DARIN LAUNCHES HIS WEBSITE

Please check out my husbands photography website at www.pfeifferimages.com. If you are in need of a photographer, please direct people to his website or contact him at darin@pfeifferimages.com

PUMPKINS

As you can see I am about a month behind in my blog posts.

Martin was really into the guts this year,
because he wanted his pumpkin to be
pucking this year....only boys think this stuff is cool!

Finished pumpkin #1.

Finished pumpkin #2, minus the puke

Adding the puke...this was the highlight

of the night.

So I put a light in Luke's pumpkin and went

into the house to get a brighter candle and one to light

the other pumpkin. Meanwhile, Luke had gotten this chair from

inside the house and this is what I see when I come back outside.

I ask him, "What are you doing?" He says "Oh, just sitting here enjoying

my pumpkin" I just said "Okay" and smiled!

NEW FALL DECOR

With all the beautiful leaves falling from the trees I decided that we should gather them up and make a much needed fall wall hanging for our home. We took several walks and collected some great leaves. I am very happy with what my boys designed and am proud to hang it on my wall for all to see :-)

The planning stage.

The assembly begins.

The BEAUTIFUL finished product. I tried to take the
picture with it hanging on the wall, but the flash from
the camera kept covering up the design.

VOLCANO FUN

For school the boys and I built a volcano. We used paper plates to make the shape we wanted then used paper meche to make it sturdy. After several days of drying it was time to have the volcano erupt. The boys were pretty excited. I am happy that it actually worked!

I love the look on Luke's face as he steps back

afer dumping the solution inside the volcano.

HOLIDAY MAIL FOR HEROES

This is a GREAT way to bless our service men and women this holiday season. It is so difficult to be away from your family during the holidays. For those who faithfully fight for our country they need to be encouraged, thanked and remembered. You can get all the details at http://www.redcross.org/email/saf/. Cards need to be postmarked by December 10, 2008. Happy card making :-)

CHEAP FAMILY FUN

Tonight we created a fun new game. We had a couple packages of of glow sticks purchased from the Dollar Tree Store (hence the cheap fun) and we were playing with them in the dark. My arms were getting tired from swinging them around so I tried to think of other things we could do. I came up with the ring toss game, but in the dark. To play, use the connectors that come in the glow stick packages and connect the sticks together to make several rings. Take one glow stick and stand it up inside of a narrow glass vase. Toss the rings towards the vase and try to get the rings around the vase. We had a blast playing this for at least a half hour. It is much harder then you think when you are playing in the pitch black and the rings are flexible. Have fun if you give this game a try.

POR LOS CHICOS

Here is a website I found some time ago that helps feed the children of Argentina. All you do is go to http://www.porloschicos.com/PorLosChicos.NET/index_english.htm and click on the smile face. This simple click of your mouse provides a ration of food for a child who is hungry. The sponsors that are listed will fund the ration of food given to the children. There is absolutely NO cost to you. So save this website to your favorites and click on it daily as a small effort to help with the overwhelming hunger in the world. These precious faces will be happy that you did :-)

DARIN RUNS A 50K (31 MILES) !!!!!

For about 2 years Darin has talked about wanting to run the entire Wild Wood Trail in Forest Park. On October 10, 2008 he officially accomplished his goal. We are SO proud of him. He finished in 6 hours!!! I can't imagine running for even 15 minutes much less 6 hours. The boys and I were his support crew for the day. Our first meeting point was at the 16 mile mark. We had to hike in 1 mile so we gathered leaves for an art project we had planned and looked at God's beautiful creations along the way. Our next meeting point was at the mile 25 mark. This was quick stop...no time for pictures. Then the finish. Unfortunately I couldn't find the mile marker for the finish so we were not there to see him come to the very end.....we were so bummed and don't have any photo finish pics :-( When we got home I gave him his 1st place metal for finishing his race. Great job honey, you are amazing!!!!

Darin wearing his 1st place metal after 6 hours of running. I think he looks GREAT!

A quick photo opt for memory sake at mile 16.

Refilling fluids and grabbing more fuel from his support crew at mile 16!

Here are just some of the beautiful leaves we found on our hike into mile 16.

The boys waiting for dad to come down the trail. These rails are here to keep bikes off the trail. They sure make good swinging bars :-)

Field Trips

Our homeschool group had a full day of field trips a few weeks back. We started out at Bob's Red Mill in Milwaukie, then had lunch at Bob's Red Mill Deli and Market, then went over to The End of the Oregon Trail in Oregon City.

The boy's didn't enjoy the tour of Bob's Red Mill as much as I did, but loved having lunch at the deli down the road after. If you take the FREE tour,they give you a free sample and a coupon to use at the Deli. It was fun to see where the flour I buy is produced.


Here are the boys inside Bob's Red Mill tour area.

Having a delicious lunch. The portion sizes are large and very good! They also have all the Bob's Red Mill products available for purchase in the market area.

Standing outside of Bob's Red Mill Market

In the below post are photos from The End of the Oregon Trail part of the field trip. I highly recommend this trip. It is very informative and very well done.

The End of the Oregon Trail

They have a speaker who comes out in costume and discusses the entire trail. What decision had to be make, how difficult the route was, etc. (this part takes place outside)

You then go inside and the speaker discusses the items that would be taken on such a journey. There are several original items on display. They also discuss what the children, men and women's roles were on the journey.

They had a hands on display of toys used back in the day, books, dress up items to play with, and people in costume from that era. The boys got a kick out of playing with the toys.

These were also on display. If you click on the photo you can read what is on the boxes...it is quite a hoot.