Halloween and Other Fun Times in Oregon

    Linda and I went south to visit the children and grandchildren living in the Portland area this past  week.  We arrived in time on Wednesday in order to accompany grandkids trick or treating. Since Elise and Hannah were dressed in bee costumes, I simply wore my beekeeper outfit. Fortunately I had washed it recently so my bee suit wasn't speckled with bee poo. The analogy was appropriate as I tried to keep track of them while they ran hither and thither gathering sugar.  Lilly went as a Raggety Ann "mini me" with her mother.  Chloe was Audrey Hepburn, Autumn was Hermione Granger, and Rachel simply borrowed a football jersey from a friend and called that a costume.  Rachel and Chet showed up with Lance and Luna before we finished so it ended up as a little family Halloween party.

   Thursday morning I went with Sarah to check out her chickens and to gather some apples from their friends' trees.  That evening Linda and I drove to Hillsboro and went out to eat with Rachel, Lance, and Luna at one of the local McMinnamin restaurants. It was a fun time.  I'm very grateful that I have Quentin as an employee who makes it possible for me to escape the bee store for family time.

    I took my sour dough starter with me and enlisted Autumn as my "Pancake Paduan". She made sour dough pancakes from scratch twice before I came home, the second time without any help from me at all.  If they have pancakes several times a week it should be pretty easy for her to take good care of the sour dough starter. I also spent Friday canning apple pie filling and apple sauce with the enthusiastic assistance of Chloe, Hannah, Elise, and Lilly.  The older two girls were attending the "Time Out for Girls" activity in Portland so did not participate in the canning. We ended up with seven quarts of apple sauce and 5 quarts of apple pie filling.

Hannah peeling and coring apples

Elise working Sarah's apple peeler 

   Saturday morning involved two soccer games, Chloe and Hannah being on  one team and Autumn on another. Fortunately they were at the same time and on adjacent fields so I could simply reverse the direction of the chairs as we were sitting watching one game and we were then watching the other game.  In spite of all of the flip flop spectating I managed to watch Chloe score a goal.  Both games ended up as 4-4 ties. I have to admit it was less fun to watch Autumn's team as Autumn was playing defense. Whenever she was really active it meant things weren't going well for her team. When her team was doing well, Autumn was standing in the middle of the field watching the action on the other end of the field in front of the other team's goal.

    Sadly, all good times have to end sooner or later, and I had to leave at about 1:00 in the afternoon on Saturday to drive home.  However, this trip home has a short turn-around as I'm going right back down Tuesday morning in order to help Linda babysit the younger Kanglings while Chris and Sarah go on a trip to Mexico without children.