October!!

October was FULL!!  Besides the normal fullness of regular daily life . . . I took on a new role at church as one of the leaders of welcome/hospitality, Rooke finished up his season of soccer and went on his first youth retreat, Ryan attended a Simeon Trust workshop and preached at our church, we celebrated special birthdays, and hosted special friends!

The kids and I took part in a field trip with our homeschool co-op.  We went to the Baltimore Aquarium and enjoyed seeing parrots cuddling, sharks lurking, and a dolphin training demonstration

While Rooke was away on the youth retreat and Ryan was preparing his sermon, the girls and I spent part of our Saturday picking apples.  It's always more about the experience than it is about the actual apples, though we did find a couple new apple varieties that are very tasty.

Ryan enjoying the lovely fall weather, writing his sermon

We are so grateful Rooke gets to take part in youth group activities!  On the porch, he relayed to us that his first retreat included great teaching, silly games, little sleeping, middle school boy ridiculous antics, and a cool sweatshirt and hat (which I quickly commandeered as my own!).

Our deck celebration dinner!  Vallerie wasn't able to join us, but we shared BBQ with Uncle Steve on an AMAZING deck he built with love and sweat and MANY hours.

Of all the kids, she is usually the one to sit down and just tinker on the piano.  I love to hear her music.

A BIG and special birthday happened this month - Ryan turned 40!!

Handsome birthday boy

Ryan had guys over to celebrate his fortieth.  I decorated (with photos from Ryan's forty years of life!), made snacks, and then took off.  The guys hung out and ended up watching some of the Nats baseball game together.  As adults, we don't get to relax with friends like this often enough, and I was grateful Ryan had this night with a great group of men.

Since it was his 40th, we decided two parties were in order!  On Ryan's actual birthday, we invited several couples over for charcuterie and dessert with a couple games thrown in.

We are blessed with wonderful friends! 

And to keep the party rolling . . . the Heavilands came to town in time for us to celebrate Jessie's 40th and James' 12th birthday!!  Jessie wanted to ride bikes around the monuments, which was so much fun!

James wanted to play gaga ball on his birthday and, thankfully, there was a pit very close to our house that I didn't know about.  So fun!


What 12-year-old doesn't want to ride in the back of a truck with his buddy on his birthday?!

The Heavilands stayed with us for a week as part of their nine-month tour around the U.S.  What a gift to share life with them for those days, and to learn from their family who love so well.
Breakfast and Bible study with eight kids =)

Jessie took the biggest kids on a tour of the U.S. Capitol Building

No visit with Jessie is complete without the two of us sneaking away for a little girl time

Playing at the Arboretum

We spent a day at a corn maze, where the maze wasn't actually that great, but the activities on the farm were so much fun!  

Tasting fried oreos - he was a fan!

The boys watched the first Indiana Jones movie while we took the girls ice skating

And our last adventure together was to play kickball at Gravelly Point Park . . .

. . . and a walk through The Mall to see some highlights at the museums.  What a blast to share time together - thank you for making us a stop on your trip, Heavilands!

I love how this tree in our yard looks like it's on fire in the fall

My sweet Bridgette, running errands with me

At the end of the month, our church had our first ladies retreat.  I was given the privilege of leading the women in music.  It was a wonderful weekend.

While I was away on the retreat, Ryan treated the kids to a Daddy day of doughnuts and hiking

Wrapping up October with Halloween!  We kept up our tradition of inviting families over for dinner before the trick-or-treating.  At one point, towards the end of the night, I'm fairly certain there were at least twenty kids in my living room eating and trading candy!  

Bridgette was the "milk" to partner with her friend, who dressed up as a box of doughnuts.  Gretchen was the orange m&m with a group of friends (Gretchen chose orange so she wouldn't have to dye her hair to match her shirt - ha!).  Rooke repeated his football costume because he couldn't think of anything else, and he's really just into Halloween for the candy =)  This was the first year we let Rooke and a couple of his friends go trick-or-treating without parental supervision.  His haul was definitely more than the girls' - ha!

