Salamanders, Friends, Football

Owen and Olivia found a new little guy.

Salamander.  We haven't seen one of these guys before.  They ended up finding two of them.

Everyone was interested, especially Zoey. 
Today, we had a long morning, which lasted into the afternoon.  We got to have our friend Shayla along for the ride.  She is a delight.

The Boys Doing Crafts

Still working on our Halloween costumes. Owen finally got to work on his the other day. Using the sewing machine for the first time was a little nerve-racking, for me.  There were a couple times I thought he was going to sew his fingers up or something, but he finally figured it out.  Slow and steady, Owen!

Saveia finished up Dylan's hat by hand stitching a turtle to it.

What is Dylan doing?  Well, he's firing a piece of felt at someone, because it's not actually felt.  No, it's a gun.  Yes, while in the midst of politely sewing cute gnome hats, Dylan is trying to create destruction, explosions and mayhem with an imaginary gun.  He's just that kind of boy.  :) 

It's HUGE!

I know you thought it in your brain...because the Office is that deep in our subconscious.

But you know what Jonathan said? "I could use two of these."  Yeah, totally serious.  Because, really, doesn't everyone need two of these? 

It's like the size of a television!!!

So we're one step closer to me getting a MacBook Air.  Cuz, you know, I need a new kitchen knife and I hear they're good for that.

Zoey's Baby Dedication

Read to Your Siblings

So sweet...from Friday.

Wedding Days

Our awesome friend Justin finally tied the knot with his long time love, Julie.  It was a beautiful day for a wedding.  The bride and groom were adorable.  We were thrilled to be a part of their most special day.

I love me some Hipstamatic!!!  That guy with the beard is pretty awesome too.

 Justin and Jonathan...he looks so good in a tie, right?  I love that tie. (Patty, you are 75% of this particular get-up.)

 So pretty!!!  Mason jars make me think of my friends...

 Julie, seriously cutting a rug...

 Justin is quite the dancer...  but the best part was  watching him dab the sweat from his brow with the back of his tie!

 Jonathan looks a little partied out, right?  He's just blinking.

Jamie's Friday Birthday Party

It was a special birthday party for Jamie, 30 years in the making.  Oh my gosh, we are all getting soo old, and yet still haven't caught up to Shepard.  We visited our favorite Indian restaurant, for the buffet, and got a little dancing in as well.

Jamie's littlest one.  What a cutie!

Follow the leader dancing.

Opening delicious gifts that smell of chocolate.

ZoZo was so content in Papa's lap.

If it smells like chocolate, it better be chocolate.

Happy 30th Birthday Jamie!!!

Halloween Prep

So today we started working on our Halloween costumes.  Usually the night before Halloween I'm like, "Oh no!  Tomorrow's Halloween.  Let's think of a bunch of costume ideas we have neither the time nor money to make."  Not this year!

I'm teaching Olivia how to sew.  If that seems strange to you since I really don't know how to sew, just chalk it up to Life in the Pfaff Lane where Mommy is a "co-learner."  I try to stay a few steps ahead.   

Here's a peek at our first creation.

Honestly, the "pattern" and the instructions from the book we were using, were seriously lacking.  I'm going to have to come up with our own pattern for the rest of the hats, but I think it'll work out just fine.  Now I have an idea of what we're doing. 

Football, Among Other Things

We had another super-busy day.  Literally every hour from 7am until 7:30pm was scheduled for at least one person in our family to be doing something. 

The most exciting part of the day was Owen's first football game.  He got in a great tackle during the third quarter, in the backfield.  It was so much fun to see him get excited about it.  However, I don't know if he is more excited about playing football or fund-raising for football.  After two weeks of going door to door, he ended his fund-raising campaign this morning at the Fundraising Blitz.  Either way, I really can't believe my little boy is playing football.  I'm so proud of him!

In this video, he's the kid the coach is talking to at the beginning, and he's the second guy who finally pulls the running back down, after the whistle is blown.  Unfortunately I didn't get video or pictures of his tackle; I was too busy cheering him on. 

Zoey was a happy girl.

"Okay guys, the point is to get the ball to the other end of the field."

There's my Maine man, in the green and red.

Dylan doing some light reading and keeping the bench warm..  Saveia is also keeping the bench warm.

Olivia and Summer coloring.

Saveia.

Summer.

Busy Day of Chess and Hikes

Today was an especially busy day.  After morning chores (we're seeing how doing all the chores before breakfst works out for us) we converted some of the extra octupled cookie dough into banana, apple, and raisin mini muffins.  Que magnifique!  They're really fruity cupcakes with all the sugar and butter.

Owen and Olivia broke out the ol' chess board and started a series of games.  After lunch and school work were done, we called up our friends to invite them on a hike.  They told us about a trail that's a couple minutes away from our house by car.  So we decided to meet there.  But we had to go to the library first.  Olivia picked up an armful of chapter books and Owen, I think, picked out his first non-comic book, non-Magic Tree House chapter books as well (he reads our chapter books at home, but won't bother checking out anything new at the library).  I'm looking forward to seeing how he likes them.  Saveia also picked out some books she thought she'd be able to read.  I couldn't leave without getting a couple books either.  But my big find was "The Encyclopedia of Country Living," and I do mean big.   

So Emily and Liz met us with Anica and Clayton, and led us on a great adventure through the woods, avoiding trolls at every bridge.  There were a lot of bridges on this trail.  Emily is a much more fun hiker than I am.  I learned a lot on the trail, and the kids were smiling and happy most of the time.  Super fun!

Home.

While Owen went to football practice, Olivia taught Saveia how to play chess.  They have a date tomorrow morning to rock it.  Nice when everybody gets along, right?

And that's just the mentionable stuff...phew.  I am exhausted today.  I will seriously got to bed after finishing this.

Emily told them to make sure they stomped on the bridges to let the trolls know they were coming.

Blackberry bushes!  Of course we had to stop a couple times to pick and eat.  I hope there's no poison ivy.

Liz patiently waited for us a lot of the time.

Down and up  these stairs...

What a full, beautiful day filled with friends, the world, and books!!!

Field Trip!

So on Tuesday we brought Olivia, Owen and Saveia to the Portland Lobster Company (why have we not been here before?) to listen to some live music by one of our friend Andrew's bands.  This band is called The Still, and they describe their sound this way, "The music is influenced by everyone from Nina Simone to Radiohead. Ray Lamontagne to Otis Redding. Smokey Robinson to The Beatles."  It was very fun listening to the mellow, rocky, twang-ish guitar, bass/cello, fiddle and mandolin blend these guys threw together. Saveia especially enjoyed it.  I think she's a little rocker at heart.