Pumpkin Carving

A family tradition in our home is for Chris and the girls to carve a pumpkin together. Here are some fun pictures of this year's carving.

Squishy, squashy pumpkin innards. Yummmmm!!!!

Eeeeeewwwwww! Gross! (They loved it. Really.)

Tah-dah! The finished product. (Shhhhh! This is actually a picture of the pumpkin we carved in 2006. We forgot to take a picture of this year's jack-o-lantern before our sanitation friends took it away. This pumpkin turned out so well, I thought that we needed to see it again...)

Harvest Moon!

Each year our school puts on a great fall festival. It is a lot of fun and the kids really look forward to it. This was the first time in three years that Chris was able to attend, as he was either out of town or working at the hospital. We had a great time playing games, winning prizes, and eating delicious festival delicacies like caramel apples and cotton candy. -Oh, and taking advantage of choice photo opportunities such as this one.
















































Here are Morgan and Rachael at the 'Pumpkin Toss'. Great job girls!


A highlight of the evening was the obstacle course put on by our gym teacher, the famous 'Mr. B'. All of the children at school love him, our girls included. The theme for the course was 'Pirates of the Caribbean'. Mr. B and his family set it up based on the movie, and even included a zip line and a plank to walk. Chris and the girls LOVED it. We ran into some of our friends, Joe Jungkunz and Liz Baker. (Liz is Mr. B's daughter.) They helped run the obstacle course, and posed as characters from the movie.




I am a room parent this year. One of my responsibilities is to help run a booth at the festival. Our booth was the 'Guessing Jars', as is evident from the poster. My co-room parent Liz Fox was great. We had fun setting up the booth, gathering jars, and what not. (Her son Ray, in Morgan's class.) We got our kids together one evening, and they all helped make the posters while Liz, her husband Tim and I filled jars and counted the contents. Props to Tim for counting the beads that went into one jar. Who knew that you could fit over 1,600 beads in a quart sized canning jar...?
What fun!

Cousin Time!

Chris had time off Conference weekend, so we decided to spend it in Indianapolis with the Runyans. Emily and Jaron had the same idea, so we all got together. The girls were so happy to spend time with Spencer and Mikey. Here they are on the swing with Mikey. We had a wonderful time together and really enjoyed the sessions of conference.

The Devil Whale

Cameron and his band, The Devil Whale, came to Cincinnati on tour! Matt Hopper, a friend of the band's was also touring with them. Mom and Dad Runyan came into Cincinnati for the show. We got a sitter for the girls as they were playing late at night. A friend of ours, Adnan Mir, joined us for the show. We all got ice cream from Graeter's before the show, and had a nice time spending time with Cameron. After the show, Cameron and Matt Hopper stayed with us. The next morning, the band joined us for a huge breakfast. Thanks for stopping in Cincinnati boys!

No Power!

A huge windstorm blew through Cincinnati, compliments of Hurricane Ike. Due to the storm, 90% of Cincinnati lost power on Sunday. We were in that 90%. In fact, we ended up being without power for 7 days! Yikes. Chris was in North Carolina doing an away acting internship. Double yikes! The girls and I enjoyed ourselves by setting up a tent in the living room, listening to our shortwave radio, using flashlights and candles, and eating food from our food storage. Here we are having a picnic dinner inside. As the schools were without power, the girls did not have school for three days. (So fun!) We stayed at home for a few nights, and then moved into the Simpson's spare bedroom for the remainder of our blackout. It was really nice to be with close friends with power while Chris was gone and we had none. The Lord was truly looking out for us in Chris's absence. From the experience we learned that we are actually pretty well prepared. We need to be better about rotating flashlight batteries, and keeping more gas in the car, but that is about it.
Here is a picture of one of our light sources, matches, batteries, and our shortwave radio. We were amazed at how quiet things were around the house at night without appliances plugged in. Even with the lights and the T.V. off, your appliances like your fridge and computer make a low hum. Also, with no street lights on in the street and no night lights on in the house, the was really dark. Just a little too dark and too quiet for us. Thanks again Simpsons for allowing us to camp out for a few days!

First Day of Kindergarten!

My baby is in Kindergarten! When did she get to be so grown up? For some reason, it makes a little more sense when the older child grows up and does new things in life. Now my little Rachael is in Kindergarten and I have a bit more time on my hands. (That's a little bit nice...) I have been looking forward to this day with mixed feelings for a while. I am so going to miss having a little one at home, but I also know that growing up is so fun and exciting. After her first day of school, Rachael declared that it was "The best day EVER!". That eased my sad and lonely mama heart. She had gym on her second day of school. When asked how that day was, she declared that it was "The best day of my life!" Since she has said that, I have decided that I cannot be sad about her growing up. She is having too much fun.

First Day of 2nd Grade!

Morgan's first day of school was August 19th. She is now officially a 2nd Grader. Wow! When did she get to be so grown up? Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for supplying the cool new school clothes and shoes!