A day in a Missouri town

Missouri Town is one of my favorite places on earth. It's a living history settlement from 1855. And it's about 5 minutes from my house. It's an incredably peaceful place. The fall festival is their biggest festival of the year. Deb and I loaded up the van with all these chil'dens. That little sassy one on the end was full of tarnashion too.

The boys decided to foresake their normal Sunday position in front of the boob tube watching football to spend an afternoon bathed in warm sun, with the sounds of mountain music lofting through the hillside, the smells of campfire and lots of interesting things to look at.

Oh and there was food. Old fashioned rock candy, curly fries, kettle corn, cotton candy, root beer. That's what the boys bought. There was lots more yummy stuff including the best ever apple cider made over an open fire with big chunks of apples.

Rule #1 of festivals. Never ever buy those $2 recorder things. They will drive you plum nuts. You'll run screaming in front of trains to escape that shrill sound. For some reason small people with normally short attention spans will blow on those things for hours. Maybe the thrill of that piped pipper is that he promised the children that they could blow on the flute next. Anyway poor Erin had a major melt down over not being able to play her stupid recorder. Lauren had one over taking turns with a jump rope. Other than that..... a good time was had by all.

Check out my beautiful Lauren.

Just a few more

Beast boy.

I love this one.

And this is what happens when you break the line. That's Jack having to battle not one but two yellow dawgs.

some action of Jackson

The Mustangs have an awesome team photographer, Laurie Malcolm. She just posted this week's pictures on-line and she got a great series of Jackson breaking through the defensive line.
That's Jack in red on the left battling number 90.

Check out that determination.

Now he's got his eyes set on that quarterback.

Run quarterback run. Jack's on the lose.

Dawgs 28 - Mustangs 7

Another devistating lose. But no reason to hang our heads the Mustangs will regroup and take command again.

the lion and the lamb

There was a minor miracle at Myers house. These two have been playing tom and jerry for two years now. But somehow the prospect of hanging out with their boy led them both to Jack's bed. But to lay side by side. Wow. What's got into them. By the way see that cute wall paper - we love that wallpaper. But it's soon to be replaced with Red Sox paper. It came in on Friday.

Cats who live with packs of dogs have somewhat of an identity crisis. But it's just so unseemly to find this. It's bad enough when the dogs grab a drink but my cat........ and there's perfectly nice water in the bowl in the kitchen.

Pie Day

I dare ya to try and watch the movie Waitress and not want to make pies. For over 20 years John was a chef. When we married I was a little bitty young thing. Well now. We'll you've seen the pictures. I used to say I was the poster child for my husband's culinary talents. Today John taught Jackson how to make pie crust. The key is to use ice cold water like with ice cubes in it cold. (not as I thought when I just let the tap go until it's at it's coldest- the ice isn't an adjective here it's a part of the direction!)

Anyway I caught this delightful little father son experience. And most definitely caught the result- fresh apple pies lathered in brown sugar and cinnamon and I don't know what else. Ok. I know but it's the chef secret.

Saturday: The campout

Saturday Jack's friends Daniel and Brant camped out in the backyard. We have this great pop up camper with lots of ventilation for farty 12 year olds. The boys head off to our local Octoberfest with one of their parents. And while I am busy putting out fresh linens and blankets and washing the camper floor (whose idea was it to let Cooper and his muddy feet into the camper?) John was busy scarring the bee geezers out of the boys.

We had much fun devising things that would scare them. In fact we did such a good job the boys wouldn't sleep on the beds in the camper for the first hour of the night. They slept in a clump in the middle so that no one could get them on the sides. Then they started getting very uncomfortable and moved onto the beds. This milk jug and sheet perfectly moved in the breeze and someone caught just a glimpse of it. aaauuughh. Ok. Scaring 12 year olds is great fun. And listening to them laughed themselves silly was priceless.