Sunday, October 31, 2010

Happy Halloween. And other fun

This weekend was so busy that I didn't get a chance to blog yesterday.  I know you missed me. Just admit it.

Do you feel better?

Before I start the post, I want to thank Uncle Zac for the wonderful treat bags he sent the kids for Halloween!

They spent about 1 hour going through it and lining up all their candy.  Thank you Zac - that was very sweet.


Yesterday started early with the set up at our local Apple Festival.  We got permission from our selectman (which is like a mayor, but our town is small) to have a Finley's Fighters table at the Apple Festival to raise awareness and talked to people about LCA.  Plus we were allowed to sell our goods, which was great.

 The apple festival is really well attended.  We were told they make 1500 pies.  The festival runs from 9am until they run out of pies.  They were out of pies around 11am!  Amazing.  The line started around 8am - before we even arrived to set up.  The pies are homemade and so yummy.  Like I said - this is one of my favorite weekends in our town.  So much fun small town stuff to do.

 We talked to a ton of people at the festival.  We handed out a lot of information on Finley and LCA, and our Fund.  We collected quite a bit in donations.  We sold some shirts and wrist bands.  The biggest hit though?  My grandmother's homemade cookies.  She made pumpkin and chocolate chip.  We had about 10 half dozen packs of each to sell.  They lasted about an hour. Next year I know what we need more of!  My grandmother was so excited they got sold.  Her cookies are awesome.
 Mat and I got to talk to many politicians - state, national, local.  Republican and democrat.  With the elections right around the corner, they had tables there as well.  We got to tell them how much we need our BESB (Board of Education Services for the Blind) and how much we depend on them.  We told them about our little girl and getting more awareness about LCA, blind children, and blind children in the public school.  They listened carefully (we even got our picture taken with the national rep.).  I cannot thank our selectman enough for introducing us to everyone he could find.  We really appreciate being able to tell people about our cause.

 So it was a great day.  Finley was a trooper - she stayed the whole 4 1/2 hours and greeted people and ate yummy food.  Arlington stayed too.  It was cold, but not terrible.  By 12:30 - the festival wound down and we packed up and came home.  I look forward to doing it again and again.  This first year is always the hardest.  But once people know more about us, we will become a regular household name.

 After we came home from the festival, my mom and I and Arlington changed and left for New York City.  My cousin, Kirsten, in in the Broadway show - Elf this holiday season.  She had some comp. tickets and asked if we would like to come in and see the show.  I am always up to see a free show, let alone one that Kirsten is in.  Arlington was very excited.

 We left for NYC, and hit the American Girl store before the show.  Can't go in the city and not go to this store if you have a little girl.  The stuff is expensive, but the store is really cute and fun to browse.

 We met Kirsten at the theater and got the tickets then headed to dinner.  The show wasn't until 7:30, so we had time for a nice dinner.  We had great seats, and the show was really good.  If you are able to get to NYC this holiday season, make sure you see Elf.  It is only running until Jan. 2.  They did a great job and Arlington loved it!

We hit some traffic coming out of the city, so we didn't get home until almost 2am.  That was a little rough, but we slept in this morning.  Arlington fell asleep as soon as we left the city, but my mom and I stayed up the whole ride.  I am glad we don't live that far.

 Today we have already been trick or treating.  We decided to take the kids to our mall for their annual trick or treating.  There were 100's of kids there, and it was really fun to see all the costumes.  Each store was giving out candy, so all three kids got some serious loot.  What I liked about this is - 1)it is in the daylight.  2)it is indoors (it is really cold today).  Arlington and Mat went trick or treating this evening in the neighborhood, but trick or treating in the country can be......tricky.  (ha ha).  It is really dark (which Arlington loves) and the houses are super close together, so the littles never make it far.  So Finley, Cainan and I stayed at the house to hand out candy.

 I wanted to mention that this past Friday was also really fun in our town.  We have our annual book sale from our library.  I think it was over 20,000 books, if I remember correctly.  They are all books that were donated to the library and the library uses this sale to make profit.  They always do really well, and people line up to get in.  We took the kids, and got 100 children's books (chapter books included), 10 adult books, and 1 video for $30!!!  It was amazing.  We have been having fun going through the books with the kids.  I love this weekend!!!

