Thanksgiving (Part 1)

We got a fantastic invitation to Detroit for Thanksgiving.  So we went....

Isaac spent a bunch of time in the car watching videos on how to play certain songs, and learning to pick along with them.  What a fantastic activity in the car on a long drive.  In this picture he is working on 'Another Brick in the Wall, Part II'.

 I wish that I had more pictures of this.  Graffiti Art in Detroit.

Here is a besties picture of Natasha and Lexy, waiting for the Thanksgiving Day Parade in downtown Detroit.  We got the most amazing hook up of breakfast buffet, bleacher seats, parade pins, etc.  Thanks Andrea...!!

Isaac always likes the city.  This is just a picture of him in the city setting before the parade.

 Lexy enjoying the parade.

 This is a Burkart family shot after the parade as everyone was gathering up to leave.  Seveal backs of heads, etc.  I wish we could have gathered them up in time for an 'all the family photo', but it didn't happen.

Thanksgiving Pies

You most all know that I like to cook... and like to make pies...  Well, here's some shots of the Thanksgiving pile of pies that we made this year.

There are two pumpkin in the oven, Lexy mixed them up.  She sure had fun making pies.

The baby Chocolate Cheese Pies...  There is always so much when you get ready to fill the pies, so, I have been getting the baby gram cracker crusts for give aways. 

 

Here's a shot of most of the pies we made.  Two pickle, two pumpkin, pecan, shredded apple, and chocolate cheese.  It was a pretty tasty haul.

This is the other kind of pie we ate over the Thanksgiving break.  

Mmmmm... Donatos...!!

Aaahhh... RedLegs...

Imagine if you will, a starry night in southwestern Oklahoma just after the Civil War. Nestled in the shadows of the Wichita Mountains is a battery of smoothbore cannon camped for the night. As the campfires dim and the flasks of rum and lemon are empty, the conversation turns to the life hereafer. A rugged, old chief of section is surprised to learn that all present have not heard of the special destiny of Redlegs and combat vets. As the young artillerists listen intently, he shares with them the Legend of Fiddler's Green

The chief of section explains that the souls of the departed eventually end up in heaven or hell. Heaven lies about six miles down the dusty road to eternity, and Redlegs get there by turning left at the first crossroad. From this same junction, hell is about eight or nine miles straight ahead. The road's easy to identify, it's the one paved with good intentions. A little way down the road to hell there's a sign pointing to a trail that runs off to the right of the main road. It reads "Fiddler's Green -- Artillerymen and Combat Vets Only"

Then the chief of section teaches them the following poem: 

Halfway down the trail to hell,

In a shady meadow green,

Are the souls of many departed Redlegs.

Camped near a good old-time canteen,

And this eternal place

Is known as Fiddler's Green.

Though others must go down the trail,

To seek a warmer scene,

No Redleg ever goes to hell,

Ere he's empties his canteen,

And so returns to drink again

With friends at Fiddler's Green.

The campfires die out, and the Redlegs doze off to sleep, knowing Fiddler's Green awaits them and all thier cannon-cocking brethern in the life hereafter.

Mountain State Synchro 2012

This is Lexy and her team in the warm up practice.

They ended up with 3rd place.
Good job girls...!!!

Trick or Treat Night

Between the little storm we had and West Virginia not having Trick or Treat on the actual 31st, we finally got Trick or Treating in last night.  Isaac, who for the last 5 years has claimed to be too old, was hot and cold about it.  He got dressed up and in the end decided to just man the door for other kids.  He wore this digi camo, with out green paint we did digital print lines on his face.

Lexy on the other hand has been planning her costume for months.  She and her BFF had it all worked out and got to Trick or Treat together.  Her BFF lives in a dense neighborhood so it all made sense to let Lexy go with them.  She had a blast...!!

Of course other obligations were still in order.  After Lexy Trick or Treated I picked her up and took her to the ice rink where Isaac was already practicing.  The first games of this season start this weekend...!!  We are SOOOOOOO excited...!!!

