Trick or Treat

We went over to Jason and Lisa's house for Trick or Treating Fri pm. Worked a lot better than our neighborhood-- houses closer together, better roads, etc. Had a fun meal with them before we got everyone ready to go. Jenna was a black cat, Claire a fairy, and Micah a monkey. They all had fun with it at first. Claire tired of the actual trick or treating first-- worked out well that we had just taken a small loop in the neighborhood because it was chilly out and we didn't know how long little Reese would last. Micah went a little longer, and Jenna and Ethan (with Daddy and Jason) made it the longest. Their endurance probably had something to do with the motivation, too. Claire couldn't care less for most of the candy she got. All her chocolates went to Katie. The only ones Claire likes are lollipops, Dots, and Skittles. It was getting quite cold (for here in Oct, anyway-- down below 40), so we had dressed in many layers.

Jenna playing piano at CSC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2-7ftoLWq0

Hoover House

On Saturday, we went up to Chad's parents' house to check on things, and then we stopped at Lance and Barb Hoover's new place at Menno Haven. I think they were excited to have us over, and we enjoyed seeing their cottage (they live in a unit like Gma and Gpa W used to). We also took a walk (chilly!) around the pond and ate a pizza picnic in their living room.

Here Claire is trying to play Korean jacks. None of us understands how the Korean students at Grace are so good at it-- seems impossible. I guess they've been practicing a long time!

Concert Pianist

Last week was Grandparents Day at Grace. We didn't get many pics, so this is it. Claire played piano for the program. Didn't phase her in the least to play in front of a few hundred people. Actually, she was most upset about the shirt she was required to wear. :) Since she just started lessons in June, and we're taking our own sweet time, she's not playing songs with her hands together yet. This was a left hand version of Ode to Joy.

Jenna also played piano for it. Amazing Grace. Both girls did a really nice job. And the grandparents loved seeing/hearing the kids play.

Since we have no grandparents nearby right now, I asked Cheryl Michael to fill in. (Turned out it was the week they had their grandsons with them, so George stayed home with the boys) Cheryl visited the classrooms and took Jenna and Claire to lunch at Ryans.

Old Photos

Chad with his parents and younger brother, Nathan.

Chad in 2nd grade

High school senior pic

When we were dating

Micah Quickie

Micah counts to 119.

He wrote ZOO on the magnadoodle in the car. I said, "How'd you know how to spell that?" He said, "It's just a Z and a O and a O."

He's writing most of the letters. Maybe today I'll "test" him to see how many he can do on paper.

Might be the first kid in history to be able to read and write before he can poop in the potty.

Kitchen Orchard

Saturday afternoon we went to Kitchen Orchard for some fall fun. It's about 5 min from our house, along those back roads we take to get to church/Hedgesville sometimes.

Some HUGE apples!

They also had lots of pumpkins, mums, and other things. I try to buy produce from them when I can in the summer and fall. They had some WONDERFUL watermelons this summer. I also buy apple seconds from them to make applesauce.

This year they have a corn maze as well. We were the only ones in it at the time, and we had a deal of a time trying to find our way out. :) We did not let Micah run off by himself here! Those of us who were old enough knew we could always find our way out by heading for the tall trees at one end of the field, but it really was a well-made maze. Plus, it was sunny and 65-70. And quite windy when we were out of the corn.

That's the field with the Maize Maze. :)

Micah Voting

OK, so Micah didn't vote. I just remembered this tidbit-- a week ago or 2 ago when I was voting for WV governor (special election)-- the place was pretty empty, so the workers were happy to see Micah and his dimples come bouncing in the door. :) The lady took her time hunting up my name in her little book. Meanwhile, Micah identified a number he saw somewhere and the other ladies around were fascinated that he knew his numbers. They had him read some numbers off another page. Then the lady's comment,

"You must watch Sesame Street, huh?"

What? So she thinks that's how kids learn their numbers?

Fall Bike Ride

Saturday Chad, Katie, and Jenna went with Jeff Brown and his girls on a 10-mile bike ride on the towpath. Was a pretty day, but we had just had a bunch of rain so there were lots of puddles to ride around. Besides the mud, they had a great time. And a stop for lunch at a little cafe in Williamsport was fun, too. They enjoyed the frozen hot chocolates.

