Halloween

Batman, Cinderelle, and the Vampire

Hank said, "Mommy, that guy is naked."

October School Happenings: Star Student, School Farm Apple Field Trip, and the Homecoming Parade

My Star Student and she's proud of it!

Eleanor's class took an apple pickin' juice makin' field trip and I was able to chaperone. I was excited for my first experience at the School Farm.

Picking the free apples - the ones that had already fallen

Eleanor and her friend, Jailey, hauling the apples

Eleanor and Jailey getting photographed by Mr. Miller

The School Farm!

Scrubbing the apples before crushing them for their juice

And now for the crushing! With Mr. Nixon helping demonstrate.

This year the homecoming parade's theme was Around the World and Moccasin School represented France. They made a cute "Le Buck Cafe" and "Eiffel Tower" float and the kids wore mustaches, berets and scarves. So cute!

Hank took candy collecting seriously, as you can see by his heaping brown lunch sack full of sugary goodness! He came home later asking for his bag of candy, claiming, "It's very special to me".

Back To School

Somehow, sometime, our tiny baby girl Eleanor grew up and is now a 2nd grader. And also amazing, our little Carolyn became a Kindergartener. Eleanor is excited to be in Mr. Millers class this year, while Carolyn has Mrs. Calvillo who she hopes she loves as much as Miss Fuller last year.

I'm keeping my hours at work which will allow the girls to walk home after school. And when I saw walk home, I mean, by themselves. Like big girls. They're excited. I'm excited. Everyone's excited!

At the bus stop with AJ, Eleanor, Carolyn, and Hunter

Look who is sick on his sister's first day of school. Was he really sick or just missing sissies?

  Look who we spy walking home from school!

After school snack

Michigan Fresh Picked Fruit!

This year I was determined to get the kids out to see what kind of havoc we could bring to u-pick. Somewhat to my amazement, they did great. We all loved it and I believe we've begun a family tradition!

First we picked blueberries at Rambo. Those little guys were low and easy pickin'. But because they were so little, it took quite a bit to fill our buckets. But we went on a beautifully cool summer day that was absolutely perfect for pickin'. Hank did the one for one pick. One in the bucket, one in the mouth. And at the end, the lady at Rambo gave him everything in his bucket gratis.

 Next up, Lemon Creek Winery and Orchards for sweet cherries and peaches. Like the blueberries, the cherries were low pickin'. But these guys were much bigger and took so much less time to fill the buckets. And we did fill, and slightly overfill, those buckets. As I tried to get Carolyn to stop picking, I was freaking out about what the heck we were going to do with a gazillion cherries.

 And then over to the peaches. These were the best peaches we had ever tasted. So juicy and sweet. But a little more difficult for the kids to pick and I was scrambling around to make sure they weren't pulling off the little low hangers that were under-ripe. But overall, we did a great job and more importantly, had a fantastic day enjoying the fruits of the summer!

On Our Favorites: The LaPorte County Fair!

I will not fool you, it is November and I'm blogging about our annual trip to the fair. No, the fair wasn't late this year. I'm late this year. And I hope to remember enough of each event so that I can enter some words to help relive these moments in our family's life. Thankfully pictures are worth a thousand words!

This year was the same as years past and we did all our favorite fair activities. In no particular order:

THE MOUSE GAME!

MILK!

PIONEER LAND: Washing clothes the old fashioned way

PIONEER LAND: Washing clothes the old fashioned way

TRACTORS!

The next picture I did not take. That day at the fair Hanna was working and came out after we had already left. But she texted me that evening that she has my 'product'. That's stylist lingo for the Aveda shampoo and hair, well, hair product. I texted back that we missed her at the fair. We certainly did...