October update

Happy Fall everyone!

October is always a time of balancing for us here in the country

between enjoying all the beauty of fall

and accomplishing all. the. work. in preparation for winter.

I won't bore you with all the raking of leaves, 

cleaning off gardens, trimming raspberries, 

planting garlic, drying herbs ....and more

that we do to prepare for winter.

Instead I'll share some pics from the FALL FUN!

We have designated Columbus Day weekend as our family's

Fall Fun weekend because Matt has a 3 day weekend

and to not let work suck up our days.

This year for this fun weekend, we enjoyed our 

favorite pizza from Pasquales, had a family nerf gun battle,

played games, Jurassic Park movie marathon (did you

know there are FIVE?), special snacks,

day trip to Kinzua Bridge and Jake's Rocks,

(pictured above)

hiking and site seeing.

We were also in charge of (and enjoyed) a Harvest Party

for our church ...hot cider, cold cider, caramel apple bar,

bonfire, hayride and fellowship.

That same weekend, friends had a Soup Party.

Every family brought a soup to enter and share.

We all ate soup and more, sat around the bon fire,

and had a fun evening together.

(The winner got a "golden ladle" ...but my mashed 

potato soup didn't win even though it is one of

our favorites!)

Speaking of soup ...I'm loving being back into

the swing of homemade soup and bread on Saturdays!

We also enjoyed a Sunday afternoon being cozy

with a fire in our fireplace.

And here is this month's snapshot of our

World Geography/Cultures study....

INTERNATIONAL MEALS

When we are wrapping up a region, we are making

a meal of food traditional to that area.

So far, we've done...

Cheeseburgers, French Fries, Milkshakes

for the USA

Nathan made a Tourtiere 

for our Canadian dinner.

Grace made nanaimo bars

for our Canadian dessert.

And we made enchiladas, homemade refried beans,

and mexican rice 

for our Mexican/Central America meal.

Next are empanadas and fried bananas for South America!