Happy Halloween!

Our family tradition is to carve jack-o-lanterns on the 30th that we light on Halloween. We each get a pumpkin and draw a face on it to cut it out. Here is Daddy and Maddie with their "before" shots with their pumpkins. Unfortunately for Mommy, the pumpkin she had picked out from the pumpkin patch had gone bad, so she had to live vicariously through Daddy and Maddie in the pumpkin carving world.


Oh the horror of it all! Don't let this picture fool you... Maddie didn't really like getting her hands inside the pumpkin to rip out it's guts. She would reach in tentatively and pick one pumpkin seed out the whole time saying "Ewwwww". She did however draw the face on the pumpkin to cut out (which I did).


This is the pumpkin face that Maddie drew. She wanted to make a tiny, tiny nose...



The resulting pumpkins lit up for Halloween with the fairy princess ready to go trick or treating! Maddie did go trick or treating a little bit with our neighbors kids Ty and Cadance. I must say that Maddie was much more adept at the trick or treating thing this year than she was last year. She would go running up to the house, say trick or treat and then thank you with an occasional Happy Halloween thrown in there...but she would also pick out the candy that someone put in her bucket and say..."I don't like that one" *heh* We just did a short excursion and then it was back to the house where Maddie became the official candy giver-outer. In all actuality I think she enjoyed this even more than the trick or treating itself. Big kids came by trick or treating and they had to say it to Maddie before she would carefully select the peice of candy that should be bestowed upon them. Some of the costumes were cute and adorable and some were just...uhm...yeah....I mean kids in their mid-teens, not in costume with a plastic grocery bag walking up. Last year I made them tell me what they were before I'd give them candy...this year, Maddie was the gate keeper to the candy and had a much lower standard for costumes *grin*

That was our Halloween....hope you all had a good one!

Work & Fun all in one weekend...

Yes, I had to work last weekend, we had a festival. In general that is a good thing. I like festivals, I like larger events where there is a great potential to reach more people at one time. I also like that it is in the fall, beautiful leaves, not too hot...unfortunately, someone decided to turn on the rain. After what, 6 weeks of beautiful blue sky weekends, the one where we had something big planned the clouds came out. Apparently rain scares alot of vendors too *chuckle*

We did have several cancel on us, but we held it rain or shine and in the end it did go well, it didn't downpour rain (but did get a little), and we even had a bit of blue sky for a bit. Ron and Maddie came and basically spent the whole day, listening to the music, making a bird house and some crafts, going on hayrides and watching the demonstrations.


Sunday was a beautiful day (of course, that's because the festival was over!). Our friends Rae and Alan invited us and a bunch of others with kiddos over to a Halloween party. Maddie got to dress up in her Halloween costume and play with all of the kids...she had a blast as you can tell. She wanted to be a princess ballerina...I kind of guided her towards a fairy princess, well, just because I like fairies =) From the smile, I think she likes it! I also think I deserve some sort of kudos for letting her go to an outside part in basically an all white outfit *laugh* especially since she needs to wear it on Halloween!

Pumpkin pinata yielded yummy candy!


Here they are on Alan's spooky trail...watch out for the ghosts and spiders along the way!

Lining up in teams for "Pass the Pumpkin" game =)

Hail, hail, the gang's all here...

Happy Anniversary!!!

Yup...that was us, 9 years ago on a cool fall afternoon on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Believe it or not!

Oh, I have evidence...you guys were there too =)

Pumpkin Patch!

This past weekend (yes, it's fall so that means we're off doing something) we went to Milburn Orchards for some good fall fun, hayrides, pumkpin picking, apple cider and general all around good time. It was a beautiful day. With our sweatshirts we were warm enough in the cool air. I love autumn!


Maddie atop of the straw horse at the orchards. She LOVES horses. For the past 6 months she's been talking about her horsey's house where her little brother lives and some other amazing things go on there too!


The barnyard buddies were a big hit. The baby goats were fed over and over and over. One had even found its way out of the pen which delighted Maddie.


I tried to get a picture of Maddie sitting among the pumpkins but this is the best I got. She was crawling over them, laying on them, hugging them! The fact is that she can not sit still at all. She's constantly in motion =) That is a good thing unless you're trying to get a picture!!!


I think this pumpkin will do! We ended up with 3 pumpkins that we'll carve up on the 30th - We each had an apple cider donut and some apple cider. The only thing I didn't get was some corn stalks to decorate the front porch. I still have one more weekend to fit that in!

Columbus Day Weekend AKA Vacation Part 2

We did get some more time down the shore recently. We made the Columbus Day Weekend into a 5 day weekend and spent it down the shore, just the 3 of us, and we had a great time. The weather was fantastic, sunny and cool with a few clouds, but not too cold that we couldn't play in the sand on the beach. I didn't want to go all over the place...all I wanted to do was spend a nice quiet time down the shore with my family. I did have one weak moment and considered going back down to Storybookland but I refrained and came back to my sanity by remembering that I didn't want to run around but just "be". =) So, what did we do????

We explored Viking Village...

And Bay Village (no, do not fear, not all of the photos will be of us with our heads peaking through something!)


We went to the 150th Anniversary Celebration of the Barnegat Lighthouse!


Where Daddy and Maddie went exploring out on the rocks


And took a break to look at some shops...

We did get to go to the beach a couple of times...


Which involved beach coming for shells, and the most prized possession...crab claws!


Another fun passtime was building sand castles...Maddie had the small purple bucket that she could build them with...while Daddy...


Opted for the large pink bucket, created a moat and attempted a fortress to hold back the tide. The tide won =)

There was some splashing allowed on the warmer days...

As well as lots of visits to the playground!

There is just a sampling of how our long weekend went. It was a very good one.

Faire Season!!!

The fall is the most glorious time of the year, not only because the weather gets a little bit cooler, the leaves turn colors, pumpkins and mums abound...but it is also Faire Season! This past weekend we went to the Maryland Renaissance Faire on the most beautiful of fall days with Nana. As you know Ron, Maddie and I are faire enthusiasts...but this was Nana's first time. We decided to arrive early so she could see the opening sketches at the gate and then the wandering began...


Maddie examines the schedule of what we should do or see next. When she saw the map of the faire all she focused on was the big dragon, the elephant and big slide.

We did dance around the maypole though. Sort of successfully...the ribbons were kind of weaved around the pole. (some were better than others in taking turns going under and over if you ask me...Maddie and I rocked it!)



Maddie and Nana enjoy the joust. I forget who Maddie wanted to win, but she was obviously pointed him out to Nana!


Of course we had to get our face painted (which seems to be a pattern for us). I'm thinking that I should just invest in some face paint to have at home to decorate our own faces before we head out to any fair, etc... =)

We saw several shows, but no where near saw all of them. We hit Hack and Slash (one of our favorites) and the children's shows of course, but we also got to see Wolgemut pictured here (aka "The Other" bagpipes band). They were pretty good!

All in all it was another good day at the faire....I just wish we had another free weekend to go again this season!

Sand, Surf & Fun with Family...a photo essay