Halloween parade

Someone Dale works with was going to be pulling a hay wagon in the Hanover Halloween Parade and asked us to ride along! Brady insisted he was not going, but in the end we talked him into it. This was the most dressing up he would do, a painted on mustache.

Ashton, the sad clown.

We had to wait a few minutes before getting on the wagon. We enjoyed looking at the costumes people were wearing as they walked around us.

Avery and Bryson aren't dressed as anything in particular, they just wanted to use the face paint!

Kassie wore the dress she made, (with Aunt Bonnie's help), for her Renaissance project at school.

The best I could do was dressing as a baker!

Kenzie, always the princess!

Once on the wagon we waited TWO HOURS for it to move! Apparently, we weren't first in line and had to wait our turn to head down the parade route.

Kaden had several costumes to choose from, and chose Elmo for the parade.

Just waiting...

and waiting...

What did we do in those two hours of waiting? Eat candy, of course!

Dale got in on the act too, dressing as... well, I'm not sure what he is, but he enjoyed the face paint as well!

We eventually did head down Baltimore street, waving and throwing candy. We found out we were actually not suppose to be throwing candy from the float, but only those walking beside the wagon could throw the candy. Oh well, we had fun throwing what we did!

As you can see, Elmo didn't make it to the end of the parade route!

Makes it look like we're going lick-a-dee split!

I doubt we'll do this again, but at least now we can say we've been in the Hanover Halloween Parade!

Who makes the bed?

When Dale and I married, 18 years ago next month, we agree that, "Last one up, makes the bed." This has worked out really well for Dale over the years. At first, I was always the first one up, my job started earlier and I had further to travel. Then we started having children and I worked less often, eventually not working at all outside the home, becoming a full time stay at home mom. Bed making became one of my regular duties. Now, with Kassie in early morning Seminary, Dale is often up before 5 am. Bed making is still one of my daily chores. Ah, but alas, the weekends! Dale is still an early riser, but once in a while I beat him out of bed on a Saturday or Sunday. Today was one of those days. After Dale was up, I returned to our room to find Dale had made the bed, if you can call it that. This is what I found.
And on the other side of the bed...
Here the pillows are sticking out from underneath the bedspread -- not acceptable in my book!
And where were the shams? Bryson had taken one in the night, convinced it's a better pillow than his own, the other was still in the clothes basket where we keep it for the night. OK, maybe I'm too particular when it comes to bed making, but I make sure the bedspread is down over the mattress and box spring, the pillows are under the bedspread and the shams are returned to the bed. I'll be sleeping in next weekend, taking back my bed making duties. Who makes your bed?

Twelve on the twelfth

This past Sunday was Ashton's twelfth birthday! She and I are both excited to have her in Young Women now! She was disappointed that her first week as a YW there were no activities at the church! Bummer! Ashton requested a white cake with green icing and vanilla ice cream. She wanted pizza, so we ordered that on Saturday from LaBella's. On Sunday (her actual birthday) she had her second favorite -- hot dogs and baked beans!

Kassie made her two totally awesome tablets in graphic arts class! Each page has a softball player on it!
Ashton never told me what she wanted for her birthday, and still doesn't know! We'll go shopping to pick something out, hopefully this weekend. I wrapped up some of her favorite gum and candy so she would have something to open!

Happy Birthday Ashton Annie!

Welcome to Wacky Wednesday!

Here they are, Kassie and Ashton, as they headed off to school this morning!

Events of last weekend

Our Saturday started early with a soccer game in Fairfield. A track surrounded the field so I was able to walk while waiting for the game to start.
After the game we stopped at a fruit stand to buy apples. Bryson picked out golden delicious and I went for my all time favorite -- Stamen. I haven't made the pie yet Lori, but I plan to!

The best part about Saturday was the adult session of Stake Conference. As far as church meetings go, it doesn't get any better than that! I hung on every word! The Spirit is always so strong in that meeting. If you don't generally go to the Saturday night session, I urge you to set it as your goal to attend the next one. You won't be sorry! The Sunday morning session was also good! Following Sunday's session, our youth had a special talk just for them by Elder Hafen, a member of the Seventy. I was blessed to be able to sit in on that. He and his wife spoke on "Bridal you passions". Also, for the first time in many years, I attended all four sessions of General Conference the weekend before. Again, I hung onto every word, taking notes, loving every minute! I wrote down each scripture that was referenced. I will read over those for my personal scripture study in the next week or two. I am currently working on my Young Women's Personal Progress goals and am learning from those scripture passages. This past weekend was also Ashton's birthay! More on that later in another post!

Youth to the Pumpkin Patch

Last night we took 15 youth from our church to a local pumpkin patch. We had a short hay ride, picked our pumpkins, then returned to the church to either paint or carve our pumpkins. Brady was the first to find, what he considered to be, the perfect pumpkin.
While most of the youth were thinking big, Kassie and Jess Ann went for the cute adorable orange vegetable!
We put our brand new church pavilion and picnic tables to good use!
Brady puts the finishing touches on his jack-o-lantern.

Kassie painted hers with a unicorn and fairy under a rainbow cloud.
One of the other youth said, "Kassandra, you have your grandmother's talent!" What a nice compliment to Nan Nan!

Highlights from the past several weeks

Dale and I have been going out for lunch once a week. This is our daytime "date night". It's so much easier going out while six of the seven kids are at school. We don't have to worry about them not getting along, not listening to Kassie, not staying in the neighborhood, etc. Kaden comes with us, but he's not a problem, and often eats for free! The other week we decided to try a Japanese restaurant in Hanover. I've never eaten at a Japanese restaurant before, and the last time Dale did was while on his mission (24 years ago). We didn't know what to expect! The chef brought our food to us and prepared it while we watched -- large flames and food tricks included! We were completely entertained and the food was delicious! The price was a little steep, so we won't be going back any time soon! We're trying to hit a different place each week, places we've never eaten at before, if we can. Here's Kaden having an adorable curly hair day!
More soccer games for Bryson.

I discovered a new love, chocolate of course!

Ashton gets a $25.oo hair cut for FREE! Here are the before pictures.

Ashton's new do!

I read where if you put a colored post-it note over the flash of your camera, the picture will turn out the color of the post-it note. It works!

I took the children to the Brown Farm where they played in the corn, went on a hayride, got fake tattoos, drank apple cider slushies, hid among the corn rows, listened to Bluegrass, bobbed for apples and more!

Our wonderful neighbors, the Reids invited us to pick pears from their tree, which we did!

We then spent one whole Saturday making and preserving pear sauce.
The pear scrubbers.

Mom gave me her Victorio Strainer! She said she would likely never use it again, but if she needed it, she knew where to find it. Thanks Mom! What a blessing! After cooking down the pears we put them through the strainer. The good stuff comes out one end while the skin, core and seeds go out another.
At the end of 12 hours we had 39 quarts of pear sauce!

My niece, Dottie, is so persuasive! How persuasive is she? She is so persuasive, she talked ME into baking a cake containing not only COCONUT, but PECANS as well! YUCK!! In her defense, Dale liked the cake, and I will make it again for our Bluegrass indoor shows. (Those older Bluegrass people seem to like nuts in their cakes! Hey, whatever sells!)

Kaden held a cute pretend conversation with Dottie, probably telling her how bad the cake was!

Oh, I wasn't suppose to mention Dottie on my blog, since I don't rate high enough to be mentioned on hers! LOL!!

Well, that's the update. I'll try not to get so far behind with my blogging again!