Happy Anniversary to us!

This year we celebrated our lucky 13!  I made Mr. Pickles a card with the different classic lucky charms (you know, from the cereal) and wrote a tribute based on each charm.  He got me sliver earrings studded with diamonds.

...Once again, proving he has way more class.

We celebrated for two days.  The night before (which was a Sunday), we went out to a fancy seafood restaurant for dinner.  All by ourselves!  It was delicious and delightful.

They even printed personalized menus for us!

Although I was slightly disturbed when I passed a table with four children... all holding glowing screens.  iPad -- it's the new paper and crayons!  Never have to interact with your children again!

Ahem.

The next day we interacted with our children with a vengeance -- we both just wanted to spend a fun, family day together, and since Mr. Pickles was off work (Veteran's Day!) we went hiking in the Blue Ridge mountains.

We went up Stony Man Summit (Dave and Katie, I think this is the same one we hiked way back when), which is a nice easy hike.  Parts of the trail were slippery from fallen leaves, but everyone was able to make it up on his own steam.

...and the help of walking sticks

Well, except for Andy who had a first class seat.

teethies!

The other kids got a good workout.

Especially Daniel, who had to climb every. single. thing.

dryads in their tree!

Towards the top, certain persons began to wonder aloud if we were EVER going to stop climbing.

And then we made it.  And it was awesome.

Shenandoah is so beautiful.

Yes, Andy is sacked out, hanging backwards, poor kid.  I will never be able to figure out how African women get their babies to sleep comfortably on their backs.

When we left home, I told the kids to notice the colors of the leaves that we saw throughout the day.  It was interesting to watch how they changed, particularly as we drove to a higher altitude.

You may need to zoom to see it, but it's browner towards the mountaintops, and more colorful farther down.  The kids thought that was pretty cool.

It was a little breezy, but not really cold.  (Andy's legs got a little chilled -- he was the only one not warming up from hiking!)

As the sun began to go down, it became even more beautiful.

this is me being all Ansel-Adamsy

We were wishing we could have stayed and watched the sunset creep over the mountains.  But, you know, everyone was hungry and tired and spirit-is-willing-but-flesh-is-weak-and-some-spirits-aren't-even-that-willing kind of stuff.

We stopped at Five Guys on the way home for dinner.  Not what I had originally planned for our anniversary dinner, but I wasn't complaining!  After a day of hiking, a huge hamburger really hit the spot.

It was a wonderful way to spend the day, celebrating our family.

Happy anniversary to us!

Homeschooling and the Fine Arts

As you can see, Joseph is going through his killer monster robot phase.

Halloween 2013

Y'know, one of the many fun things about large families is themed Halloween costumes.  It was hard picking something that worked for all 7 of us again.  We were pretty proud of our success last year, and wanted to do something as fun.  I can't remember which one of us came up with this year's idea -- probably Katie. She is hands-down the most creative among us.

Halloween didn't exactly sneak up on me this year, but for some reason I found myself shopping for pumpkins and assembling costumes that afternoon.  (Boy, I'm never doing that again.) (...Famous last words.)

When we came home I had to make dinner, so the kids were pretty much on their own with carving.

I came in occasionally to help scoop out the last bits of pumpkin guts.

The compost pile got a healthy helping of squash innards!

They actually did really well.  Miriam says she's never getting a large pumpkin again, though.

For dinner I made Grandma Kathy's Beef-in-a-Pumpkin recipe (sans olives) which was delish!  I had actually over-parboiled the pumpkin, so by the time it had all finished baking, the pumpkin was super-soft and sooooo good.  Definitely going to be a traditional Halloween dinner around these parts.  It's not that complicated or long to make, either.

Okay, so on to costumes already!  This year we tried something new: spray-on hair color!

And the results:

Hey, Ferb, I know what we're going to do today!

ummm, eat lollipops?

Hi, Jeremy!  heeheeheeheehee

Whatcha doin'?

doobeedoobee doo-bah...

