Phantom of the Opera

My sister Rachel has been a HUGE fan of The Phantom of the Opera since her class studied it in third grade. Since then, she has seen the play 4 times. One of those times she got to go backstage and meet the cast (when her 3rd grade class watched it in L.A.) and this summer she sat on the front row and watched it in New York City.

I saw it 4 years ago with her and it came to town again! The original plan was for Vince & I to go with Tony & Rachel, along with some other friends of ours. However, Vince came down with a terrible cold and so my Mom was my date!

We had an enjoyable evening of going out dinner and watching the show. It makes me wonder when we'll see it again!

Fall Festivites

I think I've mentioned this before, but Vince and I host a group from church called YAC+ (Young Adult Families + Kids). We meet once a month at our house, and once a month for some type of activity.

On Friday we had our 4th Annual Chili, Cornbread, and Smores night. It was a beautiful evening and we were able to spend most of our time outside. We had 52 people at our house that night.

Grafton had a lot of fun playing in the yard with his friends.

Deklan filled himself on cornbread muffins while sitting on his Uncle Tony's lap.

I ate the hottest bowl of chili ever and it literally caused me to have blisters on the back of my throat! (There had been some girls with me at the table prior to this picture.)

The best part of the evening was definitely making & eating the smores!

Peachy Keen

Seeing that we are currently in the midst of peach season, our family met up with three other families at a local farm to go peach picking.  Before we set out on our peach picking adventure, we stopped by the petting zoo.

To get to the orchard we went on a hay ride. My sister and her lovely family sat across from us.
Before leaving for the farm, Grafton told me, "Mom, I want to pick some peaches for you."  I'm glad he was able to do just that!

Where's Grafton?  

(Hint: Look in the bottom right corner.)

  He's not always in the mood to have his picture taken.

I am currently the only one in our house who likes to eat peaches. Deklan likes peach baby food, so hopefully he'll eat them with me next year.  However, Vince and Grafton like the taste but cannot stand the texture.  As a result, this is my plan for our peaches: peach cobbler, peach smoothies, and I'll eat some the way they are.

My mouth is watering already!