Happy Halloween!

Eleonora and I broke out the crafting supplies to turn her into Princess Peach. 

Chris decided this was the year to be Pee-Wee and Simone from his childhood favorite - Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. 

The boys were big enough to dig into Chris’s old stash of costumes to transform themselves into a cowboy and Luke Skywalker. 

Princess Peach contemplating. 

Cowboy Caleb ‘hittin a jig’ as he likes to say. 

A Jedi. 

Pee-Wee and Simone. (Amanda had the perfect dress and apron for me to borrow!)





A gathering of family and friends at the Winds. 

Cousins. 

“Twins”

The fam. 

Caleb and Micah at church. 

My first 16 papers. 2 classes down, 8 to go!

The twins at choir practice. 

Eleonora’s 4-H collection of archaeological finds from our yard.  Chris helped her out it together. 

And their pumpkin carving. 

On to the CSBC Fall Festival. 

The boys were good helpers. 

The Habs had it looking very festive!

Amanda and I did the glitter tattoos!

Home again, home again, jiggety jig. 

Dress-Up Week

The week before Halloween was our school’s dress up week, and the girls had the best time with it. Here they are as babies. 

Babies working on Care Bear costumes for Toy Box day. 

Here’s the flyer. Caleb’s in Student Council again this year so he got to help post the flyers all around the building, and that was about the extent of his participation. 

Aunt Terry sent some fun seasonal craft supplies this week. 

Josiah was inducted into the high school Beta Club. That’s him in the back row in the orange shirt on the end. 

Toy Box Day. 

Buddies. 

A whole classful of buddies!

Now Wednesday was a Professional Development day for teachers only, and I attended two days of leadership training this summer, so I got to skip. Woo-hoo!  So Eleo and I headed to the big city. Now I’ve been working on my master’s degree and I was pretty doggone sick most of Fall Break and beyond, so we were ready for some relaxation!

One of the first stops was to Hobby Lobby to pick out the yearly wrapping paper. Eleonora did not agree with me that ‘everyone loves a good plaid.’  That’s what her Gramma always says. 

Next Eleonora picked the mall. This is the mall of my youth and it’s looking pretty empty these days. She treated me to any candy from the gumball machines for a quarter and I treated her to a three minute massage for $1. What good deals!

She enjoyed the indoor playland and a Chik-fil-a lunch. 

Followed by a trip to Target. She spied out some things she might enjoy for Christmas presents. 

Then Thursday it was back to school for Patriotic Day. 

Micah came over for a little visit that afternoon. He and Caleb are tight. 

We have enjoyed the lovely weather at our beautiful little walking track often!

And here are the soccer moms. 

And E’s class once again. 

And it was the Book Fair and the librarian let me pick all these for my class - what a treat!

Goal Gals Retreat

The weekend before last it was time for our annual fall Goal Gals’ Retreat!  Rather than rent a cabin, we moved into my parents’ house for the weekend, since they were out of the country!  We started with supper up the mountain at the apple barn. 

Followed by an evening of games. So good to have Ash, the game-master, back from Kentucky with us!

I slept in this little bed I made out of couch cushions because I was too sick to sleep with someone, didn’t want to make them sick, and I was too afraid of being woken up by baby Micah in the night to try a couple of other options. And wouldn’t you know, Heather got a magic baby that doesn’t cry in the night, so I would have been safe anywhere. But I slept surprisingly well down here!  And didn’t get my cousin sick this year, as far as I know!

We started Saturday with scrambled eggs and bacon and doughboys over a fire. 

Then moved on to Fall Creek Falls. The weather and colors were both glorious!  Couldn’t have picked a more beautiful day to visit!  There were lots of other vehicles in the parking lots, but once you got out and moving around, it wasn’t too crowded at all. 





This lovely view is looking back toward the Nature Center. We don’t often venture to this side of the gulf. 

The swinging bridge is always a gentle thrill. 

We packed up a delicious picnic lunch, complete with chocolate chip cookies still on the tray from the oven!

Then it was time for head back to the Winds, rearrange the furniture, and watch the Tennessee Volunteers play some football. Woohoo!

After that, we enjoyed a chili supper, and more friends joined us for a campfire and games after that. Sunday morning we watched church from home and cleaned up after ourselves. A lovely time was had by all!

Sunday afternoon we celebrated Evelyn’s birthday party and these lovely ladies helped me get ready for dress-up week at my school!