What October Looked Like

Whit having fun with her peacock feathers before

we put her costume together. 

The girls put together "restaurants" for us while we play tennis.

Yum. 

Had fun babysitting for a friend.

Caroline loved being the "big girl". 

Apparently, C did not get the fear-of-height gene

that runs on Andrew's side of the fam. :) 

I got to decorate W's classroom door. 

A beautiful random tree on the way home from school. 

Look at what my kids can make out of sticks and grass!

I think they told me it was a TV. 

Wearing orange for anti-bullying day. 

Breast cancer awareness day. 

Princesses have to do homework, too. 

The middle school band got to play The Star Spangled Banner

at the high school marching band competition.

 Even with a small turnout, they sounded good.

 (Parents got to pay seven bucks to watch their kids!)

Two carrots Whitney harvested from our garden.

Jumbo and microscopic. 

Love this tree in our yard in all its red splendor. 

Halloween snack at school. 

We made "dirt and worms."

My brother, Mark, told us about a rocket that was

being launched off the coast of Virginia.

We were in the viewing area, so took the camera

and headed off to watch.

With tall trees all around, I decided this overpass might

be our best bet to catch a glimpse.

I wouldn't stand there again. Too scary with all the cars

zipping by on all sides. 

We hung out for about half an hour and never

saw the rocket. We were bummed.

But the moon looked cool as we were leaving.

(Found out later that the launch was canceled due to a boat in the launch area.)

(Found out even later that the rocket exploded at the rescheduled launch!) 

Gate City tennis came to an end.

Diane and I went 8-1 on the season. She is a wonderful partner!

And our team finished second, just ONE point behind Sherwood.

Go Adams Farm!

Skater Girl

For the past three months, Caroline has been taking ice skating lessons at the skating rink just up the road. The Learn to Skate program has six-week sessions, with half-hour sessions once a week. For her first session, she signed up with a friend. She had fun skating with Tess (and I had fun visiting with Tiffany!)

They both passed Basic 1 and were ready for Basic 2.

Tess didn't sign up with us this time, so C was on her own for Basic 2.

At the beginning, she had fun.

Towards the end of the second six weeks, though,

she wasn't so excited about it.

She would complain about going,

but then always seemed to have fun out on the ice.

Today was her last lesson.

She really has learned a lot and

improved tremendously over the last 12 weeks.

Look at the wide range of ages in her class!

I attempted to video the performance,

but my darn camera died in the middle.

I put both halves together into this little one minute clip.

She's the second from the left,

in a bright pink cap.

She says she wants to be done with skating for now.

I think she's going to take a break from after-school activities

for a couple of months. She might try soccer in the spring.

Seventh Annual Pilot Mountain Hike

I love family traditions. And I love that my kids love family traditions. I have a tendency to look back with rose colored glasses and the establishment of traditions. But it's not easy! I opened the blog post from our very first trip to Pilot Mountain back in 2008. The kids hated it. They were grumpy about hiking and complained the whole time. I'm so glad I didn't give up after that first year, because now our trip is something we look forward to every year. We can't wait for the end of the first quarter at school, because there's always a teacher workday and we take the chance to continue the tradition.

This was another BEAUTIFUL year. The weather was PERFECT. Everyone was healthy and happy. We enjoyed a leisurely hike and the gorgeous views.

Here we come! 

Mid 60's? We'll take it!

A little family photo shoot before the hike.

Caroline makes this face/pose all the time.

She calls it her rabbit face and makes a little squeaky/groaning sound

to go with it. Cracks us up.

We all decided to make our best rabbit pose. 

Out on the rocks that are too freaky for Andrew. 

And where the wind always whips my hair.

But not in a good way. 

LOVE the views from up there!

And the fall colors, too.

Our jumping pictures

And pictures from the hike.

Still doing his ninja warrior training 

And now we've officially hit the time of the year that goes by in fast-forward.