autumn Saturday

We've been hit with some sickness this week so my blogging has been sparse. Fortunately we're all healthy now, and just in time...my mom arrived for an extended visit from the Philippines (my dad will be following shortly). We celebrated with a family dinner last night and some low-key activities today.

One act of celebration today was over the firepit. We roasted hotdogs, or we tried to in the windy, cold weather. We intended to do marshmallows as well, but we got fed up with the flickering flame and smoke chasing us away. Mom, Paulie and Philip had grass-fed beef hotdogs. (Paulie and Philip are only part-time vegetarians, as they like to say, only when they're at our house. ;) Paul, Finn and I had veggie dogs, Finn's first! (Fake meat is a rarity in our house so Finn has had little opportunity to try any.)

Paulie ran a 5k in 25 minutes flat this morning. His best time so far! All that running makes him hungry, and his hotdog hit the spot!

Finn approved of the veggie dog.

I think he was mostly in it for the ketchup; he kept asking me to add more!

Elizabeth doesn't like fake meat so she chose to just eat the apples we brought out to munch while we roasted.

After our picnic around the bonfire, we settled back into the cozy house for some quieter activities. Elizabeth worked on some Christmas presents.

My mom helped me with a project that will become part of our teachers' gifts. She's much better with tiny crochet hooks (and crochet patterns) than I am.

Philip crashed on the library couch with his latest must-read.

And we ended the afternoon with some homemade pumpkin pie and fresh whipped cream.

Happy weekending!