Halloween Activities

Painting Pumpkins!  (Sooo beats carving :)

Pumpkin Decorating #2

Naomi, Ben & Juliet

 This is the second year in a row we hung our with our friends the Whipples on Vermont street in West Asheville.  It is quite the "destination" for trick or treating.  We had a great time people watching and hanging out with a bunch of friends.  Mr. Mark Whipple dressed up as the Abominable Snowman... Poor Naomi was TERRIFIED... hence her face in this picture. :)  He was standing behind me. 

Loot Collecting :)

Tinkerbell :)

Peter Pan :)

Train Ride!!

 We were giving tickets to the Great Smokey Mountain Railroad, so we cleared a day and spent the day driving to Bryson City and Riding the Train up the Nantahalah Gorge.  We love to sit in the open air cars because they are so much more fun.  It was rainy and cold, but we packed blankets and warm clothes and hot chocolate and managed to have a good time anyway. :)

Keeping Warm

All snuggled up. :)

Fall Cookies

Two willing cooks

Becki aka Amazing Cookie Cutter Outer :)

Cookie Decorating Friends!

Lara's Frosting Creation!

I think she consumed more sprinkles than she put on a cookie.

Decorating...

Ben and his Masterpiece

And Then There Were Three...

Meet the Newest Member of the Family... 

Pictures can be deceiving... despite the fact that this is a cute little 1-inch being (approx the size of a fig), he/she has been causing all sorts of havoc in our household.  :)   Mom has spent more time than she wants to know sick, feeling sick, or trying to sleep off being sick.  The two other kids know FAR more about Netflixs than any child should know, and daddy has been making more runs to random take out joints than he cares to calculate.  

However, hopefully some time around May 14th, 2013 we will get to meet this tiny one and it will all be worth it.  :)

Fall Soccer

I guess we have entered the "Soccer Mom" stage of life... although it won't be official until I get my minivan and a "Soccer Mom" bumper sticker.  :)

We put Ben in soccer this fall and he has loved every minute of it.  (It is a great schedule, 30 minutes of practice and 30 minutes of "game" on Saturday morning.)  He is rather shy normally and must be greatly encouraged to try new things (like his mother), however soccer has brought out a side of Ben we have rarely seen.  On the field he is confident, is not afraid to go after the ball and extremely focused (the latter trait we see often).  He loves to play and makes most of the team goals and... much to his mother's dismay... does a little "victory walk" after each goal.  So, here are a few pictures to document the event. :)  Enjoy...

Ben being a goof ball.  We try to go early and play each week. He likes to play goalie.

Ben getting his "Game Face" on.

Action Shot.

Naomi loves soccer too!  Although she spends the majority of the game time playing in the rocks and dirt.

Observing.

Game Time!

Herding Cats!  His coach is so great, and this past week the other coach was sick so he had both teams.

Classic Ben.

Could be one of my favorite pictures...

Ben and his Team. :)

Kid Chatter

Ben: Naomi, did you know that God is Holy?
Naomi: Uh-huh!
B: And Jesus is Holy?
N: Uh-huh!
B: And the Holy Spirit is Holy?
N: Uh-huh!
B: But, who do you think is stronger??

---
I have been attending Bible Study Fellowship and we are studying Genesis.  So, at dinner we were talking about what the kids learned:

Andrew: So Ben, what did you learn?
B: we learned about Cain & Abel, and Cain killed Abel.
A: Why did he do it?
B: Well God liked Abel's sacrifice but not Cain's and that made Cain mad.
A: What were their sacrifices?
B: Abel gave a super fat lamb, and Cain gave three dead carrots.

---

This summer at VBS we learned a different version of Baa Baa Black Sheep... it goes like this:

Baa Baa White Sheep

Have you any fear?

No Sir, No Sir God is near

He is the Shephard who watches his sheep

He never slumbers, He never sleeps

Baa Baa White Sheep

Have you any fear?

No Sir, No Sir God is near

 So, all that to say, Naomi's response to pretty much every question has been one of two answers:

L: What is your Name?
N: YELLOW!!
L: What do you like to do?
N: Baa Baa White Sheep!

L: What do you want for lunch?
N: Baa Baa White Sheep
L: What do you want to be when you grow up?
N: Yellow!!

---

And there you have it.  :)

Lemon Faces

 How do YOU pass the time while waiting for your food to arrive at a restaurant? 

Well, sometimes we feed lemons to unsuspecting small children. :)

 

Hickory Nut Gap Farm

 As opposed to our trip to Stepp Farm a few weeks ago, Hickory Nut Gap Farm was amazing!!!  The staff was so kind, helpful, and ready to answer any and all questions that came their way.  (Not to mention dealing with 20+ kids 6 and under!)  And the apples were incredible!!!

 Naomi LOVED holding the baby chick.

 Ben had NO intension of holding the chick, he was content to just pet it. :)

 They had a great big barn with an area surrounded by hay bales, and about 20 different tricycles.

The kids loved it!

 Ben the speed demon. :)

 

No trip to a farm is complete without a rope swing! 

 A wonderfully fun day... even if the sun is shining in your eyes!

10 Year College Reunion

 Last weekend the kids and I headed up to VA/MD for my 10 Year College Reunion.  It was a whirlwind weekend, but we had a great time, and the kids did really well considering we spent 20+ hours in the car over 5 days. 

 Here are the kidlets burning up a little energy when we stopped for gas.

 Sadly only half of our graduating class was able to make it, but we had a great time catching up anyway. :)

And here we are with families!  We counted it up and between the 14 of us who graduated 10 years ago we have 25 kids. :)  

Just the kids. :)

 

Claire and I graduated together, and were pregnant with Ben & Charlie at the same time.

This weekend was the first time they had met!

After the reunion we headed up to Rockville, MD to spent a couple days with my brother Micah.

Here we are at a Lebanese restaurant... yum yum!!!

 

Micah took the kids rock climbing...

Naomi did really well until she hit about 15' in the air... then she was ready to be brought back down. :)

Ben loved it.  It took a few tries (and maybe a bribe or two) to get him to the top, 

but he did it!!