Tonight's Fall Festivities

We created these:


Even though the process was a little gross!


I can't help but giggle at his expression.

Fall Fun and Festivities

Fall has always been one of my favorite seasons of the year. Last fall I posted a series of posts about why I love fall in our area. You can read three of those posts here, here, and here.

Our family has been enjoying many of the sights, sounds and foods of fall. I have not been posting as often as I'd like, so this can serve as a "catch-up" post for the past couple of weeks.

I love the food of fall. This fall the kiddos and I made "moose munch". You can check out the recipe on my recipe blog.


We also made tie-dye shirts. My bloggy friend, Mer, has blogged several times about her family's love of tie-dying. So I thought it'd be fun to give it a try. We used white t-shirts and dyed them orange. The kiddos were thrilled to squirt the orange dye on their shirt and had a hard time waiting the 6 to 8 hours required to see how they turned out. I liked the result, but was really wishing for a darker orange. Perhaps I should have used bleach on an orange shirt. (any tips, Mer?)


Our church hosted its annual Fall Festival this past weekend. This is always a fun night of games and food and fellowship. My two dressed as a hunter and a ballerina. I love it that they choose costumes from their dress-up clothes rather than expecting a new store bought costume every year.


I've been feeling crafty lately. A friend recently told me about using bandannas to make a top for my daughter. It was super easy and the results were SO cute. It took me only 10 minutes to whip this thing together. I hope to make another one of a different color soon. I'll be posting pictures and instructions here when I do.


My in-laws visited us this last weekend, and we had a nice time with them. The kiddos were thrilled to have their grandparents with them and enjoyed lots of games of Chutes and Ladders and hide-and-go-seek. The grandparents also went with us to the pumpkin patch and the Fall Festival.



Speaking of the pumpkin patch, what better fall activity is there than choosing a pumpkin from the patch? Even though I was disappointed that all the pumpkins were rather small, the kiddos each found one they wanted to take home. We hope to carve them tonight if there is still time after soccer and soccer party!

I'll Tell You..

In my last post, I asked you to tell me why you blog. Thank you for your responses. I enjoyed reading them. If you are interested, I'll share with you why I blog.

I started blogging, because my friend and college roomie was blogging. After reading her blog for a while, I realized this could be a great way to keep my family and friends updated on the life of our family. You see, we do not live near my parents or my hubby's. I also have had the privilege of living in several states over the years. As a result, we have many family members and friends spread out all over the country. This blog has turned into an easy and wonderful way to show those friends and family members pictures and tell the stories of our life.

As I have perused the many blogs and blog communities in the blogosphere, I have found helpful information, made friends, entered contests, been blessed, and had fun. I've learned about site meters, contests, readership, linking, advertising, and more.

It has been tempting over the last year and a half to allow advertising on my blog (which I may still do) or get involved in time-consuming methods of pursuing a larger readership. I've read some blogs which have a huge following, and have thought about how fun it would be to take that route with my blog, but I don't have the time. Maintaining a blog daily has proven to be a time consuming (and, I might add, an addictive) project.

So, I've had to ask myself, "Why do I blog?" "What is the purpose of my blog?"

Here are the answers I have found:

1. to keep in contact with family and friends who live all over the country
2. to record some of the stories and pictures of our life.
3. to enjoy the community of bloggers who have similar interests and lifestyles.
4. just because it is so fun!

I also have a recipe blog, and here is its purpose:

1. to record in an easily accessible place the recipes I use and like. (There have been occasions when I have been traveling and wanted a specific recipe. I used the computer in the home I was visiting to get the needed recipe from my blog.)
2. to easily share those recipes with others who may have an interest in them.
3. to enjoy the community of recipe blogs where I learn cooking tips and new recipes.

Now that I've mulled it over and written it down, maybe I can keep my blog/computer time to a reasonable time.....maybe :).

Please Tell Me...

Mer over at Life At 7000 Feet features a question each week to which she asks her readers to respond. I enjoy reading the responses she gets, because it's interesting to see what people think about various issues.

