Gingerbread Season

One of the benefits of living in the Greater Omaha Region is that we get to make gingerbread every year to display at the Kanesville Tabernacle. This year's theme is stories and movies of Christmas. We decided to do the train from the Polar Express. I checked the book and all the children's books on trains out of the library. Then Ryan and I watched it on youtube (in Portuguese - that was the only language available that we understood).

Ryan is always in charge of making the templates and purchasing the candy. One might ask why the Oreos are open. Ryan seems to need chocolate nourishment while he works.

Here is Ryan assembling the brick bridge and the train tracks. Luckily I have spent years perfectly the art of nibbling off layers of Kit Kats one by one because we discovered that the whole Kit Kats were too big for our tracks. Here I am working on the garland around the bridge. Last year I got some sweet holly garland sprinkles on sale. And yes, those are tweezers.This year I splurged and got some cool edible silver spray paint. Ryan made those great spokes for our train and those raspberry filled chocolate things are going to become very important components of the engine.

We will put more pictures up as we continue.

Pumpkin Patch

The girls and I went to a pumpkin patch yesterday. The highlight of the event was the train ride. The conductor even let Helen get close to the engine. That really makes a two year old day, but I don't think she was keen on being held by said conductor.
We also loved the giant corn "sandbox" that was perfect for jumping into and swimming in.

Here are a couple of the farm animals that they had for us to pet. Now I have to admit that I was not raised on a farm, but I don't think that these particular animals are indigenous to Nebraska.

Happy October

Here is Helen's new quilt in all it's beauty. Thank goodness that Emily, Heidi and my mom helped out so I was able to complete it before summer next year. I don't know why it was so difficult for me, but joy in the journey I suppose should be the theme of this particular project.

 There are many secrets that experienced mothers keep from rookies like me. One of the things I learned this week was that the odds of getting a cute picture decreases dramatically as you try and add more kids to the picture. I decided not to post the pictures of Jane rolling onto Helen, much to the later's disgust. Or the pictures of Helen and Jane with their toys covering their faces. Or the pictures where Helen is ripping the toy out of Jane's hand. Or where Helen is showing me how she can roll over. Or where Jane starts crying because she remembered that she was starving to death. So really, one out of 36 isn't that bad.

I couldn't help adding this picture for your enjoyment. It sure is a lot of fun to have more than one kid, as you can see.