Fall Fun

We have been having some fun fall activities with Halloween and homeschool park days.   Mary painted some pumpkins and dressed up her sweet little cat with Hawaiian stuff (she was thrilled as you can tell by the photo. lol)  We also had a park day outside, a bowling day and inside play date at the Pheonix library as the park is getting too cold this time of year. 

 

 

Reformation Day Celebration

Reformation Day was October 31st.  So us and 2 home schooling families decided to do a dinner and some activities for the kids.  Our friends, Dan and Marissa reserved the Phoenix Grange Hall and we had about 15 people, 5 kids and 2 babies.  It was a pot luck.  Rich and had made dinner rolls from scratch and other people brought sausage and sour krout, potatoes, roasted beets and carrots and then 2 desserts.  There was lots of food and fellowship.  Marissa had printed up sheets a paper that had different famous people, that lived during the reformation,  short biographies.  So during the dinner different people stood up and read their biographies.  The 3 families made a 500 link chain to represent the 500 years since the reformation began.  It stretched all the way around the room.  They also had some of Martin Luther's thesis points on paper with pretty designs that the children colored and they pinned them to the door.  After dinner we sang some reformation hymns and then closed in prayer.  It was a really fun evening.  Here are the pictures from the evening.

 

Mary's Birthday

We just celebrated Mary's 11th birthday. She is growing up so quickly.  She is now 5' 2 1/2".  She is now taller than her grandma and loves to compare her height to her when she comes to visit.  Always big smiles and hugs.     

Mary loves the Despicable Me movies, so she wanted a Minion cake this year.  So I baked a banana cake sheet cake and decorated it with yellow, blue and black icing.  He was a lot of fun to make. 

She received a lot of lovely gifts and cards from friends and family.

She enjoyed reading each card.

Mackie had to check out what she was getting.  He always wants to get in on the action.

She had a really fun day!

October

October has been a busy month for us.  Rich retired on the 1st and we are so enjoying being together and doing a lot of things as a family.  I made frosted cinnamon rolls to celebrate!

 

Home school is going well.  The Christian Homeschooling group started being more active.  There was about a 5 year break of no planned support meetings and networking.  They stopped right when Mary was in kindergarten.  So we have just been going alone but we were so pleased to find out that the month that Rich retired they started meetings.  We have had 2 so far and have enjoyed them so much.  We have been going to the park for the kids to play with the other homeschool kids.  Mary has been having a blast and we have gotten to know several very nice people.  One couple invited us over to their house.  Mary loves their girls (there are 4 of them) and Rich has struck a friendship with the guy.  They see things very much alike in the scriptures and are on the same page as far as leaving traditional church and living life with Jesus on a day to day basis out of your home and in your neighborhood.  We are very excited about this new friendship and give it to the Lord with praise and thanksgiving.

I baked more  cinnamon rolls...

 

Mary picked out a 33 lb pumpkin at 7 Oaks Farm just down the road from us.

She also loves to feed the goats.

This month we also celebrated Mel's 89th birthday.  Mary made her a card.

Dan celebrated his 93rd birthday.  Mary made him the Superman card to go with his Superman hat that she gave him on Father's Day.

I made a trip to the thrift store this week and found this really cute t-shirt for Mary.  I love all the bead work on it.

Lastly we went to Pheasant Fields Farm in Phoenix for a homeschool outing.  It was a beautiful day.  The farm is lovely with lots of walnut and oak trees.  They took us a a hay ride, the kids got to go through a corn maze and have some apple cider.  They also got to pick out a pumpkin to take home.

 Love this picture of Mary and Rich

Getting ready for the hay ride and then the fun hay hill!

Group picture in front of the barn

Just being silly!

We love all the pumpkins

 

We are thankful for this month and all the new beginnings it holds for us!