At the lake

Last month, we went down to the lake with grand plans of going for a nice ride in the paddle boats. The weather had been beautiful all day, but somehow, the wind really picked up about an hour before we left our house. By the time we got there and walked down to the lake, we could see the writing on the wall. The wind was blowing pretty hard, over 20 miles an hour, so it was a no go. We'll try again soon...

Camping

While Sareny was off on Fall Break, we took the opportunity to go camping. The kids were pretty excited, and we were all glad the portable DVD player was working...

We found a campsite just outside of Prescott, and it was so beautiful! The campsite was a relatively short walk away from a lake.

Finley walked some of the way...

And enjoyed a ride some of the way...

And then we made it to the lake.

My sweet kids.

Sareny was being rather silly, but I didn't mind because I got this awesome shot of her missing front teeth.

Finley enjoys the peaceful views afforded by the lake.

Isaac stops to pose for the camera.

Sareny snatches my sunglasses.

It was so pretty there, and I love leaving the city life behind and just relaxing in nature for a couple of days.

I love taking pictures of my kids! Someday, when they are all grown up, they will appreciate it.

I think maybe if they weren't so darn cute, I could resist more.

We had a really nice time just being together as a family!

A play and a day at the park

I had a couple of people ask questions about our spooky dinner, so I will just list the menu here. The white rats were deviled eggs turned upside down with cut black olives for tails and capers for noses. The creepy crawly bugs were various kinds of olives with dried rosemary legs. The eyeballs were mushrooms with a slice of black olive on top. (Sareny loves mushrooms and begs for them at the store, go figure.) The witches hats were sliced, buttered french bread toasted in the oven. The monster toes were lil smokies wrapped in half a biscuit. The monster smiles were sliced apples stuck together with peanut butter, with mini marshmallows for the teeth. I think the hit of any spooky dinner is the witches brew; here is the recipe we use:
2 cups sugar
2 quarts water
2 (0.13-ounce) envelopes lime drink mix
1 (46-ounce) can pineapple juice
1 quart ginger ale

Stir together sugar and 2 quarts water until sugar is dissolved. Stir in remaining ingredients. For a scary presentation, place punch bowl into a large plastic cauldron, and add dry ice to punch. The punch is a pretty awesome shade of green and bubbles really nicely. I should also note that we used and diet ginger ale and Splenda instead of sugar, and I thought it tasted great, although Keith claimed it had an aftertaste.

After our spooky dinner, the kids put on a rather silly play. It involved Sareny and Ema prancing around the family room singing.

Then they were locked up in a tall tower, where they sang some more.

Then Isaac, who was the prince, saved them.

Somewhere in there, Sareny's character fainted and had to be revived by Dr. Isaac. She tried to faint again, but I said she could only faint once per play. The actors taking a bow.

And the captive audience.

The next day I took the kids to the South Lake Park.

Can I just say I love this place! It is so beautiful and only two minutes from our house. Finley wore her Fancy Nancy sunglasses and looked so cute!

Sareny and Ema wanted to take pictures with my camera, but I forget which one of them took this one.

Isaac had fun on the slide, and I loved what it did to his hair.

There were people working on the grass and aerating the soil, and Finley freaked out. You can see the machine in the background, and Finley made sure she was plenty far away from it.

Isaac kept climbing on the slide and then he would stop and pose and tell me to take his picture.

Then we walked down to the edge of the lake to see the ducks.

This fluffy headed guy was my favorite.

The kids loved watching the ducks.

Then Ema took our family picture. Take one.

Take two. I decided to remove my sunglasses, which ruined this one.

Take three. I should have left my sunglasses on, because my eyes look really weird.

So looking at these pictures, I realized that while the rest of us are in various stages of awkwardness, Sareny looks perfect and cute in every one. Kind of funny.

Our Annual Spooky Dinner

Okay, all of my adoring fans, I finally got myself to the computer to make a new blog post. It has been over a month--yikes! I think a big part of the problem is that I don't like where our computer is--it is upstairs in an alcove in the hallway and I rarely get a chance to sneak away for the requisite amount of time it takes to create a post without my children running amok and destroying things downstairs in my absence. Sadly, I am not joking. But I digress.

At the beginning of October over Sareny's Fall Break from school, we had Ema over to spend the night and had a spooky dinner that night. On the menu--monster eyeballs, white rats, creepy-crawly bugs:

monster toes:

Witches hats, which got a little overdone. But the kids thought they were black on purpose, since witches hats are black:

Monster smiles:

And, of course, we had witches brew, but I didn't get a picture of that. The kids had lots of fun eating their spooky dinner. After dinner we were treated to some fine entertainment as the kids put on a play, but I think that will have to go in the next post.