The Baker Blog

Mike and I went to Eliza's Fund Run. I thought it was so silly they were 'powdering' the kids with colored corn starch. Eliza tried to avoid it as much as she could, and Mike and I just put our powder down. Kids were coughing from breathing in this stuff.

Even with trying to avoid the powder she still got a lot on her. She said she wanted to stay at school when we asked her at first, but after the race she wanted to go home and take a shower.

We treated Eliza to lunch after her big run.

We finally got out and got some family pictures at Cranbrook. It was PACKED while we were there. There were two or three weddings and a bunch of people were there for Homecoming pictures. But we were able to get a few pictures of us.

Evan found $30 on the ground which made him happy. (you can see it in his hand)

This one made me laugh

But with the good there comes a bit of bad, Evan ended up falling in a big puddle and got covered in mud.

So we ended up calling it early and headed to Target to get some pants for Evan.

Then headed to coney for dinner and DQ for a sweet treat for everyone to thank them for taking such nice pictures.

My dehydrated tomato chip. :)

Evan has made his RC tires almost balled so we rotated them to try and get a bit more life out of them. Alex is having his virtual trombone lesson in the background.

Evan asked me to measure him one morning before school. He's getting to be pretty tall.

Alex is almost my height.

Rosie likes to jump up on laps all the time now. If I'm at the computer she is pawing at me to get up and sit. Mike can't sit down without Rosie jumping up on him now.

Rosie has a new sunning spot on the steps. Not great for when I am going up and down a lot.

Alex looks a bit different and it isn't his hair... he got braces. He'll be in these bad boys for 2 years or so.

The boys walked in the Home Coming Parade this year with the Robotics teams.

Evan was having issues with this battery not charging, so we we took it in to the hobby shop. Evan decided to take his saved money and invest it in a new battery and a charger for it. He also put in a new pinion gear which lowers the take off speed of the car, but increases the top speed without changing the motor.

The ladies of the house watching the birds and chipmunks one morning.

We attended the Middle School Concert where Alex played. They all did really well. Evan and Alex will be playing in a concert in Dec.

Alex with his buddies after the show.

They are all looking so grown up.

Evan and Eliza playing games on Evan's school Chromebook while Rosie takes a nap.

We headed to the farm this month to make cider for the first time in a few years. All the Wades were able to join which was nice.

My friend Emily and her daughter joined us as well which was super nice. Emily hasn't been to the farm since maybe we were kids. There was lots of tree climbing that day.

All of us with our truck of apples.

Dad with all his grandkids. When I looked at this picture I was like "where's Alex?" but then I realized that Alex is taller than Grandpa and not a "kid" anymore.

Once we got all our apples we headed down to my cousin Stan's place (my grandparents farm) to press the cider.

The pressing room was a bit full.

Alex working to get the last of the apple cider out of the press.

My mom came for a bit, which was such a nice surprise.

It was nice to get the family together.

We got 37 gallons of cider that day. Not to shabby and so so delicious.

Filling jugs in the dark.

It was pretty dark by the time we were heading home.

We headed to the library for crafts. The kids sewed some key chains.

Aren't they cute, and the key chains are pretty nice too.

Eliza decided she wanted to make a pumpkin, so we got some material out, cut a stencil and got sewing.

We didn't have any stuffing in the house, so instead of going out and buying some I just had the kids pick out a stuffed animal they didn't like anymore.

On my walk one morning I noticed this mailbox in the sun was steaming.

Mike and I had matching IV bruises from procedures we had this month. Both of us are healthy and doing well.

This month was mini donut tasting at the library. There was a lot of variation in flavors and consistencies with those mini pastry treats. The kids really enjoyed this tasting, and I did as well. Who knew 4 different powdered donuts could taste so different.

I got my garlic in for next year, and put two more beds to sleep. Still need to pull my carrots and the rest of my beets before the big middle bed can go to sleep for the winter.

We headed to our old Sheiko Elementary school trunk or treat, Eliza's school was charging per family so we decided to just go back to our home school. Evan got to see his favorite teacher and get a hug.

After the trunk or treat Evan asked to go out and use his telescope. Mike and Evan were finally able to get Mike's DSLR to focus with Evan's telescope and they got this nice shot of the moon.

And this one of Saturn that you can actually see the rings.

We went to Keego Harbor for the Keego Harboo to hand out candy for Robotics. Eliza and I took advantage of this lovely floral arrangement for a picture.

The big kids did a good job handing out candy to the little kids.

We worked on our neighbor's leaves one day. We brought all their leaves over to put in the woods rather than bag them.

Did you see Eliza in the picture above? Her and the new neighbors took full advantage of this giant leaf pile.

Alex headed to try out of All States. He was one one of two kids, his friend Keaton was the other one, that tried out for it this year in the middle school. Alex was nervous and feels he didn't do very well because I made him play at church with me that morning. He's also been dealing with playing his instrument with braces and hasn't' gotten his chops back yet.

At All States there was this little suit of armor that Eliza could have fit in.

More crafting at the library. This was a Clay Monsters one. The kids got a clump of clay and a table of things to stick on it and off they went.

Spooky!! Anna the librarian ordered fake teeth for the kids to use. :)

Then we went back to the library two days later for Bunch of Library Teens (BLTs) where the kids had some trivia... Alex (team name: Me Myself and I) won.

Then they did another craft where they made mini ghosts and put them in a little glass vial.

They were really cute.

Eliza had been loving the sky lately. Every morning before school I go out I'm looking at the stars with Evan before getting on the bus, and then I'm looking at the clouds and talking about painting with Eliza.

I bought Saffron Crocuses in the spring and they finally came and I planted them... and what happens? The deer eat them! So I went to ACE hardware and bought some landscaping staples and inverted them to try and deter the deer from eating them. So far it has worked and I've gotten my first harvest of Saffron.

I gutted the pumpkins with Evan after school and then the kids got to work on decorating them.

Eliza did a cat, Alex did a dragon breathing fire, and Evan did the big dipper constellation.

Mike and I finally got to have a lunch date together. We tried this new place in Keego and the portions were HUGE. Really good food as well.

After lunch we headed to Eliza's Halloween parade.

And her party then took her home.

Evan and I were at the RC Hobby shop again because his batteries were having issues charging. So we got that figured out and I dropped off some bread to a friend, we had some time to spare before picking Alex up from his Symphony practice and she recommended this really cool rock park.

Evan and I agreed we want to take the family back to climb on them. It was almost like a rock quarry. All of the rocks are sourced from Michigan Wisconsin area.

Eliza has tried a new craft. Paper art.

She's making some really pretty stuff with it.

I helped a friend out by taking her kid to Robotics events, and she is a wedding decorator, she made this lovely bouquet for me out of her spare flowers. I'm going to try and save some seeds from one of the flowers to grow next year.

The kids were super excited this year to go trick or treating. Evan was a NASA scientist, Eliza was a witch and Alex was the Holy Ghost or Charlie Brown from the Great Pumpkin. We had great weather to walk in.