Happy Thanksgiving!

The kids asked for these flags at the dollar store last weekend, and we found Americana music at the library. All week they've been marching around to "You're a Grand Ole Flag" like they do at school. None of us know the words, so it goes kind of like this... "You're a grand ole flag of the red white and blue, da da doo, red white and blue...."

Though we couldn't be with family this year, we are thankful to have celebrated with our friends, Emily and Nathan and their kiddos! We had a wonderful, relaxed day and the kids all had a blast playing outside.

The children spent the afternoon busily constructing a fort under this hammock, raiding the house for pillows and blankets. We could barely get them to come in when it got cold and dark!

Mark and Nathan, with Evan's supervision, put together the lighted deer I made Mark buy. Thank you honey! Have a great weekend everyone!

The kids and I are enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon today, after many busy weekends in a row! Two weeks ago we ventured south to Chief Logan State Park on a beautiful, warm fall day for hiking, playground exploration, and an eye-opening look at the town of Logan, WV.

Adventurous Autumn and Evan on the playground, gorgeous sunlit hills and beautiful fall colors in the background... Last weekend, Mark took the kids to Columbus where they met Grandma Laurie for a fun adventure at the science museum, COSI, and a hotel stay! We unfortunately don't have pics from that adventure because the camera bag was left in the taxi cab. And that story goes like this, in a nutshell: Mark and the kids took me to the Charleston train station Friday night to go to Chicago to visit Alex, Darin, their 2 yr. old twins and newborn baby, Shai, and help out there for four days. I had planned everything to the tee for my first time away from Autumn and Evan, packing their bags for Columbus, mine for Chicago. At the train station, the kids and Mark were waving goodbye to me as my train chugged away, and only then did I realize that I still had the van keys in my pocket. A wave of panic overcame me as I realized I had abandoned my dear husband and children at the train station at nine o clock on a Friday night! I pretty much flipped then, much to the amusement of my fellow passangers (several of whom recognized and befriended me on my return trip home Tuesday!). There was no hope of the train stopping, and when I reached Mark by phone he calmly reported that he had already called a cab. The kids fell asleep in the cab, and Mark was focused on getting them into the house through the rain and paying the driver when he got home, and the camera bag remained there. Luckily the kind driver held it for us, and luckily our van was not towed, stolen, or broken into overnight, and luckily our friend Chris drove Mark and the kids back downtown to get the van in the morning, and luckily we had a spare key that my dad had recently sent to us after finding it in a random suitcase! This very strange and complicated plot all resulted from the train being late, the kids being fussy, and me running out to the van to get a snack for them. As I ran back, the train was coming, and I forgot to toss the keys back to Mark. OK, OK, on with the pictures! Thanks for enduring this (now) humerous story!

I had so much fun bonding with 2 yr old Ilana and Orli! They are such sweeties! Below is the handsome Mr. Shai (Hebrew for gift), one week old here and already 10 pounds!

Michele came over for a fun evening of babies and catching up! Miss and love ya'll! And a huge thanks to Mark for taking care of Autumn and Evan for five days - you're the best!

Halloween Pics

Presenting... Mario (Autumn) and Luigi (Evan)! This is our first year where we've actually come up with and put together the costumes - we've always gotten great hand-me-downs before. I am quite proud of my handiwork- I actually sewed the hats! Autumn said next year, Evan should be Hercules and she could be Meg (this is their favorite soundtrack as of late!). The kids seemed to enjoy themselves and I'm slowly trying to dispose of the candy... of course, Mark and I are eating some, but I cannot believe how much I could eat of this crap when I was younger. I'd usually have it all polished off in a week or two. Ahhh, the days of rapid metabolism!
A few days before Halloween, the kids and their friend Cody helped prep the pumpkins, along with our one-eyed scarecrow in the background (I did manage to get the other eye back on in time for the festivities)...
Trick or Treat fun!

October fun

We've had some busy, fun times lately; here are just a few pics to get the grands through to Halloween, which we're really excited about (and trying to get everyone over colds before)... also very excited about the election. Go Obama! Love to all - the pellfam...

Retreat from the Real World

We returned a few days ago from what was quite a retreat of a weekend, in more ways than one. The reason for the trip in the first place: I was invited to attend "Hearts Alive and Free" with my twin brother Joe... a men's religious extended weekend (3 1/2 days) disguised as a frisbee golfing/wall climbing/zip lining/ropes coursing/mountain biking/hiking free-for-all with 280 other guys. Joe told me about it months ago. I got the idea that when he went to the event last year, he felt he came back a changed man, better husband, and better father (as if he wasn't pretty good already). Honestly, in the days leading up to it, I was in fear of some sort of brainwashing. When we arrived Thursday evening, I told Marisa goodbye over the cell phone, and turned it (along with every other possible connection to the outside world) off until midday Sunday... when a stranger used my phone to call her. That stranger was me. I don't want to get into it too much over the blog, but I felt that I went through many years of personal (and spiritual) growth over the course of just a few days. Unbelievable what I learned about myself, about Christianity in general (along with my misconceptions of it), and about the "quiet still voice" that has been within my heart all along, without me even knowing it. Along with all of that deep stuff (and despite my cynicism and strong resistance... it worked, and not in the ways I had expected to), the essence of the weekend was for men to "recapture their hearts" i.e. returning to the urges of youth through adventure, which we did for several hours each day interspersed with spiritual group sessions and times within convenants of silence and solitude. I feel silly and exposed for writing all of this stuff here... and yet, how can I not, with this seismic change within me. And you would not believe the stories of many of the men that I met, the triumph over adversity in their pasts and even presents, through the strength of their faith. "Where do I begin?" was the question facing me as I opened up this blog editor, and so this is what I have come up with. :) And one of the coolest things of all was going through it with my bro... a picture of us is included below. You rock, dude. As we were returning to civilization and listening to the radio, I realized "Oh yeah, there's an election coming up and the vice presidential debate just happened." "Huh, the stock market's going to crap." "How 'bout that, Michigan lost another game." The thing that startled me most, is how little I now cared about those things.