Katie's Volleyball Team

Katie's volleyball season is now over. She, personally, REALLY had a great season. Sadly, her team did not. They lost a lot. Almost all their games, actually. Katie still had fun, and she said she wishes volleyball would go all year long. She chose to stay on the middle school team, even though the coaches asked if she wanted to go up to the JV team-- turned out to be a great decision. She was one of the oldest/most experienced on the team so she got lots of playing time (very different from the past 2 years) and she improved tons-- with her setting, serving, how the rotation goes, and just knowing when to hit the ball. Because of the weird rotation they do, Katie (#9), often has to switch spots right after the serve. Here she is waiting to switch.

Action shot!

Chad actually got a very nice short video during this past game. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVJGkUrsMF4. If you watch closely, you can see Katie hit the ball 4 times during the 35 seconds. She's a setter, so she's supposed to hit the ball the 2nd time of the 3 hits while it's on their side of the net.

And the videos below are just for fun. :)

Our Sweet, Goofy 7-year-old

Claire turned 7 yesterday! We had such fun with her birthday... maybe in great part because she was SO excited about it. She was very happy to finally be the age of all her classmates at school-- all the rest had already turned 7, and she was still 6.

Usually, I tell the kids I'll do a friends party every 2 or 3 years, and on the other years, we just have a party with Gma and Gpa (and sometimes some other relatives might be around :). Well, right now, everyone in our families is in MI/CO/CA, so I knew we had to plan something different to make her bday special. (Chad's parents gave Claire her gift and even a cake way back in August before they left)


Because we had no school on Monday, we planned Claire's party for the evening before her actual birthday. Claire wanted to invite George and Cheryl Michael, and Sheila Tingler-- a special teacher/friend from church. We really had a fantastic time, and I know Claire thought it was special (so I felt successful! :).

Here Claire is giving Katie a hug-- she had just opened a really neat present from Katie-- a set of necklaces that says Big Sis and Lil Sis-- so the 2 of them each wear one.




Oh, dear. Here's another crooked picture. If someone knows how to turn these, you'll have to tell me.

This is the cake Katie and I made for Claire. We used Wendy's idea for Madison's cake, and modified it a bit so we could leave the middle without frosting-- since Claire likes yellow cake but only without frosting.


For our meal, we had a menu planned by Claire... grilled hotdogs and sausages with buns, Texas toast, apple slices, red finger jello (cut by Jenna into cool shapes, even the word "CLAIRE"), peas (because I told Claire she needed to choose a vegetable, not because she wanted any or ended up eating any), and I surprised her with some fresh (expensive) raspberries.




It took her 2 tries to blow out the candles. On the first try, she got none, and on the second, she got them all.


We also had some party horns that provided a bunch of laughs.







Here's Claire with Mrs. Tingler, who was Claire's 4's and 5's teacher at church. Very sweet woman. Sheila plays bells next to me at church also. And her son is Katie's youth group leader.










George and Cheryl both came, but he had to leave after supper for church board meetings, so we missed getting a pic of him.

Claire got some fun presents-- gummy worms and gummy bears, a little money and gift cards (the girls first thought it was a $500 gift card, and we had a good laugh over that!), headbands, socks, crocs, a fairy book, video, markers.





On Tuesday morning, the real day of Claire's birthday, Chad had arranged a string thing-- he had string going all over the living room, stairs, family room, bathroom, even some in the garage. Started upstairs and ended back up here at the piano. Claire followed it around, collected some cool notes on the way, and found a pretty blue scarf at the end.

Claire was born at 12:09pm, so this year, she made a big deal about not actually turning 7 til during lunch at school. :)

After a pizza supper, she opened the cards and packages that had come for her in the mail. Fun to spread it out like this.

Claire is such a special addition to our family! I just can't imagine how boring our family would be without her. She's a spark, full of life and silliness. She's smart and catches on to humor quickly. She also can be very loving and kind; as well as very hyper and crazy. For her birthday party, she definitely was all those. She's so much fun!

Seven years ago, we were in the middle of our Johns Hopkins adventure with her. Learning about the NICU. Trying to cuddle her with all the wires attached. (Trying to nurse her with wires attached, in the middle of a room with several babies/doctors/nurses!) Wondering when/if she'd have to have heart surgery. Wondering what God had planned for her life. She was a beautiful 9 lb 3 1/2 oz baby... nurses kept commenting that she looked like a baby doll and she looked absolutely gigantic compared to most of the babies in the NICU! Two months later, she had her heart surgery, and other than a very neat scar, you'd never know. She ran/walked 2 miles at school last week! Thank you, Lord!

