Happy Halloween 2014

 I snapped a few shots on their way out the door for trick or treating.  Daddy was kind enough to brave the weather.  Crash and I stayed home. 

 This year's lineup:  Brutus Buckeye, Frankenstein's Monster, Dora the Explorer, a spider, and a Neanderthal. 

Closer up...

This photo makes it appear sunny outside.  I assure you, it was not.

As a matter of fact, it was snowing.  No joke.

And, for tomorrow, Happy All Saints' Day!! 

Just Because

Little Readers

Nurturing a love of reading in our kids is totally worth all the library fines!!  My favorite part of each day is reading aloud to everybody.  Love the series on this topic at this lovely blog.  Worth a click!!

We are currently loving Hilda Van Stockum.  We've read  Pegeen, and are in the thick of The Cottage at Bantry Bay.  My Irish accent is terrible, but keep trying I will do.  Arra.

Many thanks to the ladies at Like Mother, Like Daughter for the book suggestions!  Love their Library Project!!

Also, because we spend at very least one hour in the car every day, we picked up Shoeless Joe Jackson and Me on audiobook from the library.  What a great book full of history - baseball and otherwise!! 

Have a happy day!! 

Heard in Our House

Yoyo:  daddy, if I just wanna have a bunch of kids and be a mommy, do I have to go to college?
Dad:  I think it would be a good idea.
Yoyo:  oh, dang it.

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Kid118:  going to the library and checking out books without returning any is like eating bread when you're constipated.

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Crash, from his high chair, to his siblings whom I am always correcting during meals:  you guys!  Sit down!

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Spike, after dropping his water bottle under his wheelchair:  I laid a water bottle!

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Joy....  Ok, this isn't something she said, but it's too sweet to leave undocumented:  she spent her Barnes and noble birthday gift card to buy a copy of jan Brett's The Mitten for Crash.  He loves it and loves his big sissy.  He often cries when I drop her off places.

Have a great rest of the week!

Vacation Times Two

I'm rewinding a couple months... forgive me.  I can hardly remember what day/season/year it is, let alone gather the wherewithal to keep the blog up to date with the family's current events. 

Anyway, for posterity, let the record show that we took 2 vacations in the course of a month. 

First, In August, we went about 3 hours north to the shores of Lake Michigan.  This has been a summer tradition for the past four years.  I could easily spend a month there... probably more.  The beaches are so pretty, we can walk to so many fun places, and, best of all... no sharks in the water!!  It's a wee bit colder than Florida waters, but, seriously, the kids do not care.  Much. 

And there you have all the pictures I took on that trip before my camera died. 

Exactly 3 weeks later, we went south.  This time, the trip was 12-13 hours on the road each way.  A bit more painful, but we've been wanting to hit Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown for several years now for their homeschool days.  They have some crazy good deals going on for that event and also several extra classes available.  Joy took a class in the print shop with Grandma, and the three middles and I participated in 'the Life of a Soldier."  Lots of fun. 

It rained a couple days, so we did the Virginia Living History Museum.  Really great.  Pada, Eustace, and 3 adventurous kids walked outside through their trails in a serious downpour to witness bald eagles, deer, foxes, coyotes, and a bunch of other wildlife I can't remember because I wasn't brave enough to go with them. 

We had a great time with my parents on both trips.  They even carted our whiniest child to Virginia for us.  God bless them. 

On trip number 2, I took exactly zero pictures with my camera.  I do have a few on my phone, I think, so I'll work on getting those onto this computer sometime in the next decade.