Elizabeth's Birthday

My sister's daughter Elizabeth turned six today. Leigh, Rob, Elizabeth, and Isaac came to visit on Saturday. Since Myles and Elizabeth are just 20 days apart, they each got to open presents. Aunt Joyce stopped by with presents for Merlyn and Myles, so it was a fun gift-filled day.

After six years of trying to get pictures of all the cousins without someone crying or running away, the six kids actually held still for several pictures. Maybe this trend will continue and we'll get some good holiday shots this year.
























Rob went hunting before dinner but didn't see any deer. He did see a beaver in a trap set by Bryan's friend who is trapping our property so the beaver won't dam up our driveway again. Mr. Bernard shot a spike horn on Thursday night, so maybe he scared the deer away. Rob will have another chance once deer season starts in the Syracuse region. I'm looking forward to having venison again.
Bryan made great spaghetti sauce for our dinner on Saturday, and Leigh had baked apple crisp and an apple cake with apple cider frosting. We also got to sample her apple cookies, which were the best I've ever had. I'll have to get the recipe.
Leigh's family left pretty late Saturday night, especially considering that they have a three hour drive. Luckily we got an extra hour of sleep when the clocks "fell back". Since the kids were up past their bed time, they woke up late on Sunday morning, and so we didn't have trouble adjusting to the time change. Now we're just adjusting to the parenting change.

On My Own

Yesterday afternoon Bryan left for a training class in Orlando, leaving me on my own for the week. Last night the weatherman predicted snow, so of course this is the week Bryan's in Florida! Bryan took the big kids down to the bus yesterday while I stayed in the house with Berkleigh and Alison. Merlyn wanted to go down with Bryan. I got some pictures of them walking back to the house.


You can see the beginnings of my stone wall fence by the mailbox. After more than four years of having rocks from part of the house's foundation piled at the end of the driveway, I finally started building the rock walls. Now that we've got the bus stop timed almost to the minute, I don't work on it as much, so the wall is not getting too much bigger.


I think this week will make me appreciate all the things that Bryan does around here. First of all, he's usually my alarm clock, and he'll get up with kids in the night (both Merlyn and Berkleigh were up last night). Last night I went to Stewart's to pick up bread and milk. This morning I had to put wood in the furnace, feed the chickens, fish, cat, and dog, and make the boys' lunches. I guess Bryan does more than I realize.
Saturday morning I'll be taking the kids to my parents' house in Plattsburgh, then I'll go to Burlington to pick Bryan up from the airport in the afternoon. Wish me luck as a temporary single mother!

Trick or Treat

This year, Halloween preparations were made easier by one of my daycare families, who loaned us costumes for everyone but Carter. Berkleigh was Snow White, Merlyn was a butterfly, Myles was a dragon, and Carter was Frankenstein. On Wednesday afternoon we got the girls dressed up to go to school to see the Halloween Parade.

Carter doesn't like being in the parade -- he says he gets embarassed. I think it stems from his kinergarten year, when he was a piece of candy corn. Everybody laughed at his cuteness, but he felt like they were laughing at him. Myles enjoyed the parade, though, as you can see by his expression.

The principal of our school led the parade in her Principal Princess costume. Two of my daycare kids (the ones who lent us the costumes) were in the parade, too. Grant was a piece of pizza and Makenzie was a witch.

Normally on Halloween we trick or treat at Grandma and Grandpa's, then their neighbors' house, then at Faye and Jerry's, where we stay for a pizza dinner. This year Faye had to drive a friend to Burlington, so our routine changed. After school we trick-or-treated at two friends' houses, then at Grandma and Grandpa's, where we stayed until Faye got home from school. We trick-or-treated thereat Faye and Jerry's, then headed to Massena, where we stopped at Uncle Phil and Aunt Mary's, and at Uncle Randy and Aunt Val's.

The kids had fun climbing Phil and Mary's tree and playing in their front yard while we visited with Phil and Mary and Uncle Phil took pictures. When we got to Randy and Val's, Andrew, Erica, and Emma were there, so we got to see Emma in her cute witch's costume.

We took the kids to Ponderosa for dinner (sorry Aunt Kelley!). They were exceptionally well behaved, even though it was almost bedtime by the time we got there. Back at home, I gave each kid a speed shower so they could get to bed at a semi-resonable hour. The speed showers weren't too speedy, though, since I had to wash their hair two or three times to get the dye out.

It's amazing how much candy the kids got after only going to six houses. I guess when we go to relatives' houses, the kids get special treatment. By special treatment, of course, I mean spoiled rotten!

Carving Pumpkins

On Monday night we carved our pumpkins to get ready for Halloween. The kids were very excited to start the project. I had to carry the pumpkins inside in the afternoon to warm them up, and were they ever heavy! Faye and Jerry are getting a little too good at growing pumpkins.















There seemed to be two different kinds of pumpkins, one of which we'd never seen before. The insides were more squash-like. In the picture on the right, the "normal" pumpkin guts are on the bottom, and the strange ones are on the top. Merlyn thought the weird one looked like chicken. Berkleigh snuck tastes of it, so you can ask her if it tasted like chicken.


















Carter drew a Frankenstein face on his pumpkin, then started carving it. We're going to have to remind him to make a bigger face next year, but it still turned out okay. Myles made a letter pumpkin this year, with Bryan's help, and I give them two thumbs up for creativity. You can see the x's for eyes, a v for a nose, and two m's for the mouth.























Merlyn was pretty proud of her jack o' lantern, which had a princess crown for a mouth and an upside-down heart for a nose. Berkleigh wanted square eyes on hers. She actually was happy, regardless of her expression in the picture. The whole time she was sitting up there, she kept saying "cheese" over and over, and she looked like she was painfully gritting her teeth.




Of course we had to take our annual "pumpkin heads" picture.

Here are the jack o'lanterns all lit up. They don't look so good now, though: the chickens discovered them out on the front steps, and apparently pumpkins are tasty treats for chickens. We all had fun carving them, at least!