Many hands make light work...

One of my favorite childhood memories is when my Mom and Grandma Mouw would make homemade applesauce in the fall. Grandma Mouw would bring bushels of Michigan Apples, and they would get to work. I would come home for lunch and come home from school to the smell of cooking and pressed apples. YUMMY. In that process, inevitably, my Grandma would at some point say, "Many hands make light work."

Well, such was the case yesterday. Carter and I were blessed by the visit of my sister and her family. All seven of them were here for two nights! What a blast. Yesterday, Maddie and Josiah wanted to jump in the leaves. We got the kids to bag the leaves too by bribing them with hot chocolate (it rained mid-raking, making them less desirable to jump in). In all, 20 bags were filled with leaves, and the majority of the leaves were picked up. There are still leaves on the tree, but this was a TREMENDOUS start! THANK YOU!! Not only do many hands make light work, but many hands make fun work!

This picture is the initial race of, "First one to fill their bag gets extra marshmallow fluff!" Josiah, the ultimate competitor, was the winner.

The girls all had pink coats. Here Evie is helping her mom.

Toby got extra fluff for staying out the latest and helping us finishing the job.

Here are Maddie and Kristie stuffing the bag full! Maddie got extra fluff for filling the most bags... 9 out of 20 total!! She is the endurance/determined competitor in the crew. She is also compassionate, suggesting that Toby get the extra fluff for helping despite the younger crew going in because of being cold!

Josiah being silly.

Evie was my helper for a while.

Kristie sitting in the leaves with the girls.

Kristie, Maddie and Toby finishing the job. 

lost

I lost my camera, and therefore my postings have diminished. But don't worry, my Phone is taking over until I find it :)

My Mom, Dad and Eleanor came and visited Carter and me last night/this morning... fun times. Carter had to be at school to get ready for his game, but the rest of us ate a "summery" dinner of hamburgers, corn on the cob, grilled veggies and salad, and then we headed over to Carter's game. 

Eleanor wasn't too excited about the game, but there were things that kept her occupied...

1. Playing "Hair Salon" (Note the jewel in my hair)

2. Asking questions about lots and lots of things

3. Going on a walk around the stadium at half-time

4. Looking for Uncle Carter during timeouts 

5. Watching the different sets of cheerleaders (dancers and traditional) during time outs

6. Running away from Charlie the Cardinal, Ball State's Mascot... she was NOT a fan! (see him conducting below)

7. Screaming every time the buzzer went off... it was loud!

8. Hair Salon Round 2... I kept my hair like that until we got home so Uncle Carter could see it. I am not going to lie, she did a pretty good job! AND, it felt like a head massage... double bonus!

It was so fun to have them here for a bit!

Sunday Sunday Sunday

I got to hang out with Chicago family Sunday night. Natalie, Andrew, Eleanor, Ezra and Maria joined us at mom and dads for dinner. 

Eleanor showing off the adhesive gemstones that Aunt Jamie and I gave her for her birthday. She turned them into stick on earrings... the best! There is also a trend that when one is sitting on the lap, the other one does too :)

We also did some singing and piggy back riding. My favorite was pretending to be the magic carpet in Aladin and singing "I can show you the world," to her.

BINGO! The old bingo set is so old, that we use old valentines day candies to mark our numbers :)

Birds eye view

Ezra pretending to play as well :)

WAAAAAAAY too much fun...

Yesterday I drove up to Chicago to meet up with some college buddies. Kronner (Sarah Kron), Clummer (Jen Clum), Jfer or Jbomb or just Bomb (Jennifer Finell), Megan and Kron's friend Ellie (from Minnesota). Ellie was such a good sport because half the time she had no idea who or what we were talking about, and the other half of the time she was listening to Kron tell a story she had heard about (on average) 4 times. :) I had lots of fun meeting her though!

We stayed up until 2 a.m. catching up and being silly. I am pretty sure I haven't laughed that hard for that long in a REALLLLLLY long time. My stomach hurt by the time we went to bed! 

