Beautiful: October 2012

Costume Fun

Dressing up is lots of fun. We had an opportunity to "dress up" in lieu of the upcoming holiday that I abhor to celebrate. My sis reminded me how exciting and naturally delightful to a child's imaginative heart it is, and I was more inclined to indulge my children in it and even participate by donning a few extra accessories as well. We went to the barn where we fellowship with Christians, enjoyed brisket dinner; the kids played games with prizes, and Lydia won back a few of Mom's cupcakes on the cake walk.
So here I have an onslaught of photos of my favorite subjects. You might recognize the pirate costume from Grandma's Christmas treasure box gift a couple years back. Lydia's costume was inspired by our trip to Virginia. She wore a dress of mine that I could tie the skirting up on, over an old Disney princess dress hoop.

Colonial Lady and a Pirate

Fancy braids were the finishing touch.

Beware the hook!

A demure shot.

Arrgh!

Fancy Feet. (Gabe was actually a little self-conscious about his costume being too fancy.)

Caught him candid.

Oops! Forgot my eye patch the whole time!

Employed Marshal with the camera for a shot with our girl.

And we are off to Family Fun Festival.

October Fruit

New addition to our Whidbey home has finally finaled. Fruit of a long held desire, blessing, vision, plan, funds, contracted labor, and patience. The County required us to remove and demolish former garage, tractor barn, storage buildings when we purchased this property for road expansion, and granted us compensation and permission to rebuild within three years. A garage/workshop has always been one of Marshal's much pined for desires.

Desire fulfilled - now Marshal only wishes he could pack it with him for the rest of his life.

Autumn fruit from the garden.

Marshal painted this corner of the room this fall, and I have my pumpkins and squash curing by the stove, along with the two Gabe and Lydia pumpkins from a local farm patch.

Having fun photographing my "sugar pies."

Some Burgess Buttercup squash. Maybe a Kabocha too.

Mid-October Days

Looking out the window at Socks while doing school one afternoon.

First rain brought oodles and oodles of baby toads.

Gabe and Lydia had fun collecting hundreds of toads, Gabe for two days, and redepositing them away from the driveway and fat tires. I wonder where they all go. Don't see them out there today.

Fall garden view from the house. Looks like Gabe is harvesting the remainder ears of corn.

Alternate view from the deck.

Rocky, our Barred Plymouth Rock, is laying her first eggs. Look at her vibrant red comb and waddles.

Lydia found some sweet corn kernels.

Our pullets. At least three are laying every day! Marley, the black and light flecked one to the left, is a Maran and lays deep brown eggs.

Ears of corn to shuck.

Eating the sweet corn harvest for lunch- a GAPS exception.

MMM...

Definitely not commercial store bought corn. We are amateur growers, but Gabe and Lydia were thrilled to have something to steam and nibble on.

Gabe's Birthday

Yesterday, I overheard Gabe discussing with Lydia and trying to decide if he felt older or not. Eleven?! "Yeah, I feel older." Today he claims he is nine. That sounds about right to me. These pictures show me that he is getting older, a maturing face with his same animated and mischievous looks.

I fixed him apple-pear crisp with sour cream for breakfast.

Rhody, our first laying pullet, laid Gabe an egg for his birthday morning, giving us the 12th egg needed for the birthday cake! Way to go, Rhody!

Coconut flour, coconut cake needed a topper. We picked a few calendula blossoms from the garden at Gabe's suggestion of a flower. Lydia ran out to tell us that she found the birth flower guide from the baby name book. Guess what Gabe's October birthday flower is? Calendula. Got that right.

Gabe decided that his birthday theme colors were blue and white.

Rebecca has a birthday dress, ready for a party, thanks to Aunt Janelle's pre-birthday gift to Lydia.

Gabe coincidentally counted 11 presents. He must be eleven!

What do they call him? A tween?

Opening Lydia's gift to him. They were both excited.

"Whoa! Cool watch. Just what I wanted."

Lydia lights the candles.

Actually took three to do the honors.

Gabe decided on a long, drawn out, blowing out of the candles in stages. Marshal finally told him to hurry up with it before the cake was covered in wax. He was extending the life of his birthday I guess. That must be why he unwrapped his gifts so slowly and meticulously, each one with self-contained excitement, until we were almost ripping at the wrappings ourselves!