Halloween Fun

Noah has just taken up Karate and is loving it! (Sorry, not Halloween related)

On Saturday before Halloween, we trick-or-treated on the Downtown Mall with the "Strawberry" and "Snow Queen" Scharf.

That night we carved the first pumpkin.

The next day, we traveled to Harrisonburg for the afternoon and on the way back we stopped on Skyline Drive to play in the snow that came down there. So amazing to see snow and autumn colors on the trees still!

S'mores by the fireplace. yum.

The finished Jack-o-Lanterns.

That's a lot of apples! Fourteen pounds made about 7-8 pints of tasty applesauce.
Ethan was my assistant, as usual.

Applying "Harry Potter's" scar....

....and "Woody's" star. Glad he decided to put the costume on for Halloween. In fact, the following 2 days we left the house dressed as Woody - at least with boots, hat, bandana, and vest.

As has been the tradition the last 2 years, Grandma came to visit for Halloween!
It's always such a treat to have her with us!

This was the first year that Ethan "got" Halloween. He walked the whole way on his own, would knock or ring the doorbell, shout "Trick-or-Treat," and prior to leaving shout "Thank You!"

Noah asked me what we're celebrating with Halloween. All I told him was that it was an excuse to dress-up in fun costumes and visit neighbors - really, that's all that matters to me. (c;

playing catch-up part II

Almost two months ago now, our whole family got to participate in the wedding of Miss Annmarie Breen to Josh Rinehults in Richmond, VA. The boys were ring bearers, Michael was a musician, and I was the matron of honor. And none of that would have been possible had not both sets of grandparents been there to help with the boys! It was a family event indeed as our sweet Annmarie married the man of her dreams!

A couple weeks after the wedding, Noah had an accident. We were walking back from the library on the downtown mall and it had been raining that day, which made the sidewalks quite slippery. Noah and Ethan were running ahead of me on one of the little side streets that is not a thru street. The nose of a car poked out from an alley, and Noah saw it and tried to stop, but his legs slid under the front wheel of the station wagon. Thankfully, the man stopped after seeing me and hearing me running and screaming, so only the first set of wheels went over his legs. He had not seen Noah at all. Noah's legs were a little scraped up and pink, but after he calmed down pretty quickly after it happened, I decided I would take him to the ER myself. The ER staff couldn't believe it, but he had not one broken bone! He woke-up stiff the next day when grandma and Grandpa came to visit, but was running by the afternoon and we haven't had any residual effects yet. We are so grateful for God's protection and mercy over sweet Noah! The man who was driving the car has been so very kind and concerned for Noah's well-being. We pray for God to work in his life through this.


The following weekend, we took a family retreat to Lexington, VA. It was delightful! We had a wonderful time in the cabin - the boys loved their loft. The next day we had a tour of Broadview Ranch and met the hogs, chickens, geese, and cows. We returned with some of their meats and picked a pumpkin from their patch! We also got to see the horses and hounds on their fox hunt! The boys had a blast on all the swings, playing on tree stumps, exploring the Bellfry and getting to run free. Thank you again, Grizzle family!!!! It was wonderful to meet the rest of you this time! And if you find a kite, it's ours, but don't bother trying to get it to us. (c:


While I was away for the doula certification, I got to stay with dear friends from college, Matt and Emily D'Antuono and their precious family! Their two oldest kids are adopted and their two little guys are being fostered by them. What a picture of grace they are. Those kiddos made me feel right at home as I got to help put them to bed and read stories to them.

Following the training, Mom and Dad watched the boys together in Arlington, allowing Michael to join me in Brooklyn to be with Matthew and Kerry for the weekend! It was such a blast to have time with them and meet some of their close friends. We even ran a 10k together on Saturday morning - and spent the rest of the day recovering and eating at some of their favorite places in Brooklyn. Of course we had to squeeze in some Settlers of Catan and give-in to their summoning us to get hooked on watching "Friday Night Lights".... all this amidst some wonderful conversations. What a treat to be with them.

playing catch-up.

Admittedly, I have updated my Facebook status far more frequently than I have kept up the family blog. Perhaps it's a sign of the times. But this blog has taken the place of scrapbooking in my life, so I should not neglect it entirely or risk losing precious moments in our family's history. It just so happens that today I am in Brooklyn, NY, quietly sitting in Matthew and Kerry's apartment with very little on my to-do list - a rare moment, indeed! What better time to reflect about the goings-on of our family in the last two months (and maybe our summer too)? What better time to be reminded of all of God's blessings and mercies to our family?

Tulip Poplar trunk, at least as old as Monticello found at Kemper park.

Celebrating the 4th with friends at the Merricks' - what an awesome view of the fireworks!

Family hike to Blue Hole! Michael was brave enough to use the rope swing for a good cold dunking.

Big perk of the summer for Noah - he was tall enough to do the floating bridge at our pool!

Had a sweet visit with Matthew and Kerry. There's Uncle Matthew getting some more practice with kiddos - they are expecting their first in March!!! We are so excited to have a new cousin!

A visit to NC to see Baba and Papa and the nearly-finished boat.
It was placed back in the water in August and safely survived hurricane Irene.

Baba and I took the boys to Atlantic beach for one day of our visit and also saw the Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores there.

