Thanksgiving at the Marshalls

We had a beautiful day together celebrating Thanksgiving at the Marshalls!

We decided to have our feast a little early so that everyone could be there.

Ashley had beautifully decorated her entire house with table settings full of fall touches, hand assembled fresh flower arrangements, and all the sites and smells of Thanksgiving!

The kids each had special cups with curly straws and activity pages to keep them occupied at the table.

The family gathered and talked as the final touches were being made to the buffet.

The sunroom shown with fall reflections and beckoned the children to play!

The coffee bar was full of fall flavors from pumpkin spice k-cups to apple cider.

There was even pumpkin truffle candies and pumpkin spice whip topping!

The brand new oven stood proudly in the kitchen - ready to prepare multiple stuffings and turkey!

The wine even held reminders of the grateful hearts of the day.

The front room was speckled with fall jewel tones and pumpkins.

Glistening turkeys and golden initials set off the gourds and rich red wine!

Grandma sat in a prime position to see the kitchen work and the youngsters.

After gran gave a beautiful blessing for the meal, everyone filled their plates and found their seats.

The boys were grateful for each other and for being side by side!

Lenora enjoyed the green beans, mac and cheese and rolls!

Ashley and Natalie had portions of everything - including Ashley's cranberry sauce!

Gran proudly headed up the table.  She proclaimed everything was delicious!

Jack took a fun picture from his perspective!

It shows crayons side by side with his holiday plate as well as smiling faces all down the way!

Lenora enjoyed playing in ottomans as the boys played dog and owner.  LOL

The boys ran circles around Emily as she "gobbled" them with a blanket.

We read How to Catch a Turkey and other Thanksgiving books as the table was cleared.

After a round of warm drinks and pumpkin pie, we all said our goodbyes.

The boys gave each other a parting hug and the day was over. 

It was a perfect day filled with family, turkey and love.

Great Thanksgiving!

Natalie's Birthday at Arni's!

We had a fun get-together for Natalie's 39th birthday!

We decided to meet up at Arni's for some family time!

The boys were so happy to see each other!

We filled the long table with smiles, joy and Arni's Junior Salads.

The boys crowded on Aunt Ashley's lap for some long-overdue snuggles.

After lunch, everyone turned their attention to the candle lighting on Natalie's cake.

Natalie easily blew out the candles on her fall themed cake!

Natalie got some birthday love from the smallest party-goer!

The Gilbert guys were excited to celebrate the lady of their family!

Gran was overjoyed to be able to take part in the day.

She also said, "This is the best salad I ever had!" LOL

It was so nice to get together for Natalie's birthday as it is often missed amongst the shuffle of harvest.

Great family, great salads, great birthday!

Family Night at Urban Chalkboard

Our original plans were rained out, so we decided to try something new!

The kids were with us so we headed to the Urban Chalkboard.

They were having their monthly Family Night so there was a buffet from Greek's Pizzeria and wine!

This is a really neat concept for a children's play place.

The offer food, beverages and snacks while kids enjoy the toys, books, and interactive experiences.

A highlight was the interactive floor!

Victor invited a few animals to dine with us!

The reading tree really makes the space cool for kids!

Vic and Nora enjoyed all the different interactive floors!

Lenora liked popping bubbles and Victor enjoyed the Halloween themed one!

We also danced to some disco music!

It was a really fun night for kids and adults!

Great concept for families to have space to relax, play and meet up!

Great twin night!

A Night Out in Sleepy Hollow

We had a free night out in Irving Circle Park with spooky stories!

The historic Irvington Halloween Festival was a great spot to get into Halloween this year!

Irvington was named for Washington Irving, an American short story writer (Legend of Sleepy Hollow, 1820).  

In homage to their beginnings, one of the community events this year had a literary component.

Winners of a local spooky story contest read their entries; followed by a professional storyteller recounting the Headless Horseman tale.

The night also featured the Black Hat Society of local witches doing a dance as well as a real Headless Horseman haunting the circle!

Ashley provided a Panera picnic and the kids snuggled in under some cozy blankets.

Free hot dogs and hot drinks were offered, but we opted to bring our own libations!

The flavors of fall were all represented - turkey, cheddar, apples, and squash soup.

There were even pumpkin sugar cookies!

There were four divisions: Elementary, Middle School, High School, and adult.

The stories were very spooky and as the night progressed, the story telling grew darker as well!

We found a cozy spot under some fall foliage and enjoyed watching the crowd of young and old.

Some were in costume, others were bundled up against the crisp October air.

