Happy Halloween

One of my favorite holidays mainly because I like the fall season so much. This year the girls asked a couple of friends to come and trick or treat with them. So I made a whole bunch of fun Halloween dinner items for them before they went out and collected pounds upon pounds of candy. How is it that they each come home with more candy than I even bought for us to hand out? We had a great evening to trick or treat, especially considering that it has rained almost every day in October this year.
Isabel and her friends: Kaila, Lacey, and Madelyn


Chloe and her friends: Mikayla and Audrey

A Boy's Life, or EWWW as I like to call it

So, this is what I found in my bathtub Sunday afternoon. Luckily I don't like to take baths because I don't think I can go in there again.



Samuel has been collecting random toads that he finds in our woods and we have a nice aquarium that he keeps them in. But I guess he felt they needed to get a new perspective on life. Again, eewwww.

Back to School

Chloe and Samuel went back to school last Wednesday and they came home that afternoon proclaiming that, "3rd Grade ROCKS"! So I take that as a good sign that it will be a great year. Samuel is most excited about the science table in 3rd grade so we spent the first afternoon collecting cicada exoskeletons. What his teacher will do with them, I am not sure, but to a 3rd grade boy, they are gold!

Isabel went to middle school this morning and I wasn't as sad as I thought I'd be. She looked so mature and was so excited to be off to a new school that I couldn't help being excited for her. Can't wait to hear what she thought of her first day! Thanks to Nathan for driving her to school!

Vacation Coming to an End

We have been busy wrapping up our vacation, so we are trying to get in all of our favorite things. A couple of days ago we all loaded up and went to the Vermilion Dam. The adults had a picnic lunch while watching the kids cross over the dam and back. The water is pretty low right now, so it is very easy to cross.


The next day, Lois, Lane and her kids came over so we could all work on crafts. Lois brought over the best little knitting wheels and the girls quickly got started on scarves and hats. Chloe even finished her hat and it turned out sooo cute!! Afterwords we all played with Ollie's bow and arrow set he got from the Ely Blueberry Festival! Yes, the kids are aiming the arrows at "me"...thanks Lane for capturing that!!





And today we went over to the island for lunch to make the pocket sandwiches and pocket pies that the kids love to make over the fire. Then the kids had fun doing what all us adults loved to do when we were their age...crossing the rocks to the little island and standing on the big rock near the island. Thanks for all the fun!

Island Time!

Rainy day today, but it cleared up enough to have dinner over at Lois and Jim's island this evening. As always, the kids have a fabulous time running all over the island paths and hopping up and down the rocks around the shore line. We even saw a beaver dive in and swim around the island. How fun!
We loved spending time with Lane and her boys. Chloe and Ollie are doing everything together and make quite a pair. And Soren is the happiest, smiliest baby ever!




Dinner, coffee, and talking was wonderful as usual; although the ride home was a bit cool!

It has warmed up enough that we put out the trampoline for the kids to play on, so now they are busy playing on that. Samuel is still driving us all over in the boat, and everyone is still loving the jet ski.




Lane, Ollie, and Soren are here now, and Ollie and Chloe have hit it off big time! They are very much alike so it was fun watching them play today.




And, as usual, we took time to make our annual "lake" tshirts!



Other than that, just a regular old day at the lake!

Boating, Fishing, and Playing

Yesterday was gorgeous on the lake, so we loaded up the pontoon boat and took a little cruise around the lake. We then parked in a nice calm spot for the kids to swim and then later fish. It doesn't get better than that, in my opinion.

Swimming




Fishing




We always end the night with at least 2 hours of playing games and cards. The girls even brought cards on the boat with us. Our favorites are Uno, Farkle, Skip Bo, and Rat A Tat Cat (thanks to Lacey!).

Beach and Smores

Today we headed for the big town of Tower so we could go to SuLu's which has the best scones I have ever had. Today we got an assortment of fresh blueberry and raspberry white chocolate chip scones, and they are still as good as ever!

We then headed to HooDoo Point to a nice beach area and the kids spent most of the time skipping rocks.



We had a bit of a detour on the way home when a HUGE snapping turtle sat in the middle of the road and would not budge. And he was a meanie! Took a swipe at our tire, so we got out and rolled stones near him so he would scamper off, but he still wouldn't budge. We finally detoured wayyy around him (almost in the ditch) and he still took a swipe at our car on the way around.

We capped off the evening with smores and some more swimming, and are now looking at a beautiful sunset!