Sales and Celebrations

My parents were here a few weekends ago. They happened to come the weekend that my sister and I decided to throw our first garage sale. 

The garage sale was my sister's idea. At first I was hesitant because I didn't think I had much to sell. But after looking around, I realized I had more than I originally thought. 

We hung signs and hoped somebody would come. 

Stephen has a future as a salesman. One woman gave him a dime just because he was cute.

It was a bit chilly, but it was also a great success. I made over $100! And I got rid of a bunch of stuff!

After lunch and rest time, we started icing Doc's birthday cake. 

 These two kept resting.

Later we celebrated with presents, dinner, and of course, the cake.

The celebration was for Lovie too.

It was a short but fun weekend. It was liberating to get rid of so much unnecessary stuff. We were glad we could celebrate with Lovie and Doc.

Today is Tall George's birthday. Happy 25th Birthday George! See you soon!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOVIE!

Lovie, George, and James

She happened to be here last night.  It was a night for stripes. 

60!

Happy 60th Birthday Doc!

(picture from celebrating this past weekend)

We hope you have a wonderful day! 

We love you!

more pictures of weekend to come soon

Halloween

 I don't love Halloween. Once I was out of the trick-or-treat phase of life, I just lost interest in Halloween. I also don't love to dress up in costumes. 

 For preschool, Millie had to dress up as a Biblical character. My mom bought this Cinderella dress for her a couple of weeks ago. I thought Millie could wear it and be Queen Esther. I found a crown and jewels to make the outfit complete. She likes to watch the Veggie Tails version of Queen Esther (or 'Essie' as they say), but she has no idea who the real Queen Esther was. Millie just enjoyed wearing the pretty dress. 

I don't enjoy the scary part of Halloween. I can't handle a scary movie, and I prefer happy costumes (as pictured below).

Here we have the angel Gabriel, Queen Esther, and Joseph (wearing his technicolor dream coat) going to school. 

October 31st is also Reformation Day. On this is the day in 1517 Martin Luther nailed a paper of 95 theses to the church door that eventually led to the Protestant 

Reformation. On Halloween night our church held a Reformation party. There were donkey rides, bouncy houses, a dunking booth, and other outdoor games. There were also some games inside that were great for our little people. The game in the picture below was called 'Knock Down the Tower of Babel."

On Halloween night Millie was going to be Cinderella, and James was going to be her pumpkin. If you don't remember the story, the pumpkin turns into a carriage that takes Cinderella to the ball. Millie wanted to be Queen Esther again. She insisted on wearing the Queen Esther name tag. What kind of parent would I be if I discouraged the Bible character? 

We also ate dinner at church. I enjoying doing the Reformation Party at the church on Halloween night. I'm not going to encourage trick-or-treating until Millie initiates it. I'm not against it, but I'm not going to force my two year old to go door to door and get a lot of candy that she doesn't need right now. We will trick-or-treat eventually. 

Tinkerbell and Esther

I bought James some fleece pumpkin pajamas last week when the temperature was much cooler. The pajamas were going to be his costume. Then Halloween came around, and I was hot it was really warm and humid. So his onesie, bib, and pumpkin hat suited him just fine. 

I thought this was a funny and clever game.

 'Pin the 95 Theses on the Wittenberg Door' 

The children were blind folded and given a number. Then they just had to pin the number on the door, and they won candy. 

Nick and I really do love our church. It is full of good teaching and some wonderful people.