Halloween preview

In preparation for Halloween we decided to sample some of our upcoming costumes. All of them are home-made!
Jackson the spider

Jocelyn the Witch

Kelsey the Witch

Mom and Dad the bakers!
You might be asking yourself, "Now why would they choose to be bakers?"
Naturally because there is a bun in the oven!
It'll be fresh for delivery in April 2010!

Fall Fun

Some people at our house must be really ready
for sledding season.... or just really creative.

Our Country "Bump"kin

As you can tell, I haven't been apart of the blogging world lately. We didn't really have anything exciting going on but then John-David's sister Bonnijane came to visit. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures really while she was here and then all the kids got sick. We've had horrible rainy weather here as well so we haven't been out much. Finally on Monday the sun came out and we were in between people being sick so we decided to venture to the park. We were having a nice time until Jackson made a poor choice and needed a little time out. I, being mother of the year, left my almost two year old unattended on the 5-12 year old play ground on the slide platform while I sat Jackson on a bench for a little "thinking time". Next thing I hear is crying and I turn around to find Kelsey is on the ground flat on her back. I run over to her, check her over, discover no blood and we go sit on the bench. I check her again and notice there is a little blood on the side of her mouth but I assume that is from the fat lip forming. I decided it was time to go. I put her in the stroller, gather the other two and begin the walk home. All the way home Kelsey cried. When we got home she cried for another hour. I couldn't figure out why until during Family Home evening I look down while she was laying in my lap and see this.

No wonder she was crying for so long. She lost part of her front tooth. Most mothers would have thoroughly inspected their children's mouths right after they fell. Not me. Now she has a snaggle fraggle tooth. I wanted to cry when I saw it. Her poor little mouth. It must hurt her too because she cried when she tried to eat an apple slice and gave it back. I think I might take her to a pediatric dentist. She has always been our wild dare devil and I think it has finally caught up with her. Kelsey displaying her new "snaggle".

At least you can't tell from a far that she has a country bumpkin tooth. I guess she just is getting ready for Halloween. Maybe I should have her go as a pumpkin instead.

Visit from Grandma

This past week we were fortunate to have my mom come and visit for 8 days. We scheduled a lot of things so my mom could see as much of the area as we could. The kids were so excited to have Grandma Larna Jeano come visit because they got to be roommates for the week. We have a spare bed in their room and when they would wake up in the morning, they would all lay in bed and talk. I felt sorry for grandma because she got an early wake up call especially considering the two hour time change but I was in heaven. I didn't have to wake up to little kids pressing their faces against mine asking for breakfast.

We showed grandma all sites in Bethlehem and then we ventured out to the surrounding areas. Lancaster County is about 1 and 1/2 hours from us and is home to a large Mennonite and Amish community. My mom likes reading books about them so we thought we would check out the area.
I had done a little research on the Internet as to where to go once you got to the area. There was a tour boasting that it was the best one because you leaned a lot about the Amish and why they are the way they are. I will give them 4 stars as far as information goes but I was a little perturbed by the fact the authentic Amish house was in the same parking lot as the Target. It was actually located right next store. It's hard to get authentic feel when I can see the big red target logo from the back of the farm. I eventually got over the fact that the Amish are just cashing in on our stupidity of wanting to find out who these people are and went with it. After we explored the farm we decided to go to a few of the towns to see what was there.
We checked out a few of the bakeries and even bought a jug of the most disgusting root beer made from yeast. John-David was pretty sure it was home made moonshine.
One thing we came across that was pretty fun was a pretzel factory. The place gave a little tour and then showed you how to twist a pretzel. Kelsey absolutely loves pretzels and the fact they had free samples at her arms reach was like she had died and gone to heaven. She was munching on them so much that the lady behind the register filled a cup to send with her for the road. I don't know that we will be rushing back to Lancaster County any time soon but we learned some things like how to twist pretzels.

The real reason why my mom comes and visits us is to really just pick apples. She loves apples and we haven't missed a year yet picking them. Since we were new to the area, we didn't know exactly where the best place to go so we went with the one that was closes to us. I think it was a good choice. You got your boxes from the ladies at the register then you got on a bus with the top cut off and they took you to the orchards. Minimal walking for little legs and the scenery was beautiful.

The apples were pretty big and they tasted pretty good. My mom was having so much fun picking that we ended up with two boxes full.
As we were leaving the orchard, I looked over and saw this church. From this picture it looks like it's a temple but it's not. The scenery alone makes me want to come back next year but unfortunately we saw a big for sale sign on the end of the property. It might not be around next year.
Jackson and Jocelyn using teamwork and a wagon to get the apples to the van.
On Saturday morning we went down to Philadelphia. I wanted to do something I hadn't experienced yet so we went to the Italian market. It's a few blocks of open air market with fresh produce, fish and all sorts of stuff. It was so fun. I would highly recommend this if you like something a little out of the ordinary and really cheap produce.
It was hard to get a picture of it to give you a real feel of what this is but just come and visit us and we will take you there:)
I couldn't pass up taking a picture of this. When I showed John-David this, Jocelyn looked too and said, "Why is there a radio on that bike?" Good question Jocelyn.

We couldn't have my mom leave Philadelphia without trying a Philly cheese steak sandwich. John-David had heard the two best places to get one were just down the way from the Italian market so we ventured down to Geno's. It's pretty famous and a lot of famous people have gone there. The walls were lined with photos of people eating one of their sandwiches one being Slyvester Stalone. We decided that even though the sandwiches were $8.00 a piece if Rocky eats them we would too. I personally thought it was the best Philly I have had in Philly but I still think my mom makes the best. I have issues with ketchup being on the Philly cheese steak sandwich and that's what everyone does here.
After stuffing our faces with food we headed back to Independence Hall for our tour. It's a good thing I had taken the tour a few times because with kids you don't get to hear a lot.
My mom made sure that Jackson learned how to make rope with this guy. He thought it was cool. Jackson was really excited to see the liberty bell for some reason. He kept asking when we were going to see it. When we finally got there, he marched right up to it, put his hands on his hips and posed. He really wanted a picture with the bell.
Kelsey didn't really want a picture with the bell.
Aside from all our travels, we put grandma to work. She cut 6 inches off of Jocelyn's hair. She help me sew all the Halloween costumes, made treats for us to eat like apple pie and she was the official helper for the two older kids. They wanted grandma to help them with everything and it was blissful. Grandma got to walk Jackson to and from his preschool class each day he had it. One day I picked him out without grandma and I was greeted with, "Where's grandma?" He was not to happy to see dear old mom.
I had been saving our visit to the Crayola Factory for when my mom got here because I knew she would love it as much or more than the kids. The Crayola Factory was decorated for Halloween and she had a fun time taking all the kids picture in these cut outs they had displayed around the factory.


My kids really had a fun time but I almost wonder if they were a tad older if they would love it more. They had very short attention spans for some of the projects.
Attached to the museum was the canal museum and this was Jackson's favorite. It was a 90 foot canal that you floated your boat through lock systems. It was really cool and I think Jackson could have stayed there the whole time.
The rest of the canal museum showed what life was like living on the canal.

The day my mom left we stopped by Valley Forge on the way to the airport. It was beautiful and it was very interesting to see the huts that the soldiers had made so long ago. It's hard to imagine that grown men slept on these bunk beds. I think I would have hate to be the guy in the middle. Warm, yes but oh so claustrophobic.
The National Park had added this part since I had been here 5 years ago. It was so interesting to see Washington's quarters. I don't know what generals sleep in today but these were pretty humble.
We had so much fun with Grandma, we were so sad to see her go. We hope she comes again. Thanks Grandma for a fun time.