October Crafts cont...

A couple other very simple crafts we did at home...
Ethan painted apple print pumpkins:















We also made ghosts with paper plates and toilet paper (kids thought that was fabulous) and hung them on the porch:

Field Trip and Dance Class

Oh my goodness, I haven't written in so long! Life has certainly not been at a stand still. I am taking a few minutes away from editing images to catch up here a bit. Olivia has been loving school! She loves getting homework and playing on the playground each morning. Ethan and I love having her home at lunch time. While Olivia is at school Ethan and I are busy playing Preschool, Spiderman, Hulk, kitchen and anything else he can think of, running errands, doing laundry and anything else that I can think of. Scott is very busy at work, thankfully, and I am starting up my photography business, Best Nest Photography. My website is in progress and I have been practicing and learning a lot. I absolutely love it and am so glad that I started it now and not in 2 years like we were planning! All by the grace of God.

Recently Olivia's class went on a field trip to an apple orchard. I was so happy to go and Olivia was definitely happy to have me there - I hope that lasts forever :)
















Olivia also started a dance class at the school. It is just 6 weeks long so I don't know how much they are learning but she sure likes it. Her friend Zoe is in it also. Olivia is so adorable in her dancewear.

Photo Practice

Thankfully I have some wonderful friends who have allowed me to use them and their children as practice for my photography biz. Thank them and love them for helping me out! And luckily I have more friends willing to help me out! Some samples...

Haven


















Liam














Ellie & Natalie

Fall crafts

I have been putting the kids to work on decorating the house with some homemade fall crafts. We still have a few more to do, but here's what they have done...

Paper plate apples as seen in a previous post.

And Halloween wreaths, which are now hanging on doorknobs around the house. Here's the process (they love this one)...

Schwallier's Country Basket - twice

We had the pleasure of going to Schwallier's Country Basket twice in two weeks! The first time we went it was with a school program on a Saturday - a cold and rainy Saturday. But the weather did not prevent us from having a good time! The kids loved petting the animals, including goats, bunnies, and kittens. Although, I don't think anything was more exciting to them then going down the tunnel slide over and over and over again. We also went on an interesting tour of the orchards and got to pick and eat some of the last raspberries of the season. Yummy. Schwallier's also has THE best donuts, not that I'm biased or anything. (These pics taken with Olympus point and shoot.)
















Then we went again another weekend with Daddy. We usually get our pumpkins there every year. This time it didn't rain while we were there but it was super cold! Still, it didn't stop the kids from wanting to go up and down the slide! After we were quite frozen we headed to Rockford to eat dinner at Rosie's Diner. The food was absolutely indulgent - and delicious!!! From the cheeseburger with real bacon to the sundae with real vanilla ice cream and a chocolate brownie. Can you say yummy? (These pics are unedited and taken with my new baby - Canon 50D with 18-200 lens. Love it!)

October Birthdays

Kaitlyn turns 9 on October 14 but we celebrated early when she was with her dad. And my dad (Papa) turned 65 on October 9. Mike (Grandpa) also had a birthday on October 8 but he was up north bear hunting, as he is every year on his birthday. Kaitlyn decorated her cake all by herself. I think she is quite talented! It looked beautiful! We enjoyed pizza and cake for my dad's party along with a bunch of rowdy grandkids!

Ethan, Kaitlyn, Olivia.















Ethan, Justice, Kaitlyn, Craig, Olivia.













Eric, Cobie, Papa, Lauren, Ryan, Olivia, Parker, Ethan.















Mommy reading National Geographic, Cobie reading Sudoku.















Olivia and Cobie looking through a toy catalog.















Grammy and Olivia.












Well, those were the quieter moments of the night. I didn't take any pictures of the kids attacking Papa, running all over the house, or crawling in and out of the Playhut...maybe next time :)