I realize that I am quite unfaithful to this blogging commitment....but I suppose better late than never! :)

Last Saturday Cate, Joel and I went to visit their Grandma and Grandpa Howard. We spent the day at a nearby pumkpin patch called Pistol Pete's.

There were graveyards, bonfires, corn mazes, haunted houses and the favorite activity...panning for (fool's) gold. The kids both found a few pieces of the gold as well as some other rocks that they thought were shiny and pretty.

Cate searching through the rocks for priceless treasures...

Joel trying out the hay pile for perfect jump-ability...

And ooohhh, the corn maze. It was a good hour of winding around through a huge field with Joel leading us most of the way with, "I'm not getting us lost, Mom."

We made it through safely.

I decided it was time to take a break from all the indoor work and spend part of the afternoon out of doors raking leaves. The kids are young enough that they don't think it's work- after all they DID get to jump in the enormous pile! We haven't finished, but we ran out of bags.

I am sure many more leaves will fall before winter hits, giving us plenty more to do, but for now....back to painting!

My ever talented and artistic sister, Betsy was here to visit for a few days last week. It was so fun and I always get a free interior design consultation out of it! We were able to get quite a few things done and here are some of the results (more coming later).

I've had this buffet for three years now. I bought it with the intentions of painting it red. Isn't it pretty now that it's finally done?

We spent the afternoon at a nearby apple orchard/ pumpkin patch the other day. We love this apple orchard. They have several varieties of delicious apples (Cortlands being my current favorite). And we were able to ride out and pick our own, which Cate and Joel thoroughly enjoyed.
They enjoyed seeing some of the aspects of harvesting apples. Joel found this machine to be quite fascinating.
And there were many delectable treats available. Last year we had gotten some caramel apple crisp mix that was absolutely delicious! This year we bought some of their homemade caramel and 10 pounds of apples that I plan to make into breads, applesauce and, of course, apple crisp. These apples are perfect munching as well. While there I learned that the apples we buy in grocery stores have been pumped full of so many chemicals and such that the ones they sell as fresh could be as many as five years old. I found that to be quite disturbing- not to mention disgusting.

Two of the cutest kids I can find around here...

These things will hopefully be the makings of a pink/princess clown costume for Cate. I had been asking both of my kids to be a clown for years, but they always want something far more "exciting". This year I was able to convince Cate to be a "clown princess". Yay! All so I could make a fabulous costume- after all how can you mess up a clown costume? Piece of cake! I must confess that I am no seamstress. I started this process yesterday with the pants- thinking to get the easier part out of the way. And, of course, I thought to "wing it". I finished the pants and much to my amazement they looked quite like clown pants- until I tried them on Cate and realized that they are a quite a bit snug. I immediately called my mom (as I do in my moments of distress for she is a wealth of knowledge on all things domestic) who said it was no big deal and I could fix it easily (in theory at least).

I am waiting for talent to be bestowed upon me- any talent. Until then I will grit my teeth and persevere. This costume WILL get finished!

My comfy new slippers...

...which I have twice forgotten I was wearing and ended up traipsing all around the town in them.