Happy Halloween

Lulu, Ruthie and their friend Andie (they look like could all be sisters)

Lulu the banana

Ruthie the Fairy

We had a glorious Halloween. It was a beautiful 75* day and we enjoyed every minute of the day. We had 4 families over for dinner before the trick or treating and then walked our neighborhood. We barely made it to more than 20 houses. On the 2nd or 3rd house Lulu quit. She just wanted me to pull her around and she refused to go to any houses.

Some of the gang before we headed out.

Lulu was like the neighborhood celebrity. Everyone LOVED the banana and she doesn't like when "the people" wanted to look at her and touch her so she retreated to the wagon. Our neighbor Cheryl got her to go to one of our other neighbors house but that was about it!

Lulu and Cheryl celebrating after successfully trick or treating at a house. Not a great pic, but one of pride for Lulu as this is one of about only 3 houses Lulu would go to.

Ruthie loved every single minute of the night and no one could keep up with her! She just ran from house to house and kept asking if she could eat her candy as soon as she got it!

Checking their loot as soon as they got home!

The guys were content to pull out all their folding chairs in the cul-de-sac and drink beer and hand out candy.

Great start to a long weekend.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY - 9 YEARS!

Today Simon and I celebrate 9 years of being happily married.



Our song at camp was always "Free Fallin". The Fireside would have to put it in the jukebox every summer! When I heard this song a few weeks ago, I immediately started thinking about what I could do.

I enjoyed every minute of compiling this video. Every single picture feels like it was yesterday and I can remember every single detail about when they were taken. The best part about them is that Simon was next to me for every one of them.

I am so happy that we are a team. I am proud of all we have accomplished, and I look forward to another 9 million more years with him.


* Also, this marks the 1 year anniversary of this blog and here is my 8th year anniversary blog. I am so glad that I have started this blog and we all love looking back through these pictures regularly.

Columbus Trip

Simon and I took the kids to Cleveland for a weekend with Gammy and headed down to Columbus for a weekend of good friends, good family, good food and a losing buckeye team.


Friday night at the last minute we surprised a great friend for her birthday and had a yummy dinner and after dinner drinks at our favorite "used to be" local bar. Much like the fireside (for all you camp people) this bar was a great place to go to and right down the street. And it is always great after all these years of being away from both The Fireside and PK O'Ryans that we can still walk in and the bartender knows us.

Saturday our old house was for sale so we made an appointmentto go through it. After that we went to our favorite shops along the Worthington High Street. They were having their Saturday farmer's market and it wouldn't have been a more beautiful day. Although, that doesn't really help to make matters of being "Columbus Sick" any better. Simon kept telling me that I better be working on a pretty good pep talk because he really misses it. All along I thought I would be the one that was sad. We walked past our favorite restaurant at the end of our street and always brings a smile to my face and is always decorated so beautifully for the holidays.


Saturday afternoon/evening we were off to campus for some tailgating! We had so much fun catching up with more friends and more family. All of which I was totally lame/freezing and didn't get the camera out to take tons of pics. These are the best I have.





Amy Jo, Stephanie and Yours truly....

(Buckeye Colors are Scarlet and Grey, hence the colors of the blog for this buckey season)

All the people walking into the game. Really.....Simon says he sometimes doesn't understand how my brain works and seeing this picture I would have to agree. I can't manage to take pictures of our house, or our day and friends and family, my pregnant sister, but I manage to take a bad picture of random people walking into a stadium.....FASCINATING!

I promise I will get better.

Go Buckeyes!!!

My sister Katie sent me an early birthday present of tickets to the Michigan State - Ohio State Game in Lansing. We were so excited, as we haven't been to an Ohio State game in a year!

We went up to the game with some of our neighbors and managed to tailgate in the parking lot and found a great college bar that sold a fabulous drink called a Sharkbowl. This drink is served with many straws and a couple of gummy sharks. Someone yells shark and everyone is supposed to continue to drink and can't stop until the drink is all gone.

It was such a wonderful day and certainly some quality time for Simon and I to be together.

Script Ohio

Guy at the end of our row that we thought was funny!

SHARK!

All Scarlet and Grey in the crowd

Preschool field trip to the Pumpkin Patch/Apple Orchard

We went on a Preschool fieldtrip this past week. I was able to bring Lulu and she was so excited. She talks up a good game every time we drop Ruthie off that she wants to go to school but I am sure if I told her, sure just go.....She wouldn't.

There are a few kids that are in Ruthie's preschool class that are in Lulu's gymnastics. The joys of having them so close. They will maybe have some of the same friends.

It was a beautiful day except for the fact that it was freezing!

Last Year's Family Photo

This pic was taken last year. I wanted it to match one of our wedding photo's see below.

Simon, was not a fan of this photo. He didn't want it at all, let alone, as a Christmas card, or even to our families. His main reason was that he felt that the picture did not capture the girls personalities. He felt that the girls looked like boys.

So, you can only imagine the shock when the photo studio sent out their fall/holiday newsletter about all the upcoming events and photo opportunities and our family photo was on the cover! I really don't recall giving them permission ever, let alone, this is the picture we didn't like. I called the studio to ask about this and well.......

We are headed back to the studio on Saturday to hopefully re-create last year's picture just with girls instead of boys.

still one of my fav pics from our wedding.

Pumping Catch

That is what Lulu calls it! All time favorite activity for me is the Pumpkin Patch. I could spend hours just walking around picking pumpkins.

The girls had a great time picking all the pumpkins, of course we picked about 20 we liked then we had to make some tough decisions as to which ones to leave there and which ones to bring home with us.

Apple Pie

When we got home from apple picking, Ruthie went out to ride her bike and Lulu and I decided to make apple pie.

Lulu was in charge of the crumb topping, and I was in charge of the rest for 3 pies. We had so much fun, couldn't find the camera anywhere as it was still in the car from apple picking. Lulu was so adorable, she kept saying, "this is so much fun, we are making pies" over and over. I think she was just so excited to be baking all by herself with mommy. Something she never really gets to do!

When all the pies were done, we took 2 and delivered them to 2 different neighbors. Who loved to receive them when they were still warm. We stayed outside and played with everyone in the neighborhood, and when we returned to the house, we found a very happy Guernsey.

He had decided to put his front paws up on the counter and eat the entire pie. He left the pie pan, on the counter, completely empty except for some crumbs. All that work and no pie for us!

Luckily we have about 20 more pounds of apples, I just have to get the energy to crank out some more pies!

Apple Picking

We decided when we woke up this morning that today would be a beautiful day for apple picking!

The girls were much more into it this year than last year! We picked tons of apples, hand yummy donuts and delicious apple cider.

The girls think that the best part of the day was getting to eat the apples right off the tree.

Too Cool For School.....

This is Ruthie's favorite shirt. She insists on wearing it to school everyday. It is either this shirt or her Froggy Polo.