Bowmans on the Road: October 2014

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Autumn Days (Week in Review # 8)

Starting on the first Saturday in October...

Annie sat & sold at Farmers Market in Pratt for the last time this year. She profited close to $200 for her efforts over the whole summer. Plus, to her delight, she had many sweet snacks of leftover cookies, brownies, etc. to munch on.

That evening we attended a potluck parents' meeting after Riley & Annie's first official basketball practice for the season.

Caroline -with Cora's help- created some tepees from the small patch of bambooish type ornamental grass in our side yard.

Shannon finished the walls and cut out a window hole for Annie's someday bedroom.

We enjoyed some of the lovely weather out-of-doors on an evening walk. The girls picked up pretty rocks and junk metal along the railroad track.

the view as we walked back down the lane

Caroline brought in a marigold bouquet and wanted to have a tea party supper.

She started violin lessons.

We attended a viewing in Hutchinson for a homeschooling friend's father.

The ladies' secret sisters were revealed in our homeschool co-op on a rainy day while the children played ball inside the municipal building.

Shannon and I shared a coffee shop date with cousins on our shared anniversary. 16 years for them, 15 for us!

anniversary gift and secret sister gift

Our family spent the weekend at Fair Haven district camp-out down Turkey Lane. We arrived in time for the cook-off, concocting main dishes from apple-cinnamon brats, Gouda cheese, couscous, and limes. The dessert bag contained gluten free pizza crust mix, gluten free raisin cookies, organic soy milk, and coffee packets.

The judges sampling the first team's meal

the winning plates

Annie's team's dishes

my team: Mediterranean meatballs and caramelized onions & peppers with Gouda lime couscous
(I forget the name of the dessert)... a cherry tart with coffee cream sauce

The big & little kids had great fun bouncing, jumping, falling, and bouncing again.

There were volleyball games, Frisbee golf games, and

photo scavenger hunt games. I was the photographer for this team. We had a list of 10 places to take a picture trying to be creative and keep with the camp-out theme: the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Fun times with friends, new & old!

Also, of course, an abundance of yummy food!

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Garden, Fishing Derby, School Pictures

As summer turns to autumn, time in the garden dwindles. Lately a north wind has been blowing chilliness through the backyard and it is much easier to stay indoors!

In August we harvested 211 pounds of produce... 88 pounds of tomatoes, 35 lbs of cucumbers, 20 lbs of carrots, 18 lbs of cantaloupe, and much lesser amounts of green beans, cabbage, turnips, okra, peppers, squash, greens, and herbs. We dug the potatoes too, but they got stashed in the basement before I weighed them. We did eat 14 lbs of them in August.

The garden in September yielded 113 pounds of produce; mostly tomatoes, cantaloupe, and winter squash.

Garden dips for lunch: Texas Caviar, Parsley Pesto, Garlic Chard Dip

The end of September we spent a morning at the Wildlife & Parks National Hunt & Fish Celebration. Annie caught a small blue gill(?) and threw it back in the pond. However, no other girl in her age group caught anything, so she won the new fishing pole prize!

There were enough prizes for all the children. Annie and Meg got tackle boxes, Cora -a minnow bucket, and Caroline -bait. Riley was busy at the archery range trying to hit the bull's eye or turkey.

Shannon started enclosing an unused triangle of the house to a make a small bedroom for Annie. This needed to be done before the house gets new siding.

Caroline & Cora played sewing store one afternoon before Meg woke up from her nap and unraveled the yarn and thread, generally destroying their neat display.

freshly laundered shoes and colors

I took some pictures of Riley & Annie for their basketball program booklet.

Annie also wanted her school pictures taken for 2014-2015. She bought her new outfit with birthday money. Here are a few of her poses.

Caroline started violin lessons.

We had Sunday company twice.

And that wraps up our September!

Monday, October 6, 2014

Cook Out, Birthday, Zoo Field Trip ( A Week in Review #7)

The second & third weeks in September held some fun out-of-the-ordinary days for us. Well, the first week did too, but I've already posted about when the relatives came!

We spent a weekend in Quinter, KS enjoying yummy meals and fellowship in a couple different friends' homes, plus a church potluck. We also brought home a bed frame for Riley's room that had been hauled out from Virginia.

We picked a few beautiful pears off our neighbor's tree. Most of them were too high or rotting from wasps, but we did can 7 quart and munched some fresh.

The ladies Bible study I've been attending finished up the book No Other Gods by Kelly Minter. It was a very good, thought provoking study and always fun to share it with other gals!

Riley had basketball practice on Tuesdays & Thursdays for a couple hours in the afternoon. The rest of us have spent lots of time at the library waiting to bring him home (except Daddy who is working late in corn harvest).

Every Friday we attend a homeschool coop class where the students learn three subjects. I'm teaching one of Riley & Annie's classes: Jr High Art. Then we take lunch to the park and enjoy the beautiful weather together!

A different homeschool group held a campfire picnic at Lazy B Ranch.

We had picked apples and made 33 quarts of applesauce & 10 pints of apple butter on Annie's 12th birthday, barely finishing in time for her special supper of Italian ham pineapple sub, oven fries, taco pinwheels, and candy cupcake faces.

Annie attended a special tween program at the library where she made a duct tape wallet and pen flower.

The whole family got up very early and spent the day in Wichita. First stop, IHOP for scrumptious pancakes! Except for me, who scarfed cheesy ham & bacon, egg crepes.