thanksgiving video by libby

Since I was limited on picture/video space on the last post, Libby's Thanksgiving post is being presented in two installments!

Ambika in the kitchen, and Andrew kickin' it on the hearth!

A short video Libby took while chasing Barrett downstairs.

Warning: you may want to take Dramamine before viewing.

thanksgiving by libby

After dessert I took a break from the kitchen and took advantage of the opportunity to hold baby Sammy. While he fell asleep in my arms in the rocking chair, Libby got a hold of my camera and got some amazingly good candids of the family! I thought they were certainly worthy of a post a la Libby.

Barrett finds a haven on the floor and in between the gamers.

Anthony gives Libby a sweet smile for the camera!

Libby catches Bailey in usual form.

Uncle Jubba[aka Jeff]-like a deer in the headlights! Seriously. The flash was really blinding everyone.

Grammie hams it up for the camera!

giving thanks

Thanksgiving 2007! As has been the tradition for the last several years, we gathered together at our home to celebrate Thanksgiving and have a wonderful dinner [and desserts!]. Mom and Dad, Ana and Ian, and Ambika and Jeff, along with all their children, were able to attend. As usual, we had way too much good food!

After we got the children served and situated outside, the adults retired inside to enjoy their dinner in peace! The kids really enjoyed their Thanksgiving picnic and had fun playing outside with their cousins.

Table for two, although I'm pretty sure cousin Barrett never actually sat down to eat! Collin enjoyed his dinner, though.

A nice, peaceful Thanksgiving inside! The baby bottle is where Ambika was sitting, although Sammy didn't let her sit for very long. He was having a fussy day and would only accept his mom's attempts at consolation. She ended up eating at the counter so she could hold him and use a fork at the same time!

Later, Sammy takes a break outside with Grammie and cousin Libby. Here, Libby is marvelling at Sammy's enormous jowls. They really are quite the sight! After dinner I finished cleaning up while the adults walked the kids over to the neighborhood park to shoot off homemade rockets brought by Ian and Anthony. Apparently they soared to a height of about 3,000 feet! I'll have to take their word for it-I was elbow deep in soap suds! When everyone got back from the park, we served dessert and the cousins battled each other on the GameCube.

mt. vernon

the mansion, home of george washington

walking the grounds

it was beautiful but w.e.t. for our entire visit!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from our trip to Mt. Vernon, Virginia during the trip last month to Washington, D.C. We hopped on the metro and then caught a bus going southward through scenic suburban Virginia to get there. Mt. Vernon is a beautiful place and I can easily understand why George Washington loved it so much. It has such a spirit about it, especially outside on the grounds. We got to learn more about Washington's life, saw his real dentures [crazy-too bad they weren't really wooden or they might have looked better], and toured his beautiful home. The actual Bastille key presented to Washington by Lafayette was currently on tour, so we saw a replica in its case of honor in the entry way. Guess we'll just have to go back another time to see the original! I would love to take the kids there. I think the older ones would really enjoy it and I know I would love to visit again. Plus it would be nice to go again when it wasn't constantly raining. The only day of our trip that it didn't rain was Saturday, the day before we left. At least we had one dry day without dealing with dripping umbrellas!

halloween in the haunted orchard

the fearsome threesome

Bailey duels with Matthew

Collin in awe of the makeshift graveyard

I really liked this shot-it was just getting dark and tried a different setting on the camera

I'm really trying to get back into the blogging swing of things after my hiatus, so I have decided to start playing some catch-up!


Here are some of my favorite pictures of the kids from this past Halloween. As you might have already noticed, we had some fun with hair color this year! I figured that since we told the kids that we weren't buying any new costumes this year [meaning they were to use their creative noggins and come up with costumes from items we already owned], I supposed we may have overcompensated by getting the colored hair spray to make things a little more interesting!


Collin started out as a pirate, but ended up looking more like a punk headed for a club! He decided not to wear his pirate hat or eye patch, so I ditched the sword as well, added the glow sticks, and sprayed his hair extra purple. There is actually still a faint purple color on the head area of his car seat from that night!


