Eight Years Old? Impossible!!!

Today is Marshall and Shaylen's eighth birthday! I cannot believe that I have two kids who are eight. I think I say it every year, but time sure is flying...and we're sure having fun!

We celebrated on the 2nd when Jason, Joni & Co. came up for a visit. Shaylen had requested a chocolate cake with vanilla frosting, and Marshall had requested a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting. I was able to make them both happy by making a ginormous cake with both. They got to pick out the ice cream too: Marshall requested Neopolitan and Shaylen requested Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.

Yes, the kids are getting so big. This point struck home when all of the Pileggi kids had on former Marshall and Shaylen outfits! I love seeing those hand-me-downs all over again. It almost brings a tear to the eye to realize that they don't slow down. In less than 10 years we'll be looking at two college tuition bills. Eeek!

I probably sound like a broken record, but Marshall and Shaylen are such a blessing to me. I am so blessed to get to spend my whole day with them day in and day out. I can't imagine anything else!

Happy Birthday to the Best Kids in the WORLD!

Happy 8th Birthday! (Look at those cute little faces on the right!)

Fun With Friends

I love spending time with friends. Jason and Joni are dear friends that we met almost at the beginning of our ministry in ME. We were young, just married (just over two years) and had no children. They were young, just married and without children as well.  Taigen and I desired to get to know them so we had them over for dinner one night. We hit it off and the rest is history. Jason and Joni helped us with the youth group and when Marshall and Shaylen were born, they became adopted aunt and uncle. Eleven years and six kids later we have a lot of wonderful memories under our belt and we enjoy our times together immensely. I just had to post some pictures of our last visit with them over the birthday celebration weekend. Aren't their kids SO cute?

14th Annual Joos Psychedelic Christmas Cookie Decorating Fest

If you have read this blog for any amount of time, you know that the Joos Psychedelic Christmas Cookie Decorating Fest is one of our favorite things to do every year. Believe it or not, it is the Joos family tradition that everyone mentions. I had a dear friend from church who emailed me this story recently:

We are decorating some cookies with the kiddos tomorrow, and I was searching for the frosting recipe from your cookies to bring.  I could not find the document from when you shared it last year, and was about to write to ask you to send it again.  [My husband] said I needed to use a better search term than "cookie", so I said "Try Psychedelic!"

Confused, he said "Why, is that in there?" which was followed by "Yup, here it is!" 

We made the full recipe as a family to give out last year, and I guess I never shared the "name" - now he knows!

Isn't that hilarous? I had a friend tag me in Facebook photos of their family doing the Psychedelic Cookies last year. We're so glad to share the joy! If you haven't read about the history behind our cookies, you need to go to last year's post and read it. In that post are also links to previous decorating fests.

Do you make the Psychedelic Cookies? Let me know! I'd love to see how yours turn out.

Without furthur ado...here are the pics from this year. I'm still having trouble discerning the difference between the kids' and Taigen's, but that's half the fun, right?

Creativity on Display

What do you get if you take one boy, two couch cushions, one cardboard shield, a blanket, a piano bench, Horatio the duck, a paper towel tube, yarn, and a pillow? Marshall's fort of course! Lately, Marshall and Shaylen have been very much into building forts in the living room in their spare time. The couches are naked in the afternoons but the kids' minds are full of ideas.

Snow...in October?

We got a little bit of snow when Tammy was in town, but what we didn't expect was a major snowstorm before the end of October! This storm barrelled in and packed a punch! Because a lot of the leaves weren't off the trees yet, the snow weighed everything down. Branches fell and there were many power outages.

We got a call late in the night saying that the power was out at the church. Early on in the morning, probably around 1:30am, we woke up to discover that our power had finally gone out. The house was dark and quiet. Taigen made the call around 7am to cancel our morning service, potluck and afternoon service. While it's not the ideal Sunday, we made the most of it. We bundled up and had a wonderful day here together. We played Life, grilled up some soup (it was the only way we could heat it up), and enjoyed the special memories big storms bring...even in October.

Time With Tammy

Do remember way back two years ago when the kids got their Melissa and Doug puppets from their grandmas? Those puppets have provided hours of entertainment for Marshall and Shaylen. We recently had our friend Tammy Detwiler at the house and the kids decided to put on a puppet show for her.

Tammy is in the states on deputation, trying to get back to Austria where she helps out the Hudsons. She is a gem and I know how valuable she is to Todd and Sarah. We were so thankful that Tammy made a small detour over to our house for a couple of days while she was in New England. Our kids fell in love with her when she was in town with the Hudsons last fall. It was a very short visit so we were thankful for the extended period of time to spend with her.

