All Things Fall

My sister and her family came to visit this weekend to partake in some fall activities!  They live at the beach so they don't get the advantage of the leaves, the apples, the hikes, the pumpkins.... you get the picture.  I suppose they do get the ocean.  

We started the weekend by going apple picking.  It was a stretch, based on the fact that a late frost killed about 80% of the apple crop.  It is also very late in the season.  Either way, I think we hit the last orchard on the last weekend of the year.  But after a long hike and some entertaining mishaps we ended up with a bushel of apples (mainly Pink Lady, but with some Rome and Arkansas Black mixed in)!

 Then we headed to one of our favorite family hikes.  We hiked in about 1/2 mile and then had a cookout by the river.  It was great!  The kids LOVED throwing rocks in the river and pretending they were fishing.

And we even had one of Steven's student's come to watch our kiddos so the parents could have a night on the town!

Life With A Little Girl

Are they really so different?  Because she seems INCREDIBLY so.  Maybe I don't wish to admit it because I am condemning a sex of which I am a part.  But she honestly baffles me much of the time.  It is an adorable baffle none the less, but MAN is she a princess!  And I mean that with all the high maintenance insult capabilities that it could possibly have.  

Eliza helped me make pumpkin bread (thanks Colleen!).  By help, I mean that she was put on a chair by her mom, so she wouldn't pull on my legs while screaming. This was the progression....

Sheer disgust with me at offering her the spatula to LICK!  We are SO offended we can't even hold it.  We bat it away.  It lies wounded on the counter leaving as evidence a batter trail.

Her noticing I had the camera out....

... and converting this incredible sob of injustice to a smile within seconds.  Literally seconds.

Momma giving in and letting her use her spoon instead, which she ganked out of the drawer just below her.

She wins again.... what is the score by now?  Let's not count.

Priceless.

Eliza sneaking away to make mischief with the boys.

Looks like we're not the only ones who know how to smile for the camera!

We look the same.... right!

I drove this weekend to a baby shower for a good friend from college.  She is having babies number 2 and 3 - twins!  It was so fun to see old faces.  Has it almost been 10 years?  We all look the same, I'm sure!  I'm sure we still all get carded right?.... right!  If you leave a comment feel free to view that as a rhetorical question. 

I shared 4 years and lots of memories with these ladies and it is fun to see how marriage and motherhood has made us (I'm gonna go ahead and lump myself in there) even more beautiful.  Love you guys!

Spirit Week

 It is Spirit Week at Steven Edward's school.  That is one of the positive things about it being a Pre-K to 12 school.  The little kids get to experience things that generally only happen in middle and high school.  I think they even have a pep rally today (another thing I love and found out others hate).  None-the-less, the flyer came in the mail for Spirit week and I was SO excited.  I LOVE spirit week.  I have such fond memories as a kid dressing up for Spirit Week (tacky day, twin day, lollipop day).  I also loved it as a teacher.  It was an all around great week with dress up days and teacher vs student games.  Loved it.  LOVED IT.  BUT I was surprised to find out that some of my friends (who have obviously been students, but are also mothers and former teachers) hate it!  How can you hate it!  It is a bundle of thematic fun!  This week we've had (in order) crazy sock day, crazy hat day, team day, crazy blue and white day, and school t-shirt day.  Here is just a taste of what our house has looked  like at 7 in the morning this week!

 These are definitely my 9th grade soccer socks.  I suppose I'm a pack rat.

His face says 2025.  Today was the first time I figured out his Class!  That is crazy right!  Class of 2025!

This is just a cute little girl in her cousins valuer jump suit.  Gotta have that right!  I'm sure I did in the 80s.  Let us not deprive my own daughter.
And in case you were wondering, we are also having our own version of Spirit Week at home!  This is Sam's design (me doing it of course, but at his bidding).  He veered a bit off the entirely blue theme, but fun none the less.  We've already gotten a little on our couch.  Nice.

The Fun of Fall

Fall in the mountains is always a great season.  There are so many things to do and SO many tourists.  In fact, it is by far the biggest tourist season for our city.  And we are no exception!  We were blessed to have Steven's parents come this weekend for a short stay.  We have loved having representatives of both grandparents back-to-back.  The boys have LOVED having so much attention.  Unfortunately we took no pictures with Steve and Sally actually in them.  But since they are in a perpetual search for a new and updated family photo, we did get one of those!  The last 10 minutes before their departure, we all realized we hadn't taken any pictures... so we had an impromptu photo shoot in the yard.

 

When we were finished with our family photo, Sam said... "can we take one of us all praying."  We all chuckled and said, "of course!" 

A Full Weekend!

Everyone who knows me well, knows that I view that as a good thing!

This weekend, my Mom came up for a visit because my Dad was in CA visiting his brother.  We were going all weekend long.  It was great.  I had plenty of good girl time, and lots of fun adventures with the family!

We started Friday by picking up Steven Edward from school and heading to Steppe Apple Orchard.  We always love this orchard.  And even though they warned that much of the crop was lost due to a late frost, there was plenty for us.  We picked Golden Delicious, Crispins, and Mutzu - I have a pot of apple sauce going on the stove right now!

 

A zoom in on this picture will reveal a urine stream.... and it's not coming from my son (not that this would have been all that surprising, though).

Then we prayed off the rain on Saturday (in exchange for some crazy heat) and headed to the WNC Mountain State Fair.  It was exactly what you would expect the fair to be, and the boys loved it.

I think this picture sums up my boys without using words.

Eliza LOVED the carousel.  She spent the whole time going.... "neigh, neigh."  It was quite cute.  And when waiting to go again, she threw amazing fits while trying to pry open the gate.  Nice. 

Then on Sunday, we went to Greenville for Church and a quick stop at the zoo.  No pictures from either of those though.  I'm a bit tired today.... but we had a great time and I loved having my Mom here to enjoy all the fun with us.  Thanks for coming Mom!

Clothing Swap

Last night I went to a clothing swap for the first time.  A friend of mine has been going for awhile and convinced me it was a good idea.  I was a mix of curiosity and nerves.  As comfortable as I am with new people, I am not comfortable in the clothing girly side of life.

I walked in with my basket of things and put them in the appropriate piles and on the appropriate floor.  At first I felt sheepish laying down my reject clothes.  What if they looked at me and thought, "pshaa, I wouldn't take your clothes... just look at her!"  But to my surprise when I returned to the pile to look, all my shirts were gone!  My rejects were someone else's new finds!  And the same thing happened when I went to the jeans pile, everything I brought was in someone else's arms.

They had the entire house separated into rooms of categories and sizes and 40-50 women were pawing through piles of clothes.  Random women beside you would strip down suddenly to try on clothes.  And I spent most of the night looking at the person beside me wondering if I was admiring her left overs! But I found that most of the women had this same feeling, as there was very little conversation.  There was the one of two people who talked loud enough for everyone to hear, but all the other women were just a quiet as I was (for those of you who know me you may find that shocking!) trying to make it through the evening relatively unnoticed. 

Our town, for not having a small town feeling, is a surprisingly small community.  I walked into woman's house I had never met and ran into women I knew from at least 5 other places: church, story time, school, or the park.  It was an incredibly bizarre experience, yet I came home energized!  It was a mix of the feeling you get from cleaning out your closet and finding a great deal.... because I mean.... I'd done both!  When I finally came back home I found myself walking into my room looking around spying things I'd bring next time, and wishing we'd have another tomorrow.  What a weird mix of excitement and discomfort.  They even had snacks and wine.  Funny.  But I must say, I'm definitely going back in the Spring!  Clothing swap here I come.