It's my Trick-or-Treatinatorrrrr!

a shot of Agent P's tail

I went as -- what else? -- the Tri-State Area.

I was so grateful for the weather -- it was unseasonably warm, making costumes much simpler!  Some friends joined us for trick-or-treating and we all had a great time.  We got to meet some more of our new neighbors, all of whom were so friendly and welcoming.  We love our neighborhood!

The next day our homeschool group had its All Saints Party, complete with hilarious Catholic party games.  We've been having trouble with the camera, which is a pity because I would love to show you all a shot of Mr. P as St. Martin, sweeping the mice out of the monastery (broom racing with ping pong balls), or Joseph helping St. Patrick cast the snakes out of Ireland (tossing rubber snakes through a hole in a posterboard), or Daniel playing Pearls Before Swine (eating powdered donuts strung from the ceiling without using his hands -- now that was hilarious). 

Oh, and of course the kids had to dress up in costumes for THAT.  By that time I was all costumed out, so we just raided the dress-up box and Made Do.  Katie went as St. Lydia of Purple, again, and the boys both went as their namesakes (tunics are delightfully generic! Jojo carried a hammer to identify his saint, and Daniel was accompanied by Andrew dressed as a lion).  Miriam was actually original and chose a Canadian saint we had just learned about in geography -- St. Marguerite Bourgeoys.  Her costume was awesome -- we managed to scrounge one up that looked just like her!

And now, back to flossing obsessively...

Andrew is ONE!

*blink blink*
I'm not quite sure how that happened.  But somehow, this precious little nugget:

has turned into this:

Yeah, I don't get it either.

So, he was properly celebrated for having survived to his first birthday!

It is very hard getting a non-blurry shot of him.  Especially when he's holding balloons.

He got away with murder, since he was prince of the day:

And he had help opening his presents.

Lots and lots and lots of help.

 It was actually hard finding a gift for him.  We have so much little boy stuff already, and I didn't want to just get something for the sake of getting something.  (I'm determined not to clutter up our pristine new house with unnecessary stuff!) (Ha.)

Finally, the kids and I found it: a puzzle that makes vehicle noises!

His grandparents also got him a great little musical drum, which has been a huge hit with everyone.

As soon as I figure out how to edit video on the new schmancy Movie Maker I'll post a video of him "dancing."  And then Grandma and Grandpa will be instructed to put the video on loop and listen to it for 2 straight hours so they can share the joy.

Since Andy has a fall birthday,  I made him a fall-themed birthday cake: pumpkin chocolate-chip with cream cheese frosting.

Wow, this is good!  I can't believe it's gluten-free!

om nom nom

umm... I didn't realize it would do THAT to my hands...

 After the festivities he got to finish off with a Birthday Bath.

Note his left leg.

 A great end to a great day!

My personal goal is to get Daddy wetter than me!

Also, on his birthday he decided that walking was his new preferred method of locomotion!  He had been practicing for a couple weeks leading up to it, and then just all of a sudden took the plunge.  He is now walking everywhere, all day long, and so excited by his new skill!  Again, I have video to post, but need to figure out how to shrink it to an appropriate file size.  Any tips, ye-who-be-more-computer-savvy-than-I?

Sorry for such a long postcation -- there really wasn't much happening to write about for a while, unless you like posts about juggling school and laundry.  And then the last couple weeks have been full of activity that's kept us all busy.  The day after Andy's birthday we had our home blessed.  And NATURALLY, we didn't get a single picture.  We were too busy having fun!  A bunch of friends came over and filled the house.  The priest who blessed our home is wonderful with families -- he made a point of blessing allllll the kids, multiple times. :)  He even checked all the closets for monsters.  The kids loved him, even when he tried quick to turn off the bathroom lights and shut them all in the dark.  He missed a light, but they all shrieked appreciatively.

One friend said that was the loudest house blessing she had ever been to. :)  It was great.

A few days later was Halloween, which merits its own post!