Pumpkin Art

Fall Book Fair

It's Book Fair time again! It has been pretty much all-consuming this week. Despite my fears of massive volunteer dropouts due to all the stuff that's going around (including H1N1) and depressed sales because of the economy, only one of my co-chairs called in sick (with flu-like symptoms!) and our receipts are about where they were last year. G was pretty restrained this year and I think that even with book donations I got through the week for under $125!

Fall Visit

Last weekend Pat & Bill visited from NYC. It was an unseasonably cold and overcast weekend -- at one point there were even snow showers. It was a fairly busy pumpkin day on Sunday and Simon was a big help with getting people back and forth to the field.


G & Simon played Marathon Monopoly

Jaspar & G

Opening Weekend

Kind of a slow weekend for pumpkins, even though the Packers have a Monday night game, because the weather was so overcast, damp and cool.

Firedog

It has been chilly and damp here. Dan pulled out the chimenea as an incentive to be out in this weather. We're not the only ones who enjoy it -- Maike likes to chase the stray cinders. Here she is waiting expectantly for something to fly out the top.

Fall Colors

Front Porch

Pumpkin season is upon us

Home Improvement

We are finally redoing our ugly front porch. Yesterday G primed the door -- now we just have to decide what color to paint it.

Twilight

Finally read it, on the recommendation of some friends. Kept waiting for it to get better, but it never did. Several hours of my life I will never get back.

Her Own Beeswax

In the past we've talked about making candles from the beeswax from our honey harvest, but never done it. (I even bought a book about it.) So this year we gave the beeswax to some friends so it didn't just sit around. We got a call yesterday inviting G to come over because they had all the paraphernalia to make candles. It is not as hard as I thought -- it just takes a little time and patience. The smell is not as sweet as you might expect, but more vaguely spicy. The kids had a blast making and shaping hand-dipped candles. One more activity to balance out going-back-to-school time in the future!

Honey Harvest

Becca & Jamie came up today for the third annual honey harvest. Now that everyone knows what to do, it went fairly quickly, even though there was a lot more honey this year. It was very obvious that different combs produced different shades of honey. Three in a row makes it a tradition! Can't wait for next year!

Big yield this year!

First Day of School

It's not how she looked today, but it's how I saw her ...

"Camping"

G and her cousin Cha have been wanting to go camping, but the summer got away from us. They settled for an overnight in Grandpa's tent camper. What with the unseasonably cool temperature, howling coyote and answering barking dogs, and migrating birds, let's hope it was a reasonable facsimile.

Mentor Program

G is part of her school's program that has 8th graders mentoring 5th graders. They had orientation on Wednesday. Here she is with her group for this year.

Sent

We have been waiting for over a year for the second book in "The Missing" series by Margaret Peterson Haddix. It came out yesterday and G & I picked it up as soon as we could. She's through it already; now Dan & I are jockeying to see who gets it next.

Parting Shot

Philadelphia: Independence Hall & Liberty Bell

Did we make this stop so we could stand in the hall where 56 brave American patriots made their bold statement? No, we were there because "the vision to see the treasured past comes as the timely shadow crosses in front of the House of Pass and Stow" ...

Philadelphia: Franklin Court

Benjamin Franklin: One Awesome Dude. The stop at the remains of his house and the underground museum turned out to be the best site of the day

Philadelphia: The Franklin Institute

We got a two-fer: We came for the Galileo exhibit and found that there was a Star Trek exhibit as well


The permanent exhibit everyone from the Mid-Atlantic remembers from field trips

The Pendulum Stairs

Hershey: Chocolate World

At Chocolate World, the Hershey company provides a free tour that dumps you off into a gigantic candy emporium -- where they hope you will spend $$$ on all the Hershey's junk they have