Hallelujah Harvest

This past Sunday Atlantic Shores had an event known as Hallelujah Harvest where people from the community all around the church come out with their kids who are dressed up as all sorts of cute characters and they enjoy a pre-halloween event of trunk-or-treating, inflatables, games and fall food.

Here are some of my favorite trunks from the event. The patriotic trunk was the winner and I'm told that's three years running.The winter wonderland trunk even had real snow and of course you have to give a shout out for the Redskins!

Adam and Nima hanging out.

The 757 young adults group created an underwater world for the kids to walk through kind of like a haunted house without the scary haunted part. Here I am with King Neptune...also known as Pastor Rob who married Adam and I three years ago. To bad he couldn't wear this get-up at the wedding. It would have gone beautifully with the blue gowns, right?!The student ministries ran all of the games. So we were in charge of all the student volunteers and making sure the games were going well. I helped with the Hay Hunt for a while.

There was tons of candy hidden in the hay and the kids had to search through to find two of their favorite pieces. It was a simple game, but the little ones really seemed to enjoy it and boy were there some cute kids!

A quick shot of Adam and I at the event.

There's a chili cookoff and costume contest and the church's worship bands play throughout the evening. It really is a fun event and it will be even more fun when we have a little person to dress up and walk around to all the trunks...but for now I'll be happy to take watch other people's little people. Happy Halloween Everyone!

My new fashion creation

About a year ago, my mom purchased this cute jacket pattern and a bunch of fun fabric for us to whip up a few jackets together. Well we didn't get around to it at the time, but this past weekend we finally did! Adam and I were originally planning to head to Liberty's homecoming for the weekend. However the weather was questionable, so we didn't make it. I decided this would be the perfect Saturday to work on creating a new jacket, so I invited my mom to come over and help me.

It's Simplicity pattern 3627 if you're in the mood to create one for your own. There are five different variations. We made variation C, the girl pictured at the bottom's version except my fabric was much thicker than hers.

So first things first...lay out the pattern and cut out all the pieces. The challenge in this project was the fact that I didn't have my sewing kit, therefore no pins and no fabric scissors. That made things a little interesting at times and we did have to scout out some pins towards the end of the project because safety pins weren't quite cutting it when we had to piece everything together and sew in the sleeves.

A serious sewing moment...that turned into this!

I wore my new jacket to church on Sunday and Adam giggled at me a little when I arrived because he knew I had just made it the day before, but I had to show off all that hard work! Plus I think it turned out really cute and church was the perfect place to wear it. What do you think?

Happy Birthday Adam

Adam turned 26th on October 14th.

So we celebrated with late dinner that night when he got home from work and coaching at the cheering gym. I grilled steaks, sauteed onions and made his favorite homemade macaroni and cheese.

After dinner, there were some gifts of course. Here's one of his favorites from the evening.

You can never go wrong with Redskins gear!

Adam's a huge fan of Coldstone, so his mom picked up a Coldstone ice cream cake for him.

Then on Friday, we made plans to have dinner with my parents to celebrate his birthday again. He requested dinner at Zia's because he LOVES their veal saltimbocca. We happened to run into Will there (He does works there, so maybe that's why we ran into him...though he wasn't working that night...so just a festive coincidence).

After a tasty meal Adam had to blow out a candle, but not on a cake...instead it was on a cannoli!

Happy Birthday Hubby!

Another special friend shares the same Birthday as Adam... Happy Birthday Shelby too!!

Mountains Weekend 2008

Mountains Weekend 2008 had finally arrived and Adam and I were really looking forward to the weekend. It is after all one of our favorite weekends of the year as many of you will understand who have attended with me in one of the last 17 years. Wow...17 years, that would mean I began attending when I was 8 years old and my sister was still a baby. Boy have we all come along way since then!

Friday:

Adam and I arrived at noon to take advantage of as much time as we possibly could at the cabin before we had to leave late Saturday night to be back for church Sunday morning since Adam is a pastor now.

Me and my hubby!Adam, Brad and Chloe in one of their favorite reading spots, right in front of the fireplace.My two wonderful moms enjoying a beautiful afternoon on the porch, rocking away.Me and my mommy at dinner time.

Cabin food is the best...Dinner tonight: ham, green beans, mash potatoes and macaroni and cheese.

Haley and Justin arrived just in time for dinner...great timing guys!