A JMU visit before the students returned.

Brothers.

Nothing like summertime juice pops on the porch!

There's our kindergartener on his first day of school!!
It was so much fun to have Grandma here with us, too.

Noah began kindergarten at Venable Elementary, where Michael teaches, and is LOVING it! He loves his teachers, and comes home telling me of all the things he's learning - reading, writing, math, poems, songs (from his music teacher!), and his new friends there. He's sure to tell me when one of his friends acts out during class....he doesn't always tell me when it's him doing the acting out. But from what I hear, that's pretty rare, and he just truly enjoys learning! When he comes home, I find that he needs some time to himself to unwind from the day. His favorite activities are either playing with Legos, coloring, or making-up songs on the piano (to which he also adds lyrics, and sets-up a scene in his mind of where this song will be in the musical he is directing!). Noah's most recent interest is Karate. He will be starting his first month of classes soon and he seems to be really motivated by it!

With Noah in school all day, Ethan and I have kept ourselves quite busy. He accompanies me to work at times and really enjoys our mornings at Southwood - a mostly-Latino neighborhood, where we get to participate in a playgroup for moms and kids, and build friendships with them. The hospital has asked me to identify ways in which we can come alongside and assist these families in the areas of healthcare and health promotion. It is a joy for me to do this! I love seeing Ethan play with new friends and hear Spanish too. Ethan also really enjoys his mornings at Mainly Music - a musical outreach of our church to families with little ones.

Ethan sure enjoys his quiet playtime at home, especially in big brother's room. His favorite things to play with are his fire trucks and his Little People farm with "Pa-pa" as the little farmer. I often hear him singing to himself (Twinkle, Twinkle or Old McDonald), and making up stories with his "guys." Ethan usually loves to help me with whatever I'm doing and reminds me when it's time to "sweep-up" the floor or clean-up his toys before nap-time. He has also begun to find his defiant streak and has needed some time-outs to help remind him about who the authorities are in his life.

Michael is very busy with teaching his classes at school, directing the children's choir at church, and for now, the adult choir at church too. These are all things that he loves to do and is very gifted in (while he'd never say so himself). He enjoys applying what he has learned from his graduate studies to his classroom and has truly found his niche as an elementary school music teacher.

It has now been a full year since I began teaching Childbirth Ed through our community Hospital (Martha Jefferson) and I am loving it! They have also trained me to teach the Baby Basics and Sibling classes and lead the expectant parent hospital tours. The schedule is great. The people I work with are fantastic. It's a wonderful place to work. This week I have been in New Jersey getting my certification as a Labor Doula! What a great way to work with families. I'm looking forward to seeing how this skill can be used to help individual mommies in labor. While I was here for the certification, I got to stay with dear friends from college, Matt and Emily D'Antuono and their precious family! Their two oldest kids are adopted and the little guys are being fostered by them. What a picture of grace they are. Those kiddos made me feel right at home as I got to help put them to bed and read stories to them.

The Garden Issue

I believe I neglected to post anything this summer about our garden. Being that this blog is a family journal, of sorts, it seems like something worth mentioning - if for no other reason than to remember what worked this year and what didn't. So, while hurricane Irene is brewing and blowing outside, it is with gratefulness that I post about a bountiful summer.

The peonies never disappoint!

We planted both a raspberry and blueberry bush. Michael did a lot to prepare the soil for the blueberry bush - our neighbor Todd (whom you'll meet in a minute) helped us figure out what to do. Michael gathered up pine needles from the park to help acidify the soil.

While we tried to start several plants from seed - most of them didn't really work out. The only ones that worked were parsley and a few string bean plants. Todd gave us his leftover tomato, pepper, dill, lettuce, eggplant, onions, beet, and spinach plants which all produced beautifully. I believe we bought cilantro, sage, and the basil plants from the farmer's market.

Dill - and lots of it!

Our first blueberries! (end of June)

We got several green/red bell peppers!

And beans! but I generally had to add them to a bunch from the store to have enough for a meal.

This is "Farmer" Todd, harvesting turnips from one of the community gardens that he helps run. We had the awesome opportunity to see him at work a couple times this summer! He let us help out in the garden for a couple hours and then we got to enjoy what was harvested that week on "market day." We feel that we owe a great deal of thanks to Todd for not only helping us, beginning gardeners to have a fruitful garden, but because he does a great deal of service for our community - when healthy foods are so expensive.

"Market Day" bounty. Noah and Michael harvested those cucumbers or "cububbers" as Ethan says.

Harvesting onions. We also harvested enough beets for one yummy beet soup. We had enough basil to make pesto sauce to last us through the winter, hopefully.

We had three varieties of tomatoes growing. This year I have skinned them and added them to a couple batches of sauce for the freezer. I'm too intimidated to try canning them. The cherry tomatoes came from a plant that popped up on it's own right next to our compost bin - dozens and dozens have come from it. The other day Michael noticed a pumpkin growing behind the compost bin under some brush! Gotta love those surprise plants!

Here is the latest addition to our garden. Michael's mom came to visit this week to be part of Noah's first day of Kindergarten. She brought me a beautiful blue daze and with it came this little guy! Thanks again for coming, Mom!