Halloween Time

Pumpkin Carving Time,

Who has the most seeds, is always the question. Next the kids pick different patterns and begin transferring them to the pumpkins. The kids all start out going strong, beginning right after school cleaning out the pumpkins. After dinner time they are usually tired of pumpkin carving, and mom and dad take over. They are always fascinated with the completed project.

Time for Trick or Treating. Izaak loves his clown costume, equipped with yellow wig, googoo goggles, red nose, and Dad's big shoes. (Izaak ended up trading me shoes halfway through gathering goodies, because he fell down 3 times, dumping his bag of treats.)

Aaryn is a rooting tooting cowboy. He loves his boots mom got him. He also got a mustache and side burns. Evalily is our little sunshine girl, in her flower costume. Adryann goes as Cinderella and even has glass slippers. We do good shopping at the thrift stores to make these outfits winners.

Trunk Or Treat with the Rancho Reata Ward. Mom's ingenuity makes the trunk of our car a favorite among other plain tailgates. Scott hid behind the curtain and grabbed kids as they reached in, only if they had big hands, not little kids.

The kids had fun gathering goodies with their cousins.

Izaak and Evalily pose with their stash of candy. They both look very happy with the prospect of eating the candy in the weeks to follow.

Making a Tree Fort with Grandma

Grandma's Last VisitGrandma helps us begin our journey of making a tree fort. The first board goes up. Grandma is the master mind, and Scott is the muscle man. Kids do the tedious work of driving nails which they enjoy.


At first the kids were scared to climb up on top of it, thinking it would break, but when Grandma got up there all worries ceased. I was told later that even Evalily climbed up without help, and Grandma turned around and she was there. We may have to make a pull up ladder to make it safer.

Scott has a bunch of work to do to complete it, but at least there is a start.

Fall Time

The Annual Frewing Raking Day

Raking downhill is always a good suggestion. That is what I am doing, just pushing the leaves downhill with the back of the rake.

Evalily wants to help out with raking this year, which is wonderful if she would not rake right next to me, and pulling all of the leaves out of the piles I create.

We were so excited that the previous owners left us a "leaf picker-upper" with the lawn mower we requested, hoping not having to rake anymore. However, when we attempted to use it, there was too many leaves, and we would have had to dump out the contents every 5 feet. So we ended up using our tarp method we learned in Minnesota. So it has taken 2 full Saturdays to rake, and not all the leaves have fallen yet, so we may have one more left. I guess it is the price you pay for having mature trees around your property.

The tarp method always has it's positive points, according to Evalily. Cat is not so appreciative of the free ride. Evalily is trying to insure there is no escape for kitty. We roped Grandma into helping rake leaves too.

Adryann joins in on the way down, she can not resist a free ride.

The we play parachute in the strong wind. Once the wind yanked Scott to the ground. Wind is very powerful, we attest having lived in Tornado Alley for a few years.