What I did this weekend

Each Christmas season as I walk by the pre-made gingerbread houses, they call out my name and tell me they would be so much easier. But, NOOOOO, I have to satisfy my desire to make a bigger and better gingerbread house each year. So after way too many hours of planning, buying supplies, preparing, baking, assembling (with a near structural collapse due to a faulty icing recipe), decorating, and candy eating, my gingerbread "colonial" house is pictured below. (I was going for a colorful house this year). Elizabeth created her own house as well and Katherine decorated the gingerbread men. We had so much fun!

Fall Photos

We are having the most beautiful month of October. Very little moisture and lots of sunny days. The 1st photo is from our driveway, and the rest are from several of our weekend adventures. Today, we took the girls on a hike and went about 3.5 miles.

We have a WINNER...

Yesterday Elizabeth was notified she was the winner in her age group for a local coloring contest! And we are so proud of her! She really loves using lots of color in her creations, as you can see. For her prize, she won a $50 gift card to the movie theater (not too shabby!)

The contest was for a weekend festival held here in late September called "Valleyfest". It is a totally fun day for the kids. They have things like a petting zoo, horse rides, jumping castles, big slides, all kinds of city trucks, and lots of vendors with giveaways. But most of all, I like it because it is totally free! This was our second year going - I think it will be a yearly tradition.

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY ELIZABETH!

Love this place...

The Falls

We were down at Riverfront Park over the weekend and took a photo from the suspension bridge. We remembered that we had taken a photo in the exact same spot in the middle of May during spring runoff time. Quite the difference!

Here's some interesting data. In the first picture, the flow was at 21, 800 cfs or cubic feet per second. A week later on May 23, 2008, the flow peaked at 40,600 cfs (nearly twice the flow as in the 1st photo!) The all time max flow was 49,000 cfs in 1894.

May 16, 2008 - 21, 800 cfs (cubic feet per second)

August 31. 2008 - 1150 cfs

I did a scrapbook page!

...so I wanted to share. I think I need to take every Monday off!