a mini vacation

 The girls earned a trip to Pottery Bayou to create some Christmas ornaments.

 Anna chose an owl.

 Maria picked a snowman.

 I did help Anna bit.

 Posing with their creations.

 We headed to Indy on Saturday and stopped at Fort Harrison State Park to play, eat a picnic lunch and attempt to hike.  The girls didn't last long.

 But they did have fun playing.

 They had a really cool slide in the side of the hill.

 Daddy even tried it out.

 Our next destination was to Elisabeth's 6th birthday party.  The girls were friends back in Culver, but we haven't seen them since we moved.  It was a surprise for both girls!

 The four girls!

 My good friend Kim.

 The were so excited to stay in a hotel, especially to go swimming.

 We spent Sat. night visiting with friends and swam in the morning and then we went to visit some other friends.  We ate lunch with them and then hit the road.

We had to stop along the way for a short treat diversion.  Can anyone figure out where this is?  Maria is only slightly covering the town's name, but it's the specific place we stopped that had us driving a bit out of the way to stop.
We have plenty to praise God for; a chance to get away as a family and see some friends. 

bouncing and teeth!

 Oh bouncy houses are so much fun!

Love the crazy face she makes to show me her 2nd lost tooth.(yes, I gave it the final yank again!)  Just for kicks I looked up when she got these teeth and it was almost exactly 5 years ago, only off by 2 days and the 1st tooth was off by a month from when she got it.  Let's see about the top teeth, if they follow the pattern they should be around Jan/Feb.

school days

We received Anna's preschool pictures today, and I may be biased, but I do think we have the cutest girls ever!

And them I had to get Maria's preschool pictures and compare the two. Definitely sisters! 

And then I realized that I don't think I ever posted Maria's school picture this year. 

We have plenty to praise God for; the blessing of these two beautiful girls, inside and out.

October

 We took the girls to a family fall festival a couple weeks back.  They had fun petting the animals and later we went on a hay ride.

 See that excitement.

 Nothing as fun as jumping in a pile of leaves, maybe sliding into them is a bit more fun!

Anna wore an old costume of mine to her fall party at school, it's one my mom made me.

See me, all the way over on the left, don't you love my mismatched shoes too! For those who know my brother Andrew, he's the clown looking right at the camera with the white knit cap on, mom made that costume too!

Royle visit

We went to visit our friends last weekend that we hadn't seen in 4 years, ironically when their youngest was a brand new baby.  Now their 3rd and youngest turned 1, so we thought it about time to head that way.  It was a three hour trip, but the girls handled it relatively well.  We enjoyed visiting and seeing the kids play together like they were old friends.  I stayed up till 1am chatting with my friend Rachel.  It reminded me of times in Ecuador(we lived with the same family while we were both there) when we would sit in the kitchen and talk way too late while eating a snack.  We hope that it doesn't take another 4 years till we see them again!

 The Birthday girl

 He was picking flowers for Larry and I.

 so serious

 playing "sleep-over"

 getting his order for restaurant

 busy at play

 I made this outfit for her big sister 3 years ago!

 precious

Too bad we didn't line them up in age order, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

We have plenty to praise; friends we enjoy visiting even after 4 years apart.

Stone's Trace

 We spent the day as a family at a Pioneer Festival near Ligonier.  They had great activities for the girls to do.  We really enjoyed the day and the weather was perfect!

There was a Punch and Judy puppet show, do you think the girls liked it?

 They were able to make, with a little help, their very own corn husk doll. (for free)

 We got to visit the sheep and chickens and watch one sheep get shorn.  Elsewhere we saw spinning looms making the cleaned wool into yarn.

 Maria riding a wooden cow?, wearing her new feather hair piece(also free to make).

 They rode in a horse drawn wagon, which was only $1.

And Maria tested her corn maze skills.

We also had some yummy food including apple fritters and ice cream!  If you live within driving distance we highly recommend visiting next year.  It's held the weekend after Labor Day.

Also we are gearing up for more changes around here.  Larry starts his new job tomorrow at Symmetry Medical as a manufacturing specialist, we will find out all the details tomorrow at orientation.  We are truly blessed to get medical coverage that starts immediately, no wait.  Since our coverage from the church just ran out Aug. 31, we are extremely thankful.  I guess the part that gives me some dread is Larry will switch to 2nd shift once he is trained.  This means that essentially I will be a single mom during the week as he will go in at 3 and home after 11.  This is a blessing as we won't have to take Anna to the sitter, whom we love, but any extra $ is helpful in our tighter budget.  So, after the dust settles we will see how things all fit together, but I can't thank God enough for providing for us as He has in the past 3 months since moving.  He is truly God of our everything.

We have plenty to praise God for; a wonderful day as a family and looking ahead to how God is providing for our needs.