Church Trunk or Treat Party

Pumpkin Carving

The girls had painted pumpkins at Josh's aunt's house a week or so ago and those are the pumpkins they wanted to carve. So we let 'em...... They drew faces on with permanent marker and Josh cut the faces. The girls did all the work of scooping the ick out.

And one of the little gal who kept trying to play with the pumpkin mush.

(JACK was inside during this time)

Climbing up on my soapbox.....

Most everyone who reads my blog knows how I feel about the US and their crappy Infant Mortality rating, and if you don't then you can probably guess. Our country thinks that we are so wonderful and above all the other industrialized countries. We are not!!! We are below many many countries in our infant mortality ranking- most of the countries we are behind use mainly midwives. Coincidence- I think not........

Here is an excerpt from an editorial in the New York Times:

"The infant mortality rate in this country declined sharply in the 20th century but then plateaued from 2000 to 2005. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last week that in 2006 the rate of infant deaths in the United States fell to 6.71 per 1,000 live births, down from 6.86 the previous year. That is still 50 percent higher than the official national goal of 4.5 deaths per thousand.
What is particularly shameful is how poorly this country compares with other industrialized countries."

Full text can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/opinion/19sun3.html?_r=2&th&emc=th&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Fair

Ok, so I can't figure out how to get pictures in the order I want. You get them out of order.

Here are Morgan, Raelyn and my sister Megan on the little caterpiller roller coaster. I was VERY shocked that Raelyn even wanted to go on it (and to be honest, I was nervous for anyone to- it was my kids first time doing anything like that and I, myself, hate the things)

They went for it- holding their hands up!
And Meggie will kill me for posting this- but isn't she the cutest?! She is getting married in Dec and moving away (although we love her fiance- I think Raelyn has a crush on him!)
What's better at the fair than a big bunch of cotton candy?????
Why, it's a blue caramel apple. (Ick! Actually I prefer a funnel cake myself- yum!!)
And on the right you see Megan in the gray, Raelyn next to her and Morgan right behind them.
Jack (plus Klacki behind him) and Morgan on the upper level of the merry-go-round
Feeding the animals at the petting zoo
So as we were leaving Morgan comments "Man, you didn't let us do all that fun stuff last year." Gee thanks Morgan........

An apple a day.....

This morning we packed up (rather early) and headed about an hour away to an Apple Orchard. When we got there the owner (wife) showed up the apple house and where they store the apples. We also got to see the huge fridge. They had a little store at the front where they sold already picked apples and other apple goodies (we bought yummy FRESH homemade cider!!!!) Then we went up the mountain to the orchard part. There were over 80 acres of apples!!! The other owner (husband) took us on a little hayride. (we had apples to eat while riding and while he talked to us!) Here are the three Musketeers on the 'hayride'.

Then everyone picked a little bag of apples (we paid a tour fee and the fee included a 1/4 peck per person- you could buy more)
Jack LOVES apples (he takes after his mommy!) and ate more apples than one can count on one hand
A friend tried to take a picture but this was the only one where everyone is looking (kinda looks like I really have to pee here- I was just trying to squat next to the kiddos)

Why we shouldn't be allowed in public (with a side of redneck)

These pictures are a little blurry but too good to miss out on. (The first two are ESP. for Taylor.) Josh got these new waders for his upcoming fishing trip at the coast. Yes, we are a little W.T.

and here he is doing a jig just to show me how comfy they are (I'm sure our neighbors had choice words about these actions in the front yard)
And then Jack wanted to do a jumping picture too.
"Take picture Jack-cheeeeeeeeeez!!!" (he repeated it about 100 times)
And the shaky face game.
And only because I've never taken a jumping picture. So here goes.....

Mummies and Pyramids (a post by Morgan)

People from long ago,in ancient Egypt,thout that there was an underworld,or another world.and they started making mummies.T his is how they did it: they took some cloth,wine,spices,andsalt.They wraped the dead people up in the cloth,they cleaned the mummies body,and they made 3 cofins to protect the mummie.The people from long ago made something to protect the mummie.it was called an pyramid.They took limestone and built BIG rafts[Thats what I call it]and used ropes to pull the stone up the rafts.They built them into triangle shapes.they used something to protect the greatpyramid.they made something called a sphinx to protect the greatpyramid.A sphinx had a mans head and a lions body.it did not work to protect the greatpyramid.B ecuse tomb robbers took every last piece of gold-and the mummie.wrote by:morgana.long. (age 6)

This is how we roll

A few pictures as of recent for all our readers (but esp. Aunt Taylor)

One of the few toy guns in our house (a couple water guns and this bubble gun)

She's a jack of all trades- goes from being a cowgirl to a princess

Jack blowing bubbles (these bubble things are SWEET- you just squeeze it a touch and the wand pops out already covered in bubble liquid)

Big girls working with some math manipulatives

Aaaaah......the joys of homeschooling- reading about Ancient Egypt outside
Gracie Girl playing with the life-sized baby doll
And a sweet smile
And to show Aunt Tay how big she's getting- she's starting to pull herself up!