12 already?

Yesterday was Hannah's birthday. To celebrate we took her to the mall for some shopping and beauty

So she got her ears pierced again

A manicure

and a pedicure

We had a family dinner

Make a wish

There were lots of presents

cake

and another wish for good luck

A Day Of Pretend

We love Halloween at our house. There's just something fun about having weird looking food, dressing up, and getting lots of candy that makes everyone happy.  This year we had eyeball soup and haunted house brownies. It was a pretty simple fare but the kids enjoyed it. And, despite the fact that it was cold and rainy they had a great time trick or treating. Rob and I both went with them so we locked up the house and didn't pass candy out this year. Here's some pictures for you.

Hungry?

It's hard to eat when your food is looking at you

This was easy to eat!

Rob playing around with Cerah's pumpkin head

Once we got it away from him we finished it

And Cerah became the headless horseman. Both the cape and the pumpkin were homemade.

Morgan was a mummy

Hannah wanted to be spider girl

Aren't they cute?

Going to the first house

Morgan kept falling apart so we decided she was a decomposing mummy

The best part of the night - looking at all the goodies

What A Storm

We had a pretty wicked storm here yesterday. Not as bad as the East Coast but enough to cause us some damage. It's still going on today but the sky is a little lighter than it was yesterday. Our wind gusts are up to 65 m.p.h, although I don't know why they're called gusts when they seem to be constant.
I thought I'd share some photos of the aftermath along with some pictures of what we've been doing lately.

Here are a couple of branches I picked up this morning. It was so windy and cold that I left most of them. They are littering our yard, we should fine them.

This branch, though, is in the most trouble. When it fell....

It brought the whole tree down with it.

This will make good firewood

I think that's appropriate punishment for the damage it did.

This little trunk crack caused a power outage in our entire subdivision. Wanna bet the neighbors aren't happy with us?

But, we made the most of it and used the time for family card games. We had to use oil lamps and candles to see by. It was kinda like being in the 1950's.....just kidding. Trust me when I say this room was pretty dark, I just have a very bright flash on my camera.

In other news: Cerah has been making a cutting board in woodshop. It's not done yet as you can see but it is turning out beautiful.

Hannah has been faithfully finding the right keys on her flute

and then practicing. We have heard the same song at least 1,000 times.

Morgan has been busy studying

with the help of Lucy

Rob and Hannah are helping Cerah make her Halloween costume

And when we get a chance, we all put our cozy jammies on and just relax

Sometimes we even get a chance to sit down while it's still light out!

Enjoying the fruits of someone else's labor

We have been busy canning these last few weeks. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to can any of our own vegetables or fruit because we had very little grow this year. The weather just didn't cooperate. So, we went to the orchards and the farmers markets to get what we needed. Because of the cost we ended up canning just a few things. At the end we had applesauce, green beans, pickles, and blackberry and raspberry jam. Cerah did manage to coax two pie pumpkins to maturity so we pureed and froze the meat from those and will be making pumpkin bread with it over the holidays.

Applesauce:

First, we had to cut, core, and then peel all the apples. Cerah did the coring, I cut and then peeled, and Hannah helped peel.

Once it was all cooked Cerah had to mash them up so they didn't have big chunks in them.

Next we put them in the jars

And they were done. They just had to sit for two weeks before we could start opening them.

Rob made the pickles. I didn't because I don't like dill pickles and that's what everyone else wanted this year.

I did do the green beans though. I love fresh picked green beans. There is nothing in the store that compares to them.

 Finished products:

Applesauce

Dill pickles

and green beans.



Somehow I have lost the pictures of my jam. I took pictures of the girls making it and of the finished product but I can't seem to find the pictures anywhere. So you'll just have to trust me when I say they look (and taste) really good.

Here's a picture of Cerah's two pumpkins that made it:

I wasn't home when she prepared them so I don't have any pictures of that either.

Next year we are hoping for a better yield from our own garden. Growing it is just as fun as harvesting but not quite as fun as eating!