It's Bonfire Time...

We are having a bonfire up at my husband's sister and brother-in-law's house this evening. We've been working on it all week. Last night, we carved a whole bunch of little pumpkins to light the trail in the woods. That was a lot of fun. We're doing a haunted hayride through the woods too. I think there will be about a dozen or so kids there, maybe 18. I'm not sure who all is coming. Plus some other family, neighbors, friends and co-workers of my sister-in-law and brother-in-law.  Five of B.'s friends are invited (three of which are triplet sisters). My SIL, K. had been talking about doing something like this for years and I'm so glad that she's finally doing it. Of course, my husband taking the tractor up with the front loader and clearing out all the paths in the woods during the past month may have given her the push she needed to actually go through with it. lol! We've made about a half dozen dummies. And my husband and brother-in-law have really been into making props for this trail this past week after work and during the weekends. lol!
 

K. wants to keep the food simple - nothing that requires using a fork. Just hotdogs, chips, chocolate covered apples and rice krispies treats. B. and I are making the candy corn rice krispies treats recipe that's on the back of the pumpkin marshmallows bag later on. I got all the kids glow-in-the-dark necklaces from the dollar store last night and a bunch of votive candles for our jack-o-lanterns. Plus I got stuff for s'mores and more than several bottles of pop. I think I may have to run out and get more necklaces though.

I got some great pics last night with my phone of all us women and the kids carving pumpkins, the guys with their dummy, etc. lol! Great scrapbooking material. Good memories for sure.....

Dummy that the neighbors made...

The graveyard. lol!....

One of the only "cute" things on the trail. The neighbor made this with her senior citizens group. She did an awesome job on it....

And one of the dummies we all made. My sister-in-law, B., and I stuffed all the shirts and pants of the dummies with leaves earlier this week and the guys are putting them together. This one turned out to be pretty creepy....

We've had a lot of fun getting ready for the bonfire and haunted trail. At least if we decide to do it again next year, a lot of the props have already been made and it won't be as much work. It's only 41 degrees out now. And it's supposed to be really chilly tonight. But that's October and I love Fall.... chilly nights, bonfires, and good times...

A Month of Autumn

Isn't the baby box turtle in the picture above cute??  Three of them were found down at my sister-in-law's house the end of September. Well, the eggs were actually found some time ago and my sister-in-law had tried to keep them covered so they wouldn't get eaten. We were all so excited to find out they had finally hatched! Our nephew, M. named two of them Ernie and Isaac. B. named the third one Lucy. She says that's her turtle. lol! The neighbor has been taking care of them. She gave them a little box and food. If they were left on the ground were they came up, they would have gotten killed. So they are being protected for now until they grow bigger....

Our older daughter, Ashley, and her husband, Sean, spent the evening with us back on September 15th. They were up here from SC for Ashley's cousin's wedding. Sean is a big Steelers fan like we are and since he's from down South, he had never eaten at Primanti's before. So my husband took us all to the one in the Strip District in Pittsburgh. Although we've eaten at other Primanti's lots of times before, this was also me and B's first time getting to go to the Strip District in Pittsburgh....

We took a quick trip through Wholey's beforehand just to check it out. It's pretty big in there, and not to mention freeeezzzing. They sell fresh fish and other items....

After eating at Primanti's, we took a walk through the Strip District. I got B. a really pretty, blingy Steelers t-shirt at this one shop for only $10. The girl working there was very nice, friendly and helpful....

 

As we were leaving, we saw one of these travelling bars. The people sitting at it had to pedal it down the street. lol! So cool....

Ashley won tickets on E-Bay for a Steelers game in December. So they'll be coming back up then. Hopefully, we'll get to spend some time with them when they're here again.


The first weekend of October, we made our annual daytrip to the WV mountains....

You can see Seneca Rock in the picture above. The Visitor's Center was closed thanks to our wonderful government being shut down. We weren't too happy about that since we really needed to find a restroom. Thankfully, the outhouses in the area were unlocked although they weren't being taken care of.

This was the first year we had stopped at Spruce Knob Lake and took a walk around it. Well, I should say almost around since we had to turn around when we got to a big mud hole on the other side...

On the way home, we stopped at C.J. Maggie's in Buckhannon, WV for lunch. My husband had been there before while working at a job down that way. But this was me and B's first time there....

I got this honkin'-huge fish sandwich. Wasn't expecting it to be quite this large. lol! Of course, with a name like "Codzilla", I should have known better.....

The food and the service was pretty good there.

Last Saturday, we went to the benefit for Jenn's family. They raised a bunch of money that night. It was really nice. They had a food buffet, a really awesome Chinese auction, and the 50/50 ended up being $3,500 alone! We didn't buy a ticket for that though. We did for a TV, plus we put in tickets for a dozen of the Chinese auction items. We didn't win anything though. But oh well, it was for a really good cause and we had a good time....

B. spent the evening up at her Aunt Mimi's making homemade pizza and playing Monopoly with her aunt and cousins. That's become their thing lately - playing Monopoly on a Saturday night together. She is so blessed to have such a wonderful aunt that enjoys spending time with her nieces and nephew.



Then last Sunday, B. and I went to the TJ Maxx grand opening. Woohooo!! finally!...

I've been there more than several times in the past week. Addicted much?? lol! Let's just say that I got some nice stuff for the bathrooms.... a really nice, round, acrylic make up organizer, a spa tower for the washcloths, my wax warmer, etc., a couple toilet paper holders that sit on the floor, a big fluffy rug, also for the bathroom, a pair of cool denim Converse and a cute pink owl iPod cover for B., a comfy pair of Naturalizer shoes for myself in black, a 10" deep skillet from T-Fal (which I absolutely love!), some really pretty OPI nail polishes (1/2 price!), and a pack of American Crafts ribbon in fall colors and patterns. My husband says he's gonna tell them not to let me into the store anymore. lol! We don't have many retail stores around here, so this is really nice.

We also made it out to the local pumpkin farmers' this past week.....

I also got started cleaning out and reorganizing the closets this past week and decorating for Halloween and fall. I still have my walk-in closet to do yet. My husband and brother-in-laws have been busy getting ready for our bonfire next weekend up at his sister's house. They are making a haunted trail and have been working diligently on creating props. It's so cool seeing him and his sister's husband so excited and into what they are making. Let's just say they are using a bicycle wheel and the motor from the garage door opener. lol! B. and I are heading up there this afternoon to help K. (Aunt Mimi) make dummies after she gets back from a baby shower.

Gotta make lunch now and try to make it to the gym today....

Til next time....