Bicycle Gang

 These eight neighborhood kids had a regular Bike Gang yesterday.  They were circling the neighborhood having a ball.

Off To See The Wizard

We were Off to See the Wizard this Halloween.

10 On The 10th

 10 on the 10th

I haven't done 10 pictures on the 10th of the month in a while, and these are more than 10 pictures, but on the 10th of this month I took some pictures.

Tracey has a best friend who she has been BEGGING to have over for a play date since last spring.

Is Yada, Yada, Yada still a thing?

If it is, this is a great place in the story for a Yada Yada Yada.

Tracey has a best friend who she has been BEGGING to have over for a play date since last spring.

Yada Yada Yada

Friday, Tracey's friend, her friend's sister and the neighbor boy came over for six hours of baking cookies, making pizza, eating pizza, and decorating cookies in between board games and fun in the snow.

P.S. Muffin tins are the best way to give everyone access to lots of sprinkles while keeping them a little organized - revolutionary!

They had a really good time... and I took a few pictures and did LOTS of dishes.

 

Long Walk

I'm not going to lie... with Tracey on roller skates the other day, this was a LONG walk.

The truth is, we've been trying to spot bears in our neighborhood -- as in going on a bear hunt.

So far, we have spotted three in our windows... and one in the entire rest of the neighborhood.

In Less Time

When you know how to do something, it can be very simple.

Tracey has had a beautiful dress with a split in the seam for two years.

We bought the dress second hand and one of the first times she wore it, I noticed the split.  The dress seam was attached at the top and at the bottom, but just had the split in the middle portion.

The dress had a flowery overlay, so the split doesn't even infringe on the modesty of the dress... it just gets caught on things. 

For YEARS I have been meaning to just stitch up the seam by hand. 

Finally yesterday I looked at the dress... and called my neighbor.

My wonderful neighbor made all of our costumes for the church Christmas Pageant herself and I was pretty sure she could stitch up this seam with minimal effort.

I asked if I could trade her her sewing services for a batch of cookies.

She of course said it would be no problem and I didn't have to provide cookies.

The kids and I dropped off the dress at the neighbor's house and then walked to our mailbox to get the mail and walked home.

BEFORE WE GOT HOME -- we were still half a block from our house, our neighbor had sent her daughters back over with the fixed dress.

She repaired that dress in less time than it took me to walk to the mailbox with my kids.

Some things really are simple if you know how to do them.

Our Neighbors

I love our home.  We have been here nearly three-and-a-half years and I still am astounded that we were able to buy it and raise our family here.

I love our neighborhood... and I love our neighbors.

There are four children that live next door, two girls and two boys all of whom are older than all of our kids, but they still have a blast together.  Either in the front yard riding bikes and playing basketball or in the back yard on swing sets and running around, they are such great kids and seem not to mind how little our guys are.