Week 44 - Oregon City - October 30 - October 26, 2023

Fall has officially arrived because the leaves have tuned yellow and orange.

We had a big pumpkin carving party.

All the local grandchildren came at the same time....and then there were crickets.

The quince tree finally produced enough fruit to make a batch of quince jelly.

Dad made a total of six half-pint jars!!  Wow....what a bit of a let down.

Turns out that the jelly was more like a quince flavored gummy worm.. 

Very stiff and certainly not spreadable.  A disaster!  But....using Warren's advice, Dad melted the stiff jam in a water bath, added some water, and re did the batch.  Now we have yummy jelly - maybe a bit dark in color.

Beaver football game on Saturday against Univ of Colorado.  While watching it, I painted the coating on the AD children's clay figures.  Beavers won!

The cats didn't seem to be very invested in the game.

I spent a lot of time this week cleaning everywhere in anticipation of Thanksgiving guests.  Dad also is doing lots of work in the flower beds.  

More cat photos.

Daylight saving time ended today.  Sighhhhhhhhhhhhhh.  It's going to be a long dark wet and rainy winter.

 Week 43 - Oregon City - October 23 - October 29, 2023

The Louthan children were with us all week - while Bev and Paul are on the east coast visiting Bruce and Vonda Louthan in PA and going to other places too.

Monday night we played the game of Concentration - or- maybe it is called Memory.  I have this one game which is a Jurassic Park themed one.  the kids loved playing it!!

All the kids ended up in our bedroom - along with the two cats.  The cats especially like the "throw" blanket that Jane has on her sleeping bag.

A progression of photos showing the kittens (probably should call them cats, now) in the cat tree basket

At Activity Day, the kids painted their clay creations.

Ruby painted hers at home.

We had another rousing game night with a replay of the dinosaurs

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On Friday we had the Fall Harvest Party combined with Trick-or-Treating gong from door to door.  Then - to top it off, there was Trunk or Treat in the parking lot on Saturday night.  The girls had a fun time sorting and organizing their stashes.

Sunday night we celebrated Abby's birthday - hard to believe, but she is ten years old.  Warren made her a Corgi Cake.

I love tis photo of Zelensky - just hanging from one of the platforms.

Dad decorated our house nicely this year.  Thanks to Warren for all the pumpkins.

 Week 42 -Oregon Coty - October 16-October 22, 2023

I'm taking care of our little oak trees I planted two summers ago.  I built a tripod of lathe over the trees and hung bags of Irish Spring....which is supposed to deter deer from coming near.  It is very time consuming, so I hope the deterrence works.

On Sunday Clara and Abby's orchestra from ACA played preludial music at a  matinee of the Oregon Symphony.  The were in the mezzanine at the Schnitzner and did really well considering they've only been playing together for about a month.

Sunday night we celebrated Whitney's birthday.

Bev and Paul went to the East Coast for a week, and the kids are staying with us...not Clara who is staying with the Scotts.  They all had their choice where to sleep, and the three of them chose to sleep in our bedroom.  It was a cozy week.

The kids kept us on our toes.  A couple of evening we played Memory (a game of concentration) with a Jurassic  park theme.  We had a lot of tun - I especially like it when I don't care whether I win or not.

At Activity Day, the kids painted their clay objects that they had made two weeks earlier.

The kids "cleaned up" at the Ward Harvest Part and at Trunk or Treat.

Here's a drawing Jude made

Naturally, I have a lot of cat photos.

Dad nicely decorated our front porch with a nice Fall setting.