My Fireman, Cleopatra, and Tinker Bell

My Annual Halloween Lunch

Every year, for the past 3 years I have done a Halloween lunch with Brooklyn. This year was a little different...we invited Jack. We thought this would be the last year of "all girls," but we learned when we took Brooklyn to South Carolina and didn't take Jack, that he has this all figured out. Brooklyn and I decided that we have better invite him along. Especially since every time we talked about it, he would say, "Me too!" How can you turn that down.

I had a great time with a boxer and a bumble bee. They were darling in their costumes and ready to eat and have some fun.

This year I made Witch Tacos.

Fingers and fangs

Last but not least dessert of eyeballs and mini-pumpkins. The mini-pumpkins are made out of Circus Peanuts...which were my Grandmother's favorite. I have to say as I was making them, I thought of her.


We did some crafts also. I found some foam haunted houses, that they decorated with foam stickers. They loved it.

They made some foam Candy corn and made a picture with them.


Brooklyn did a weaving pumpkin project, while Jack and I did "6 Little Pumpkins" with pumpkin finger puppets. We also made Halloween cards for Mimi and Papa and the lunch ended with 2 games...hide the candy corn and a candy corn relay. That relay was especially funny because as Jack dropped the candy corn off his spook he would pick it up and just carry it in his hand to place it in the cup. What a silly boy. Of course, after the Haunted houses and the candy corn craft I forgot to take any other picutres. Oops! Sorry!

All in all we had a great time, only 1 thing was missing...the 3 Bright children. When are you guys going to live closer? Wish you could have come to our Halloween lunch.

Makin' Apple Pie with the Apples of My Eye

As Ros mentioned earlier...while in South Carolina for "Fall 1/2 the family Fun Fest" we went to an apple orchard. Papa was very good to pick out 1/2 peck of apples. All the apples were up too high for us and the wasps/bees made the girls nervous. So all the responsibilty fell to papa. He got some great apples.

We brought our 1/2 peck home and made an Apple Pie Sunday afternoon.

Thanks to Aunt Rosalind's handy-dandy Apple/Corer/Slicer each of the kids got to put a little elbow grease into the pie. They loved using this semi-simple (not easy to clean) machine. They thought it was cool.




Here is Kate showing the long "string" of apple peel she got off her apple.


Papa insisted on eating his "string" of apple peel.

All our apples ready for the other ingredients.

Gooey apples and stuff ready to go into the pie.

Here's our pie ready to go in the oven.

Is it ready yet?

YUMMY, YUMMY...can't wait to get that Apple pie in my TUMMY!!


(Thanks Chy for sharing your pie receipe. It was easy and yummy.)

CRASH!

We are all OK...but the brown van...or smilie as the kids call it...isn't doing so well! It took the police an HOUR to come and check things out and issue the OTHER lady a ticket! (And she wasn't wearing a seat belt...it really could have been horrible if Emily hadn't swerved and missed t-boning the driver side door!) Nooooooooooo...not the Clemson plate!!!!!!!!!!!!
The blinker was broke, but the headlight still worked!

It also messed up our power steering! It wasn't our fault, so now we wait for the insurance to get it all in order!

Kate's Baptism Day

So the day started out just fine...we were on time. Everyone was happy, ready, and lookin' good! Then a little accident happened on the way to the church...see the other post...and so by the time we got to the church, it was 30 minutes after the baptism was supposed to start! So, I had no time for pre-baptism photos! :( I think dad got a few! So, my photos start after she was baptised... Kate in her special white dress...after she was baptised! (Notice her necklace from Uncle Joel, Aunt Britni, Brooklyn, & Jack and her charm bracelet from Mimi and Papa)
Kate with her Mimi and Oma!

Kate and her special friends that came to support her on her special day!

Kate and her cousins...this was the group that did a special musical number...

"Jesus Once Was a Little Child" It was darling and huge hit!

Kate and Bishop Coltrin!

Back home with Aunt Emily!

Kate with her Mimi and Papa!

The Bright family on Kate's special day!

We are so proud of Kate for taking this big step in her life! We know it is one of many good choices she will make in her life! We love you Kate!

Nivens Farm

It was a perfect fall day and what better way to spend it than a trip to the apple/pumpkin farm! So, we loaded up two cars (we couldn't all fit in one) and took a little trip down some beautiful SC country roads! This is my all time favorite photo of the day! They are all saying their animal sound! SO CUTE!
Brookie-Boo jumping on the tubes!

Mimi and Papa watching the grand kids play!

Three jumping cousins!

Bowen on a pumpkin and next to the tractor!

Kate and her fall pose!

Brooklyn looking darling as usual!

Clair...in non outfit matching shoes! Her other shoes were "killing" her feet!

Papa picking the apples from the tops of the trees! That was all that was left!

Look at those bus riding babes!

Farm Papa and Mimi!...our own "American Gothic"!

Three cousins who love each other VERY much! It was such fun having Brooklyn along for the week! The next day we made a yummy apple pie...but that story and those photos are for Emily to post!

Kate turns Eight!

Kate turned eight on October 5th. She asked for a Reese's Cup cake. So I made a devils food cake with peanut-butter frosting and crumbled Reese's Cups on top and around the bottom! It was SO yummy! Since Stephen was gone I wanted to do a little something special for her. We already had big plans for Saturday and her baptism. So, we had a few neighborhood friends and school friends over. It wasn't really a party, just cake and ice cream. Kate enjoyed having friends over and eating her yummy cake!