Here is Benjamin, Alyson and Emily "bobbing" for apples. They really just picked them up with their hands.
Here is Scott, Megan Anway, Ryan and Amanda.
They baby boys, David and Benjamin, loved playing in the water.
The Anway's brought a yummy dessert to share. Cake and ice cream! 
Inspired by my good friend Kristie, we invited our good friends the Anways over for dinner and had a mini Halloween party afterwards. Here is Amanda, Ryan, Emily and David eating marshmallows off of strings.
Julia is really going after that marshmallow.
Here is Julia, Amanda and Ryan getting ready to do pumpkin bowling.
Here is Ryan, Amanda and Emily cheating something fierce during pumpkin bowling.
This is the cake that Ryan dictated I make for his birthday. He wanted strawberry cake mix with strawberry frosting, and taking into account that it was strawberry flavor, he didn't even care that it came out all pink. He even picked the edible Scooby-Doo cake toppers and the great big number seven candle. For a first effort, I'd say Ryan did a great job!
This was the closest I could help Ryan get to a real smile. He looks kind of funny and kind of scary all at the same time.
The old blowing out the candle picture. He had no problems seeing as how there was only one candle to blow out! No girlfriends for Ryan this year. Whew!
This is what Benjamin has been like lately. His asthma has been bad and I know he doesn't feel well, but HELLO! The string is my camera strap. He is literally trying to muscle the camera out of my grasp. You can see how determined he is to succeed too!
This was the resulting face after I won the battle of the camera. It isn't pretty I know, but sometimes we have to face reality. And this is the big brat that Benjamin has been lately in the real world. Oh, well, we still love him. I think we'll keep him despite his shortcomings.
One of my kids' new favorite things to do is pose for the camera. They often think of a pose and then come to me and ask me to take their picture. Here, I couldn't get Emily to relax so I had her move her head from side to side, but then she just got silly.
Julia absolutely adores this black shirt I bought her for Halloween. It says Little Devil on it.
Ryan has the remnants of cinnamon sugar toast from breakfast on his face. Great, now I feel like the worst mother EVER!
They look like the avengers, or the X-men getting ready to go off and save the world. Maybe will call them the Matthews Three.
Believe it or not, these are the only pictures I took on Thanksgiving. I was busy cooking delicious pies and enjoying my family. This is cousin Lyvia. Her silly daddy put her in the wipes box.
This is Emily taking prodigious care of her cousin Lyvia. They played very nicely all day long!
We love our elementary school which is literally right across the school from our house, and this year is it's first year! Everything is new and clean and wonderful.
This is what the school looks like five minutes before the release bell sounds. That is the one annoying part of living right by the school.
Here is the sign for our street. As you can see, the city made a mistake, on all the city records our street is Oakville Street, but the sign says Oakville Drive.
Benjamin had his 2nd birthday on the 3rd of November. As you can probably gather from the picture, he really likes trucks right now. Especially Garbage Trucks.
Benjamin unwrapping his present from Uncle Todd and Aunt Laura.
Benjamin loved his cake. At first he wasn't sure, and he was very reluctant to try it, but he soon discovered how much he loved CAKE!
Julia was constantly getting huge rat's nests in the back of her hair. Mommy was getting sick of it, and decided it was time for a haircut. I convinced her that a haircut was a great idea. But as you can see, she was not pleased with the result.
