Halloween 2013

We had a great Halloween this year. First up was some fun at Brownies, where the girls celebrated Juliet Lowe's birthday. They made some fun masks. Tate wanted to be a bat for Halloween, so I added some wings to a black shirt, and some ears to a black hat. We had some wardrobe malfunctions, but overall it was a hit with her. Sometimes we purchase for her costume, sometimes they are somewhat homemade - easy homemade works for me! Smith is nearing the age of he-is-too-old-for-this, but he and 3 friends ended up going around together in ours and another neighborhood. Think we'll do a small party for him and some friends next year.

We ended up at a friend's house for the parade - they are right on the parade route. Lots of candy was consumed, then home for trick-or-treats. Good times. 

David and I left that night for a hotel near the airport so we could leave well before the crack of dawn for Pensacola Beach. We had our annual executive retreat for one of our societies - pretty weather, great company! 

Bat girl and man in black

Rhinebeck 2013!!

Tara and I went to NEW YORK!! Just outside Poughkeepsie, which is one of the best spelled towns ever.

It was the Annual Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, NY. Tara's in-laws live in Hyde Park, NY, and have a lake house in a town near Rhinebeck that she and I stayed in. We got in on Friday afternoon, got a great dinner of bread, cheese, salami and wine. Saturday, it was breakfast at a great coffee shop in town, meeting up with a friend of Tara's, then off to the festival!

We saw goats, sheep, alpacas, llamas (who have banana shaped ears, while alpacas do not), an alpaca parade, YARN, fleece, roving, books, hand-knit stuff, needles, oh my goodness, everything.

We came up with a scavenger hunt to try and find certain things (because knitting people can be WEIRD):
- a person wearing 3 or more homemade knits at one time
- a person walking while knitting (WWK)
- a person knitting the actual garment they were wearing
- a person spinning yarn on their portable spinner while walking

We definitely saw the first two, many times over, but did not see the last two. I'm sure they were out there, though...we will have to look harder next time!

Sunday we spent most the day at FDR's home in Hyde Park. The home was rather modest, considering he was President. The museum was just redone and amazing - so well done. It reminded me of the Newseum. Really worth the time to go, and I was really happy that Tara was up for doing it again!

We had a great dinner in Rhinebeck after FDRs house, and found a yarn shop. As if we hadn't been looking at yarn all weekend long.

It was a great weather weekend, great company, great places to go and see, and we just had the best time.

Lake house view - peak fall!

Gorgeous farm near the lake house

Cool clouds on the way home

Dog Sledding

We went Dog Sledding! It was with Tate's Brownie troop. We had money from our cookie sales last year, and this is what the girls decided to do. It was a six month wait, but was it ever worth it!

We met at 5:30am in a park in town, then caravanned two hours away to almost York, Pennsylvania. It is a husband/wife team that has 8 dogs, 6 of whom pull the sled. The girls got to meet the dogs, pet, get kisses from, and then get pulled by these great dogs. Bonus for us was the first day of sun and gorgeousness after a full week of hard rain at home. 

Each girl got to ride for half a mile - so we had three stations, one at the start, one half mile in and one at the one mile mark. Six of us walked all the way to the mile mark to be the third station. We were so happy we did so - there was a beautiful horse farm with chickens, ducks, roosters, mini rescue ponies, and a dog. It was another bonus on top of the dog bonus!

Kisses

Hugs

Tate and Juliet

This guy was loud!

The dog sled - parents didn't get to go on, but we stood on it while he turned the dogs around. 

The whole team

Tate's favorite, Acadia. What a sweet girl.

Weekending

Lots of home time this weekend, which was very nice. I had a lot of parsley from the garden, so I chopped it all up in the food processor and made 3 dozen parsley ice cubes for food in the fall/winter/spring. I made meatballs. I made split pea soup and apple cake because it's October, even if it is 90 degrees. NINETY DEGREES. We cleaned, we trampolined. We had s'mores with my wonderful niece who was home for 18 hours. I knit.

Praying Mantis

Smith did 5 hours of homework. Actually, it was probably 2.5 hours of homework, but he couldn't focus that well the whole time - as I found out afterwards. He got it done, though, and it's a good exercise for him.

Tate worked on a fort that she wants to leave up until next Saturday so she can sleep in it. Oh, and she has become Captain Violence, with a pink cape no less. She punched David in the belly and then said "I am Captain Violence," in rather a reasonable tone.

"Keep out"

"Speek to the hand" with the fort held up with a paint brush

We were going to go apple picking, but did I mention that it is 90 degrees outside? Mm, no.