Fall Festival

I love being warm. I am not a fan of cold weather, except for the fact that along with that cold weather come warm buildings (finally, no air conditioning!), sweaters, blankets, coats, fires, hot chocolate/coffee/cider, gloves, hats, etc. In our house, we have The Green Blanket. It's a wonderful part of our lives. At the first sign of a cold snap, Jeff happily announces, "It's almost time to get out The Green Blanket!" and when spring comes, we reluctantly prepare to store it away for the long, hot summer. It is our greatest consolation for having to endure cold weather.

Anyway ... I do love autumn. It's hands-down Jeff's favorite season, with good reason! The brisk evenings and still-warm days combined with the gorgeous blue sky and golden browns, reds, and oranges of the leaves, the bright green grass ... it's an absolutely glorious display of God's creativity and splendor.

The kids had a lot of fun this year preparing for our church's Fall Festival. As usual, even though I LOVE coming up with costumes, we were getting outfits ready at the last minute. I think they turned out well, though, considering. I went to the garage to hunt through some storage boxes, attempting to find a couple of store-bought costumes from past years for the little girls. Thankfully, I found something completely different!

Thanks to some overalls that a friend gave us when Lauryn was born, she had a ready-made scarecrow outfit!

Big sister Kaity sewed patches on her hat. I added straw to her pockets after we arrived at the festival.

Bless her tiny heart. Lauryn was not a fan of the hat!

 In rummaging I came across my dirndl from my childhood in Germany! I wore it in first or second grade, but it worked just fine for Selah. All that was missing was the cord used to lace up the front. Daddy's black dress shoes yielded the perfect substitute. Neat braids and a pretty smile turned our little girl into "ein kleine madchen"!

Kaity, Joe and I put together a perfect Link costume for Joe with stuff from around the house! We used a couple of green T-shirts for his hat and tunic. Kaity laced up the sleeves and collar with twine, and she designed and sewed Link's hat.

Of course he needed a TriForce drawn on his hand!

My boots and Daddy's belts helped complete the outfit.

Kaity chose to forego dressing up so that she could participate in the drama presentation of the Gospel. The presentation was given several times throughout the night to the people on the hayride. These pictures aren't great, but they're all I have!

Kaity is directly below the lime green spot in the middle/right of the picture.

It's not a festival without facepaint! Cutest little kitty cat ever.

It was much chillier than we expected, but Lauryn didn't mind getting to snuggle in Daddy's jacket!