A Brief Announcement

Homeland Children's Foundation is run by the two women who were instrumental in assisting us bring Ariana home. They do wonderful work in China, providing health care, educational opportunities and much needed supplies to children currently living in orphanages. Clicking on the icon below will bring to you their page where you can find out more about the organization and how you can help.

Leaves

With guests gone, it is now time to set our sights back on the house - specifically the leaves that have surrounded us like a winter blizzard. Unable to see the grass underneath the vast autumn colored carpet of fading green, orange, scarlet and brown, we rake and blow, blow and rake, curse the fact that our inherited leaf blower is on it' s last legs and rake and mow some more. And the sadistic thing about it is, we can get every last leaf and tomorrow there will be more.

I take the adventurous, cardio burning route as in: "What fun it is to be outside as a family", "look at all the beautiful colors", "beats going to the gym and being stuck inside on sweaty machines". Arny, while everyday heading out to split logs, ever proud of his growing pile, has a very different opinion of the leaf removing task - "tell me again why we bought a house in the woods?". Ariana has the entrepreneurial viewpoint, stating "I'm going to do a lot of jobs and make a lot of moneys". Her "jobs" consisting of riding the Lighting McQueen car around the driveway and pushing at the leaves with a stick. She did rake a bit, but quickly tired of the repetitive nature of the task and went off to play in the ravine.

The weather was lovely yesterday and the cold air was crisp and clean. Today is another day - our piles still there waiting to be picked up. A quick look up at the treetops this morning and I can see a few stragglers - those leaves that are hanging on for that last bit of sun. I admire their tenacity, though sooner or later the rake will be adding them to the pile.

The Big Halloween Days

Day I - Friday, was filled with school parties. Ariana was so excited to be able to wear her costume to school.
Personally, I think the pink shoes and backpack with the Transformer costume was an inspired choice. She and "Dorothy" patiently waited for the school bus.

Once at school, there was a parade for all of the kindergarten kids and then a pumpkin making craft. Here Ariana's teacher is helping out.....

At home, we made the second pumpkin with our house guests and roasted yet more seeds. The anticipation was mounting but unfortunately, so was the rain. Add the flu for our three house guests and it was touch and go whether or not everyone would be able to participate on Saturday for the big events planned.

Saturday, part 2. Our guests had a quiet morning while Ariana went to her Chinese class - no Halloween celebration there; just learning.

Everyone was well enough for a little trick or treating, so we started around 4 to visit at a friend's house - the kids decided to catch some zzzzzzzzz's before the festivities.

We made our way into town where we went to a party and then visited house after house, filling our pumpkins with lots of candy and treats. Due to the rain, the big street is having their "stroll" tonight - we will see if we are up to putting on the costumes again. Here is our group - the dentist, the Hulk, Ms. Vampire and a french woman, little miss transformer, a dinosaur, a unicorn and Mr. transformer (there were many, many transformers last night)