October

I'll have to have Daniel as a guest blogger for October, because he has some pictures he'd like to share from his trip to England and Morocco. (note to self: I also need to get Shiloh and Cora to blog about their trip up to see Grandma and Grandpa in Ohio back in August) We held down the fort here and enjoyed some beautiful fall weather. The first weekend in October we went to the pumpkin patch with our enrichment group. This is another group two moms and I started that meets once a month to do fun, enriching things like etiquette classes, nature journaling, art lessons, music appreciation, and in this case, a visit to the pumpkin patch. Sometimes the "enrichment" is more like "mommies get to talk to one another while kids have fun." :)

Jackson as the Hulk?

One of the fun things involves running around on the tops of hay rolls trying to knock each other off. Fun for the kids, not so fun for the moms watching in horror.

We also went on a really long, gorgeous hayride, but my camera died for that. :(

Daniel's mom came for a visit in October, and we had the opportunity to take her to homeschooling day at the Frontier Culture Museum that's only about 45 minutes away. We love this museum, and we especially like the deals they give to homeschoolers. They also let me drive one of their golf carts for the day (apparently they were unaware that I've had NO training on these things :) ). One of the new things we got to see was the partially finished West African Village. I was fascinated by the doors that were hand-carved in intricate designs - a West African man was commissioned for the job to make them look authentic.

Cora tries her hand at balancing the basket on her head.

Hmmm...comfy?

Shiloh is sitting in the Irish cottage: The kids are playing horseshoes outside the English farmhouse:

The kids were impressed with the smell of the pigs at the Irish cottage.

Cora is helping to make biscuits in the Irish cottage.

Cora helps Charis, one of the girls from our preschool co-op, to grind the barley.

Carding flax for linen, I think:

Ending up at the German farmhouse:

Bottle rockets with Cub Scouts! Cora and Shiloh went to help, and they got soaked! The boys had a grand time, though. According to a six year-old - what's not to love about this? Something shoots WAY up in the air squirting everyone around? GREAT!

The Cub Scouts are learning the finer points of football, and then they would attend a game all together the following weekend.

Cub Scouts hiking at our local community park:

We DID run the 10K together on the 23rd of October, and we had a GREAT race! It was COLD that morning (hence the lovely earband) but it was not raining, so I was happy. I was struggling on the hill at mile 5, so I told Daniel to go on ahead. Having never run a 10K before, Daniel was just hoping to cross under 1:00:00, but he came in at 52:34!! (Remember, he has not run in ten years and this is the longest distance he's run since 1991 in the 82nd Airborne Division!) I ran a personal best of 53:57. How fun to run a race together! It was cute to see how excited he was afterward. After years of road races being "my world," it's so cool to be sharing it with him. Big thanks go to my mother-in-law, who watched the kids that morning so that we could run and then get post-race cappucinos and hot chocolates. :) Until Daniel's plantar fasciitis started acting up recently, he was planning to run the Charlottesville Half-Marathon. He probably won't make that one in April, but we'll definitely run another race together next year. Here is a link to Daniel's finish (he had a VERY rude, unsportsmanlike person in front of him who was bobbing and weaving so Daniel couldn't pass at the end. Consequently, Mr. Rude Man is in the picture.) I will not link to my pictures because I generally look scary when I run. Also, I have crazy hair. It's genetic.

Kids being cute before church one morning:

I actually like this family photo that Daniel's mom took! Also, Abigail's old-lady handbag cracks me up. I think I will probably use this photo for our family newsletter next month.

Love this man!!!

The Bobbsey twins:

At the end of the month, Jackson earned his Bobcat badge with his den. Families were encouraged to come to the ceremony. Daniel's den looked pretty good standing up there.

Each color that was painted on their faces represented a certain attribute or characteristic of a Bobcat. It was sweet to see these young boys take it seriously and show one another their colors.

The boy with all his colors. Good job, Jackson!