Gingerbread houses 2009

This year's gingerbread extravaganza was rather less extravagant than last year. We did make our own icing, but we settled for graham crackers instead of baking our own gingerbread (unlike in 2008). On the left is a cute little pink house by Jared (with help from Dad), followed by the house Mom made at our church Christmas party, followed by Mom's made-at-home model, and finishing with Amanda's house featuring a Twizzler flag pole (with help from Dad).

Brotherly love

Jared actively looks out for his siblings' welfare. Curtis really appreciated the help, but Amanda found the whole thing rather silly, or at least she did when Jared offered her some of the baby food.

Thanksgiving 2009

As many of you know, Thanksgiving season for us is especially busy because it is also the season for Dad and Jared's shared birthday. So, brace yourself for a bit of a marathon entry . . .

It all started out with our grand little feast . . .

We decided to be a bit daring this year and have duck, along with a turkey breast, just to maintain some semblance of tradition. Dad is carving the duck in the picture above, and Jared is munching on duck wing in the picture below.

And don't think we forgot about Curtis; here he is enjoying the first course of his first Thanksgiving dinner, peas.

Curtis did munch some mashed potatoes and stuffing as well (he is seven months old after all), but we decided to forgo the messier photos. About the duck, it provided LOTS of drippings for some incredibly rich gravy, and Amanda loved it. Great bird if you like dark meat. Mom was glad there was some turkey available, too, though, as she is more of a white meat person.

And then it was birthday time . . .

Yes, it was Jared's 2nd birthday, not his first, but Jared decided that if Dad gets to stop aging then he can, too. Either that or we forgot to buy birthday candles in the midst of the holiday . . . At any rate, he loved the chocolate creme pie. We had some friends over for a pie party to celebrate the joint birthday.

Here's Jared with some presents. He absolutely loved unwrapping them (lucky for him that Christmas is coming soon), and he even enjoyed the actual presents, too. The turtle is from Grandma and Grandpa and Buzz (a soft, silent version) is from Mom & Dad. Jared's favorite game to play with Buzz is to hold him upside down, say "Buzz!" and then buzz Buzz's feet. His play with the turtle is a little more conventional.

You may have noticed Jared's abundant hair in the previous pictures. The last noteworthy event of the weekend was a haircut by Dad. As you can see, Jared was not too happy about it, even with the chocolate pie to pacify him. The hair cut turned out well, though, as will hopefully be seen in later posts.

Meanwhile, Curtis was in quite the opposite mood, happy as can be. That and he loves getting his picture taken. (Seriously, he does; wonder how long that will last . . .)


We had a great Thanksgiving weekend and were glad for the friends we got to visit and for the birthday wishes received. Thanks again!

Hayden Falls

Yesterday, November 15, 2009, we finally made it to the elusive Hayden Falls. We have no pictures to prove it, and so I am writing about it instead. So, you ask, what is so special about the falls? And why are they "elusive? The answers to those questions are pretty much the same: it's a beautiful waterfall tucked away in the middle of an otherwise urban area. The access to it is from a tiny, informal parking lot alongside a busy road. After getting out of the car (assuming you actually make it into the parking lot), there's a big set of wooden stairs. The stairs continue on to a wooden walk way that eventually leads to the falls (it's not that far, just seems that way the first time). I think we were the only people there without a camera of some sort. Oh well. Now that we know where it is, maybe we'll go there for a photo shoot sometime. In the meantime, the outing was an accomplishment because we made it there all together, Mom, Dad, and all three muffins.

(Here's a link to my friend Diane's blog about her falls trip; she gave us the idea: link)

The 11 Days of Halloween

Prologue
Halloween is traditionally celebrated on October 31. But there are exceptions . . .

The first day of Halloween, October 23
Night of our church's Halloween party and chili cook-off. Special features of this year's party included the talent/freak show, and an actual trunk-or-treat in the actual outdoors with actual trunks; there's always been one advertised as long as we've been here, but it's always been moved indoors. Amanda designed her own princess costume with her favorite pieces of dress-up clothes, Jared wore a dragon suit, and Curtis wore a Batman costume (which meant that all Mom had to do was carry him, no costume required, since we all know who Batman's sidekick is). Dad didn't dress up, but he did make some chili for the cook-off.

The second through fifth days of Halloween
A time for rationing the candy collected at the trunk-or-treat in order to manage the sugar levels of our candy-loving kids.

The sixth day of Halloween, October 28
Amanda's Halloween party at preschool. Again, she dressed as a princess, but in a different dress. She had fun, of course.

The seventh day of Halloween, October 29
Mom took the youngin's to the post office with her and found that the post office was giving out goodie bags, which included crayons, coloring books, and other fun stuff. It happened to be our first trip to the post office here, so Mom wondered whether the kids would assume that's what always happened at the post office.

That evening was the big night, trick or treat time. (Pause here while readers check date; yes, I do mean that this happened on the 29th, NOT the 31st.) Amanda (princess, of course) and Dad made the rounds towards the end of the city-appointed trick-or-treat time, securing large amounts of candy in the process. Meanwhile, Mom and the boys monitored the candy distribution at home.

The eighth day of Halloween, October 30
A local shopping center hosted a trick-or-treat for a nearby elementary school (and anyone else who showed up, like us). Amanda finally wore her Official princess costume, and Jared and Curtis resumed their rolls as dragon and Batman, accompanied by Mr. B as Buzz Lightyear. Again, quite a haul; ended up with more candy than we bought to give out in the first place, or so it seemed.

The ninth and tenth days of Halloween
Which days included October 31. Mom and the kids went on a random adventure, and Amanda got a lollipop from the bank, but that's as close as we got to trick-or-treating. The local football gods have a decree that Halloween shall not interfere with football, hence the displaced Official trick-or-treating recounted earlier. Oh well. At least we had plenty of candy to eat that weekend.

The eleventh day of Halloween, November 2
Dad and the kids carved a pumpkin for our Family Home Evening activity, and afterward Dad roasted the seeds. I'd say we definitely had the freshest post-Halloween jack-o-lantern on the block. So, there you have it, the eleven days of Halloween 2009.