On Friday, 28Oct, Rocket's school had the announcement of the walkathon numbers at the end of the Halloween party. Rocket is old enough that his grades no longer wear Halloween costumes, they sit and cheer on the younger kids.
This is Rocket with his buddies, K (played basketball with him last year) in the orange shirt, Rocket in dark blue shirt, E (ducking down- also in orange shirt), T in purple and A in light blue. These boys are awesome.
the kids in Rocket's school raised $30,391.32 so far from the walkathon. we have some checks still coming in and it should put us over $31,000.00 for this year.
On Saturday, I took the boys apple picking. the place was about 90 minutes away- so an adventure through the Ohio country side. We tool Rocket's friend, P and his exchange student from France, M. M is only here for 2 weeks, like Falco's class will do in September 2017. I think the boys had a good time
Here is the view from the top of the hill in the orchard. In the far distance, you can see the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. If you know your US geography, these are the mountains that run along the Eastern side of the country- from Maine to Georgia. Ohio is on the western side of the mountains. They don't get taller until you get closer to the West Virginia/Pennsylvia border, which is about 4 hours from us. But if you remember the weekend away in 2014 when Yutaro was with us, you will recall when we were further into the foothills at Hocking Hills. That was in October 2014 if you want to go look back at that post.
The boys at the top of the hill
We picked Fuji (red), golden delicious (yellow) and Granny smith (green) apples. I have processed half of them into apple sauce and I have 5 bags in the freezer. I still one more bushel to process into Apple pie filling, but I should have that done sometime this week. Each batch takes about 3 hours to make or 6 hours on low heat. So with work and other things I am averaging 2 batches a day.
The boys- M, Rocket, Falco, and P.
The orchard we went to. it is very new- about 3 years they have been selling their apples. Rocket and I are going to have to go next year earlier in the season as they have about 10 varieties of apples that ripen at different times from Sep- Nov.
On the way home, we stopped in downtown so M could see the riverfront, then go buy some presents for his family as he leaves this week. I keep telling Falco to start buying presents for his family, but he is resisting. I think it might be making him sad that he is going home in just over 10 weeks!!! Therefore, he is ignoring the time crunch he is going to be under eventually. I keep telling him, I don't go near the shopping malls or stores at Christmas time. I think he does not believe me. There are too many crowds and people are so rude, it is just too overwhelming to me after working in retail for 16 years (from high school, through college, and then into my early career). I really hate shopping at Christmas time.
While we were downtown, I bought the boys hot dogs and drinks from a street cart vendor. That was a cool experience. this guy was set up right near the fountain, he was super nice.
Enjoying the sun and the fountain during lunch.
Saturday night, we had hot dogs and s'mores in our backyard. Falco built a great fire and we had a nice evening sitting outside and just being together. Falco is always fixing his hair before I take pictures.
Halloween night- my Superhero boys- Falco as "Captain Austrian America" and Rocket as Black Panther. Pablo was the "ruffaree"
they love each other!!
Pretend fighting, which turned to.....
Falco actually being hit. Rocket said that Falco moved and so it was his fault that he got hit!!! HAHAHA, Falco was not buying that reasoning and I was dying because it sounds like something I told my sister all the time when we were actually fighting with each other.
dying laughing
Mam came over to hand out candy and we took off to trick or treat.
Pablo was so excited to go. He was so good, no barking at people and no begging for candy. He was a good doggie boy.
one of our neighbors and the boys. While we were walking around, Falco said "merry Christmas" to someone and they ended up in a brief discussion that ended with Falco declaring "this is great, they give you CANDY". I think Falco really likes this holiday a lot.
they boys trading candy after we got home. We were out for 1.5 hours (Halloween trick or treating hours are 6-8 pm). Rocket wanted to end after an hour, but we convinced him to keep going. We walked part of our neighborhood that we have not been in since Rocket was 4 years old. I think Pablo and I will be walking there more frequently.
Falco's haul of candy. WOW!
that's all for this week. Falco is out this weekend hiking with the boy scouts. Rocket is too young to go, but I think Falco will really enjoy it. Rocket and I have some fun stuff planned with friends and so everyone will be happy.
Love and hugs,
Deb
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