Illinois Autumn

The "How We Got Swine Flu"picture. You have probably seen this photo on the internet lately. I am charmed by this picture. On a related note, I hope that everyone is following the advice that Lizzie has given us that will help us ward of the N1H1 flu virus.


We get lots of leaves falling down in our neighborhood. Huge piles of leaves that kids play in. Once Noah hid in a big pile of leaves. The plan was to emerge when his Dad drove into the driveway after running some Saturday errands. He waited and waited but Maurie didn't come home. Finally Noah rose out of the leaves, brushed himself off and came into the house. Maurie missed out on being scared out of his skin by a zombie emerging out of his very own front yard.

I loved the image of these kids running in the leaves. Sometimes I wish that my kids were this young again, and this sweet, and this innocent, then I think about it and I say no.

Beautiful autumn leaves. In Illinois we have lots of different maples trees and they turn the most magnificent colors.

There are many small rivers around us and some of them have old bridges that local families put in to service their homes and farms. Isn't this one beautiful?

This is an old boathouse on a private lake. If you go to images of autumn leaves in fox valley pictures like this one come up.

This a Japanese maple. Maurie loves Japanese maples and we own one. It is in our front yard on the east corner of the house. Our tree is beautiful, but I'm blogging at night so I didn't get a picture of it and I put this picture in as a substitute.

I found this picture and then had to enlarge it to see what it was really about and when I did I knew I wanted a copy. It is Winnie-the-Pooh and his Hundred Acre Woods friends.

A scary halloween tree.

Some fun ideas for some Halloween nibbles. You make these with peanut butter and powdered sugar. The fingernails are almonds and the blood is raspberry jelly.

A new twist on pigs in a blanket. Maurie says that they look like little Afghan terrorists. You make them with crescent roll dough cut into strips and hot dogs. They are supposed to be "Mummies".


These are meatball spiders. Cook your meatballs on a tray in the oven. Roll them in mayonnaise, then cheese. Stab Chinese noodles, place olive bits for the eyes and set on a corn chip. I think they are cute enough to eat.


The ever popular edible graves. Chocolate pudding, crumbled Oreos, pipe on the RIP onto a cookie, andyou are done. I love the dried straw flowers as an artistic touch. I think everyone would have fun eating these ghoulish snacks.


And I will end this blog with what I think is the ultimate jack-o-lantern. Yes, it is the Death Star.

Very Eventful Summer

It all started with Noah and Becky's wedding.
We all were so very excited to be at their wedding. I was especially happy to have so much family able to attend the ceremony at the Washington D.C. Temple.

We think that they were made for each other.

Noah looking rather silly or very amazed. You choose.

Tossing the Bouquet

The happy recipient. No she will not be the next one married.

Downtown Frederick

The front doors open right out onto the street. No worries about mowing lawn.

You realized right away that this town was older than anything in the midwest, let alone the far far west that we grew up in.

Batavia Quilting Guild hosted a quilt show. Kate and I attended on a Saturday afternoon.
Following are just a few of the highlights.

I figure the woman who put this together was OCD because the every point was set in perfectly.

This quilt was so entertaining to look at, such a variety of blocks.

I loved this quilt. Is it called "Cathedral Windows" or "Stained Glass"?

This design has been a favorite of mine for a long time. This was charming sentimental interpretation of "Grandma's Flower Garden". I hope that is the right name.

This quilt was magnetic women were drawn to it and then they stood in front of it with amazement on their faces. Kate and I tried to behave like we had seen fine quilts before, but we also were caught in it's spell.

Rachel's birthday came along and I was going to celebrate her birth by devoting a post entirely to cute, funny pictures of her. Sorry that didn't happen. Our scanner quit after just a few photos, but here is what I did get.

The day after Rachel's third Halloween. She was ecstatic to have people give her candy.She has always been good at pulling faces.

This was her costume for Halloween. This the famous clown costume that all of our kids have worn. It has now been passed on to the next generation.

As a small child Rachel loved the Cinderella movie. She liked to wear a kerchief on her head and wipe the floor just like Cinderella.

Here is another day after Halloween shot.

Celebrating Lizzie and Rachel's birthdays in Castle Dale.

This statue was in front of the Family History Center in Salt Lake. Rachel is wearing her favorite kitty cat dress.

I think this is Sophie, Rachel and Seth at Grandpa's.

Eating cereal and reading the paper.

Remember these dresses and the marathon sewing session.


The next few pictures are of Seth. He didn't want me to show his face so these are photos featuring his legs and feet.

Running in air.

On point.

Strange posing.

Toes out.

Toes in.

This is one of a pair of morning doves that spent July in our front yard. They woke us up gently with their cooing most mornings and they were not afraid of us. You could walk up to them and get quite close before they would fly off. They were interesting to have around and we would look for them often. When I came back from the west the last time they were gone and they have not come back.


Here is a picture of my back yard. Well part of my back yard. Rachel took this picture because some really interesting storm clouds were moving in, however my camera did not capture the mystique of the storm or the wonder of the color of the clouds. It's not the best camera.

Our summer has been very busy and of course, did not last long enough. Rachel has had two days of classes and Seth starts back at High School tomorrow. Time passes too fast and my kids are growing up. I'm a little sad as I think of this past summer. I wish I had been a little more organized. I wish I had insisted that we had spent more time together. And as usual, I wish I had gotten more done. Maybe next summer.