Perhaps it was a recent question of hers or perhaps it is a priority/time management conflict that occurs around here quite often, but I've been wondering about my purpose for blogging.

Since I'm pondering this right now, I thought I'd ask my blog friends for their thoughts.

Why do you blog?

Is it to keep in touch with people you don't see very often? Do you do it to showcase your talents and skills? Is it an outlet for your love of writing? Or is it a place to post your photography? Whatever your reason, I'd love to hear why you sit down in front of the computer periodically and publish a post.

I'll let you know more about what's going on in my head in a later post.

The Beach Is Our Classroom!

Thanks to the continued generosity of friends, we are once again enjoying time at one of our favorite beaches! This is the first time I've ever been at the beach in the fall, and I like it! The weather is perfect: not too hot for being outside, not too cold for being in the water!

We've been riding bikes, playing on the playgrounds, swimming in the pool, exploring the beach, hiking trails, lounging around, and enjoying the company of friends!

A highlight of a recent trek on the beach was finding this:


Yes, it's an OCTOPUS! We have never seen a real octopus, so this was very exciting!


We were fascinated by the suction cups thingies (yes, I am aware that is not the scientific name for them) on its under side.

Another family on the beach actually inadvertently caught the octopus. The dad of the family found a PVC pipe floating in the ocean. When he picked it up, he noticed the octopus inside. He brought it to shore to show his family, and we walked over to investigate (be nosy).

This picture shows one of the daughters with the octopus. It gives you an idea of the size of the octopus...on the small side, but still very fascinating.


When we returned to our lodging, we read a book about sea life and drew pictures of an Octopus. Here is our daughters rendition:

We Are...

...doing a lot of this:


and this:



and this:


Wish you were here!

Headed Here

We leave today for one of our favorite places! I'll try to keep you posted while we're gone. But, if I don't make it to the computer, you'll know where I am!

Another Example....

...of previous mentioned rule:

That's a hole in the window screen in our son's bedroom.

Are you surprised?

What Can Be Learned From This Photo?

that when there is a boy in the home, one must NEVER be surprised by what one finds in the house!

Soccer Season Means Team Photo

We are in the midst of soccer season! This is our family's first year to be in organized team sports. Ever since watching Dora the Explorer shows at age two, our daughter has said that she wanted to play soccer. In previous years, she has said things like, "I want to play soccer when I am 14." That was fine with me. I didn't mind waiting until then.

But this year she decided she wanted to play now. And of course, when our son found out about it, he wanted to play too! So we bought some cleats and gratefully accepted some second hand socks, shin guards and shorts. It has been a fun season so far. Hubby has even been helping to coach!

As with any team sport, there comes the time for the team photo. I think trying to pose and photograph a whole team of 4 to 7 year olds is a hilarious task (hey, ya gotta laugh to keep from crying, right?)! When our team was being photographed, I tiptoed into range with my camera and started shooting.

First, one of the coach's wives tries to get them all arranged in nice straight rows.


I must say, the rows look nice, but will you ever be able to get them to look at the camera and smile?

I managed to stifle my giggling long enough to get this photo

and this one

and this one.

Don't kids do the funniest things in soccer team photos?

P.S. Both kiddos are on the same team (which is GREAT and CONVENIENT), so not only is this an organized team sport, it's an organized family team sport!

In Case You Were Wondering...

I know that some of my readers don't have the privilege of living in the Southeast portion of the United States. And since those of you who don't live "down" here may have never seen the "lovebugs" I mentioned in my last post, you might be slightly curious enough to read one more post about them.

I thought I'd take this opportunity to educate you on the effects of "lovebugs" on our vehicles. To demonstrate, I took the following photo of the front of my hubby's truck:


This picture does a good job of showing you what happens when these bugs get excited about my hubby's truck. They swarm in for a closer look and before they know what hit them, bam! Now imagine these little smear spots all over the front of your vehicle. They are on the windshield, the front side of your mirrors, the hood, the grill and (heaven forbid)



your Florida Gator license plate!