crazy pumpkins

You know that at our house we love pumpkins.  This weekend, our friend/former-nanny/adopted family member Sarah the Great took the kids to the pumpkin patch and we all got crazy with the decorating. 

Elliott had fun just making a mess of a tiny pumpkin.

 

Wyatt and Kellen, on the other hand, took theirs pretty seriously.  Wyatt was working on his Frankenpumpkin.  I love his little albino pumpkin - made the perfect base for a Frankenstein.

Here's Kellen's Pilgrim [in] Progress.  (ha ha ha - I'm so funny)  He painted a face on it, and we attached straw for hair.  We also did a good bit of hand sewing to turn a witch's hat into a pilgrim's hat, complete with foam-craft-paper buckle (pics below).

The whole gang sporting their finished products (you notice Elliott had a wardrobe change midway through the project.  It was washable paint, but still, she was getting it all over her dress).

Close-ups of each:  Elliott had to make (or rather, Sarah and I made for her) a Pirate Pumpkin.  Not surprising, since she's talked of nothing but being a pirate for Halloween for about 2 weeks now.  

Sarah's Wicked Witch.  She found a pocked-up pumpkin which she painted green.  I wish the picture did it justice.  It's really great.

Kellen's Pilgrim

Wyatt's Frankenpumpkin - complete with "staples in his head and bolts in his neck."  (And now you're all singing the Jibjab halloween rap, aren't you?  You're not?  I'm the only one who knows that song by heart already?  hmmmmm.... that's embarrassing.) 

family pics

Back at the end of the summer, when the Giffords took our beach trip, we had some family pictures taken.  I finally got my hands on a disc with the pictures on it, so I thought I'd share a few here.

Here's the whole clan
 

The 5 (and 1/2) of us




Me and Sean (and Baby No-Name)
 



 Eric and Allison and their 2 (and 3/4) boys

Warren and Sara and their darlings
 


The granddaughters

The grandsons

All the grandkids

 

With the grandparents



The ones who started it all

Crazy to think that even these really recent pictures are already no longer "current."  There's another grandson in the bunch now who arrived on Monday (congrats Eric and Ali, and welcome, Cohen!), and another one that'll be here in 12 weeks or so.  The poor girls... they keep getting more and more outnumbered. 

a great read

A lot of folks who know us know that we're planning (and have been for a while now) an extended trip to South America for missions work.  The exact shape and timing of this work keeps morphing, but we know it'll happen... it's just a matter of when God's timing is right.  In the mean time, we've been doing what we can to prepare.  One of the things I've been doing is (trying) to simplify our lives, to help us find ways to do more with less.  In keeping with that goal, I'm loving this book:

A new homeschool mom friend of mine read this book and was singing its praises, so I got a copy from the library.  I have since come to learn that, in addition to being a book, Simplicity Parenting is an entire online community.  The full title of the book, which you probably can't make out in the picture above, is Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier and More Secure Kids.  A lot of it is based, at least loosely, on the principles of Waldorf education, which isn't anything new.  But the book presents the ideas in real, usable ways, and more than that, emphasizes why these things matter.  You may have heard of the book or read it already.  If you haven't, I'd encourage you to pick it up.  Really, really good stuff if you ask me. 

game day in the swamp

We were in Gainesville this year for the season opener (and I'm just now getting around to posting our pictures from it a month later).  We had a great time, despite the fact that our Gators didn't play as well as we would've thought.  

Watching the band enter the stadium.

From the top of the stadium (where we watched the band).

The new(ish) scoreboard.

The team taking the field.  GO GATORS!

Elliott loved cheering during the game.  There was rarely a time when she wasn't clapping, Gator-chomping, jumping up and down or shouting towards the field.  Which is surprising considering it was a million and one degrees out.  She had more energy than either team seemed to.

I'm not sure what this was for.  Maybe when Caleb Sturgis missed a field goal.  (Or maybe I was the only one who made that face.)

Wyatt sported his Tebow Bronco's jersey.

Kellen, who really is getting so big.  Every picture of him reminds me of the growth spurt he had this summer.

The whole family, minus camera-man daddy but including #4.  I'm surprised he didn't get hard-boiled in there, it was so hot out.

In front of the Heavener Complex on the way out of the stadium.

Leaving the stadium on Daddy's shoulders.

apple crisp

The other day I posted a very Fall-y recipe for Chocolate Pumpkin Tarts.  I thought I'd post another fall favorite here - this really yummy recipe for Apple Crisp.  There are dozens of ways to do apple crisp, and I think you'll like this one.  I made it yesterday afternoon and it was really simple, and a big hit at our ladies' bible study last night.  I used half Granny Smith and half McIntosh apples, and topped the finished product with both vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce.  I'm hoping to get some more apples tomorrow to make another one, since the little giffords didn't get any of the one I made yesterday (and about that they're NOT too happy, let me tell ya).   Bon appetit - or, since we're learning Spanish around here, I guess I should say "¡buen provecho!"