Thanksgiving 2014

Dad, Mel, and Dixie joined us for Thanksgiving this year. It was fantastic! Kent and made everything from scratch including pie from fresh pumpkins and stuffing from loaves of bread. Maddie made place mats, name cards, and set the table.

Following Thanksgiving, we set out for our Christmas tree. We wanted to cut ours down this year. It was so fun. The tree farm gave out candy canes and hot cider, too! I think this will be a new tradition!

A Sophie size tree:

Fall Activities

Our weekends have been filled with activity. Maddie's last season of jump rope has begun, and she's had two performances already. The one above was at our school book fair held at Barnes and Noble. Sophie stayed inside where she got her face painted to match her monkey.

The next weekend was followed up with another performance at George Mason University. It was a big venue for such an early season performance!

Sophie is a Girl Scout Brownie. She loves spending time with her friends outside of the school day.

Sophie's troop helped to raise awareness and organize donations for those in need in our community.

Halloween 2014

Halloween on a Friday is perfect, especially when your school system releases students two hours early! It was a clear, cool evening, and we hosted eleven friends from the neighborhood for hot dogs, cider, and some fire pit time before trick-or-treating.

The gang is off!

Quite a haul this year!

Birthday Girl!

Our littlest turned 8 this month! We had two celebrations. One with our family; Sophie got Isabelle, the doll of the year. She was very excited!

Celebration #2 was a Luau with some of Sophie's friends from school. I tried to talk her into a Halloween themed party, but she wanted her Luau. Unfortunately, it rained, but the girls had fun inside.

Cox Farm

We spent a beautiful Saturday at Cox Farms. It was a perfect day, and the rest of Northern Virginia thought so, too.  It was super crowded, and the lines were long. Next year, we'll go earlier in the season and during the morning while half the state is at soccer games.

Rewind

I found a couple of pictures Kent took last month or our patio construction. We are still working on the backyard. The picnic table is built and stained. Kent is still constructing the shed. Pictures to come soon!

Autumn Hike

Madeline and her best friend spent Sunday hiking Old Rag Mountain in the Shenandoah National Forest. When Addie's mom said it was an all day hike, she meant it! With a two hour drive to get there followed by a seven hour (seven hour!!) hike, and dinner stop on the way home, my girl was gone for over twelve hours. But, what an adventure she had. She remarked, "Mom, that was not a hike, that was treacherous rock climbing!!" Of course, she said she would gladly do it again. I am impressed!

Kings Dominion Day!

We spent Saturday at Kings Dominion. It was a great day! The weather was perfect, and there were no lines. We felt like we had the park to ourselves!! We were able to ride many rides multiple times without even getting off! Sophie loved the swings, and I think she rode five times! Other favorites included the "Bad Apple" and the Shenandoah log ride.

Backyard Upgrades

We had some concrete poured last week!! We were very excited to enlarge our current outdoor space to include enough room for a fire pit, a picnic table, a new shed, and a sidewalk. Despite the rain storm, it turned out perfect! We had a fantastic fire Saturday night, with marshmallows, too! We still need to purchase our shed and picnic table, but we are loving our new outdoor hang!

Apple Picking!

We are working on our fall to-do list! We had such a great time picking apples last year that we decided we would try to go twice this year. We made trip number one, and we picked 40 pounds! They are delicious. So much better right off the trees than they are in the grocery store. We also bought apple/cinnamon/raison bread and a couple of apple cakes.

Due to the rainy morning, the orchard was all ours in the early afternoon.

Fall Camping

Fall is my favorite time of year. So, we try to plan a couple of trips to the great outdoors between September and November. Despite a rainy Saturday, we squeezed in an overnight camping trip to the Shenandoah River this weekend. Dawn, Tim, Eddy, and Rae joined us. The evening was chilly (love, love fall!!), but we were warmed by the campfire. Sunday warmed up enough for the girls to wade in the water.

Relaxation

After a busy week of work and school, we packed up the car and headed to the bay. It was hot, hot, hot, and humid last weekend. Kent fished, and we chilled at Mom's condo.  We were lucky enough to watch a beautiful (and pretty big) thunderstorm roll in. The views from the balcony were gorgeous and made the humid afternoon worth it.