Day 304: Halloween

We had lots of fun today, carving pumpkins, making caramel apples and spending time with friends.

Day 303: Almost done

The annual church bazaar is just a couple of weeks away and I have several projects to finish!

Day 302: End of the season

All too quickly, the Munchkin soccer season is over. Here is my wonderful team running through the parental celebratory tunnel at the end of the last game. I am very proud of this group of kids - they worked so hard every practice and every game.

Day 301: Litter collection

Here is Daniel after a community litter pick this morning. Our neighborhood is looking much nicer thanks to these kids!

Day 300: Autumn leaves

Wow Day 300! Amazing... So yesterday I took just a couple of pictures; today I took 200 and it was SO hard to choose just one. Here is Noah experiencing one of life's great pleasures, crunching through autumn leaves.

Day 299: More late night baking

I took some photos of my dad today on Skype but I know that he would not be happy for me to post them here, so here are some wonderful brownies that Johnny baked this evening in preparation for tomorrow's Parent Teacher Conferences.

Day 298: Houseguest

This is Celine who is a guest in our house while her owner is in the hospital. She escaped on Sunday morning as we were leaving for church, which was extremely stressful, but we were miraculously able to catch her and now she seems quite happy in our home. Incredibly our cat-chasing labrador is quite happy to have her around and the two of them seem to get on remarkably well.

Day 297: Honeycrisps

Are these the most delicious apples in the world? Quite possibly...

Day 296: Apples

Today was our annual church trip to a fruit stand on the slopes of Mount Hood. Forty of us set off after church and drove up to the orchard where we could pick from an amazing variety of apples and pears. I bought a number of different kinds of apples for different projects this week: apple pie, apple sauce, caramel apples, and just eating. This is always one of my favorite days of the year...

Day 295: Goalie

I committed the cardinal sin of not bringing the spare battery to the soccer game today so I could only take pictures with my phone. Poor quality though this picture is, it is pretty significant since today was the first time Johnny played the position of goalkeeper in a game. He was really very good and no goals were scored against him. Very proud of my big boy!

Day 294: Chemistry Lab

There was no school for the Middle Schoolers today, so my friend Adair and I took four sixth graders to OMSI for a field trip. I love going to OMSI with Noah and his friends, but it was very fun in a whole different way to go with Johnny and his friends. They spent a lot of time in the Chemistry Lab and did all the available experiments.

Day 293: X-ray

After Noah's four year old check up on Monday, the doctor expressed concern about his "small stature". He has hardly grown this past year and is in the first percentile on the growth charts. So today we went to the hospital to have a bone-age x-ray and a lot of blood work done. The x-ray was great fun and Noah was incredibly brave having his blood drawn. He didn't even flinch as they "slurped up my red blood" (his description to his sister when we got home).

Day 292: Trumpet

Johnny is learning the trumpet in his middle school band class. Can't wait for a band concert!

Day 291: A lawn-mowing team

Two of my men getting ready for the last mow of the season. Thank you Andrew and Claire for Noah's lawnmower!

Day 290: Late night baking

It has been an exceptionally busy day: substitute teaching until 3:00 pm, a meeting at the elementary school and then a visit to someone from church who is in the hospital. After putting the kids to bed, I did some baking for an event this week: flourless chocolate cake and an apple and blackberry crisp.

Day 289: Pumpkins on the porch

We are looking forward to carving these!

Day 288: Retreat

This weekend was our church's annual Women's Retreat, a wonderfully relaxing and refreshing time with dear church friends. There was excellent teaching and heartwarming fellowship in the most beautiful surroundings. This picture is from our afternoon hike.

Day 287: Pumpkins and Piglets

The children and I had a lovely day at a farm with Noah's preschool. There were animals, pumpkins, a corn maze and all kinds of autumnal fun.

Day 286: New Bibles

Daniel and Anna have been asking for new Bibles for some time: Daniel, since he dropped his into the creek during his cabin's Bible study one day at camp this summer, and Anna, since she has become a really confident reader. Daniel just asked for a Bible; Anna REALLY wanted a purple one. They arrived today and both kids are happy.

Day 285: My littlest soccer player

This boy cannot wait to be old enough to be a Munchkin player next fall...

Day 284: Jigsaw puzzle

Noah and I love to do puzzles together. This puzzle was one of Noah's birthday gifts and a lovely reminder of our summer trip as we worked on it this morning.

Day 283: Christmas cakes (part 2)

My Christmas cakes are now soaked in rum and brandy and wrapped up in parchment and aluminium foil to mature for a few weeks until it is time for the marzipan. 

Day 282: What we are humming at our house...

We have a pretty eclectic collective musical taste as a family and we all enjoy listening to the same music most of the time. These days we are all humming this piece which Daniel will play in a recital at the beginning of November. He has just learned it by heart so we won't be seeing so much of the music anymore, but we will continue to hear it several times a day for the next few weeks. Hopefully we will still all enjoy it as much then as we do now...

Day 281: Corn Maze after dark

Remember this? A week after visiting the Pumpkin Patch with the kids on a beautiful evening, I returned with the church youth group to try the corn maze in the dark. Still lots of fun, but quite a different atmosphere!

Day 280: Pirate flag

Noah was given a pirate flag for his birthday and where better to fly it than our treehouse? Now the treehouse can be a pirate fort, or a pirate ship...

Day 278: Music Store

Noah and I visited this music store this morning to pick up a trumpet book for Johnny. Noah is absolutely fascinated by the "rums".

Day 278: Happiness is...

... a tire swing!

Day 277: An OMSI birthday party

To celebrate Noah's birthday, we invited three of his friends (and their moms, who are my friends) for a playdate at OMSI. We had a splendid afternoon together. This huge sandbox was very popular with the four year olds.

Day 276: Christmas Cakes (part 1)

I don't know if I will have a photo for every stage of the Christmas cake process (there are at least four stages) but here is the first: mixing the dried fruit and soaking it in alcohol for a few days. This year, I used rum. I usually start making Christmas cakes at the end of September so I am a few days behind schedule but they need to be done in time for our Christmas bazaar on November 12th.

Day 275: Peanut Butter Pie

Good friends came over to have dinner with us this evening and brought peanut butter pie, which I have never had before, and which was delicious! I can't believe there was any left at all, so I had to take a photo of the last slice, which will not be there for long, I am sure.

Day 274: Purple Ninjas

I don't usually get the opportunity to take a photo of my Munchkin team playing because I tend to be reffing the games. However, we had a tournament today and my wonderful assistant coach Emily reffed the second of the three games. Here are my Purple Ninjas!