Not only did we get to hang out, we also grabbed some some Giordano's (Chicago Style Pizza), went to the women's soccer game at Wheaton and caught up with our old coaches, and we are going to go to Egglectic for breakfast. But mostly we just got to laugh and catch up and have fun. Good times :)

THE CHURCH PEW PICTURES

Ellie, Sarah, me and Jennifer... somehow Jennifer missed the memo on when we were supposed to pretend we were seriously listening to a sermon, and when we were supposed to smile for the camera :) I also like how Ellie is holding the pumpkin like it is a child!

COUCH PHOTO SHOOT

Me, Sara, Ellie and Jen

normal...

goofy....

and still goofy! Not much has changed!!

THE PYRAMID PICTURES

just to make us feel athletic again, and not "has beens!"

H-A-Double L-O-W-Double E-N Spells Halloween!

The title of this post is a song I used to sing when I was in Elementary school :) Below are pics of our goofy jack O' lantern... crazy eyes and all!!

Trick or Treat... Treat please!

I told Carter yesterday that I used to LIVE for Halloween. But basically, I was really living for the candy. I wanted to sprint from house to house to get as much candy as I could. Unfortunately, my dad liked to have a 5 minute conversation with EVERY single person who gave us candy. It always hampered my plans. 

My other favorite part of Halloween was coming home and emptying my pillowcase on the floor next to Jamie and Rob. We would all sort our candy, and then trade to get the candy we liked... such fun memories. Well now I get to give candy out, so I am going to carve a pumpkin into a jack o' lantern for the occasion... my phone has an application that you can "make" different pumpkin faces (kind of like a Mr. Potato Head) and change the background color. I think I'm going to go with a happy face! 

Fall Decor

Hobby Lobby was having a sale, so Carter and I went exploring and splurged on some Fall Decor. What I really wanted to buy was Christmas decorations (which were also on sale), but I am holding out a little bit longer. :)

Last weekend my great friend Jen visited :)

We had a blast watching Carter's practice, going on walks, going shopping, cooking dinners and just hanging out. We were so thankful for her visit! :-)

Jen being goofy... one of the many reasons we are friends!

Self-pic on our early morning walk!

SNOW!

Ok, so it hasn't happened, but look at Monday! That means it's getting cold. My blood needs to THICKEN, and FAST :)

Last full Philly day

On my last full day in Philly, I got to go to Chad's football game and watch him coach his team to a come from behind victory. They were down 20-0 and scored three touchdowns in the last five minutes to win the game. SUPER exciting to see Chad as the offensive coordinator, inspiring his players to not give up. It is the first year of the football program's existence, so that made it even more exciting.

 

Mom and Dad enjoying the game.

The winning drive!!

Chad celebrating the winning touchdown with a fist pump!! :)

Misc...

Here are a couple of pics that I took while in Philly. I have some of Jamie's graduation and Chad's football game next :)

We took the kids to a Castle Park :)

Levi likes the pumpkins!

Maddie crossing a stream near the mill.

Valley Green Tree

Valley Green

Yesterday we went on a walk to Philadelphia's green area near the Wissahickon Creek, called Valley Green. It was a beautiful day, and we got to throw lots of rocks into the creek, and Evie and Maddie built a sand castle. I also caught Evie singing a song to Levi in the stroller, all about behaving your mommy and daddy, and the Lord. So cute!

Post-walk trampoline jumping: Levi's hair is prone to static! :)

Rittenhouse Square, an old mill house built in the 1600's.

The leaves were beautiful!!

Kristie and the girls :)

The little girls :)

The walk!

Super Saturday

Kristie and I took that kids to Dan's homecoming game yesterday and this is the only photo I got!! Dan's team won 3-0, but I missed the first two goals because my attention was diverted for a moment (or lots of moments!!)

I also got to see my cousin Bonnie yesterday. We went to the World Cafe Live (WXPN radio) to hear Mutlu. I had never heard of them, but they were great and we had a blast hanging out :)

Chillaxin'

I was able to snap a few pics yesterday while Jamie and I were hanging out with the kiddos. What a fun day!

Toby and Levi

The Goofballs

Goofballs II

Jamie and Maddie putting on fake temporary nails

So pretty :)