Halloween Traditions

 Many families have different traditions that occur in their families.  Some that happen around our house around Halloween time are as follows.  Fisrt there is the painting of the pumpkins.

 Most people carve pumpkins, but I like to decorate them and still be able to cook them up and use them for yummy pumpkin food later on in the year.  So we paint them.

 We also have made a tradition of going to a pumpkin patch/farm each year.  Once again we went to Back Home on the Farm.  And we were lucky that it was not too busy when we got there.  The kids got to ride on the slides many times.

 We did the sling shot to see how far the balls could go up the hill.

 I got a few great pictures of the kids as they were playing on the train and walking through the flower maze.

 The merry go round is always a favorite.

 And you can see the difference between my kids personalities in these two pictures.  Glen is a bit more reserved and careful, Grace is quite carefree and reckless.  But they are both great qualities.

 As this picture shows, LOVE.  I love these days of tradition.  I love these people.

Glen and Boy Scouts

This past fall, Glen and Matt went on Glen's first camporee.  He went on a three mile hike, they camped in the cold, and in general had a very good time.  I think he will be excited when he stays for longer and gets to do more of the activities of the camporee.

Nest year maybe.

Posing at the Apple Orchard

 When at the apple orchard with Vitaly and Violetta I usually try to get a good pickture of the kids.

I think they did pretty good this year.  I love these two pictures.

Cute Boy and Lost tooth

At the apple orchard Glen wanted me to take a picture of him as he posed.  What a cute boy he is.

Look at that snaggletoothed smile.  Glen lost his third tooth at the beginning of first grade.  

Hot Air Balloon

 This summer our Vacation Bible School had the theme of GO!  And they were talking about going to spread the word of God to all.

 But in addition all modes of transportation were talked about too.  Mrs. Diane managed to get a hot air balloon to come to our church for rides.  So we signed up and got to church at 7:00 am to ride in the hot air balloon.  However, it was too windy.

No rides in the balloon but we had a great time seeing it being blown up, and taken down.  We are greatful for such a unique experience.

First Day Of School

 It is hard to believe that I have a third grader!  Grace began third grade at Smithland.  Her teachers are Mrs. Hill and Mrs. Woods.  She is doing very well and loving grade three so far.

 It is also hard to believe that I have a first grader!  Glen began first grade at Smithland.  His teachers are Mrs. Skelton and Mrs. Romero.  He is loving first grade and doing really well this year.

Welcome to a new school year, I hope it is a great one!

Rockingham County Fair

 The end of summer always brings with it the county fair.  This year we had one night where we bought the kids ride bracelets.  In the past we bought a certain amount of tickets and told the kids they could choose one or two rides for the whole night.

 This year with the bracelets they could go on as many rides as they wanted, and they could go on the rides as many times as they wanted.  This huge slide that you see them coming down, they went on that ride at least 5 times.  I think they enjoyed having a bit more freedom with the rides this year.

 Just like in the past, we entered a few things in the fair to be judged.  Glen baked some chocolate chip cookies.  He got second place!

 Grace entered a painting (seen above) and got second place, two photos and got second and third place, a pot holder and got second, and some cheesecake cookie bars but she did not place with those.

I also entered a drawing that I had made of Grace and Glen sitting on the word love, drawn on the dicitionary page that has the word love on it.  I got second!

The fair is always a nice way to end a great summer and get ready for school to start.