Let the party begin....

Parties these days have been stretched out to days, weekends, possibly even a week, but Becket's party started 2 weeks early when we took a little vacation to Mary Jo's house (a family friend) in Pennsylvania.
Becket with his cake


Micah quickly put on her birthday costume. She totally looks like she's on drugs.


We went to Indian Echo Caverns, just after Becket finished his apple. Grandma Andrea, can you do that?


Meet the team


Little peek inside


Afterwards, we did a little mining. Micah insisted on carrying her gear. Tish! 2yr olds.



When the 8th dwarf finally made it to her station, she had a wonderful time.


Time to say goodbye, thanks MJ for the fun weekend. We'll be back for the farm show in January.

Mac and Cheese and PRT's

There are little things in this life that cause us to squeal with glee and these are just a few of them

Materials
1 case of mac and cheese
1 flat counter
1 tall dad







Making dominoes out of the boxes also has an equal effect.

PRT (Personal Rapid Transit used for WVU coeds)
Materials
$3.00 in quarters
Money for ice cream (optional)

Pure joy on Greti's face, it was so funny.



Pretty fall colors to be found



the Gelato on High Street is dangerously good.

Every Year, Every Season, and My Kids Hit Replay, Replay, Replay

Monster Mash going around, you should try it. Then you too could be listening to it every single second of the day too. You're welcome--I just want people to suffer as I do.

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

One Thing in Common=Fun

Yet another sleeping position. I don't know what's up with this child, but she always surprises us how she can sleep.



Caterpillar Pizza and Candy Sushi with Andrea- because she is nice and invited us over.

Pizza
Biscuit Dough
Sauce
Toppings
Arrange
Done



Candy Sushi
Rice Krispies Treats
Licorice
Fruit Roll-ups
Google the rest for better instructions because I won't attempt to explain!

I obviously need help with my sushi rolling--I won't be applying for any sushi jobs soon.



And finally, as a family we got invited to go to dinner at this Christian Community house. It's kind of like that movie the Village? It is a group of Christians who have committed themselves to serving the Lord and each other by living in these communities. It kind of protects them from the rest of the world. They run a few businesses to support themselves. They have communities set up all over the world, England, Germany, New York, Pennsylvania. If you join the community you have to live by two rules 1.the golden rule 2. If you have beef with someone you go directly to them and work it out. You do not go talk about it to someone else.
They all try to contribute in some way to help their community--being trained as a doctor, carpenter, taking care of a house...Anyway, at dinner, they answered all of our questions what do you believe, why do you dress the way you do (Plain dress for the women with a handkerchief covering for their hair, Men sport the usual wear, but basic, nothing attention seeking)? How do you date? No TV? And, oddly enough I felt we had a lot of the same beliefs, we were not so different.
They let us participate in one of their traditions, the lantern walk. They light lanterns and sing German songs as they walk around their neighborhood. This is done sometime in the Fall season. Afterword, they eat homemade doughnuts and cider. Some of them talk with sort of a Dutch accent.
I just thought I would share. I was touched by these people and their purity to want to do good. It was a safe love that you can't help but walk away feeling happy.

The Lantern walk. They all harmonized really well when they sang their tunes. My face ached from perma grin.





Homemade Paper Laterns--they were great and so pretty at night with their glowing candle.



The homemade dough nuts were so good. I had 3 and when I got home I wished I would have had one more. That's how good they were!



Proof that the dough nuts were good

There is Beauty All Around

If my husband could do one thing every Saturday, it would be this



A hike just makes him happy, so does a long bike ride, an iphone and cookie dough, but mostly being able to hike.



Greti was not happy that Micah got to be cargo on the packed mule (see side bar column for commentary), but with food to dangle in front of her nose she managed. This one didn't rub it in much at ALL either.



I found these two leaves lying side by side, hand in hand, together, sort of like the our marriage (just wanted to see if I could make you gag).



So ends the hike at Raven Rock. We had lots of time to doddle, dirtify ourselves, think to ourselves and appreciate Fall's returning beauty.

Oatmeal Pen Pal

This has been a letter correspondence in our family between the cousins Gretchen and Allie (2nd cousin)
Dear Allie-
My mom picked up dinosaur eggs yesterday at the store because I ask to try them every time we go down the cereal isle (oatmeal with candy dinosaur eggs that hatch and turn into dinos, made by Quaker). Even though my mom knows that I'll only eat the real sugary part instead of the oatmeal, I was happy that I talked her into it. That brings me to my question, do you still eat dinosaur eggs, like you did when my mom came for a visit in her college years to do that student teaching rotation in Vegas?

Signed,
Gretchen

Dear Gretchen,

This is a very sad story. It pains me that you even brought it up. We used to eat Dinosaur eggs every morning. However, the Walmart that my mom shops at now does not carry them. But, I hope you understand how much I want to eat them. I have heard that Smith's has them, but my mom does not go there very often and when she does she forgets to look for dinosaur eggs. Please eat a bowl for me and my brothers.

Your cousin,
Allie

Dear Allie-
I tried the dinosaur eggs. I ate the dinosaurs, but not the oatmeal. I remarked in my slightly dramatic tone, "This tastes awful on my tongue!" My moms mad. You can have the rest of my dino eggs if you want. Maybe my mom can cool off at your house until she gets over this.

Sincere Oatmeal Hater,
Gretchen

Odd, Almost Eerie

We couldn't find size 14 for Mat's shoe size, but we found size 21.



Our Halloween lights were in this trash bag. Becket was so excited about the upcoming holiday that he made his own white trash ghost.



She is still sleeping on the stairs, but in different ways.



Ooooooo! Spooky!

Scenes around Morgantown

Thursday night we went to the WVU v. Colorado game, which was our first WVU football experience. The marching band was one of the best we've ever seen and did some cool formations. Jessica and Andrew Criser were nice enough to take us along and we had a good time.






Friday night we dropped the kids off at a friend's house and went downtown to the Arts Walk, which was mostly walk and less art, but still fun. A bunch of downtown businesses set up art displays you could walk and visit with street performers dotted along the way.



We then hit Tutto Gelato for the best frozen dessert in town.



Saturday, after the morning session of General Conference, we went to the St. Mary's Russian Orthodox church in Westover for their annual dinner. They had awesome cabbage rolls and pierogies.



After, we went to the Friends of Decker's Creek river walk, a loop of trails built along one of the rivers flowing into town. They have planted flowers and constructed an outdoor classroom, which the kids used as a stage to perform on.



It is always nice to get back to nature just a few miles from home.

What the?

I grabbed some icing buckets from Kroger for extra food storage and this is how they got home.