Thanksgiving

Good food and friends makes for a very yummy holiday, my most favorite kind. 

We celebrated a day late this year, but that worked out just fine. Chris was able to finish some of the clearing he wanted to do in the yard (to prepare for expanding our elderberry operation) and burn the evidence on the actual Thanksgiving Day.  Come Friday, he was ready to sit for a bit.

Our eight kids play so incredibly well together, and they love to be outside.  The kids even made another movie trailer for fun.  Since the kids were enjoying the beautiful weather outside, we adults were able to enjoy some great discussions and fellowship inside; before and after eating :-)  For desert we had a pie contest, four pies with four levels of sugar and Lance ate his first salad.  It was truly a day to be thankful for.  So glad my friend remembered to take a picture.  

Final touch

Last month, the weekend of October 22nd Chris had broken a new Otto family record...
He finished a building project in only ONE weekend.  The project was a multi-purpose pergola; to provide protection and shade for the Brahmas in their new home, a needed structure for my black berries that are running wild and a climbing place for the Scuppernong we want to add to the farm.

Time passed, life got busy (common theme lately) and I figured we'd missed the window to buy our Scuppernogs (or as Chris likes to call them our "grape vines").  Today, we were all graving some Farmer Market cookies and therefore knowing the trip wouldn't be in vain we headed out to see if we might still find some plants.  As it turned out, we got both cookies and four beautiful "grape vines" (varieties Tara and Carlos) at a discount to boot.  As rain is expected tonight we got them in the ground right away.  They are the final touch our little pergola needed, don't you think?  The girls have done a good job turning the soil, so hopefully we will have a bumper crop next year.

On an aside, we headed out to a Triangle Youth Symphony Concert right after we got them in the ground (and washed our hands of course).  We wanted to check out TYSS before Lance auditions for them in the summer.  As we were standing in line to buy tickets, a lady walked up to me and gave me six awesome seats for free.  I told the family that meant we must be here for a reason.  Not sure what the reason was but all we did really enjoy the concert.  That was due in part to the fact that the kids knew nearly all the songs played.  They are becoming quite the classical aficionados.   We're excited about possibility of the next time we go seeing Lance on stage.

Let's go fly a kite!

As hurricane Matthew was approaching, the boys decided they needed kites.  Grandpa Harvey ordered them, but needless to say, the hurricane winds were a bit too strong for kite flying.  Then we got busy or there was no wind when we did have time, and time passed without kite flying. Thankfully, today we had both. 

Jared reminded dad to download Mary Poppins to his phone so we could all sing "Let's Go Fly a Kite" on our way to the park. Today was Amber's first time flying kites and it had been a long time for the rest of us.  It was the perfect day; with 5 to 10 mile an hour winds.  The kites looked so beautiful with all their bright colors decorating the sky as they flew in the wind. We stayed out for about an hour until the wind died down.  It's these simple pleasures we so often forget to do, that stay in their memories long after.

I've got to have you!

This was Jared's first line in the play, it was great!  He has such a passion and enjoyment in acting.  I am so thankful he has found such a wonderful outlet for his talent.

 

After many long hours of practice, Cornerstone premiered the Broadway version of Little Women this weekend.  Jared fought duels, sang, danced and died dramatically three times over the last two days.  He was absolutely awesome and the play was amazing!  At each of the three shows, we had friends show up to support Jared and enjoy a wonderful show. It was a fabulous and exhausting weekend.  We were all up to till nearly midnight Saturday; with taking down the set and IHOP cast party afterward, but it was worth every moment to see our beautiful boy shine. 

My crew with our famous actor during intermission.

The Riverdogs won the Pennant! The Riverdogs won the Pennant!

Well... not exactly the pennant but they did do the theoretically impossible.  "Riverdogs" is the name of the West Raleigh baseball team Titus played on this fall.  It was a nice group of kids, Chris helped coach but at the end of the season they were the 8th ranked team with a 2-10 record.  This meant going into the single elimination tournament on Monday they had to face the #1 team, the Bees.  Therefore, according to statistics our baseball season would be over Monday night.  

The Riverdogs knew nothing about statistics.  They beat the Bees 11-10!  I'm not sure who was more surprised the Riverdogs or the poor Bees.

Okay, that meant a practice was added to the schedule on Tuesday to prepare for their second tournament game on Wednesday, which was against the other underdog team that had won, the #5 Lookouts.  Titus did his part this game catching a fly ball and making a double play.  But still, what was the chance of winning two in a row when they had only won two games the whole season?  Well, this is why I think statistics are for crumb, because the WON this game too, 19-9!  That meant they would play in the Championship game on Thursday against the #6 Seed Mudcats.  

This game was a bit more of a nail biter than the first two.  They were down 0-5 top of the 5th (They only play 6 innings at this level) and they were at the bottom of their hitting order.  Despite many parental and sibling tries to get the team excited, they were just flat.  It didn't seem like they were going to pull out the impossible.  Then suddenly the bottom of the order starts hitting and they don't stop till they get ahead 7-5.  Two runs is not much of a lead in baseball.  They had to play perfect defense the next two at bats to keep their lead.... and they DID!  I was an emotional wreck by the end of the game.  I'm not sure if the kids or the parents yelled more those last two innings but the parents screamed the loudest at the end.  What a game!  What a tournament!  What a week to remember!