One of our coffee breaks.  I made some "healthy" chocolate zucchini muffins with the wilted, sad looking zucchini in the bottom of the fridge.  Absolutely no leftovers.

The Engineer.

Christmas must be coming...

An early Christmas present!  We weren't sure it would fit...

...but it looks like it's always been here.

Annual Christmas tree hunt.  We found one for Clive's room,

which he cut down to size and put up himself.

Then we found one for the living room.  It is settling in as we take our time to trim and decorate.  So far, doing Christmas early is a good thing.  Each boy has a task and feels like he is taking part.  Today we drew names from the Schoyen, Soth, and Fellows families.  Each individual is to make a gift for the person they drew.  Should be pretty fun!

Hen's n' cookies

There is something magical about wearing a cape.  Suddenly one is super human.  Good times running about the house.

Decorating cookies.  At least some of us are.

There.  Now you can see the entire kitchen!  And the entire family.

Works of Art.  Taste as good as they look!

It never snows here.  This was just for a movie set.

What did you learn at school today, David?

Now Matthew is trying to learn pig face as well.

I roasted another one of our rationed chickens.  This one was particularly large.  Three days later we are still eating chicken.  NOBODY is complaining.  We have been meat free for sometime, so this is a welcome change.

Our new ladies.  Aren't they pretty?  We hope to have some chicks this spring.  We also hope to get an egg or two.  Right now they're pretty much just posers.

Did you think that was Cornflake?  Nope.  That's Fluffy.  He is also new.  Much nicer and much smaller, we hope he stays nice.

I have decided to stretch Christmas out.  It tends to be a lot of work, so I figure we should start now.  The boys and neighborhood kids came over to make these cut out decorations.  It is quite something to stay on top of nine kids making and decorating these.  Some had fun, some asked for this to be just a "family" activity (Clive).  My secret plan was cookie dough in the fridge for the family to make cookies just like these after having a bit of practice!

Matthew is making friends.  Kasey screams just like him, it's hard to tell them apart.  They do gymnastics together.

The fallout after all the kids left.

When the sun shines, we're in it.  Even on the gray days, it is still beautiful here.  Some feel raking leaves is a waste of time, but look at these two, worth every minute!

This is what I like to do too.  Just sit and let the sun warm you as you dream away...

Zuke continues to be perfect.  He is so lovable, even the chickens like him now.  He still digs very deep holes though, and not where we need them.  He is a lot of fun to have around and I like having him sleeping at the back door at night.  That is as far as he will come in.

Snack time.

One of the boys' new "chores" is collecting the eggs.  You can see how happy Clive is about this.

"Could be building a fort but here I am..."

His friends, however, LOVE to collect the eggs.

I finally made Kale chips.  They really are good.  I am not sure how good for us they are.  They basically disintegrate in one's mouth like cotton candy but salty.  Healthy? Really?

Shoot 'em up cowboy.

Master cookie maker.

Clive preparing his new room!  Stay tuned!

More Halloween

These photos came to me this week and I really wanted to save them.  Here are some of our lovely guests.