It's Halloween

I've had some photos lingering on my camera for a while so I thought I would post some today. First I want to thank Blogger for not loading them in the correct order....and I finally gave up. So there are a few out of order but you'll figure it out.



Abby had her Preschool Halloween party today that I was able to attend. I happened to find a cute Pooh Bear on the way (not so cute in the photo) that came with me.


Snow White and her goodie bag.

Winnie The Pooh (at a happier time).

Then we have a shout out to the Davenport family as they welcomed Ella Cate on Friday. As usual the girls fought over holding her and taking turns but it's only because they love babies so much. Good luck to their cousin Kitty when they see her at Christmas - she is going to be overly loved the whole time.

And we love each other again......



These were our rally towels from Game 6 (yep, Tim and I were there.....jealous, I thought so). It was an amazing game to be at and the fact the Cardinals fought back several times to win it was crazy. The atmosphere at the stadium was unbelievable. I'm not a big fan of night games on school nights, that go extra innings....but I'm glad I was there.



Sunday was pumpkin carving day - you can see the girls hard at work...which lasted about 2 minutes for Abby. Megan kept more at it. But first our sad pumpkin story - some kids stole one of our pumpkins over the weekend before we carved them thankfully. We were actually at home when they did it, and Tim thinks he saw them drive away. So we had to go get a new one Sunday after church. Abby was a little mad that people took our pumpkin. I guess it was a good one that I had bought them so big they could only carry one at a time.

Our finished product - Tinkerbell

And Micky Mouse.
I'd like to think that Tim and are are getting pretty good at this pumpkin carving process. Or at least it seemed a lot quicker and easier this year.

So tonight is the big candy gathering and excitement of it all. I can only wait to enjoy the sugar-high of a 2 and 4 year old...for the next month.

A weekend in Branson

Yes I have been absent from the blogging world for a week, but it was for good reasons....survival! Tim has been gone for the last 2 weeks for work and I have been getting all sorts of quality time with the girls. The reason there was no post from last weekend is that there might have been too much quality time and Mommy needed a nap!

So with all the quality time we discovered new things to do in Columbia to take up the evening hours and make bed time come sooner. Introducing the Public Library!

I have been meaning to take the kids for a while and just honestly have slacked on it. So we've been going on Monday's after work for an hour or so. Abby has a challenge to read 25 books a month for preschool to win a personal pizza so this has helped fuel our reading numbers. They also have computer games (pictured above) and handy bigger keyboards. We rented our first videos last week as well. There are always new discoveries when we go, even a book about the public library for kids to explain everything.




So back to the Tim being gone for 2 weeks......he finally returned this Friday night - not exactly to our house though. We spent the weekend at the Chateau on the Lake in Branson, MO. We had never stayed there, it looked pretty and has an indoor pool and playground for the kids - so that is a win win in their book. The girls and I drove down Friday afternoon and Tim drove from Memphis (as it was shorter than to Columbia) and got mauled by the girls for the next hour after he showed up. To say he was missed was an understatement. The hotel was very nice, the Sweet Shoppe was unfortunately very good and we visited them every evening. Abby even asked how late they were open (on her own) to make sure we would have time after swimming.




Here is the outdoor playground - and yes it's a gravity conveyor. As someone who works in a distribution center I found it to be entertaining. It was also the kids favorite slide.


More sliding before we hit the pool.

We did a little shopping after we checked out - and the kids could not resist the bull. Our reason for shopping was to get Megan some big girl panties! Yes she has almost conquered potty training and to celebrate (or motivate) the final stage we let her pick out some panties. She is doing great and we're excited to be out of the diapers/pull ups for good.


This was some Chicken/Steak house off of the main road that the kids were very excited about. They also have cows on the roof and in the restaurant. So we decided to join the tourists and eat there. You can see we are under the chicken - and much to Abby's disappointment, it did not lay an egg.

We missed the 100th Homecoming at Mizzou though this weekend with being out of town. We're not too sad that we missed the chaos. Thankfully both the Tigers and the Hawkeyes won this weekend. So all is well in the world of college football.

Applesauce & A Few Other Pics

October is here!! There are so many things I love about this month. The cooler weather, changing colors, burning leaves smell.....I could go on and on. However this first weekend of October was dedicated mostly to APPLES. Last week I bragged on our trip to the apple orchard - well this weekend we needed to do something with all those apples, and did we!


Yep - it's just a pie, and not as pretty as the one I made last week but still tastes so good! It's a mix a Mutsu and Jonagold apples and Abby's comment was "Best Pie Ever!" - which made my heart melt as she is a picky eater.




Here is a wonderful picture of me canning applesauce. One other thing about October is it's Breast Cancer Awareness month - so I'm sporting my pink shirt in support! Tim managed to snap this picture.


Here's my first helper of the afternoon. Megan could rock the foley mill! She was all about it, and as long as you held the bowl in place she did just fine. Although her enthusiasm would come and go to help, she had fun.

We moved the operations outside as we needed more burners for keeping the applesauce warm and canning. This year we used the turkey fryer to cook our stock pot and canning pot on (don't worry I didn't actually use the turkey fryer pot - I don't like my applesauce with a hint of turkey). It was a pretty good idea and helped with the process - plus with the size of the canning pot my stove didn't handle it that well last year. Next year we'll see if we can borrow the neighbors to help the process. Abby's taking a crank at the applesauce - her help was limited this year.


Random photo - this was Abby's first birthday party from someone not in daycare. So that meant no invite for the Meggers (insert drama and fit here). Thankfully Megan went down for a nap and we sneaked out of the house. She wasn't that happy about it - but got to go fishing as a compromise.

The finished product of all of our labors (about 5 hours worth) - 11 quarts and 12 pints - last year we only made 6 quarts so you can imagine how many more apples we had this year! Even with all the sampling :). We have a small sample in the fridge for dinner as well. If I can keep the kids/Tim out if it until then.


We had to check in on the Slenker's on Friday night - the kids can't share a toy but they can all share a chair!!


This past week I was in Las Vegas for a conference and just wanted to share a few photos. Conveniently the conference ended at 4 PM each day so I got plenty of time to walk around. I always love the Conservatory at the Bellagio with their natural garden sculptures.

In honor of October/Fall - there was some blurb about the amount of carnations in that pumpkin on the right but I don't remember the exact number - it was A LOT!

Then of course the fountains. I was actually leaving the hotel so this is from the back of the fountains - a different view, but still amazing.


And last but not least - another Abby dove hunting photo. Yes she is actually holding the doves! I was pretty surprised to get this photo from Tim as you wouldn't really see me holding dead birds but Abby was all about it and I got a detailed version of the whole process and how she wasn't scared and you hold them from the legs or the wing because Daddy shot the head......I'll let you imagine the rest. Tim was thrilled though and Abby can't wait for deer season.

I'm definitely glad to be back home from my trip. With the time change, delayed flights/diversions it made it seem a lot longer than it really was. Home Sweet Home.