October- very busy!  We have done so much.  I can't imagine what the upcoming holiday season will hold for us if October was so busy. Here are some highlights...

Oct 1- Girl Scout rededication ceremony.  Katie, Maddie and Allie have each been in Girl Scouts since they were 4 or 5.  This is Katie's 11th year, Maddie's 9th year and Allie's 5th year.  This is my 11th year as a leader!  This year I have Katie's troop, they are Seniors (9-12th grade).  They are a blast to work with, I'm really enjoying the older girls.  I have been a Daisy leader, Brownie leader and Junior leader in the past.  Last year I had 3rd grade Brownies (with none of my own kids), since we all meet together on Monday nights I still get to see them every week!  We had a great time at the rededication.  The whole family went and enjoyed dinner and the ceremony.

Oct 2- George E had Boy Scouts.

Oct 4- We all spent the day at the Virginia Air and Space Museum.  They held their annual homeschool open house.  We all went and took our neighbor and her son.  It's a really neat museum with tons of exhibits.  We saw alot of people we hadn't seen in a long time!

Oct 5- off to Pennsylvania for George's counsin's wedding.  The kids and I took the van and George drove his new motorcycle.  The kids and I made a few stops in PA when we got there.  Surprised a few of my friends!  We stayed the night with George at his Mom's house.  We camped out ALL over the living room!

Oct 6- We were able to visit with George's family.  We had a great time with his Mom and all 3 of his sister's where there.  We had a nice dinner with them.  Katie, George E and Allie spent the night at Nana's house.  Maddie and David spent the night with my sister Crista.  George and I were able to go out that night!  We met my sister at a neat Irish Pub, then met my friend Kelly and her husband and saw a friend of mine from high school play with his band.  We had so much fun, laughing and visiting.  George and I spent the night (just us!) at a hotel!

Oct 7-  This was the day of the wedding.  We picked up the kids-all dressed and ready and headed to the wedding.  It was a really neat Greek ceremony!  George's Aunt Irene and her family are Greek.  They had a beautiful and meaningful ceremony.  David really wasn't interested.  He wanted to go outside and play with the rocks!  So, he and I played with the rocks!  After the wedding, we split the kids back up to the houses they stayed at the night before.  George and I enjoyed the reception.  We were able to use the dance lessons we took at the beginning of the year.  He and I spent our night at the hotel again.  Nice and quiet!  We missed the kids, but knew they were having a good time too!

Oct 8-  George had to come home on this day. We gathered up the kids and headed to one of our favorite diners.  We had a nice breakfast together, then he came back home on the motorcycle.  I took the kids to the outlets in Tannersville.  They had fun looking around.  After that I took them to the candle shop in Henryville.  My mom used to take me there when I was little.  It was really fun.  After we left there, I took the kids to Big Pocono State Park.  It was beautiful to look out and see the changing leaves.  From here you can see 3 states- Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York!  Maddie and Allie thought was was really neat!!!

Oct 9- We went to a really neat place where rocks are moved to make differant formations.  There was a "letterbox" there, so we tried to find it.  We couldn't find it but had fun seeing the formations.  Maddie, Allie and I had a mini photo shot with the rock there. There are great pictures.  After that I took the kids to Delaware Water Gap to see where the glacier carved through a mountain a long time ago.  I got to tell them about the Delaware River and all the fun canoe and tubing trips I took on it when I was there age.

Oct 10- We got to have lunch with my friend Lynn and her 5 kids (plus her neice).  13 people for lunch at the Pizza Hut buffet! Too much fun!  The kids were asking us about all the things she and I did together when we were teenagers!  Everyone has that one friend that you always get in trouble with!  I was hers and she was mine!!!!  It was fun to visit with her family! The apple doesn't fall far from the tree...by the time we left the kids were all spitting spit balls!  We just laughed!  Later that day we went letterboxing with Crista and the twins.  We followed the clues to find one in Stroudsburg.  It was in front of someone's house.  It was neat to find one.  Then we headed back to find the one we couldn't find before.  We did finally find it.  Actually Maddie found it right before Crista got there.  After playing there for a little while, Crista headed home and we went to Coco Solo's for dinner. It's one of our tourist stops every time we are in town.  Crista's friend's family owns it and we get to visit with them while we eat hot dogs, cheese steaks and perogies!!!  After dinner we ALWAYS have to have their ice cream!!!

We did get to visit with my mom, stepfather Tom and Crista, Mike and their twins.  There was just TOO much to do in such a short amount of time.

