Steve's Birthday Surprise

Yesterday was Steve's 39th birthday. So as a surprise, I took him to a shooting range around the corner from our house tonight. He hasn't shot a pistol since being in the army and had commented on how he'd like to do it again. We had a blast and he was totally surprised! (I probably had more fun then he did!) The staff and instructors at the firearms school were great. We were able to try a .22 and a 9mm. One of the other patrons even let Steve try their personal .45. Amazingly, I did pretty well - considering I've never held a gun before in my life. (Check out all those holes in the center of the target.)

Fall Fun Part 2

Steve and I went to a Halloween party last night with the people from his work. We, obviously, dressed as Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf in Grandma's clothes. Steve's costume was a big hit. You can't see it here, but there's a nice fluffy tail sewn to the back of his nightgown. =) I'm just pretty impressed that I made my red cape all by myself with my limited sewing skills!

If you look closely, you can see the black "claws" on Steve's fingers. Believe it or not, there aren't any "claw" nails at any of the Halloween stores. So I had to get creative and made these by taking a dremel to some fake press-on nails.

Another gorgeous day for a fall outing... so we went to Jane and Paul's farm in Norfolk for some hayrides and pumpkin picking.

Daddy helping pick the pumpkins off the vine.

"I want THIS one."

October Column

My October article for the paper.

Fall Fun

Zach and Emily's field trip to Phantom Farms... on the hayride through the apple orchard.

Learning about the machines that peel and core the apples.

Picking their own apples.

Izzy's last day of soccer.

Zach mid-air after he kicked the ball.

He can't wait to play on a soccer team!

Emily taking her turn.

Back to Phantom Farms at night for the Jack-o-Lantern Illumination. (They filled the apple orchard with lit up jack-o-lanterns.)

Our favorite... the light switch on the side actually turns on a light in the pumpkin.

Scary dude...

Zach was the first to spot the "Izzy" pumpkin. (It's actually one for "Lizzy's Ice Cream Parlor". =)

Zach and Emily's First School Day

Zach and Emily had their first day of 4-year-old preschool today.

...just a little excited! =)

One happy girl!

Wow... he looks so grown up!

Izzy's First Day of School (First Bus Ride too!)

Today is Izzy's first day of Kindergarten! She's so excited to start at her new school, and get to ride the bus all by herself as well.

Waiting at the bus stop...

The other kids at our stop.

A HUGE thunderstorm came thru in the 10 min we were waiting for the bus. Loudest thunder and lightning I've heard in a while. I figured it was God's way of saying "Goodbye, and have a great day at school!" =)

Running to the bus in the rain.

There she goes... and of course I followed the bus in my car and parked across the school entrance to make sure she made it into the building ok - which she did.

House Facelift

We've been doing a gradual makeover to the exterior of our house. Here's how everything looked BEFORE: (Notice the very dirty/back trim along the roof and around the windows, as well as the worn, old wood door.)

Old original 1960's wood garage doors.

The NEW look after everything has been completed! Nothing "radical" was changed (besides the garage doors), just cleaning and updating all the pieces.

We replaced all the windows last November. Then this summer we clean and repainted all the trim and doors, put in new gutters and downspouts, and installed a new glass storm door at the front of the house.

Just last week, the final piece was finished - new garage doors!