Halloween Block Party

 One of the guys in our neighborhood owns a pizza place. Every year before Halloween he sets up his portable pizza ovens in the cul-de-sac and cooks pizza for everyone. He also helps the kids carve their pumpkins. It was very fun meeting new folks from the hood.

 Here are some of the Jack-O-Lanterns that were created.

A bunch of the kids ended up playing on our front steps in front of the witch-woman on the door. They were so cute and I even invited them to see our decorations inside the house.

Longmont Quilt Guild Quilt Show

 I entered 3 quilts in the show. This one is my newest wall hanging that I started when mom was here in the summer. She brought me the fabric and the pattern. It was VERY fun to make and turned out so pretty!

 Here is my mountain biking quilt that I started in California and finished here. It is made from a drawing of Dennis and I on a mountain biking adventure.

I made the quilt below a couple of years ago out of "scrap" blocks that mom, my sister-in-law Karen and I made and exchanged. The show was a lot of fun with lots of beautiful quilts.

New Digs for Robin and Ross

Ross, Robin (our niece) and Max in front of their new house in Denver. We are SO happy for them!

 Enjoying a great meal with the Kirkland's and friends Sam and Nick from Michigan.

The house was a "flipper" and even though it is old, the kitchen was re-done and is very modern. What a perfect place for them...great location close to work and near a big beautiful park with awesome views of the mountains.

Carsten is 6 years old!!

 We planned to take the boys camping for Carsten's Birthday but it got VERY cold so we had a sleep over in our living room instead. We roasted marshmallows in the afternoon before it got too cold. Carsten was very good at getting them golden brown.

 We skipped the chocolate (as instructed by Rena) but they were still a hit stuffed between graham crackers.

 Getting ready for bed. The boys fell asleep by 9pm and slept great....even after hearing our scary ghost stories.

The hit of the evening was putting up Halloween decorations. Here they are posing by Mr. Skeleton.

Before, After, In-Inbetween and FINISHED!!!

Here is Nathan offering his brush and balance skills.

This was the scarriest to watch...Dennis holding a ladder on the roof while Nathan gets the last touches.

 Here is the "before" shot with the old shutters off already. The original body color was light grey with white trim and dark grey (and very faded) accent.

 

And here is the finished the product!!  The new colors are a medium tan, the same color white trim and dark blue accent. It was VERY stressful and a TON of work but it turned out GREAT and we saved a boat-load of money. Also, note that in the time it took to get the paining finished, the trees started turning...fall has arrived and we got done just in time. The snow can fly any time now.

Painting Part 3

 Dennis did all this prep and it looks like we are ready go paint the front...

 ...and the south side which had very slanted ground which made for scary ladder placement.

 This is about as high as I will go...I'm very chicken of heights.

I was holding my breath and praying the whole time!!