Happy Halloween!

10.21.2012

Two weekends ago Grace came home from college on break.  On Sunday, we went into Philly with the girls...

Which may have involved a visit to a lovely store...I may have come home with one of these...

I'm not sure who was happier...Grace or Calvin!

After a family dinner of gluten free chicken parmagiana we toasted marshmallows outside...Grace's always wound up catching fire.

Andrew and Dayna...

Lee just watched us, he doesn't like marshmallows, so he just ate the Hershey bars!

Ellen burnt a few marshmallows too.

And of course, Andrew set his stick on fire so he could draw pictures for the camera!

It was so much fun!

The Giving Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini

A few weeks ago, I was offered the opportunity to review Jennifer Chiaverini's new book The Giving Quilt, which is due to be released on October 30th.  What a delightful book!

In The Giving Quilt we are once again at Elm Creek Manor for quilt camp.  But this camp is different...it's the week after Thanksgiving and it's a free camp to make quilts for Project Linus.  Karen, Michaela, Pauline and Linnea all arrive at the manor, ready to make some quilts for "Quiltsgiving", but each has a different reason for being there.  Their stories and their developing friendships make for intriguing reading and have you come to realize that no one is what they appear to be on the outside.  Each of them have a unique story to tell.

In addition to meeting the Quiltsgiving quilters, it was good to visit with the characters that have become so familiar to the readers of the series...Sylvia, Gretchen and the rest of the Elm Creek Quilts staff.  Once again, Jennifer Chiaverini has written a wonderful book, not to be missed by the fans of the Elm Creek Quilts series!

Settling In Again

After having a few busy weeks!  I was lucky enough to tag along on one of my husband's business trips at the beginning of October, and we got to go here...

And here...

It was wonderful to be in the park at night...yep, we closed the park at midnight!

And we got a glimpse of The Beast's Castle....

If you ever get a chance, go to Disney without your kids!  It's so much fun! 

We arrived home from Disney last Tuesday and on Friday we headed up to Juniata for parents' weekend with Grace.  Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures...she was so sick that we wound up taking her to the ER on Sunday morning before heading home.  She had a virus and she's feeling much better today.  I'm glad we went up, she definitely needed her parents!  She'll be home on break this week, it will be nice to have her home again.  I know her cat misses her as much as we do!