October 27...300/365

Had a great lunch in Lafayette today with my Grandma, my mom's cousin Jennifer and her adorable son Mitchell, my Auntie Linda, and my cousin Megan (I forgot to snap a picture while two other cousins were with us, but they had to head to class at Purdue).  Fun day, and hope we do it again soon!

October 26...299/365

Fall treats for our teachers at the elementary school.

October 24...297/365

Not my best day...

October 22...295/365

Mission: Accomplished!!

October 21...294/365

View from the Cider Mill.  I think this is the Huron River...if my dad sees this maybe he will comment to confirm! :o)

October 20...293/365

Getting ready for our big weekend project.  We drove to Ann Arbor to help my dad put a deck on the back of his house.

October 18...291/365

First Tae Kwon Do testing today. I think I started to cry when he
broke his board. I wasn't thinking testing would be a big deal till he
confessed right before, "I'm a bit nervous..."

October 17...290/3635

After a two-year battle with Spelling/Handwriting, the unthinkable happened...Zane scored 100% on his spelling test!!!!  I had tried everything...crazy rhymes and pictures, cheers with hand motions, notecards with words in different colors for certain sounds...you name it, I tried it.  This year I decided to try an experiment.  15 minutes of Spelling City EVERY DAY plus the homework his teacher assigns.  If there are certain tricky words we are sure to discuss them, but otherwise it's up to him to learn them.  Usually on the pre-test he brings home on Monday he only gets about half the words correct.  Our goal is to miss 2 or less.  Last Friday he finally reached his goal with a perfect 100%!!!  It was a reason to CELEBRATE  at the Brown house.  We took a trip to FroYo (a new Frozen Yogurt place) for a special treat.  Zane--we are proud of your hard work!!! Love you, Bubba :o)

October 16...289/365

New World Concert Orchestra had their first concert of the season tonight and the Artsgarden downtown.

October 15...288/365

Fun hike through the woods today.  More photos here

October 14...287/365

The service portion of our school's Walkabout fundraiser was a shoe drive for Soles4Souls.  Today I helped sort shoes.  Lots and lots of shoes...

October 13...286/365

Clara's choir concert...for her solo, click here

October 11...284/365

Clara snapped this one today with my phone.  I can tell you (since I'm a little behind on posting my photos) that we were MUCH happier with her on Tuesday this week than we were on Thursday!!!  How can such a fun-loving, cute girl get into SO much trouble and make me SO angry???

October 8...281/365

Cousins

10/7...280/365

What an awesome smile!!  What an awesome kid!!!

October 6...279/365

After school today things were really peaceful for some reason.  I had soup on the stove and Millie helped me make pumpkin apple muffins for dinner.  Then we sat on the couch and read together.  I'm not sure why we can't do this every day, but I was thankful for it today!!

Apple Pumpkin Muffins

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 Tblspn. Pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

2 eggs

1 cup canned pumpkin

½ cup vegetable oil

2 cups finely chopped peeled apples

STREUSEL:

¼ cup sugar

2 Tblspn. All-purpose flour

½ tsp. ground cinnamon

4 tsp. cold butter or margarine

In a bowl, combine the first five ingredients.  In another bowl, combine the eggs, pumpkin and oil; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.  Fold in apples.  Fill paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full.  In a small bowl, combine sugar, flour and cinnamon.  Cut in butter until crumbly.  Sprinkle over batter.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.  Makes 1 ½ dozen.

October 4...277/365

Fall Creek Valley Middle School orchestra concert.  Quinn is the first cello on the right.  Clara is hiding in the first row of violins somewhere...

October 3...276/365

No project is ever as easy as it looks.  A friend asked me to do these after she saw me putting names on burp cloths for a friend's newborn.  The texture and nap of these blankies made it a challenge.  But (on the third try) they turned out pretty good!

October 1...274/365

We went to our niece's soccer game today.  6 year old soccer is pretty funny :o)  It was fun, but pretty chilly today!  Fall is here for sure...