Victor thought the Headless Horseman story was a bit scary, but enjoyed the horse and rider, night air, and colorful leaves.

What a great event for the whole family!

We had amazing parking and were able to get to the small event easily.

The picnic was perfect and everyone was sleepy by the time we headed home.

Visions of jack-o-lanterns danced in their heads as the children drifted off.

Spook-tacular twin night!

Cabaret Poe 2018

This year we had a double date twin night to see Cabaret Poe!

In its 10th year, Cabaret Poe hasn't aged a day.  From its stellar performances to its dark humor - we live for this show from year to year!

We decided to have pre-show dinner down the street at Sahm's first.

It was a great spot for some nice wine and IPAs.

Then we made a quick trek in some light rain to the new Phoenix Theatre!

We picked up a nice bottle of "madock" to begin!

There was love going around as we prepared for the show!

We really enjoyed the production in its new venue!

It was a smaller setting (completely packed house) which seemed to fit the intimacy of the show.

All our favorites: Annabelle Lee, William Wilson, and Nevermore hit their notes.

After the show, we got to snap a pic with the creator, Ben Asaykwee!

It was a perfectly macabre experience!

We enjoyed looking around the new theatre and having some laughs!

Afterwards, we headed to Nine Irish for some food and fun!

Later, we made it to Ike and Jonesy's for our final night cap.

Emily and Greg stayed at the Omni and Ashley and Ross caught an Uber home.

It was a great night filled with laughs, song and all things October!

Great twin date night! 

2018 Glamping Trip!

Glamping trip 2018 was a beautiful trip to McCormick's Creek State Park.

After some meticulous planning of the only dates available for our preferred glamp site, we booked the second weekend in October for our trip.

We had high hopes that the leaves would be turning 

and the weather cooling at this point in the fall season.  

We each had to do some work on Friday, so Emily ended up picking Ashley up from the Riley garage at about 3:30 PM and loading the Kia there.  The Prius was left in the safety of the free garage.

As we set out on our way, the rain was coming down.  

What went unspoken was our respective trepidation in seeing a few pieces of sleet on the windshield.

We stopped in Belleville for supplies (firewood, gas, and snacks) and arrived at our site around 5 PM.

We opened a bottle of wine and took breaks from the rain inside the car as we set up the tent.

Ashley brought fire starter logs and so we had a fire even in the cold and rain.  

We watched the flames lap the torrents of rain as we bundled under beautiful throw blankets in the comfort of our tent.  

We drank wine and found our way into our comfortable new queen airbed cot.  Wonderful!

We snacked on autumn pasta salad (butternut squash, mushrooms, spinach, pasta, shredded cheese with parmesan garlic dressing) and pumpkin butter with biscoff cookies before bed.

The next morning, we awoke to frigid temperatures (37 degrees) and couldn't convince each other to get out of bed until it was at least over 40.  At about 11:30, we begrudgingly arose to make hot coffee and go to the bathroom!

After some hot coffee (thanks to coffee concentrate and our new kettle), pumpkin bread, a bathroom break, some lovely face wipes, and brushing our teeth, we were ready to face the day!

We finished decorating our site with pennant banners, candles, flowers and lanterns.

It was an beautiful glamp site!

The sun came out and the woods began to warm up so we opted to go on our typical hike of trail 5.

It takes you to the twin bridges and through some beautiful waterways, woods and rock faces.

Our moderate 2 mile hike brought us back to our site with renewed energy.  

Ashley set up our charcuterie and we lit a witches brew candle to prepare to read 

Witches of BlackBrook.

It was a really witchy fun book and we read from about 3 - 8 PM.  We finished just as it was dark enough to need a reading lamp so that was spooky perfection.

Our fire burned perfectly thanks to an added log from the nearby woods.

We had some noisy neighbors, but for the most part things were calm and quiet.

We stayed up until midnight talking, eating pumpkins spice marshmallows 

and enjoying the heat of the fire and the votive luminaries around our site.

It began to rain heavily later that night and we did have some dripping into the tent.

For the most part we stayed dry, but it was desperately cold and we did not get to see any changing leaves.  Although our hike was beautiful, our goal was to see the foliage.  We had to pack up glamp in the rain again Sunday morning, but we did enjoy hot coffee and pumpkin bread by the fire before departing.

We had a great time alone together, enjoying catching up and looking ahead.

We talked about our jobs and houses and family.

We discussed changes we wish to make and what is really working for us.

Although the weather did not hold up as we had hoped, the trip was a success.  We listened to witchy music, laughed, cried, hoped and dreamed together in the torrential rain and the peaceful days.

Great glamp trip!