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!

Hide and go seek, Kaden style

Two days ago I was standing at the kitchen counter when I heard, "Mom! Come find me!"

"Are you hiding?" I asked.

"Yes. You say, Ready or not, here me come!" was his reply.

I then walked into the living room to find Kaden hiding under his Bob the Builder hat! Once I found him, it was then my turn to hide under the hat.

Kaden peeks out to see if I'm coming!

Next, Kaden hid behind my bedroom door. Once I found him, he instructed me to hide behind the bedroom door as well, which I did. He ran off, counted a few numbers, yelled "Ready or not, here me come!", and then came to find me. When he pulled back the bedroom door, exposing my hiding spot, I said to him, "How did you know where to find me?" To which he replied, "DUH!!" He must have been thinking, "I knew where you were because I told you to hide there!" Soooo funny!!

Another reason to love fall!

Found these at Wal-Mart this morning.

Had to get a bag.

Ate a few on the way home.

YUM!!

Two dollars well spent.

I'm adding this to the list of reasons why I love fall!!