Trunk or Treat!

Last night, our church had our annual fall celebration cleverly titled "Trunk or Treat". There were pony rides, inflatables, icecream, and games galore! But, the highlight of the night is the children walking from car trunk to car trunk and "trunk or treating" at the festively decorated vehicles. I postponed my trip to Denver for one day so that we could "trunk or treat" as a family, in lieu of traditional trick-or-treating tonight in Auburn. Boy, I am glad that I did! We had a wonderful time celebrating Turner's first Halloween! Enjoy the pictures!

Halloween fun!!

This afternoon we enjoyed a wonderful Halloween/Fall party co-hosted by our friends the Muncies. The food and decorations were fantastic and the 30+ toddlers in precious costumes made for an afternoon of great entertainment! Turner didn't really care for her "duckling head", but she did wear it for a good portion of the picture taking which made her Mommy very happy!

Almost home...

...but not quite. We stopped in to check out the house this weekend and show Tootsie and Pop the finished painted interior! Here are a few updated pictures - it's not home yet, but it's looking more like it every day! We are cautiously optimistic about being in before Christmas!

Syrup Soppin' 2008

Yesterday we took Turner and her Tootsie and Pop to the annual Loachapoka Syrup Soppin'! This is one of our favorite fall activities and was especially fun to be able to share this with Turner and her grandparents! We have been begging them to come for years...I don't think they'll miss another one! We started the morning with hot sausage biscuits and syrup, spent some hours perusing the craft booths, ate some yummy BBQ, and finally headed home after about 4 hours of non-stop fun!

For those of you not familiar with the term "sop" here's the definition with which I am most familiar: sop   /sɒp/ [sop] noun, verb, sopped, sop⋅ping. –verb (used with object) 5. to dip or soak in liquid food: to sop bread in gravy.
If you grew up in the country (like we did) you sopped a variety of things such as gravy, syrup, and soup with some type of bread item, most often a biscuit or cornbread. I highly recommend that you try this if it's a new concept to you!

Here are a few pictures from our morning in Loachapoka!

*You will notice that Turner ends up in a different outfit by the end of the slideshow - one in which she is sporting her new overalls with no undershirt! She got a little hot and uncomfortable in her jeans so after we purchased these adorable overalls from one of the vendors we just decided to go ahead and let her wear them - no shirt and all!

Pumpkins and Parties!

One of the things we've learned about living in Auburn is that whenever we have a Saturday with no home football game, we seem to stay busy trying to pack in all of our "non-football related" activites during our "free weekend".

This morning, Turner and I went to visit a pumpkin patch in LaFayette, AL about 30 miles outside of Auburn. The place is called Jack-o-Lantern Lane and we had an absolute BALL! The only thing that would have made it better is if Mark hadn't had a work engagement today and he had been able to come with us! Turner perked up as soon as the door opened and she heard the lively music, and she only got more and more excited as they day progressed. There were inflatables, games, and a hayride to a large pumpkin patch where you were able to walk through the garden and pick out your favorite pumpkin. There were also bunnies, goats, and horses for the kids to play with (Turner was really interested in the bunnies as you'll see in the pictures). This is definitely on my list for a new fall tradition in the Armstrong house!

After a short rest this afternoon, we headed to our friend Collin's second birthday party at Monkey Park in Opelika. I included a few pictures of Turner swinging at the end of the slide show - she just LOVES to swing! I am thinking that the large sweetgum tree in the yard of our new house is shaped just perfectly to hold a swing for our sweet one!

I hope that your Saturday was as memorable and fun filled as ours!

Our little octopus

A curious toddler with a massive reach + open baby food containers left too near + parent who had stepped away to get more food =

food on the chair...


food on the floor...


and food all over the toddler!


But, Turner is officially feeding herself some finger foods and she loves the Gerber chicken and turkey sticks*!


*For the record, Mark and I were unaware of these chicken sticks until a few weeks ago. When our doctor told us that Turner could try the "little sausages", both of us (being the country kids that we are) could only think of Vienna sausages. (Pronounced vi-EE-ner by both our grandmothers.)
We, thinking we knew what the doctor meant, mentioned something about giving Turner Vienna sausages...at which point the doctor looked at us like we were a little crazy. Imagine our surprise and the laughter that ensued when Mark and I simultaneously saw these chicken sticks in the store the next week. She wasn't talking about "vi-EE-ner" sausages at all! :)

Updated pics of house

They have accomplished a lot this week and these pictures only show a small part of the progress. They have finished with the stucco work and got a good bit of the stone done before the rain came today. Inside, they finished out the trim (all doors and trim work) in two work days - it was quite amazing to see the massive changes from day to day! Perhaps my favorite feature of the week is our new front door, which lives up to my vision and dream for this area of our home! Once it's stained I think it may be one of my favorite features of the house. We are getting more and more excited as our home develops!

Progress!

Here are a few new pictures of the house. We have been so surprised at the pace of the progress! Last weekend, in basically one day, the workers hung all the sheetrock in the whole house! Late last week we finalized our stucco, stone, paint colors, trim colors, door styles and front door stain! They are scheduled to start priming tomorrow and it might even be painted by the weekend! Such fun!! If only we could be in by Christmas!!

Front view

Main living area before sheetrock

Mark in our extraordinary crawl space

Main living area after sheetrock

The beginnings of the back grilling porch

Fireproof

Mark and I went to see the movie Fireproof tonight with some friends from church. Our recommendation: do whatever you must to GO SEE THIS FILM! I think it is applicable to both those who are and are not married - a powerful portrayal of what the covenant of marriage truly means and how our world distorts this when hard times come. This movie is worth your time and money! Check out the tralier at this site: www.fireproofthemovie.com

Candied Apples and Merry-Go-Rounds

The familiar smell overwhelmed me as I opened my car door - a mixture of freshly cut hay fields, boiled peanuts, sausage dogs, and livestock. Those powerful smells immediately took me back to my childhood and those cool fall nights that my family spent at the Covington County Fair. What special memories I have of those evenings, specifically a longstanding tradition with my dad of eating a candied apple each year! (I'll be enjoying mine tonight as soon as I post this blog!)

Tonight Mark and I took Turner to the Lee County Fair and we had a marvelous time! Turner is still too young to really enjoy it, but she loved the lights (not so much love for the goats being judged in the livestock pen) and actually rode a merry-go-round for the first time in her life! (She rode twice - once with each of us!) While I did learn that the fair doesn't produce exactly the same thrill in adulthood as it did in childhood, I was humbled and almost giddy to be able to share a treasured childhood tradition with my daughter and husband.