 So that is all.  Tomorrow I will not be at work because I will be going to have my knee checked.  I bumped it on the treadmill - well the thing fell on me - three weeks ago, and I now have a large fluid build up.  fun fun.  The doctor's have been keeps a weekly check on it, but they feel like now it needs to be drained.  So I have that appt. tomorrow.  I will have to rest it for 24 hours.  We don't have school on Tuesday (election day) so it worked out well.

 (Cainan was a bit tired after Trick or Treating)

Tomorrow is Mat and my anniversary.  We will be married for 13 years  Hard to believe.  No big plans, but we will be spending the day tomorrow (he is my driver for the doctor's office).  Doesn't that sound romantic.  I am sure every couple wishes they could spend the day together in a doctor's office.  I know you are jealous.

 I will talk more about our anniversary on Tuesday!  Don't forget - this coming Thursday is the Spaghetti dinner for Finley in Connellsville.  Please plan on attending!  It is only $5 a person and all proceeds go to Finley's RDH12 Fund for Sight.  There are going to be 12 baskets to win and a WONDERFUL trip to the meadows!  You can't miss it!!!  Please attend.  We appreciate your support.

Don't forget to continue to check our our two websites  www.finleyfighters.com and www.rdh12.org.  Mat will be adding a lot of new pictures soon!

See you Tuesday!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Little of This, Little of that

Things are busy as usual around the Pletcher house.  Another week has started - the last one in October 2010.  Hard to believe.

 It is unseasonally warm right now.  I have mixed feelings about it.  It is comfortable, but I have no idea how to dress the kids for school.  It is in the 50s in the morning and in the 70s by the afternoon.  I am sure this will be short lived and soon I will be wishing for days like this.

 We raked the leaves this past weekend and now it looks like we never did it.  Our tree in our front yard is playing games with us.  It had almost all of its leaves on Saturday and I looked at it and gave it the evil eye.  Then it dropped all of its leaves yesterday.  Devil tree.

Arlington lost another tooth.  I think we are up to 7?  She like that because she is 7 years old and she has lost 7 teeth.  she has two more that are loose.  If she doesn't start getting more adult teeth soon, she will have to be on an all liquid diet.

 She really looks like a vampire now.

We took the kids to the toy store Sunday afternoon so they could get an idea of a few things they would like for Christmas.  That was a crazy idea.  We have it every year, and we never learn.  Arlington came home and made a list of 1-100 of her favorites.  O.K.

 Finley wrote her list.  I was proud of her because she wrote all of her words the right way.  She is getting pretty good at spelling.  Her list was kind of all over the place, but cute all the same.
 (I cannot get this to turn around- no idea why.)
 Cainan made a picture of a toy he would like.

 It is from Toy Story 3 - Dr. Porkchop.  He draws a pig better than he draws a person.  He worked really hard on it.

Arlinton wore her hair in braids today.  It took me 15 minutes to do before school this morning.  She better be grateful.

 Finley drew all over her face with a pen.  She was supposed to be circling things, but instead she was coloring herself.  She is awesome like that.  So......I gave her a pencil instead.

 Finley has also tatooed herself.  I should have taken a picture of that one.  She was in the bathroom the other day and came out with 4 tatoos on her arm.  And they all belonged to Arlington.  That was not a pleasant evening.

Today I got Finley's glasses repaired.  She tends to play with her glasses and poke her eyes (an LCA thing) and she knocked off one of the little nose pieces.  So for $3, Walmart fixed them.  I still hate Walmart, but I hated them a little less after they fixed her very expensive glasses for $3.   And I got to educate them on LCA.  So it was a win/win.

 My parents are coming in a few days and will be spending a long weekend with us.  We are looking forward to that.  We are going to do some fun fall activities, support our school, and eat a lot of apple pie.  It is going to be awesome.
My computer is broken.  Hence the pictures in this post that have not been through my beloved Lightroom.  I am blaming Mat.  He didn't speak nicely to it earlier and didn't realize how sensitive it was, and now it is not speaking to either of us.

Our new dishwasher came today.  This time, dent free.  We will be installing it as soon as we learn how.  But it looks pretty.  It WANTS to wash my dishes.  If only I was a plumber.