While she was here, we took a road trip over to the Nubble Light and braved the cold, wet elements to get a few pictures. The wind was blowing so hard I couldn't keep it off the camera lens and out of the kids' eyes. It made for some very funny pictures!

On Thursday evening, it started to snow! We couldn't believe that we were getting snow already in October, but Tammy liked it. I think it's neat that it's in this last picture with her. We threatened the Hudsons with not sending Tammy back and just keeping her here in New Hampshire all to ourselves, but they replied that there was no way that was going to happen, so we had to say goodbye. Pray that Tammy can raise all of her support soon so she can head back to Austria.

October Ministry Opportunities

Homeschool Apple Ciderin'

Do you remember our Colon Dough friends, the Meroffs? They are constantly a blessing to both us and the rest of the church. Scott's parents have a cider press and graciously allowed our homeschool group to use it today for a special day.

The kids and I have been to many ciderin' parties before, but none of us have ever had to turn the crank that squishes the life, uh...the juice out of those apples. I think the kids have a deeper appreciation for the work that goes into fresh, pressed apple cider. It takes a lot of effort for one gallon of cider, but the fruit of our labors is delcious!

We came home and ran it through a tiny strainer to get out any miscellaneous floaties and then I cooked it a bit with mulling spices. The whole house smelled amazing and the cider tasted fabulous!

3rd Grade Photos

I wait every year until the leaves change in hopes of having a beautiful backdrop for the kids school pictures. We could go to a studio and get them done, but that would cost beaucoup bucks that we don't have. We aren't too picky so I just take the photos myself. We went up to Ft. Williams in Cape Elizabeth, ME and had a wonderful picnic. I then took the kids off to various and sundry parts of the park and snapped away. Fortunately for me, they are photogenic and (mostly) willing participants in my zillion photos.

I cannot believe I have third graders. They are getting so big and cuter as the days go by. Don't you just want to squeeeeeeeze those cute faces? I cannot overemphasize to you how truly blessed I am to be able to stay home with them. I never, ever wish for it to be any other way.

Colder Weather

Every Fall, we attempt to keep the heat off as long as possible (or as long as bearable). And, since we currently have a ban on "Drill, Baby Drill," (Okay...that probably opened up a HUGE political can of worms, but please don't start a discussion on it...*insert sigh, half grin, and eyeroll from me*...I don't have time for that kind of thing), I don't see oil prices going down any time soon. So, we layer and postpone the inevitable.

I must've made some passing comment on Facebook about the cold, because shortly thereafter, the kids got these wonderful vests from my mother in law, Sherry, to help them stay warm during these chilly Fall days. Isn't she thoughtful?

The kids look so cute and grown-up! (*sniff, sniff*) Thank you Grandma Sherry!

Caramel Apples...Kindof

Part of my reasoning behind taking the day off and picking apples was because in a journal entry (Spelling class), Shaylen had mentioned how wonderful it would be to go to a vendor (during Dover's Apple Harvest Festival) and purchasing a caramel apple. Our church participates in this every year and it's a great way to get the word out about our church. There are thousands of people that pour through downtown Dover! Unfortunately, the majority of things being sold are overpriced and it's hard to justify it when you're on a tight budget, right? My thought was, "Why not go apple picking and then make caramel apples at home?" So I did. We went apple picking, and then came home to make the caramel. I've seen my mom do it twice now, so I know it's time consuming, but I figured the end product would be delicious and cheaper than at the vendor's. Marshall ended up wanting his cut up because of a loose tooth, but the taste was just the same. Delicious!

(Note: You might have noticed that Shaylen's apple isn't on a popsicle stick. I have to admit that I realized too late that I hadn't gone up and gotten some out of my school supply drawer. I do think that the table knife proved a sturdier holder anyway. Regardless, it all got eaten.)

Apple Picking

For the first time in our four years of homeschooling, I decided to take off Columbus Day and have a little fun with my two favorite students. It was going to be a beautiful day and I determined that it would be wonderful to go to a local orchard and pick fresh, delicious apples.

The kids had no idea, and had determined in their minds that it was just another school day, so when I told them that we would take the day off  (like the public school kids do), they were thrilled!

The drive there actually took longer than it took us to pick the apples. The trees were just dripping with delcious goodness! We were able to take our time, snap up some pictures and be fairly picky (pun intended) with which apples to put in our bag.

Corn Maze 2011 - Homeschool Field Trip

Every year we look forward to making our way through a local corn maze with our church homeschool group. It is a blast!

This year the theme was a turtle. We split the kids up into teams (both young and old) and timed them as they walked through, trying to answer the clues along the way correctly. After going through once, we had a little snack, celebrating the birthday of one of our teens, and then the kids went through several more times. My thrill with the corn maze field trip is trying to catch memories. We have the cutest kids in our church!