Harry Potter Exhibition and Movie

On Wednesday of this past week, we woke up early, and went to Chicago for the day. The event that we wanted to attend was the opening of "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" It was being shown at the omnimax theater at the Museum of Science and Industry. To make the day even more special we had tickets to the Harry Potter Exhibition. The exhibition is so large that they held it in it's own huge space. Our tickets were for 9:45and we were so excited. Seth had invited three of his friends to go along. We made our way up to the third floor and we were met by a fellow who entertained us with Harry Potter trivia until it was our time to enter the exhibit rooms. It was there that I found out that know picture taking was allowed. I was very disappointed,for I had planned all kinds of silly photos, but you will have to be happy with downloads.

The whole exhibit was very theatrical, with dark lighting and music from the movies in the background. We were moved on to a hostess who welcomed us and played sorting hat games with us. She asked for volunteers and Rachel's hand went right up. Rachel went to the front of the room, sat on the stool and was pronounced a member of Ravenclaw. She is the first member of our family to be placed in Hogwart's house. Curtains magically rose and we stepped into a new space. One wall was covered entirely with picture frames. The frames came alive and we had an introduction to the main characters of the books and movies. Another curtain parted and there was Hogwart's Express. We walked past the engine and made our way into the actual exhibits.

We entered into Hogwart's and we were met with hundreds of props and costumes from the movies. We had rented the self-guided tour electronics and all you had to do was press the display's number and you could have explanations and further details of all that was before you. The phoenix was there in Dumbledore's office as were all the papers and vials and clever little things that we recognized from the movies. We then moved on to the class rooms. Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts came next. We saw Snape's costume and Quirrel's turban and flowy robes. I was amazed at the detail that went into the designing and making of the clothes.

The sorting Hat really was very ugly and I swore I could smell it, too. It smelled old and greasy.

There were lots of costumes from when the kids were young and you could see them grow up as every movie they got bigger and bigger. Remember the first movie when the kid/actors were so small.

Dumbledore's robes were beautiful. There was hand work like you wouldn't believe on everything that he wore.

Hagrid's costume was huge. I know that Robbie Coltrane is a big man, but what they did to turn him into Hagrid was amazing. He was padded and wore lifts in his boots. The wig and beard are so big that they are really seven smaller hair pieces. I couldn't reach high enough to feel how much padding was in the shoulders, but there was a tremendous amount in the pants. He also wore a fat suit to make himself look so immense.

Professor McGonagle wore robes that were almost as beautiful ans Dumbledore's. Her robes are so dark that the detail doesn't show up unless you can get a close look. Her dress robes for the Yule Ball were especially smocked to make it look like snake scales. Snake scales gave her a very witchy feel. Her character got the most elaborate hats. They were gorgeous, with beautiful feathers.

Professor Umbridgewas all opposites. The softer she looked the harder and meaner she became. She had a series of this suit that got darker and darker as the movie progressed. It was supposed to be the same suit. It just changed as she did. At the exhibit they had her office all set up with the kitty plates on the wall and there was one plate off to the side of a really ugly kitty. It's nose was all turned up like a bulldog and it looked like it had been hit by a garbage can lid. Like in the cartoons.

You should have seen the teacups in Professor Trelawney's classroom, they were so dirty with tea leaves. The big thick eye glasses were there and the crytal balls. THey had to make one of the crystal calls out of plastic so it could roll down the stairs without breaking.

Gilderoy Lckhart's was the funniest of all. There were photos all over of him in different adventuring costumes. He was an aviator, he was T.E. Lawrence type, he was in athletic gear. It was all so egotistical. Very Humorous.


Next we went into Herbology and pulled up Mandrakes. They screamed when we pulled them up. They were also very ugly. They had grouchy little faces.

We next got to check out Quidditch. The quaffles are heavy but easier to handle because you can hold onto the denty parts. We got to trow the quaffles through the hoops but none of us saw a snitch.

The great hall room was big and filled with suspended candles and all the artficial food. THey had three tables full of the most delicious looking props I have ever seen. They also had one wall that was covered in candy from the candy store in Hogsmead. Little kids were so disappointed that it wasn't real. One child in our group almost started to cry. He thought it was such a cruel trick to have it look so enticing and then find out it was all fake.

This dress was beautiful. And Emma Watson is a very small girl to fit into it.

Some more of all that lovely fake food.

This is what the display looked like, only a little smaller and no kids sitting at the tables. We had a great time at the exhibit. There was so much more that I didn't tell you about. The pictures on the walls, the fat lady, The dragon and the dementors. There was quite a bit of dark side stuff with Voldemort. I shudder when I say that name. Anyway, it was so much fun. And ten we went to the movie. If you haven't seen the movie yet let me promise you that it is very good and entertaing to watch. We are going to see it again soon, because we watched it on an omnimax screen, which is five stories high and very curvy. Whenever the camera panned fast you could not keep up and I felt a little queasy now and then and had to close my eyes to get a sense of well-being. I felt very adventurous watching at that venue.
After the movie we had tickets for the Smart House tour. I will tell you about it another time as this is a total Harry Potter blog. Go see the movie. It's lots of fun.