snowy Halloween

Halloween weekend brought lots of excitement this year!

First, there was Evyn's tooth, wiggly #6.
We waited for it to fall out. And waited. And waited. For weeks.
Poor Evyn hadn't been able to take a bite of pizza or sandwich for nearly three months, between wiggly #5 and wiggly #6.

Thursday morning I woke her up for school. As she pried her eyes open, she realized, #6 was gone! We searched high and low, to no avail. Which can only mean one thing.....

calling Daddy before school to tell him the news

On Saturday, our plans for going down to the farm for pumpkins to carve into jack-o-lanterns was foiled by an early snowstorm! We spent the afternoon knocking snow off our trees and shrubs, and clearing power lines, every hour or so, to prevent them from breaking under the weight of the heavy snow.

our crape myrtle, right of center- bent in half and touching the ground

We had the generator on standby, but thankfully we didn't lose power, like they did in many other parts of the county. Meanwhile, the kids (with a little help from Daddy) made a snowman - Halloween-style.

snow witch!

Andrew's cheeks were cherry-red from eating snow, puppy-dog style

apples

After missing peach-picking season, and neglecting to pick cherries now two years in a row, we knew we had to make good on our promise to take the kids for apples before the season ended- which we did, early in October.

We meandered around Cherry Hill Orchards for about an hour, grabbed lunch at George's, then went home where we spent the afternoon transforming our pickings into this

applesauce

and this

apple butter

with plenty of fresh apple snacking while we worked.  Evyn alone ate four apples, in just the first afternoon!

photo odds and ends

Here are a few pictures from the last couple months that have been sitting around collecting proverbial dust:

Andrew getting a lesson from Grandpa, on eating chicken off the bone

his favorite way to bathe - a shower and bath, in one

New Holland Farmer's Fair - 2011

on his beloved carousel - no idea what the face is about!

rain, schmain - Evyn & a friend were determined to enjoy the fair rides

Baltimore 2011 - day 3

Day 3 - we slept in again!  The Hampton offers a late check-out (noon) which gave us plenty of time to raid the breakfast buffet and pack, before checking out and driving to the zoo.  We lucked out with fantastic weather- it felt a lot like summer!

Sorry for the poor picture quality - I forgot to change the camera settings back after the aquarium the day before.  You might have to click "read more" below to see the rest of the pictures.

Candy Crane

leopard?  jaguar?  cheetah?

train ride!

the carousel, Andrew's most favorite thing

flying bananas!

 

our little birdies

Andrew LOVED being a turtle..... he could have played all day there

turtle twins

Both kids loved the zoo, but we were burned out and more than ready to go home by 4pm.