Because I had to come up from West Virginia in order to go, we (Marisa and I) decided to organize a whole trip around it. While I was gone with Joe, Marisa and the kids took in a few days of hanging out with grandmas/aunts/uncles/cousins/etc. This included going to Grandma Laurie's school, visiting Yate's Cider Mill, and enjoying a day out in the country in Metamora. I tried to include a good sampling of photos from all of the fun (including a precious moment in which the kids' hands and a plant's leaves met in a clover shape, all around a fascinating caterpillar). Needless to say, the kids got all tuckered out, as evidenced by the top photo in this blog.

As they say in those infomercials, "But wait! There's more!!!" As we crossed the state line back into WV on the way back home, we visited Point Pleasant, a town along the Ohio River with a funny little piece of folklore: The "Mothman" Statue. If you've ever see the movie "The Mothman Prophecy" you might know a little about it.

Those of you who are a little curious, click on the small image of the sign for more. The kids thought the statue was cool, especially in light of Halloween coming up... though the highlight for them honestly was the fact that its bottom was exposed on the backside. We also walked along the shore of the Ohio River (Mom/Evan pic below).

And finally, upon returning, we found the phenomenom of Fall colors suddenly well underway. Yesterday, I was able to take Autumn and Evan on a hike through the woods with the mission of collecting leaves (and my mission, of course, photos). This morning, with Evan home sick with a touch of pneumonia (just got diagnosed), we took out the glue and construction paper to create their personal leaf collections.

Good stuff! To quote a philosopher I know well, "The World is a Wonderful Place."

-Mark

Early fall fun

Well, we finally got a few drops of rain yesterday after over a month with nothing, and still our hearty church group met up in the forest for our semi-annual cook-out/campout. We decided to skip on the camping last night but had a blast (once the rain cleared) hanging out with friends around the campfire. We needed it, as life lately has been pretty stressful with Mark's wacked schedule, me having a touch of emotional burnout at work, and Evan having a three-day fever bug. We spent much of today trying to deal with our downed pear tree, complete with hundreds of rotting pears all over our yard. We've had a bonfire going all day trying to eliminate some of our piled-up yard waste. Now that that's done, we get to look forward to cleaning up the hundreds of rotting apples from our dear apple tree... ah, the things we learn when we hastily buy a house with a "nice, big yard," - we thought we had learned our lesson with the house we had in Hickory Corners, MI! Speaking of MI, we are looking forward to a trip to Michigan later this week, where Mark will be going to a conference with his brother Joe and the kids and I will be hanging out in the Detroit area with mom, friends, aunts, uncles, and cousins, and hopefully Grandma Linda too! Love to all!

We're not doing many baths together anymore cause the kids get too hyper in the tub together (and they're getting too big!) but can still do cute things, such as cover their faces in suds!
A couple weeks ago Evan woke up with this project idea in his head: to make earrings, necklace, bracelet, and crown out of paper. The kids worked together in the kitchen while Mark and I dozed (ahh, heaven!) and I came out to help with a few finishing touches, but they had done almost everything themselves, including cutting out the necklace and bracelet! Even funnier, I went to pick them up from school at the end of the day, and Evan was still in full attire!

Butterfly Kisses and Bee Beards

We've been having a buggy time lately, with the kids entertained by moth-and-butterfly hunting in our yard and even finding a winged-critter hotspot across the street. Our neighbors don't seem to mind the hunting occuring in their yard. Here are some of our recent catches!

Yesterday we hit the Honey Festival at the farmer's market downtown, where we got to see this awesome bee beard demonstration. We were all amazed to see this feat up close and personal. Hope you all have a wonderful week!

First Day of Preschool!

Although Autumn and Evan have been at the YMCA Preschool/Daycare for over a year, today was a big day because they've officially moved into a beautiful, renovated new building about three times the size of the old building, and they're in the new county-wide pre-k program. The new building has a beautifully designed playroom and then a huge school room, so the kids spend the morning playing and the afternoon in "class." Everyone is very excited about it! We feel so blessed to have wonderful caring teachers that worked so hard to make this happen (the Y bought the building, a huge white colonial-style home that served as a restaraunt the past 7 years, earlier this year and completely remodeled it to make the preschool so spacious, open, and awesome). The other big change we are adjusting to is no naps! This means they are extremely crabby around dinner (bad) but asleep by 8 or 8:30 (good).

