Halloween "Light the Night"

Whew! What a night! It was sunny ... and a bit COLD ... (well, not as cold as Minnesota Halloweens!) ... and we had a GREAT time ... and now we are TIRED!

Earlier this afternoon, Aaron got out our grill and set up our make-shift puppet stage (made out of pvc pipes, sheets and safety pins). Mike and Sarah (with Jacob and Abby) and Slavic and Sarah (with Baron and Sofia) and my wonderful mom came over late afternoon. I must say, we were a bit confused about when people would come out for trick-or-treating. I think they came out earlier last year ... but Aaron says that's because the Phillies were playing. So, we all waited and chilled for a bit (literally), but had fun hanging out together.

Caleb and Ellie tried out the puppet stage.

We got a picture (of course!) before going out. Ellie and I were "beautiful princesses" (well, Ellie insisted that she was a QUEEN and I was a PRINCESS ... don't know how that works since I'm married and she isn't ... but oh well) and Caleb was a Jawa (from Star Wars).

Around 5:45 (or so) Sarah, Slavic, our neighbor Jen, mom and I left to go Trick-or-Treating with the kiddos. We only went down 2 streets and were loaded with candy. SCORE for living in town homes! And POINTS for parents who take lots of pictures, give lots of "Say thank you!" reminders, and get to "sample" the candy after the kids go to bed!

Baron the tiger, our neighbor Robert (as Dennis the Menace), Caleb, Jacob, Ellie and Abby

We came back and the kids played while Aaron and Mike bbq'ed hot dogs and Sarah and I did some puppet songs. Several neighborhood kids got behind the puppet stage for their own performances. Very fun. :-) Jacob and Abby even got in on the action. (Caleb and Ellie tried the puppets out early but then got too occupied with other things).

Aaron, Mike and Sarah, my mommy and Abby

Sooooo ... the Statistics ...

We gave away 150 bags of candy ... 128 hot dogs ... 96 mini water bottles (and we still ran out!) ... and the number of hours of sleep to recover is yet to be determined! HA! We pray that we were a light to our neighborhood, and that this night will have an eternal impact in some way.

Aaron may have more stories - but that's all for now!

Happy Birthday to my sister-in-law Rachel!

~JG

Apple Picking

We went "apple picking" with Caleb's class on Friday - except we only got to pick 2 apples each. But we DID get pumpkins and went through our very first CORN MAZE! And yes, we completed it. We reached all five color stations, got a color for each finger AND found our way out. We persevered! But alas, we did not come home with many apples. So the kids and I went to Styers Orchard on Saturday and we came home with LOTS of apples. I rather feel like the Pevansies in "Prince Caspian" when all they had to eat was apples. Anyways, here's some pictures from our Orchard experiences!

Picking Pumpkins ...

The Corn Maze

Picking (and eating) LOTS of apples!

~JG

Ellie's prayer tonight ...

Yes, another wonderful prayer by Ellie where I have to hide my face so she won't see me laugh.

Elanor: "Thank you God for all da creation ... and God, I really don't appweciate lying and Satan is da father of lies and could you just kill Satan, 'cuz I don't want to see him 'cuz he lies ... and don't send any thunder (she doesn't like lightning either) ...AMEN!"

~JG

"Now I lay me down to sleep ..."

We just said our prayers for bedtime ... why didn't I have a video camera playing? Here is a snapshot of our prayers - the bits that I remember ...

Ellie: "Thank you for making everyfing and creation and thank you for making our house and ..."

Caleb: (tapping her foot and whispering) "God didn't create our house."

Ellie: " ... and thank you for [she lists many more things] ... "Thank you ... [something about] God taking care of us and keeping us safe and mommy takes care of us cuz she wants us to be safe and not walk away without asking her. And God keeps us safe and if he didn't the people who worship idols will DIE, but we will not die because we will be safe - because we don't worship idols and we don't like idols ..."

Caleb: "It's too long! Pray shorter!"

Ellie: " ... and thank you for all creation and I like being created and having hair and piggy toes and clothes and a bunk bed with a bed on top and on bottom [and she lists more] ..."

Caleb: (kicking his feet and covering his ears) "It's taking too long! I'm NOT going to listen to this!"

Finally, we said "amen" and they went off to bed. Ellie said something about not getting to pray for something, and I said, "Sweetheart, you can talk to God all you want to in bed."

I hope she does.

~JG

FYI

I would just like everyone to know ... when they visit our downstairs powder room, the huge boogies that are on the wall by the toilet were NOT put there by me. It was the other female in the house. Aaron says I should clean them up before you arrive, but I think the female who placed them on the wall should do the cleaning.

~JG

UT and AB

Here is a digital scrapbook page that I just made about Uncle Tim and Aunt Brittany - and how awesome they are! We love them!



~JG

Caleb singing in Kraiz

Caleb is in the Kids Choir (called Kraiz). Yeah! Every year I've watched (and helped) with Kraiz and thought, "Someday I'll get to watch Caleb sing." Now I get to! YEAH! At first, Caleb was NOT happy about going to Kraiz practice! After all, it was new. And new things don't go over so well with him. It took a few weeks of rehearsals and he's fine now. He does have the occasional complaint ...

"Mom, all we do is sing!"
"Yes, honey. That's what choir is."

Anyways, Kraiz sang in the adult service this morning (they sang a song from the spring performance - but it was new to Caleb!). The song (in case the words are difficult to hear) is from Psalms 1:1. Here it is - enjoy! I know I did!

~JG