Oct 11-  We started home.  We were hoping to visit the Philadelphia Zoo on the way home, but it was POURING!!!  We decided it wasn't a good zoo day.  Maybe next time.  The older kids wanted to stop in Baltimore to visit Duff from Food Network.  His shop is not open to the public so that was out too.  So straight home it was.

Oct 12- I had a dr's appt then took the kids to soccer practice.  Maddie's Girl Scout troop was camping at First Landing State park.  After soccer practice I took her to the camp site.  Allie and I stayed for alittle bit and had dinner with them.

Oct 13- David and I took Allie to Allie's soccer game.  After the game we went to Maddie's camp site.  Her troop was going to the Young Chef's academy to make homemade pasta and earn an Interest Project badge.  We visited for alittle bit before they went.

Oct 14- Maddie came back from camping.

Oct 15- Katie and Maddie had co-op classes, then the girls had Girl Scouts in the evening.

Oct 16- George E had a Boy Scout meeting

Oct 19- Soccer practice for Maddie and Allie

Oct 20- Soccer games for Maddie and Allie.  Then we RAN to the mall and I got my hair and nails done for the Navy Ball.  I was able to go the the Ball with my neighbor!!!  He husband's ship is out to sea, so I got to be her date.  I had a great time with her and the ladies from the ship!

Oct 21- Started going to a new church.  It was really nice.  We felt very welcome.  Allie and David enjoyed their classes.  I knew the Children's minister and the Youth minister from other churches so that was nice. In the evening we had Girl Scout roller skating.  I got to skate alittle.  I didn't realize how sore I was from dancing the night before until I got out on the rink!!!!  Maddie and Allie had fun with their friends.  I got to visit with adults and that was nice!

Oct 22- Co-op and Girl Scouts

Oct 23- Boy Scouts

Oct 26- 2 museums in Portsmouth had homeschool open houses for the first time.  George went in with the kids and I spent FOREVER trying to find a parking place (reminded me too much of parking in Washington DC).  I finally found a spot that would accomidate a large 12 passenger van!!!!  ARGH!  I finally meet up with them in the Va Sports Hall of Fame Museum.  They have alot of displays and information.  We worked on a Girl Scout patch while we were there.  We then went to a Chinese Buffet that was right there.  You could tell it was homeschool day!!!  Big families and strollers EVERYWHERE!  It was a good lunch. We were all refreshed and ready to hit the next museum.  That was the Children's museum.  The kids had a great time in here.  George couldn't stay because he had to run errands for work.  But I was nice to spend most of the day with him!  David was so cute in the museum.  There is a place for the little ones to play in with a gate, so they can't run away!  I took him out of the stroller and let him throught the gate to play.  He was SO funny.  He is almost always in the stroller when we go anywhere.  He just kept looking at me like...I can play?  He finally got the hang of it and had a great time. I ended up buying a membership for the yeat because the kids had such a great time!  Soccer practice was rained out. (Yay!)

Oct 27- Soccer game was rained out!!!  Nice quiet day!! Sold puppies.

Oct 28- church

Oct 29- co-op and Girl Scouts.  At Girl Scout my Senior troop was in charge of a Halloween Carnival.  They did a great job planning and working in each room.  After the Carnival each troop had a small party in their own rooms.  We all dressed up and had a fun time!

Oct 30-  I had an Orthodontic evaluation appt for Katie.  It was really interesting.  I learned alot.  Katie was born without adult 2 adult teeth.  They are the ones next to the big front teeth.  Actually on one side she had a piece of a tooth, but not a whole one.  The Dentist let me know what all the options were for changing, removing and replacing teeth in her mouth.  The one plan would pull out the little piece of tooth allowing her adult eye tooth to come down on that side.  Then putting on braces to to move her teeth making room to replace the 2 that are missing with a bridge. Katie is going to take is slow and one step at a time.  She's going to have the little piece of tooth removed and see if the eye tooth will come down.  Then she will make decisions from there.  It was Boy Scouts at night!

Oct 31- Halloween.  We haven't really done anything outside the house for Halloween for years.  I let the kids dress up this year and go trick or treating.  We went to our friends development.  There's just not much out here for Trick or Treating.  The kids got LOTS of candy.  David was so cute...  He was dressed in the little cow costume I made YEARS ago.  He couldn't believe we would let him just walk up to someone's door.  We are always trying to keep him with us!  Not only could he go up to the door, but they would give him CANDY and say how cute he was!!!!  After that we went back to our friends house for dinner and snacks.  They had their church group there and invited us to join them!  Yummy!

That's some highlights for October.  I know I missed stuff and we really did school work sometime in there too!  November is shaping up to be busy too!!!!!