Satisfying Saturday

Fun day today-- took kids to a large yard sale (the kind in a parking lot, where people pay a fee to be able to set up a table there) in Hedgesville. Found a magna doodle, roller blades for Katie, a sweatshirt, earrings, and a truck for Micah. Interesting, huh? :)

Then we all went to play tennis at Hedgesville High School. Lots of fun. Katie is really pretty good at it already. Jenna knows all the rules from playing Wii Tennis, but has a little trouble hitting the ball over the net. Claire has a lot of fun and a lot of determination. Micah just wanted to run around, swing racquets, throw balls, pick up pinecones, ride scooters. It definitely was not your average tennis outing.

















Then the boys mowed the lawn.

Happy Birthday, Honey!

It was Chad's 39th bday yesterday-- he's now almost finished his climb to the top of the hill. :)

It was a busy day with Race for Grace, but at least we had early dismissal at 1pm. After Katie's vball practice, she and Chad rode their bikes 9 miles to Williamsport, where we picked up Katie. Then he rode the rest of the way home. Totally perfect fall day to ride.

We had a Chad supper-- cheese casserole, coconut salad, carrot cake.

And a few presents-- the kids gave him a frisbee, a toy car, and a bag of Almond Joy candies. I gave him a bike mirror and a Charlie Brown DVD set.

Race for Grace

Race for Grace yesterday. GORGEOUS day for it. I was out for 2 hours-- and saw maybe 12 small planes (airport within a couple miles) and 2 helicopters. Everyone was enjoying the day.

Here are the 2nd-5th graders at the start line.









Jenna and Katie didn't want any photo documentary of their day, but Claire did. :) And, I ended up going the 2nd mile with her because she was having trouble finishing the first one, much less the second. She needed some encouragement. We had a nice time, mostly walking that mile, talking and enjoying the beautiful property. The run was around the edge of Grace's property this year.











That's PA in the background.

Flowers

This is how our house looks right now.

Steenwyk pictures

With our digital camera, I just took pictures of these old photos that had been assembled for display at the visitation for my Grandpa Steenwyk. I'm not sure if I'll get all the labels correct, so Steenwyks, please tell me if I goofed on any! So sorry I did not manage to get them in a very chronological order, but I did end up with one of my favorites first! :)

Joe and Wilma (my grandparents)-- sign says 1964. So he was 43 and she was 41.

This is pretty much how I remember my grandparents from when I was growing up.

The Steenwyk family, after my Great Grandpa Steenwyk had passed away. My Great Gma S is in the front row. My grandpa is directly behind her.

Joe-- teenager?

Joe and Wilma with their 3 boys (My dad is in the plaid shirt) at a cabin

The Petroelje kids. This is interesting-- 3 Petroelje girls married 3 Steenwyk boys, so my grandpa and 2 of his brothers are in this Petroelje family pic. Joe and Wilma are front and center. The other dark haired men are Steenwyks.

There are a couple extra kids (cousin and a friend?), but 2 of the young ones in front are the youngest siblings of my gma. The curly haired boy who is turned away I think is Uncle Allen who grew up with my dad.

An old farm pic. My gpa is the man standing by the pile of hay bales. I think my dad is the highest one on top.

Before they bought the baler, they gathered the hay in loose piles. My dad said they bought the baler when he was 11. When he was 12, 13, 14, he used to drive the tractor with the baler and go around to many of the neighbors' farms to bale hay for them for pay.

Before tractors

My dad and his sibs and parents. Maybe early 1970's? This is the photo I remember hanging on the wall for years and years.

Threshing machine-- Joe is on the right. Person on the left was probably one of my gma's brothers.

Great picture of my grandpa with his smile... several people remarked about it at the funeral. He was a very happy, content person, even tho he experienced many hardships. I think he always felt blessed.

(Hey! There's that great wallpaper again!)

Grandpa with Lila, his special friend for the past couple years while he lived at Oakcrest.

Grandpa with my sister's babies, Caleb and Logan

Bummer, I didn't even get this one in straight. And I don't know how to turn it. Turn your head, I guess. This is my brother Mike and I with gpa and gma.

At the house my gpa bought beside gma's nursing home in Zeeland. From left-- my dad, my grandpa, Uncle Dave, Aunt Betty, Aunt Mary, Uncle Paul

My grandpa loved to play mouth organ (harmonica), and we all loved to hear it. Sometimes, he and his 2 brothers would get together and all 3 would play together. Wish I'd heard that!