 which is standing in Ralph Waldo Emerson's Study

in the Concord Museum

(I'm SURE he would have approved :)

I'm just so happy to be done with this little project

 that I don't know what to do next...

*shop for Christmas

*decorate for Christmas

*sew for Christmas

*clean my house

*read

*sit and stare blankly into space

*re-introduce myself to my family

*SLEEP!

It will be nice to think about something else for a change.

(Hey, why don't you swing by the museum and see them yourself!)

A Quick Trip Out West

We recently took a little trip to Utah 

where the boys did activities that involved

sleeping in sleeping bags

 snow

and four-legged animals

While they were off doing fun stuff like that...

I was doing fun stuff like THIS:

having lunch with my family to celebrate little brother Jason's BIG birthday

watching Blake play soccer

(he's the one in blue)

going to lunch with my aunts and cousins

(LOTS of cousins)

attending a SPECTACULAR Halloween party where I saw...

a Ninja

 a Witch

 Spiderman

and a toe-eating baby

as well as some really awesome dance moves

 spooky lights

 and strange brew served up by these cuties!

I went to dinner and FHE at Daren and Sheri's house

(with Mom and Dad and Jason)

and watched the kids carve pumpkins

and as if that wasn't enough...

 I also went to a High School Football Game

(so I could see Chase play)

got a hair cut

visited with friends

AND 

got Collin to help decorate our tree so it will be ready 

when we go back for Christmas 

(YAY!)

But best of all...

I was able to spend lots of time with THIS little guy!

(thanks for arriving on time, Cooper)

It was a very busy week, but we all had 

SO. MUCH. FUN.

(and now we're counting down to Christmas!)

Halloween at our House

I thought I would go ahead and post some Halloween pictures...

before Thanksgiving got here

This is how the big day went down at our house:

A little pumpkin carving

some posing with their handiwork

 and then catching a little of whatever that one had 

(very appealing, huh?)

some background "mood music" for the Trick-or-Treaters

a bit of posing in character 

(felt pretty safe with these two around :)

 and some really scary faces that 

(surprisingly)

didn't scare any of our visitors away

It was a great Halloween at our house!

Happy, Happy!

Look who's having a birthday!!

No one works harder or treats me better than THIS guy.

(here he is doing some of his favorite activities)

(okay, this one maybe not so much :)

I sure am lucky

he married ME

      Happy Birthday!!

Cider Making 101

Thanks to good old Christopher Columbus

the boys enjoyed a day off from school yesterday

It was the perfect kind of Fall day

leaves changing colors

crisp, cool air 

good food

and great friends getting together to make cider

And here is how that happens:

Step 1:  Get plenty of apples

 Step 2:  Put them in water and "wash" them

 Step 3:  Juggle a few of them

 Step 4:  Get lots of helpers to throw them in the chopper

 Step 5:  Turn the crank -- if you can

 Step 6:  Fill the bucket

 Step 7:  Put them through the press to squeeeezzze out all the juice

 Step 8:  Catch that juice in a pan

Step 9:  Share a glass with a friend

(while pretending to be pirates... drinking rum!?)

And THAT is how you make cider on a perfect Fall day.

Recovering

I guess you could say I've been in a slump 

and I'm not sure why

Maybe it's because summer is over

or because my kids have gone back to school and I'm home alone

or maybe it has something to do with Cafe Rio (being far from where I am :)

or the mountains I miss looking at

or maybe it's because I am no longer surrounded by 

a big extended family that I can see 

any time I want to

or maybe... I just don't know

BUT... I'm making a serious effort to snap out of it

which means I need to get my act together and start taking some pictures

because FALL has arrived in New England

and I LOVE fall in New England!

Before we get to that though, I've got a few more pictures to post from summer

beginning with one of the last events of our visit...

The Russell Family Cook Out

which was held next to this lovely creek

where Logan spent most of his time swinging

and throwing sticks and rocks for Walt to chase,

which he diligently did over and over and over again

(look at Walt memorizing that rock so he could find it in ALL those other rocks - poor dog)

and Maddie and McKenna floated happily by

and Collin tried out his own method of swinging

and these fine young men strolled along... talking trash, I'm sure :)

(with cute little Dally)

and Reganne made yummy s'mores

and Becky couldn't make then fast enough to keep Kendal happy

(at least that's what it looks like she's doing :)

and Ben studied

and then savored his tasty treat

and Porter worked on recruiting me for a game of Tag

(hard to resist that cute face)

and Addie tried one. more. cookie.

and this group discussed... all things important... as the sun went down.

(I'm pretty sure that's what they were doing :)

 Yeah, it was a really good way to wrap up our summer

and I miss things like this.