October 28th, 2008

We had a lot to get done this weekend, but I think we got through it all! Yesterday Kyle and Faith went to 2 costume birthday parties, and Matt had a carwash for his drama club. Here he is trying to get customers into the parking lot. They washed about 30 cars, which isn't bad for a town as small as ours! He went to a haunted corn maze last night as well and had a lot of fun there.

Chet and Faith have been excited about going to Kevin and Debbie's house to pick up sticks. Today we all went over there after church, and most of the younger kids went to work getting their front yard cleared out. Faith got bored and distracted rather quickly and decided to delegate her share to her brothers. LOL... when it came time to get paid for their work, she realized that wasn't such a good idea when she didn't get paid as much as they did! Another lady from church heard about the good job the boys did getting the sticks picked up, and has hired them to come next weekend to get all the black walnuts out of her yard. They will gather them up and then take the walnuts to a farmer market type place that shells them and pays the kids for them by the pound. They are looking forward to that!

This particular picture made me laugh. After they had the tarp full of sticks, they would drag them into a deeper part of the forest and unload them there. I love how they are all pointing in a different direction as they try to decide which way to go!

Somewhere along the way, Kyle found a walking stick, and apparently they bonded. Kyle put his walking stick on his shoulder and carried him around with him for a while as he worked. He actually thought this was really funny, but for some reason wouldn't laugh and giggle about it as I took his picture.

Beth has decided that Debbie is her BFF. Today Debbie blew up a bunch of balloons for her and she spent a while first just playing with them and then coloring on them with a magic marker.
Earlier this evening we had a birthday party at the church. It was so fun! There are twelve tables, one for each month, with birthday cakes on each. We all sat at the table for our birth month. Some months, esp July and September, had really full tables, but apparently April is a pretty slow birthday month because it was just one of the 3 year olds from church and I at our table! After everyone had cake, we auctioned off a bunch of pies. The money goes to help out our food bank and community dinner programs. The auctioning was hilarious. Kyle was enthralled with that table full of cakes and pies and cookies, and say up front the whole time. At one point he decided he really wanted an apple pie, and started bidding on it. That got everybody laughing again... it was just a really fun night all the way around.

Another thing we did tonight is called "Pounding the Preacher." It is an old tradition in these small areas to welcome new pastors by bringing them a pound of dried food... a pound of rice, a pound of flour etc. So during Sunday School today some of the ministry leaders went around to the classrooms and organized the pounding for our new pastor and his wife. It was a fun way to surprise them, and an interesting tidbit of history to learn!

There is a couple getting married next weekend, and they were being teased today about the tradition of "Shivering the Groom." That is where they are interrupted on their wedding night, the groom is dunked in the pond, and then has to push his new bride around the square (that would be the heart of the town for all my city-dwelling pals... lol) in a wheelbarrow. Hey Jesse and Sam... would you please consider coming here to get married so we can do this??? :0) Just picture the fun photos we could get!

These are some blueberries I found today on Debbie's property. I hope my berry bushes start blooming next year. I would love to walk out my front door and be able to pick fresh berries for home-baked yummy stuff.