Harris Happenings

October 1998

Happy Birthday Mike!

There have been a lot of things going in October, but the most wonderful thing was Mike's Birthday! He turned 7 years old. We spent a whole long weekend celebrating: On Saturday, our friend Lucie gave Mike a present; on Sunday we had a birthday party at the bowling alley; on Monday we went out for a birthday dinner, and on Tuesday was his real birthday when he opened his presents. He had a really good time, and it was made extra special because Grandpa Jim and Grandma Donna were here to help celebrate.

Uncle Rob and Aunt Ann Came to Visit

The first thing that happened in October was tha Uncle Rob and Aunt Ann came to visit us. They arrived on Sept 30, and stayed until Oct 5th. While they were here, we went to Hershey Park and had a wonderful time. You can read about our trip here. We also went to the Cider Mill Farm. Unfortunately, it was cold and wet, and we couldn't go to the petting farm area. We still had fun, though, and we bought some apples and some apple cider. While Uncle Rob and Aunt Ann were here, they went with Jenny and David to Baltimore, where we walked from the Inner Harbor to Fort McHenry. Wow! We don't recommend it without knowing what you're getting into! We thought Fort McHenry was much closer, but by the time we'd figured out where it was, we figured we might as well go the rest of the way. We think we walked about 6 or 7 miles that day.

Next, Grandpa Jim and Grandma Donna Came to Visit

After Uncle Rob and Aunt Ann visited us, then Grandpa Jim and Grandma Donna visited us too! They arrived on Friday before Mike's birthday. On that Saturday, we went to the Cider Mill Farm again, and since the weather was better than the previous weekend, we were able to see the petting farm animals, ride a hayride, and ride the ponies. Then we went to the pumpkin patch to pick out some pumpkins. We had our friend Lucie with us, because she spent the night with us on Friday night. (That was a whole barrel of fun in its own right!) So Lucie, Mike and Kim had a great time playing together at the Cider Mill Farm. On Sunday while Grandpa Jim and Grandma Donna were here, we had Mike's birthday party. Then on Monday, Mike had to go to school while everyone else stayed home for Columbus Day. So we went to do our shopping for Mike's birthday presents that day, and ate at the Chinese food buffet, which Kim loves but Mike doesn't. Grandpa and Grandma stayed with us until Wednesday morning, and then they drove up to visit Uncle Rob near Boston They came back again to visit a week later, and stayed for a couple of days. We all love having grandparents visit us. Thanks for coming!

Fall Festival

On Friday, October 16th, the Stevens Forest Fall Festival was held. Jenny was the main coordinator for the evening. There was a family pumpkin decorating contest (we had over 40 entries!), a photo booth, and lots of crafts to do. There were also pie eating contests and marshmallow eating contests. There were hotdogs (a.k.a. "hallowieners") and canned drinks for sale. Everyone seemed to have a good time. The Stevens Forest PTA puts this event on every fall (and a corresponding Spring Fling) as a family event - it's meant to be a "fun-raiser", not a "fund-raiser". But even though the event was not intended as a money maker, we did make over $400 that night. The only down-side was that it took a huge amount of energy and coordination on Jenny's part to pull it off! Lots of calling people, begging help in hour or two-hour increments. Jenny is in charge of the Spring Fling too, but having learned a few lessons, she will most likely try to get more involvement from the students and teachers, so the volunteer crew will be a little more varied.

Scarecrow

Once again, we've decorated our front yard with a scarecrow and a bunch of pumpkins. This scarecrow is the same one we used last year - Jenny's sweatshirt, David's jeans, an old straw hat, and some gardening gloves. This year, we also have some old dried cornstalks, and a bale of hay. We're going to carve our pumpkins a day or so before Halloween. We'd say there will be pictures here, but you know how it is - we're supposed to have pictures of our Tulsa trip from July here, but they're not up yet either!

Halloween

This year for Halloween, Mike has decided to dress up as a vampire, while Kim wants to be a "pretty" witch. We've gathered all the costumes, make up and supplies, and will be out on October 31st prowling the neighborhood looking for some ghoulishly good treats.

Coming Up in November

In November we have some great things to look forward to. First, Grandpa and Grandma Bird will be visiting us. They're coming out here from Oklahoma in order to participate in a local Christmas Crafts show at our county fairgrounds. The show runs for two weekends, so they'll be with us quite a while, even with a break in the middle to visit some other relatives who live in the surrounding area. We're really looking forward to their visit. We may even have our Thanksgiving dinner early, so they can share it with us.

Harris Front Door

Harris Happenings

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