Pumpkin Pumpkin

Hi there! Two weekends ago we made an attempt to visit a pumpkin patch. Before we went to the patch, we fueled up at the local Home Town Buffet for breakfast. Here you can see that Grandma and Grandpa E came up for a visit.

By the time my dad was finished at the buffet, dusk had settled in so we went to Kohl's instead. Our second attempt to secure a pumpkin came this past weekend when we went to Circleville for their annual, vaunted Pumpkin Festival. Here you can see us photographed near the painted mural commerating the pumpkin show. It is serious business in these parts.

Here is a shot of us in front of the pumpkin Christmas tree before we were offered a pumpkin shake...

And here is one after we were offered a pumpkin shake. Notice how JC leans in at the mere mention of food!

Finally, here is a shot with my dear mother. I, M, was lucky enough to visit the Pumpkin show on it's 100th anniversary a couple months after I was born. You can see here they are now at 103 years!

In the end, we could find no pumpkins at the show for sale that weren't already turned into shakes, pies, gyros, bologna, or chili. So we found one in a box at Meijer instead! Oh well!

Gram and Pops Visit

Before I get to this post I got a question for you - are you going to eat that?Gram and Pops came to visit about a week ago. Here is a picture of us with Gram...

And here is one with Pops. He was in mid-sneeze!

They brought Double Chocolate Fudge-rooni Cookies. Seconds later I was yelling and jumping on the table as my sister egged me on. Go JC, it's your birthday...

Finally, my dad graduated a few months ago but forgot to tell anyone. Here he reenacts his graduation at Gram's request. Pops is playing the Dean.

M reads...

Here is a delightful bedtime story, as read by M, for all of her friends and relatives!

Who's hungry now?

Apple Picking

That bread pudding in the last post sure doesn't look appetizing does it? Neither was the weather this past Saturday as we traveled to Pataskala. It might be hard to spell but picking apples there is easy as the trees are much lower than those in the Wizard of Oz. Look! Even my vertically challenged brother, JC was able to pluck an apple!

My dad spent most of the time eating, as opposed to collecting the apples. Here's is a "Gorillas in the Mist" shot of my dad scavenging in the apple orchard. I took the photo myself!

My mom did most of the collecting and we took home over 200 lbs of apples! Our car scraped the whole way home. Here my mom smiles with some of her help. That is apple on JC's chin!

Finally, here is a shot of me just a few hours before becoming a victim of a nefarious allergic reaction that required multiple hospital visits. But don't worry, it wasn't the apples fault!

Thanks Aunt K and Uncle R for our awesome jackets. Thanks Aunt J for my parents' sweet T-shirts!

Honey Festival

Every year the town of Lithopolis holds a honey festival. They strive to increase awareness and sales of honey made in the north without the africanized honey bee. But that is not why we went. One reason was the free parking. The other reason was this:

I challenge all readers to guess at what we are eating from the white container. A clue is that we got the item from a tent that was raising money for a day home for the elderly. We also got to see the Lithopolis fire truck up close. Here dad points out a pair of bolt cutters to M.


Here JC drives the engine. His comment? Thank goodness for power steering! The fire engine was big!

The day-long festival culminated in the bee beard. A strong advocate of Ohio honey attached a queen bee to his chin. He then picked up scads of bees and placed them on his chest creating the bee beard. His shirt is plain yellow under all those bees! M was unimpressed, but she has also never been stung by a bee!

Happy Birthday M!

Wow! I turned three last week. I got to have an early birthday party with the Radford clan. Here you can see how excited I was to receive some of my gifts.




They also made me a cake with 3 candles! How appropriate!

I then had another early birthday party with Uncle B and Aunt K. Look at the spread. My dad is an awesome cake maker, no? Oh wait...never mind. We went to Uncle Sam's Club.

My brother was there, too. He decided since the party wasn't for him, he wasn't getting dressed.

I really was good at opening my own presents this year. Look at me tear this one open!

I also got an awesome easel which my dad assembled so I could immediately start chalking!

While I was chalking my brother tried one of the cupcakes. He isn't laughing because eating is serious business for him.

I tried my hand at a cupcake, but I dropped it. We decided to change plans....

My dad helped me eat my birthday cake instead....

Whoa! I wasn't sharing this cake!

I had a super birthday and enjoyed all of my parties. Thank you for all of your generous gifts!

JC's 1st Trip Out West!

Hi there! I accompanied my sister on her journey to the west. I had never been there before so I got to see brown mountains for the first time. They don't look as inviting as the Appalachia.


Brick Oven was one of my favorites. They have great peas!

I got to meet my western cousins for the first time. Here I am with R, H, and Pirate M.

Here is my wonderful great-grandma who never forgets my birthday even though she has 135 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren.

Here I am pictured with my proud great-grandpa. He sure is a hard worker and I hope some of it gets passed on to me!

Finally, one last new experience. My great-aunt gave me my first hair cut. I handled it pretty well, but I still needed my pacifier. Nobody's perfect!

What a great trip! It lasted a long time and I learned to walk while I was there. Guard your countertops - no swiss chocolates or Hostess Fruit Pies are safe!