Pictures of Letchworth

Pioneer Woman wrote a few weeks ago about a photo shoot that wasn't.
I had the same thing happen...well, it happened differently, but with the same results.

We went to Letchworth State Park on Sunday. The weather was absolutely perfect. (well, on the cold side of perfect). I got family pictures in front of the waterfall, with a rainbow behind our heads.

I wasn't completely thrilled with the picture because I'd forgotten to hide my hand with the remote in it (which is kinda sorta the reason I had it on "Remote Plus Timer" to give me time to hide that hand) and we were all squinting from the sun. But it was still good and I was planning to use it as our Christmas pictures.

I'd love to say that's why I'm not showing it here...to keep it a surprise.

But unfortunately, I can't show it. It's gone.

I put the memory card in the computer, hit "import," and walked away. And either I touched something, or Josh did, and it made it stop importing.
I came back an hour later, grabbed the card from the computer without looking first, put it in my camera, formatted, and then sat down at the computer.

Only to find out that something had stopped the import.

So no Christmas pictures from Letchworth. No adorable pictures of the kids throwing leaves on their heads. No video of Hudson throwing leaves at Josh.

Just a lesson. And I must say a good one to have gotten from that day and not the evening before, when I took pictures of Josh's sister and her husband!
So here's a picture from that.

Button Letter

We have a lot of buttons.

Thousands and thousands of buttons.

See, when my sisters were little and my mom spent too much time at antique stores, she would bring home a small container of antique buttons whenever she saw them. It was her way of giving the kids a collection of something fun, something they didn't know existed or could ever actually use.

Sorry, Mom. I mean, she bought them something they spent hours playing with. They really did. They're the ones who organized them all into color order. Makes me happy to see them that way.

But now those sisters aren't so little, so they donated them to our homeschool room.

About once a year, I think of a project that uses "a ton of buttons" and ends up using a couple hundred. At this rate there will be "only" 5 jars left when I die.

Unless they start buying me more.

I bought the kids their initial letter at Hobby Lobby a couple months ago. They were cheap (under $2 each) and they had all three. I knew we'd eventually use them...

So today we tackled them!

First, they put on their adorable smocks.

Then they each colored their letter with whatever paint they wanted. Hudson almost wanted pink but eventually settled on dark blue.

After lunch, they glued buttons on the surface. And I covered the whole surface with a ton of aerosol hairspray. There would be too many tears if the buttons started falling off right away.

Then I took pictures and the glass out of three of our 8x10 frames that were on our wall, and put the letters in the middle.

At some point tonight I'll figure out something strong enough to hold it there to put up on the wall. But for now, I'm too lazy to do anything more I wanted them to have plenty of time to dry.

They love the final result, and I think they'll look great on the wall!

Farm Outing

Today was the fourth year in a row doing our favorite October event (well, second to celebrating Josh's birthday, that is): we visited the local family farm. We love it there. And not just because the woman who runs the place is named Charlene ;) (that's almost a point against her, since she goes by Char!)

This was an unusual trip, in that it was our homeschooling group instead of just the family. But Josh took the day off so it could still be our family outing, and we had a wonderful (cold) time.

This poor angora rabbit. I'm sure they love being touched...to a point.

This goat has a permanent grin!

All three kids tried milking the goat!

I thought it would be fun to take a pony ride down memory lane:

2008

 2011

2008

 2011

 2010

2011

I can't believe how much they've changed!

Auntie Charity

Josh's sister Charity comes with him to eat lunch with us once a week or so. The kids love time with her, and I think she likes it just as much!
Josh couldn't come home for lunch today but we still invited her over.
Lunch didn't go as planned, but it was still fun having her here. After lunch is over, the kids like to bring her books. Bekah brought her 6 and Charity said she only had time to read one of them. She chose "Home for a Bunny," telling her Auntie that it "has a sweet ending."

So they all listened intently.
And Charity agreed. It does have a very good ending!

Productive Day

Yesterday I left the computer off.
I'm thinking this is going to become a weekly thing.

I:
made a double batch of applesauce
made homemade macaroni and cheese for the kids and I for lunch
made taquitos for dinner (have to make more up today with the rest of the stuff. I'm NEVER making them again. I'll enjoy the restaurant's version instead!)
washed all the dishes for everything I made
made "energy balls" (peanut butter and honey formed in a ball, dipped in coconut and chilled. YUM!)
got the laundry put away
finished the kids' school
organized some of their school stuff
put away the pieces of their games that had lost their homes
made soup for Josh for work

Today we finished up the rest of the school week...which means we're now finished with our second quarter! We've finished half the school year! I'm so proud of her! And I'm allowing myself back online :) I have some pictures to look through and work on, but I refuse to spend the entire day on the computer.

And just because no blog post is complete without a picture or two:

 (ahem, we won't discuss the fact that this was while Jasmine was supposedly in a time-out)

 She just gets more gorgeous every day!

And from the photo shoot I did last weekend. I love the way these two brothers play together. My kids LOVE them!!

Apples, Take 2

Today is absolutely gorgeous. The type that even I have to get outside to enjoy.

I went out and pulled the eggplants and remaining grape tomatoes from the garden. They've made it through the past few nights' frosts, but I don't want to chance it. So I'm planning fried green tomatoes.

We went to the Farmers' Market. Got a few things, including kohlrabi, something I'd never heard of but a lady told us what to do with it. So I'm giving it a try!
Bekah picked out the one we were going to buy (hoping it will help her actually try it):

Then we went to the farm to pick more apples. Last time we went, the Empires weren't ready yet, and since those are our favorites, we decided to make the trip back up.

Everyone else in the entire region decided on the same way to spend the afternoon. It was mobbed!! But we found a tree. One tree. And filled two bags with apples.

48 pounds of apples. I'd better start peeling!