Cola and Dennis arrived soon after. Welcome back to the cabin Cola! We've missed you and boy how things have changed in all of our lives over the past few years since you were last here with us. Dan, Lisa, Dan's mom Leslie, and Haley's mom Leslie, Karen and Adam arrived soon after as well to round out the Cabin's group for this year. It was a full house as always. I LOVE HAVING A FULL HOUSE CABIN WEEKEND!Haley's reaction to an exciting moment when Dan and Lisa shared some exciting news! You may be able to guess...but I'll let them be the ones to actually tell you so check out their blog soon or give them a call.

Our 2008 mountains shot

(Haley frames a special shot each year of who was in attendance, here's this year's.) We even got a shot with some of our missing OSLers...Cola brought your pictures with her. My mom suggested we have a reunion one of these years. Any takers?You guys even had a place to fall asleep...we were having fun with you guys even in your absence. Hopefully you'll all be able to join us in the future like old times, just a little less honesty (wink).My sister and Will arrived late Friday night after he drove from Virginia Beach to Radford and then to the Cabin, which is in the Charlottesville area. It was a long day of driving for them, but couldn't compare with last year's drive which took her and her friends something like 6 hours to get there on Sunday and they only stayed till Monday. Needless to say, we'll take a late arrival on Friday any year over last year's late weekend arrival.

Saturday:

Robin and I threw a shower for Adam's cousin Sarah at Granny's Saturday morning, so we got back to the cabin around 3pm in time to visit the Apple Festival and relax away the afternoon. Adam and the guys hung out on the porch with Raph and Uncle Mark, the father and grandfather to be. When I got back Haley and Adam wandered down to the Festival with me and year after year it hasn't changed a bit.

Then it was back to the cabin to hang out some more. This was Will's first year at the Cabin...hopefully the first of many.Then Sarah and Aunt Caroline arrived after dropping off shower gifts at home and changing.

Even Amy made it over to our Cabin from hers that afternoon after the shower. She came up for the weekend to relax with her brother and a girlfriend.

It was like a mini-Herndon gathering Saturday afternoon. Look at all those Herndons gathered around the table!

Saturday night we all enjoyed a menu of Chicken and Peas followed by apple crisp made from the very apples purchased earlier in the day at the festival. The remainder of the evening was spent visiting with everyone on the porch and around the bonfire before Adam and I had to sadly hit the road. We crammed as much quality cabin time in with everyone as we possibly could and we went home relaxed and full of delicious cabin food. We're already looking forward to next year!

A Shower for Baby Sydnor

This past weekend Robin and I threw a Baby Shower for Sarah. We were already going to be up in her neck of the woods for Cabin Weekend and she would be due in about four weeks, so we figured what better time to throw the Herndon family shower.

Here I am with the Guest of Honor as she arrived.Four Generations are present in this photo...Baby Sydnor, Mother-to-be, Grandmother-to-be, and Great Grandmother-to-be.
The table laid out for brunch and a close-up of the adorable cake.
Our Guest of Honor showing off the perfect Baby Belly!Enjoying the brunch and the little decorations that were here and there like this baby rattle. Even my mom was able to make it to the shower since she was up at the cabin. It was so much fun having her there with me.

We played a few games from guessing the size of the mother-to-be's belly (pictured), to Guess the Gerbers where everyone had to smell and look at baby food jars without a label and guess what type they were (Sarah won this game). We also played a game where you reached in a bag and had to feel around to figure out what type of baby items were inside. The funniest item guessed was a silicon boob which was really a teething toy. We also played a game where we listed famous children and you had to know their parents.

Next on the agenda...PRESENTS! And there were plenty to go around.

Everyone was asked to bring a book to add to Baby Sydnor's library. So it was fun to see what books everyone picked out and amazingly enough there wasn't a single repeat! Here's Sarah with Curious George and the book Curious George Feeds the Animals.Sarah was a dancer, and someone found the sweetest pink satin baby ballet shoes. SO CUTE!Here she is opening my gift, the baby bath tub with homemade hooded towel and other bath supplies. Even my books went along with the theme. A Seseme Street Book about bath time.

No shower is complete without the cake.Sarah with Robin and I, the hostesses with the mostess.

We were so happy to be able to throw this shower for Sarah and so glad that everyone was able to attend. Fun was had by all and it was a most festive occasion. We can't wait to meet Baby Sydnor at Thanksgiving!