The dads hung out on the porch while the moms sat in the yard and passed out candy.

September

September started off with a bang!  We spent the holiday weekend with our friends at their farm house.  We are grateful for the Carpenter family, and the fun friendship we share.  The first night, the dads took the kids to the race track for a taste of the local speedway.  

Ice cream treat after a hike

Back at home - more ice cream because, why not?!

Dinner with friends at the pool on the night it closed, which officially marks the end of our summer.  Sigh.  

Over the summer, the kids worked towards a challenge of collectively reading 10,000 pages.  They surpassed that amount with a week to go, and the prize was another hamster.    

They named him Chipper!

School is back!  6th grade, 4th grade, and 2nd grade this year.

With the start of school is the start of other activities.  This fall Rooke played soccer, and the girls took dance classes.  Bridgette is in a ballet/jazz basics class.  Gretchen started in a ballet class, but we quickly realized I accidentally signed her up for the advanced class (oops!), so she switched to a Hip-Hop class, which is going much better =)

We're learning about chemistry in science this year.  One of our first experiments helped us learn about density.

Burning off steam at the arboretum . . .

Uncle Steve and Aunt Vallerie tirelessly labored in love to build a new deck for us.

Taking science outdoors:

She looked so cute, ready for co-op on an out-of-uniform day

Safety Day in Cheverly is so much fun!  This year I was helping keep an eye on a handful of extra kids, so I wasn't able to take many of my own photos, but someone else sent me this of our beautiful Bridgette-turned-fox

We took the kids to their first concert - we went to hear the Grey Havens perform.  It was a fun show, and just the right speed for the kids' first show.

We love the new deck!!

More science - experiencing what an amorphous solid feels like

With Rooke and Gretchen being old enough to stay home by themselves for short periods of time, I have a special errand buddy.  She doesn't always appreciate being the only one who has to go with me, but we make the best of our time together

A Saturday afternoon bike ride, still enjoying warmer days

August Fun

August was full of summer swimming, late nights, time with friends, working on a new deck, and making the most of our slower days before school.  

I always end up with random selfie photos!  Some I know about, others are a surprise to me when I download my photos =)

We were thrilled to share an evening with my Uncle Kent and Aunt Debbie!  They are world travelers, and we gratefully jumped on the opportunity to be with them while we were in the same part of the country.  This was the first time Bridgette had ever met this special couple!  Kent had everyone's attention as he explained how simple it can be to learn how to play the ukulele - ha!  We had a family band going by the end of the night =)  Then they treated us to frozen yogurt.

Then more special people came to visit - Tricia and her daughter, Myla, spent the weekend with us!  Tricia and I met our first week at OBU, and were quick friends, sharing in the joy of being music education majors together!  

We had a blast at our first professional women's soccer game, cheering on the Washington Spirit.  Tricia and Myla are big fans, and they passed on the bug so that our girls were giddy about trying to get the players' autographs after the game!

Tricia and I took our big girls on Uncle Steve's moonlight trolley tour of the monuments - a special evening for the four of us. 

And time with this dear college friend wouldn't be complete without sharing a meal of what we like to call "Special Food."   

The beginning of the end:

This is all that was left of the old deck.  We cut those posts down to the ground, and started work on a new deck.  And by "we", I mean that we assisted Uncle Steve in his extremely generous act of love to design and build a wonderful deck for us!

Mid-way through the month, I had a special opportunity to go to the Sing conference in Nashville.  Four of us from our church traveled together, and it was a wonderful three days of music, breakout sessions, and conversations about the important of corporate singing and worship in our church.  We remain grateful to be a part of Cheverly Baptist Church, and I'm especially thankful to be a part of the music team.

Putting the kids to work on our clean-up day to get the church rooms where our co-op meets ready for the first day.

Free tickets from the library to the Nats baseball game, plus free kids' meals = a great family fun night!

Squeezing out the last of our summer days: we met Ryan at the mini golf course after work one evening and closed down the place with a round of putt putt and the batting cages