Sunday, November 9, 2014

11.9.14 November

Family events:
Veteran's Day, November 11th
Grandma Estell's birthday, November 12th
Matt's birthday, the 15th 
Eleanor and Jerry's anniversary, November 19th
Turkey Trot, November 27th


11.8.14 Autumn

Week after week,  Dan has been mowing up leaves and making trips to the compost area.  Some weeks he filled the compost bin, the pickup , and the trailer 3 times. Today he cleaned the gutters and did Eleanor's yard and ours, front and back, one last time.
He had some help, briefly, from Joey.
Most of our leaves are actually in the driveway and the back yard. They get into the area around the grill, under the deck stairs, etc.  They need to be shoveled out!
Here are my minor attempts at autumn decor. Love the colors of these fake berries. 
The Snoopy scarecrow flag is another favorite. I keep it up through Thanksgiving.  I noticed that the loops that attach it to the pole have both ripped, probably due to the high winds.  
All things "Peanuts Gang" make me happy. 

We are supposed to have snow Monday, so everyone seems to be making an effort to get their leaves up before the snow flies.  Joey is at Charlie and Lizzy's today, helping them shovel the last of their leaves into a pickup.  Often, leaves from the houses across the street to the north, blow across to our yard.  This year, an amazing attempt was made to get their leaves bagged.  They had about 30 of those brown, recylcable leaf bags at the curb for compost pick up Friday! We have never seen their yard this leaf empty, in the years they've lived across the street! 
Cheers to fallen leaves, raked and bagged, before the snow flies!  People in the neighborhood are already out doing holiday decorating! 
Zach enlisted the help of Corbin, Caleb, and Caleigh to help put plastic on over the main floor windows at the farm house.  Dan went out this morning to help Dan get plastic over the windows on the 2nd floor.  Every little bit helps. 

Joey and I ate at the altar society's baked potato and dessert luncheon after church today. A good time was had by all! 



Sunday, November 2, 2014

10.16.14 October Visit

In October, Matthew Thomas visited.  He likes the stylists at Great Clips, because they "work so fast!"
The weather was very chilly during Matthew's visit, so we didn't play outdoors much.  We did enjoy a movie night, watching "Mr. Peabody and Sherman."

11.2.14 Monopoly

Joe has been playing Monopoly Jr. for a while now.  Last night, I purchased the REAL game.  We started a game this morning, and had to take a break for church.  In the end, Joey landed on Marvin's Gardens, which I had a motel on.  The $1150 caused him to mortgage all his property.  The next time around the board, he hit it again, and it was game over.  We played for about 3 hours.
Joey likes to play games of all kinds...guess who, battleship, apples to apples, and now...Monopoly.

10.31.14 Halloween

This year, we found a ninja turtle hoodie, thinking it would be a good choice for halloween costume.
 In the end, Joe decided to be a hunter for halloween.  Note pheasant detail! 
Joe, Lizzy, Charlie, and Julian enjoyed the haunted house on  5th Ave.  A good time was had by all.

10.25.14 Miles' Celebration

 The last weekend of October, Emily, Joe, Dan, and I traveled to Miles' first birthday celebration.   Here he is, opening Katie and Jordan's gift.
 It's a little red car!  He took to using it right away. 
Here is the construction crew, for Miles' big day!  We love him so.  

9.29.14 New Pets

During Corn Palace week, Joey won a goldfish.  He named it Skipper, and we bought a black goldfish as a companion.  Sadly, they did not make the first aquarium water change.  These are the new fish, which have successfully endured 2 water changes now.  The orange and white fish is Chip.  The orange fantail goldfish above chip is Houdini.  The camoflaged, fancy catfish is Omar.  Omar is hiding in front of the rock structure, near the bottom.  Look closely and you will see him! 

Finn is particularly interested in the fish.  We had to cover a hole in the cover, to prevent him from sticking his paw into the water, and trying to capture fish!