Have a great week!  Happy Hallloween!  Oh and PS - the Finley's Fighters website (www.finleyfighters.com) is having a technical problem tonight.  If you have clicked on the email address on the Links page, and sent me a message, I am not getting it.  Mat is working on it.  Go to the subscribe box right below it instead and send it that way!  I am not ignoring you - we are having a glitch.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Pumpkins, leaves, laughter, fall

Fall seems to be passing us by at an alarming pace.  I cannot believe in one more week, it will be time for Halloween and then we will be in November.
 
The heat is on all the time in our house now.  It is getting into the 30's at night and really only into the low 60's during the day.  We love this time of year.  The sun shines, the leaves change colors, and the air is cool, but not cold.  I wish it could stay this way until March and we just skip over the below zero weather and deep snow.

Last weekend, Mat and I took the kids to a local apple orchard to run through a corn maze, get a fresh apple pie, and pick this years pumpkins.

We had not been to this particular orchard before, so it was fun to try something new.  We remembered about half way there that we forgot the camera.  It was a good 45 minute one way ride, so we decided that Mat's blackberry was going to have to do (and it is a nice little camera believe it or not!)

 We started our day at the corn maze.  The orchard was packed with people.  This is a very large, very popular orchard, but to protect where we live, I will not be giving the name.  Not that it needs my help - it was packed.  We waited in a car line for quite awhile before we got a parking spot.

 The corn maze was huge.  Arlington had the best time in there.  They gave us a map, and a list of questions, and every time we came to a post, we had to read a question to find out what way to go.
 The questions were simple, but Arlington was in charge, so she loved that.

Finley could not figure out what was taking us so long to get to the pumpkins.  She kept asking if the pumpkins were "coming up soon".  She was not pleased when we emerged from the maze and in front of her was not the pumpkin patch.


We went to the store where they sell their famous apple products.  Here is a small shot of the people in the store.

 Crazy, right?  While Mat stood in line, the kids and I hunted for a small pumpkin for each of them to carry home.  We ended up with three little pumpkins and a delicious apple pie and cider before heading to the big pumpkin patch.

 This orchard is not known for its pumpkins, but there were plenty to pick from.  We had a hard time deciding, so we ended up with three pumpkins to carve.  One of them is green, yes.  That would be Mat's choice, and Cainan backed him up, so it came home with us.


We didn't carve the pumpkins until Monday night when Mat's parents arrived.  I was glad we waited so that we could all enjoy this activity together.

 We let the kids each pick a pumpkin and draw their own face on it.

 Then Mat carved them out and we got out the seeds.  (Sally, Mat's mom always roasts the pumpking seeds and that is the best).

Cainan dug in for the first time ever.  He doesn't like to get his hands dirty or slimy, but this year - he didn't mind.  It was so great to watch.

Finley and Arlington had no problem gutting the pumpkin and making a mess.  Finley took her time and pulled the seeds out of the goo and put them in the bowl.



Here is the end result of the kids pumpkins.
Cainan's is the green, Finley's is the one in the middle, and Arlington's in on the right.

This week went by quickly - Mat was out of town for a few days, so Mat's parents were in visiting.  It was nice getting to spend time with them and I was glad they were here to keep me company.  The kids were sad to see them go on Thursday.

Today we didn't have anywhere to go - thank goodness.  We slowly got ready this morning and headed outside.  It was a beautiful day, and it was time to rake the leaves.  With the 1 million trees we have around our property, we can't get around raking each year.

 We raked our first leaf pile of the season and let the kids have a great time for several hours while we raked the rest of the yard.


Arlington even helped this year - she raked for awhile and then she used the leaf blower.  I cannot wait until they are all old enough to take over this activity.

 After we raked and the kids got their fill of jumping in the leaves, we headed inside to clean up and watch "Fantastic Mr. Fox" with the kids.  It was a cute movie.

We had pumpkin pancakes for dinner (made from scratch thank you very much) and then spent time together before it was time for the kids to go to bed.



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Just a reminder that on November 4th is the Spagetti Dinner for Finley in Connellsville!  Here again is the announcement, so please mark it on your calendar.  The basket raffle is getting huge and is going to be SO FUN!  And there will be a 50/50, t-shirts for sale and wristbands for sale.  So come and support Finley with the wonderful, yummy event.




 See you Tuesday.