Clearing Out the Woods Behind Our House

G'pa brought his chainsaw down to help us clear out the woods a bit. 

Brent's Ocean Birthday

Brent turned 5 last week and he wanted an "ocean" theme for his party with the Smiths. He thought a "squid" cake would be cool. ;-)

This was the first time we got to be with Uncle Owen and Auntie Maritza since their wedding this summer. 

Lots of new sea creatures to play with!

He really likes using the drill to build this airplane. 

Clara Likes Playing Angry Birds on the Old iPod

Fall Farm Day with Friend from Hawaii!

Our friend Abby from Hawaii visited with her little daughter Alex. Abby was in Ohio visiting her family and so she drove out to DC for the weekend to see us too. We took her to Frying Pan Farm...it happened to be the fall festival day. Perfect! Lots of fun stuff to learn and do. 

We just did a homeschooling lesson on "wool" this past week, and at the farm on Saturday this lady was setting up her wheel and teaching all about spinning wool! So perfect! (God is an awesome lesson-planner!)

Shelling corn. 

Animals. 

Peeling and coring apples - a tasty treat too when we got to eat them. 

Cool Weather Exercising

Brent built weights out of Tinker Toys for the girls to use. ;-)

Our Little Dora ;-)

Homeschooling Days

Of course not everyday is nearly this picturesque, but... This one was precious to me. ;-)

Being Together

Lucas and I went on a date: dinner and then a GMU volleyball game. GMU lost horribly, but it was still fun to go (and to be inspired to exercise again. lol). 

Budding engineers. 

Amber's wardrobe was inspired by the fire station tour. :)

The kids enjoy the, now blue, bar stools (which were their great-grandparents)!

 Meeting Daddy during lunchtime near his work. They excitedly watched Dad feed a dead cicada to the fish.

Fire Station Open House

Church Friends

Our dinner fellowship group met at a Tex-Mex restaurant. We had a fun group, and the food was tasty, and the weather was perfect. 

The girls like to dress-up with their friends. Brent is usually the dinosaur that chases them. 

Washing the Van

Apple Picking

An apple lesson with Daddy the night before. 

At the orchard! The kids kept looking for "beauties" - what they thought looked like perfect apples.

Here was Amber's "beauty." 

Together we picked 20lbs. of apples! They made some tasty: baked apple oatmeal, apple crisp, and applesauce. Yum!

Everyone was worn out by the end. ;)