Libby is a veterinarian. Or maybe Stephanie from "LazyTown" dressed up as a veterinarian! She wasn't sure about the pink hair at first, but then she really got into it! Julia dressed in the same outfit as last year-the black dancing cat! I'm amazed she still got into it with as much as she's grown, but I'm sure this will be the last year as the dancing Halloween cat. Guess that means we'll have to get more creative next year. And I'm still not sure what Bailey was supposed to be. All I know is that he was to be some video game character and that he had to have blue hair. Come to think of it, Bailey was the instigator for this whole hair thing! We're really good at finding reasons to blame Bailey for everything around here!


Bonus: This is the first year the kids were at a school that allowed them to wear Halloween costumes to school, so they had fun doing that. The school even has a parade in the afternoon where each class takes a turn walking around in front of the school to show off their fun costumes. It really was a lot of fun.


Halloween night was spent in our bishop's walnut orchard, where they kids enjoyed carnival-type games, trunk-or-treating [at the tree trunks], going through the haunted spook alley put on by the Young Men, and had root beer and chili in front of the bonfire. After we got home, Owen put the punk to bed and I took the rest around the neighborhood for some old-fashioned trick-or-treating.

ghostly cake

Tonight for family home evening, I decided to stop being a slacker mom and make something really fun for dessert. So, we had a [gluten-free] double-layer chocolate cake with chocolate fudge frosting, with a host of Peeps ghosts haunting a mellowcreme pumpkin patch. The kids were thrilled. I even busted out the old cake decorating kit and did a border around it in chocolate frosting. I made them wait to have some until after we'd finished making our Halloween crafts [pumpkin magnets and furry spiders left over from the Oriental Trading Company order I placed like two years ago]. Fun was had by all, and no one even got burnt by the hot glue gun. Not even me, which is somewhat suprising.

circle of ghouls

I came across this picture on the internet [about.com if you want to see more in their photo gallery] while I was browsing through some travel research. Isn't it great? With all the beautiful color and open pasture, it seems so New England autumn-y to me.

Sadly I fear that our front yard will not look nearly as festive for Halloween. While I did put the garland of leaves and lanterns around our front door and sidelights [as we've done every fall in this house], I didn't put up the leaves and lights on the porch railing or the scarecrow [complete with black crow!] on the front porch in the chair. Nor did I hang up the cool flying bats from the balcony inside the house and the eaves outside. I love to decorate for fall and Halloween, but this year I just haven't had the time required to do it. I guess there's always next year. At least I did get out a lot of the "inside" stuff for Halloween: the cherished autumn/Halloween books and stuffed animals, garlands of leaves, luminaries, and the haunted tin house I found last year at Target. Even so, I still have a lot of stuff left in the boxes in the garage!

autumn solitude

Sunday afternoon I slipped outside before dinner and took a pleasant walk. By myself! That in and of itself made it all the more pleasant, but I had another motive in mind as well. I wanted to capture the [albeit slight] beginning of autumn in our little corner of the world. Aside from bright-blue-skied sunny days and cool-crisp-grab-your-sweater nights and mornings, not a lot is happening here autumn-wise. Blame it on longitude and latitude if you will, but I managed to find a few signs that autumn is indeed present and accounted for. I took lots of pictures, discarded my fair share of no-goods, and came up with a few favorites to share. Some are autumn-related; others are not. The whole lot of them is on Flickr if you'd like to see the rest.






During my walk I encountered a tree that had released its bounty of acorns absolutely everywhere. I found them in big heaps and also scattered across the sidewalk, the grass, the street. They were so compelling that I had to take some pictures, since autumn and acorns are such a pleasant mix.

See how the leaves are really trying to turn colors on this silver maple? I think it really wants to change colors. If it weren't so warm during the day, it might have more success. This tree was one of two trees I have seen that have actually begun the process of changing color around here. The trees are all still pretty green right now.

This one is not so much autumn, but I was pleased with how it turned out. I took many different shots and this is my favorite.