Catching up, once again

Since Thanksgiving is almost here, why don't we catch up and finally talk about Halloween? Sound good? Good, here we go.

First, the children's school had Red Ribbon Week during the week of Halloween. Red Ribbon Week is when the school puts an emphasize on drug resistance. The children wore different things during the week, like hats and red clothes. The last day they were to dress as rock stars to show they were "rocking out" drugs. (I think that was the term.)

We did the best we could with what we had around the house.

Adriana was a basic rock star.

Cara was trying to be Hannah Montana.


Whom was Jonah, you ask? Why, Moe Doddle, of course! They are the number one kids' rock band, don't you know?



More later...

Cara's first lost tooth

Cara lost her first tooth just in time for Halloween. She told me a few days before it game out that it was loose. I was surprised because her teeth had not even been wiggly.

Cara is about one year behind Adriana because Adriana was five years old when her first one came out.

When I picked her up from school a friend of mine that was substituting that day told me that her tooth had come out. Apparently, she was eating an apple at lunch and it came out.

She placed the tooth in the tooth fairy pillow. The next morning, she could not find the pillow. She started crying, actually bellowing, because she thought the tooth fairy had taken off with her money.

I told her to look under her bed because it may have fallen off. She finally looked far enough under the bed and found the pillow. The tooth fairy was nice and left it with two dollars.

I love listening to her as she talks without that critical front bottom tooth.


Placing her tooth fairy pillow beside her.


Still a pretty smile.


Tooth fairy's not so bad after all.

Warning: Shameless mommy brag ahead

Adriana received two awards recently during the Honors Day at school. She made the A/B honor roll and also received the Most Improved Award for her class. She worked very hard during the last nine weeks, so we were very proud of her for winning these two awards.

JDRF Walk

The day after apple picking and Cara's party, we participated in a Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Walk.

The weather was kind of iffy leading up to that Saturday, but the day ended up being beautiful. A little cool in the morning, but then it warmed up quite nicely.

The walk was a 5K (a little over three miles) through a beautiful park in one of my favorite cities. The children matched us step for step, and Adriana was even ahead of us for some of the walk. We finished the walk and met our goal as a family.

The night before, Adriana told me she wanted to donate some money to the walk. At first, she said she was going to donate one dollar or two, but then she changed her mind. She told me she wanted to donate ten dollars of her own money because she "doesn't like to see Cara like this." (Having to get pokes.)

As Bruce said, she has a big heart.



Starting the walk.



Half way point with the peace sign. Our team shirts said, "Peace, love and a cure for diabetes."



Christmas card picture, maybe? Beautiful park perfect for pictures, picnics and such.

Apple picking and Cara's birthday party

The Friday after Cara's birthday, the children were out of school, so we decided to head to the mountains for some apple/pumpkin picking and to see the fall leaves. Both of our mothers went with us.

The weather was threatening to downpour at any moment. My mother lives about an hour from where we were headed, and as we were approaching her house the sky was getting darker closer to where we were going. We trudged along anyway.

I was driving when the rain started falling about 30 minutes from our destination. The children started laughing as I was protesting with, "No! No! Please God, hold it off for just a little while."

When we arrived at the orchard, the rain was misting so we decided we were going to do the pumpkin picking first and then the apples. One of the ladies working there suggested that we get our apples first because they were about to get bombarded by school groups. We decided since the area around the trees was probably muddy, we would pick our apples from the large bins instead of the trees. We gave each child a basket and they took off choosing all kinds of apples. We filled a bushel box full of apples and also bought a couple of peck bags of Jonagolds, which are very much like Cara's favorite MacIntosh.

The rain had pretty much stopped after we finished picking the apples so we went to the pumpkin patch. I had a moment of panicking when I almost got the van stuck in the pumpkin patch because of the mud. We did get it out and all was well.

The children chose two pumpkins from the patch and then chose one small pumpkin each.

We headed for lunch and the rain poured down then and on our way home.

That night, we celebrated Cara's birthday with family at a local pizza place. Earlier, I accidentally bought trick candles for her cake. I grabbed some candles that matched the colors on the cake and didn't realize they were trick candles until one of the store employees said something.

Cara was quite funny when she tried to blow out the candles. She tried to act like she didn't like it, but she was grinning the whole time. Adriana said she wants those kind of candles on her next birthday.

Helping Daddy fill the box.

So many apples from which to choose.

The children liked the big apples.

One of many, many attempts at taking a picture of them in the pumpkin patch.

Anyone want to purchase this cute little pumpkin for 75 cents?

Opening presents.

About 20th time at trying to get the candles out. Brother threw a little help in there.