Well, the banana costume is done – but the baby banana is sleeping. However, we have one very excited 2 year old that is planning on being a monkey ALL DAY! So, I snapped a couple of her without Hannah.

Also, on a side note, I have tons of stuff to post. We have a fantastic professional pictures, we took a drive to Washington to see the fall leaves… so much stuff. But, I’ve been making a pattern and a costume so my time has been pretty filled. I’ll catch up after tonight

enjoy!

I had some apples in the fridge – and I made an apple crisp for Gary and Laurie when they were here this weekend. I used the peels and cores to make some jelly today.

It was all going fine until I added the sugar and had to keep it at a “rolling boil” for exactly 1 minute. Grr! That rolling boil rolled right onto my cook top! I can’t wait for this to cool so I can clean it up!

Abby is growing up – and I’m trying too! She is starting to interact with the older kids on the playground — and I gotta tell ya — kids are just plain mean! I don’t think she gets it yet – the kids will say something mean, or not share, and Abby just looks back at me (while I’m looking for a mother to shoot a dirty look at). Of course no mother is going to step up and say “Hey, that’s my kid”. So… I try to tell Abby, in a not so quiet voice, that all kids are not nice and don’t always want to share (or whatever).

Well, on this particular day it was indeed the parents that should have been scolded! Abby was on the playground. There was one other little boy – maybe 2ish years old. They were both proclaiming loudly that they wanted to swing. I kept telling Abby that we had to wait our turn – as did the daddy of the little boy. 10 minutes passed, 15 minutes, 20, 25!!!! Over 30 minutes passed. There are only two bucket swings at this playground and it seems the moms of the toddlers in them did not want to share! Abby left crying, “Abby’s turn Mommy, Abby’s turn!” Gah, it was all I could do to leave the park without telling those mothers what I thought!

In the end, I promised Abby that when Daddy got home we would take her to the park after supper. Um, well, it is dark after supper But we loaded up and tried it anyway. Thank goodness the park we picked is “open” until 11 P.M.!!! Abby had the entire park to herself. She had a blast!

We don’t usually do the Merry-Go-Round because I’m a bit afraid of the big kids. But with no kids there – Abby got to go around and around!

Look mom no hands!

She went down the big silver slide all by herself!

It was a fun family NIGHT at the park

I have a couple outdoor Halloween decroations… but Abby wanted a ghost and a “pider” and a “pumkin”

Lynn called and said that they were heading to Southern Illinois this past weekend. Well, I decided, anytime Lynn is closer to me than 6-8 hours… I should do my very best to try to get to her! LOL So, we all packed up and made the quick trip to DuQuoin on Saturday morning. We spent Saturday with Mom and Dad doing NOTHING (those times are always the best)! Usually we go and try to do WAY too much and then feel like it was a stressful weekend. It was so nice just to sit around and play games, read and chit chat. Then Sunday the girls and I headed over to Lynn’s parents house. We walked up and Jeremy was grilling steaks… we walked in and “Grandma Judy” just put an 8 layer chocolate cake on the hutch. THIS was going to be a good day! But wait! There’s more!! Lynn made pumpkin hats for Abby and Hannah!! Too cute!! Thank you so much!!