Brian's Birthday etc

Brian's birthday was a few weeks ago (a little late posting on this blog). Grown-ups always need a little help from the kids to blow out all the candles:
I gave Brian this sweatshirt, and Mary took this picture of us (no kidding!):

Hannah loves to sing, and now whenever she sees a birtday cake she sings "Happy Birthday" in her own language, of course. Here's her rendition (it's a little loud):

Mary got to be "Mary" in her preschool Christmas program. It was super cute.

Hannah turns 2!

Hannah's birthday was last Thursday... we had a great day! The weather was nice, and we were even able to eat dinner outside. We had an autumn feast... hotdogs, roasted root vegetables, homemade applesauce, and pumpkin-spice cake!
Here are the girls playing outside in the afternoon (while I'm inside cleaning the house and decorating the cake!)

Hannah opening her presents...

Blowing out her candles...

More cake, please...

And here are Jacob and Mary on Friday, getting ready for Halloween with their pumpkins:

Halloween Treats

The kids tried out their costumes Sunday at the Zoo. They have a special "Zoo Boo" every year, with decorations and trick-or-treating. Jacob is especially proud to be Peter Pan, as you can see in this picture. Mary and Hannah are Tinkerbell and Tiger Lilly (we went with a theme this year).
Here they are at the zoo:

I thought it should be called "Disney's Zoo-Boo," since half the kids (including ours) were dressed as a Disney character! At least we didn't see any duplicates of our costumes, since they're homemade (a must for Halloween costumes, in my opinion!)

Here are a couple cute pictures of Mary, the ballerina:

She's looking so grown-up!

Lost tooth and Apples!

Actually, the lost tooth and apples have nothing to do with each other...

Jacob came home from school today with a big smile and a missing tooth! He said it fell onto his desk while he was doing handwriting practice. The teacher gave him a baggie for the tooth and now it's under his pillow awaiting a visit from the tooth fairy! Isn't it funny how teeth falling out can be such a big event? Now on to the apples...

Last weekend we were blessed with beautiful, autumn-like weather, so we took advantage by heading down to an orchard that we usually don't visit until September or October. The great thing about going in August is that besides apples, we also got to pick red raspberries! We picked 5 lbs of raspberries, not counting the ones that we ate along the way (especially Hannah!).

There goes Mary sneaking one:

Since Sunday we've had raspberry muffins, raspberry pancakes, a raspberry cobbler, raspberries on our cereal, and still enough for a couple of quarts in the freezer!

After PB&J sandwiches in the car, we moved on to picking apples, which of course we had to sample as well...

The other advantage we found in going in August was that there were way more apples on the trees, and lower to the ground so the kids could actually reach them! Some of the varieties aren't ready to be picked, of course, but we came home with a 1/2 bushel of Jonathans and 1/2 bushel of Galas, which will last a while.

Maybe we'll go back in October to get more apples and pumpkins and gourds, but this was a fun treat for the end of summer!

Back to School

Jacob started back to school on August 12 (wow- so early!). He's a big second-grader now. He's been doing great- he gets ready for school in the morning with just a little prodding, and he's been happy every day when he gets home. We think it's going to be a good year.
Here's a picture of the prized train set that we gave Jacob for his birthday. He's already perusing the catalogues and picking out the steam engines and accessories that we wants to add to the set.

And, a few cute pictures of Hannah. Here she is in her favorite reading chair:

And looking cute in the front yard on a beautiful day!

Big Virginia Vacation!

This is just a cute picture I took of the kids a couple days ago:

We left on July 7 for an 11 day trip to Virgina... the biggest car trip we've ever taken with the kids! We first stopped at Burr Oak State Park in Ohio for 2 nights, did some hiking and relaxing there. Then we drove to Arlington, VA to spend 4 nights with my brother, Dave, and his family. We noticed that there was a scenic railway just off the interstate in Cumberland, MD, so of course we decided (for Jacob's sake) that we should stop and take a ride (even though that meant leaving the park at 6:30 a.m.)

Here are Jacob and Mary waiting for the train to pull into the station:

And some pictures on the train ride:

The train took us on a one-hour ride through the mountains, then stopped at a little town (can't remember the name) for an hour and a half layover. We got to watch them turn the engine around on a turntable to get ready for the trip back to Cumberland:

We got to Arlington around dinner time on Thursday. Mary slept with her cousin Ella (3 1/2 years old) in a tent in the basement. We thought for sure they would giggle and play around, but for 4 nights in a row we didn't hear a peep out of them!

We drove into D.C. a couple of times to do some sight-seeing...

Mary and Ella in matching dresses:

Mary and Ella cooling off in a fountain near the Mall:

The kids had lots of fun in Dave and Christina's backyard, especially in the wading pool:

Uncle Dave and the kids:

Our attempt to get a picture of the cousins all together!

The girls playing "doctor:" (note Hannah imitating in the background)

From Arlington, we drove through the mountains to Harrisonburg, where several of Brian's aunts, uncles, and cousins live. We had a great time there, but we didn't take any pictures!! We especially enjoyed staying with his cousin Randy and wife Patsy (and their two teenage boys who gave up bedrooms for us) and going to the park with his uncle Ken and aunt Kass (recently returned from a 5 year-long mission trip in Beruit).

The last part of our trip was spent in Blacksburg with my aunt Nancy and uncle Gene. My cousin Jenny was also able to come up from her home in Charleston, NC, with her 2 kids. Here are Mary and Ava (3 years old) at "Caboose Park" in Blacksburg:

And Jacob and Jack (5 years old):

What a cute bunch!

The kids really did great on this whole trip- all the time in the car, and sleeping in 4 different locations. Hannah even managed to get in a nap almost every day! It was a good trip for the whole family.

Today is Jacob's birthday...I'll post pictures soon!