We also attended our church Trunk or Treat Party and Chili and/or Corn Bread Cook Off.  I hadn't planned on it until Mrs. P talked me into it at 5:15pm.  That gave me an hour to cook it and have it to the church.  So I enlisted Isaac to help open packages, season, and stir.  We made some traditional chili and some salmon and white been chili.  The later was quite interesting, but there was none left at the end of the party.  The traditional chili got a little sideways when Isaac said, "Add some of my hot sauce."  His hot sauce is Cholula. (He loves it on his meat and cheese burritos)  I didn't like the flavor once I added it, so we went for HOT... and added a bunch of chili pepper flakes.  I still wasn't happy with the flavor, but it was time to go.  As those flakes cooked into the chili the flavor got better.  It wasn't too hot, it had a nice flavor with a little heat.  Enough that it won the best hot chili at the contest.  That is the second year in a row that I won an award for making chili for this party and neither time was the chili more that an hour old.  Mrs. P was none too thrilled with, "... and he wasn't even planing on coming until 5 o'clock..." :D

Ships

We had sweet tip from Mike F. at the ice rink about some visitors that were hanging out in downtown Charleston near Haddad Riverfront Park.  The Nina and the Pinta...

Replicas of the Christopher Columbus ships.  Boy, was it cool to walk around on them and see how they worked.  The ships were pretty stinking small when you consider the trip across the Atlantic Ocean, a full crew, and the a hope of a destination. The kids had a blast.

Here they are upper deck of the Pinta.

  

They had giant braided rope bumpers.  How cute is Lexy though...?

Isaac hanging out on the bow of the Nina.  Look at the size of that anchor.

Here is the back of the Nina, with a little peak of Lexy's head.

And one of Isaac with both ships behind him.

Bonus points if you comment on that wonderful shirt that he is wearing... :)

Please do what you can to protect your family...

Hurricane Sandy in West Virginia

So, with Hurricane Sandy bearing down on the east coast and threatening the inland areas as well, we made sure to have a few extra provisions in place.  All went well at our house.  Just some snow...  But about the third deepest snow storm we've seen in 3 winters here.

We didn't lose power... Didn't lose water...  Didn't lose internet...  Didn't lose TV... Just lost a day of work...  

The kids LOVE the fact the school is out.  Tuesday because of snow and Wednesday because of "wide spread power outages"... There are folks that I work with that lost power, still don't have it.  Friends from church without, school friends, even our old community were we used to live is out.  But not us... Pretty stinkin' lucky...

It rained all day on Sunday and Monday... Turned to snow at about 2am Tuesday (so I read), I was up at 5:30am and there was about 1.5 inches... The school called and put classes on a 2 hour delay, by 8am there was 4-5 inches and school was canceled.  It snowed until about 5pm when it turned to rain.  It rained on the snow most of the night and there is little of it left.  But we took advantage of it while it was here.  Word has it that just an hour to the south and 2,000 elevation in Beckley, WV they got 27 inches.  We didn't get any of the wind that was anticipated either.

This is my "Hurricane weather at our house" picture.

A little snow on the vehicles.

Here's a picture of Isaac and Lexy riding out the storm.  With no school they needed to find something worth while to do. ;)

Here's Lexy all bundled up in her snow playing close.  With two coats on she couldn't zip up the second one. Ha.

Isaac, always the dare devil, was looking at jumping from the railing to the snowy hill below.  About 4 feet below his feet.  What fun.

Here's Lexy later in the day dressed in FASHION cold weather clothes.

She is all about style and fashion these days.

Jack-O-Lanterns 2012

Here are the Jack-O-Lanterns that we carved at our house.

Lexy wanted a kitty cat...

Isaac wanted to carve the ol' Jack Skeleton, a standby tradition at our house.  I was super proud of him, he carved nearly all of it himself.

I tried some different stuff this year and was quite happy with the outcome. 

Here's a family of Jack-O-Lanterns.

I kind of like this one unlit too...

Carving Pumpkins

We did the fun version of gathering pumpkins and went to Capitol Street Market to pick them out.  Not quite as fun as going to the pumpkin patch, but much better that the grocery store.  Isaac was after a big one, Lexy was after a cute one, and they made me get one too.

Lexy and her gourd.

Isaac gutting his gourd.

Lexy was scooping out as much as she could but still wanted to have gloves.

Isaac was all about no gloves, just reach in a grab a hand full.

Lexy and her kitty pumpkin.