Unofficial first day of school...

 I like to do something special the first official day of school but we were so busy back then and I couldn't think of anything to do for it so today is our "unofficial" first day of school.  We went to a play called, "Humpty Dumpty is Missing".  It was put on by the Fargo Moorhead Community Theater by area children.  It was really quite cute! 

 Caleb Daniel waiting for the play to begin!

 The stage and lots of other children from some area schools were there today!

 Rebekah requested we go to Scheels and ride the Ferris Wheel.

 Lena's first ride on a Ferris Wheel!  She liked it but was a bit scared of it too.  I was scared too and didn't really like the feeling that if I leaned back to far we would fall out.  I didn't feel too secure.  I probably shouldn't have been riding with Lena because she seemed to sense my fear and asked a lot of questions about if we would fall or not.

 Jordan and Isaac!

 We went upstairs in Scheels and played the shooting game.

After Scheels we checked out some thrift stores and then went to the new Costco store!  I really like the store.  I was surprised at the variety they had.  I like to buy certain brands of gluten-free foods and certain foods from organic sources and they had those in plentiful supply.  It should be worth the $55 membership fee, which they gave a $10 gift card for signing up before Nov. 4th so that brought the cost down a bit.   We got organic cane sugar, organic frozen green beans, bunches of bananas for $1.39 per bunch, several gluten-free crackers and tortilla chips and some big bags of chocolate chips!!! I'm hoping with some self-control the chocolate chips will last the winter for us.  To reward the kids for their staying power we got frozen waffles, too.  They can't wait!!!  I bet chocolate chips will taste good on those waffles :)  Back to regular life tomorrow. 

Pregnant D's...

Emily teaches Lena preschool stuff most days and has been doing her letters with her.  Lena was practicing writing some letters.  She wrote a big D and then put the little d inside the big D.  Emily says, "No, Lena, write it next to the big D."  Lena says, "No, but the D is going to have a baby."  Way too cute!  How do little ones think of such things? 

Butternut Squash and Roasted Garlic Puree...

 I had some leeks still in the garage and sauteed them up for this delicious soup.  I let the leeks get a little too done but the flavor was still wonderful in the soup. 

 I roasted butternut squash with lots of garlic, something like 30 small cloves from our own garden and some olive oil and water. 

It blended up thick and creamy.  I added white pepper and salt and I really like it.  I imagine it may have been served once upon a time at a large meal with 14 courses for one of the first courses. It was nice that it was all natural, home-grown ingredients.   I liked it but in a small amount.  Kevin liked it too.

High tunnel bounty...

 I picked all of this from the tunnel on Saturday.  We made Ratatouille again for a pot luck we went to Sunday so we had fresh eggplant, zucchini squash and tomatoes for it.  I have 8 boxes of tomatoes that came from the tunnel.  It was fun!  I'm tiring out of the bounty but love fresh veggies!

 Today, I went to see if there was some celery to use for a soup I was making and I found some peppers, celery, strawberries and cherry tomatoes.

The kids loved the small amount of strawberries.   There are new blossoms out there so maybe we'll be getting a few here and there for a little longer!  I love it! 

New "members" of our family...

Here is the "ahem" father of the boy dancing with my daughter, that was the reply when I asked Gideon who he was supposed to be.  The kids were dancing waltzes and other dances while Jordan played piano.

Now he told me he is the son who was dancing with my daughter.  Quite a handsome catch!!! :)  He has always loved to dress up, he used to sleep in his cowboy boots at the age of 3 and now he tends to dress up more dressy :)

Sierra Mist is a Beagle who is probably our newest dog. (We can take her back as of right now) I'm not a dog-happy person but circumstances have led to needing a watch dog of some sort.  I know Sierra won't inspire wobbly knees if she set to barking but we are told she will bark mightily at everything that comes around.  She just had a litter of puppies and isn't too fond of us yet.  I'm afraid she won't get a chance to bark at anything as we've let her in the house already and how are we going to kick her out when the weather is starting to turn.  The kids couldn't be happier with her.

Sweet...

We've been spending our days canning, cleaning gardens, school and the other number of things that fill our days.  We got to spend this last weekend on our final camping trip of the year, the annual Cutler hayride.  We got a picture of Lena with Ole, but it's on Kevin's phone so I can't upload it.  We were at the Cutler hayride when Lena was only 6 weeks old and we heard of an Ole who was just a few months old but this was the first we had met him.  Pretty cute!  He goes by his middle name though, Jesse. 

We are so happy with the bounty of apples this year. After a few dozen jars of applesauce though you start to lose heart but I want to keep it going just in case there aren't so many apples next year.  

Please pray for Kevin's mom who is in the hospital for an undetermined period of time.  She got another infection and it's wiped her out so she can't come home until her strength is built up.