I've got a quick cute story to tell: on Saturday, Mark was working and the kids and I had just gotten home from a morning of yard-saling and park-frolicking. While I was making lunch and on the phone with my brother, the kids came up with last year's Halloween costumes from the costume box, and asked for my help in zipping them on. I distractedly did so with a knife of peanut butter in one hand and the phone in the other. Next thing I know, it's really quiet, and I go outside to find the kids halfway down the street, in full get-up - bags and all- trick or treating! My neighbor ran out laughing, saying, "Good thing I had some jolly ranchers on me!" The kids came home when I called them, looking sheepish, and I couldn't help laughing because they were just so darn cute and mischevious!

Another Fun Weekend: Babcock and Baseball

As if our summer hasn't been fun enough, we rounded it out with a great weekend of camping, hiking, fishing, and watching baseball. Above is a fampic in front of one of West Virginia's famous landmarks, the Grist Mill. You can find this frequently-postcarded structure within Babcock State Park, where we spent Friday afternoon through Sunday morning.

We did the usual camping stuff, including catching bluegill, sitting by the campfire roasting marshmellows, and hitting the park playgrounds, and even swimming a bit in the pool. We also had what we now call "snobby Smores" which uses Hershey's Symphony bars instead of the normal chocolate. And more than anything, we hiked hiked hiked:

Autumn wanders among the rhododendren, a common West Virginia native species.

Autumn, Evan, and Momma rest along the aptly-named "Island-in-the-Sky" hiking trail. Trailhead notes: WATCH YOUNG CHILDREN CAREFULLY. They are still alive, so I guess we followed directions okay enough.

Saturday morning we hiked around the beautiful Boley Lake, where Autumn took this picture of Mom and Dad.

Before our camping extravaganza, we went to see a game of our local single-A baseball club, the West Virginia Power, in downtown Charleston. Several of Mark's co-workers and their families were in attendance, as this was an organized out-of-office social event. It was pretty cool, but the kids (especially Autumn) quickly went into melt-down mode - too tired I guess. But they both loved the mascot (that silly coal dude on the lower left) and Evan was a power swinger at the kids' batting activity.

"How I Spent My Summer Vacation" by Autumn and Evan

We just got back from our big trip to Michigan and had so much fun. We saw lots of people we love and we ate fudge from Mackinaw Island! Here are a bunch of pictures, and we'll tell you about each one, ok?

After a long drive, we stopped for a few hours and hung out with our cousins Ross and Dana and (Great) Aunt Pam and Uncle Dave, and we played with their dog Sandy, who we love! Thanks for a great dinner guys!

Once we got to Grandma's cottage in Rogers City, we hit the beach right away! Here's Grandma with Autumn hanging out in the sun!

My Uncle Joe and Grandma Linda came up for a visit, but they had to leave the next morning cause Nana had a fall. We did have a fun visit for one night though!

Mom and Dad went to a wedding on Mackinaw Island with Uncle Mike and Aunt Rachel - we stayed home with Grandma. Thanks Grandma for baby-sitting us!

Grandma got a cool rowboat for the cottage, and here we are getting ready to take it out for the first time. The waves were pretty big and choppy all week, so we didn't get to go far. Then we found a beehive in the boat so we were quite worried about that, but Daddy saved the day and got rid of it without getting stung!

This is Dave the puppy and we love him so much! He came to visit a lot and one day we got to dog-sit him for an hour! We loved feeding him biscuits and taking him for a walk. On Tuesday we went to Mackinaw Island where we visited the Butterfly House. Look, I found one!

Grandma took this photo of our fam at the marina - we got to see some big ships come in...

Mom caught me out on this rock in Lake Huron singing "Part of Your World" and pretending to be Ariel. She thought it was really cute, but I was oh so embarrassed!

Here we are at the top of 40-Mile Point Lighthouse. We got to climb funny, skinny, twisty stairs to get there. It was a little scary going back down!

Every once in awhile, we liked to give the grown-ups a break and entertain ourselves. Of course since Grandma is an art teacher, she had this cool art table set up for us at the cottage where we could work on painting rainbows.

I thought if I gave everyone this look, we might all be able to stay at the cottage another week, but no such luck. I did get to give Uncle Joel lots of hugs, though!

This is our last day at the cottage. We will miss Grandma Laurie, Uncle Joel, and all the fun we had there. Until next year...

Vacation's not over yet! We spent a few days in Grand Rapids for extended Pellfam Christmas in August, where we posed for this goofy picture with our cousins Danny, Chandler, and Sebastion. We also had a blast at Craig's Cruisers and on Monday went to see Nana at the nursing home, and Grandma Linda went with us. She and Mommy both had really stuffy noses and red allergy eyes. Nana was happy to see us - Daddy told us it made her day better.
Here's the whole gang! Aunt Judy and Uncle Joe let us stay at their house for two nights. Thank you aunt and uncle and Danny! Thanks to all the nice people we saw on our summer vacation - we love you all!