Schwallier's Country Basket

Another Adventure with Aunt Kathy

A-B-M in front of the barn where we each were given an apple and we bought yummy homemade donuts

inside the corn maze

The corn maze was amazing.  We were almost out, and then realized we were completely lost and had to back track and ask for directions! I forgot the snacks in the car so the kids were  grumbling most of the way and fighting over who got to be in THE LEAD!  Good grief.  Overall, a good time!

pile of hay bales to climb on and through (tunnels) and around -  All 4 kids are in the mess

feeding the goats

This goat was hilarious.  You could buy feed (our kids just picked the extras up off the ground), put it in a buckets and crank the bucket up to him on the platform.  But he was impatient.  He would pull on the strap even if you weren't cranking it - he wanted his food!

Maria in a different pen of smaller goats

Anika found the cat

Mr & Mrs Farmer Eburg

Jessica in the smaller pen feeding the goats

There was a tube slide out the back of the goat barn that landed in a pile of hay.  There was a small silo with shelled corn in it that you could play in with buckets and shovels.  There was a small track and tricycles to ride around.  There was also a tractor drawn wagon ride out to the corn maze and back.  Most of us walked, but a few took the ride back.  Normally, we could have picked apples, but all the blossoms froze this spring so no apples. On the walk back to the farm from the corn maze, the walking group found about seven apples on all the trees they passed.

But possibly the highlight - The Cow Train

Its a 4 wheeler pulling barrels of various sizes so adults and kids can ride.  Notice Maria is in the front car, an adult car, and I'm way in the back in a kid car - CRAZY!  But it was so funny.  The barrels have legs, tails, heads, and you just roll and bump along.  Jessica laughed the entire way.

And this is the front of our house with autumnal decorations as described by a friend.

The Martha Stewart way

With the Eburg touch

Just some of the fall colors we see around here. It has been GORGEOUS.  There are so many colors and so many trees.  Its beautiful everywhere.  We were told its because there are more maple trees here.  Who knows for sure.

Mini Golf

There's a cute mini golf place very close to church.  During the winter, they have a light and music Christmas show.  On facebook, I found out they were closing the first weekend in October for the season and the price was $4 per person for both courses.

Off we went.  It was a beautiful day.  We only had one hour between Anika's soccer game finishing up and me having to go back to work, so we took full advantage.  We moved very quickly through one course and did not finish up the second course, but both courses were very fun.  Lots of moving obstacles, hills, valleys, water, and tunnels.

We tried to mini golf at the course on 10 and Able every year in the Cities, so, now we found a new place to visit! 

feeding the ducks

There really are ducks in the water.

Every year we would go to the bread store by our house and buy a couple of bags of 'bird bread':  bread that had expired and they were trying to get rid of it.  I could drive by on blue 10 and look in the window and see if there was any in the grocery cart by the door.  50 cents a bag and I would buy two bags. It was enough bread to feed many geese.  We typically went with our neighbors or some friends so there were 4 - 8 kids throwing bread at ducks from a bridge.  That $1 of bread kept everybody busy for a long time.

I haven't found a bakery like that here.  I haven't found a bakery for bread really at all.  We really miss the flat foccacia bread and the garlic bread from C2B, but that's another whole issue.

SO, to continue the tradition, I bought two loaves of fresh Aldi bread and off to the channel by our house we went.  The ducks weren't all that interested after awhile.  So, the kids started sliding down the incline under the bridge - and putting holes in their pants.  And Matt and Anika started to watch the fisherman.

Not the best adventure, but an adventure none the less.

Free Tour Month

September was free tour month for all the historic sites in Muskegon.  I jumped on that one.

I kept the calendar and even roped another family into it with us on one day!

The first day, we toured the fire barn. It shows the history of how the Hackley and Hume families paid for the barn, the salaries of the men, and the equipment because they owned one of the lumber mills and didn't want their business burning down.  There were over 20 lumber mills along Muskegon Lake at one point.  We even took part in a bucket brigade and put out a fire.  Okay - it was a red bucket in the grass, but the kids got the idea.  The next week, I took the kids to the house right next to the fire barn, known as the Scolnik house.  It portrays life as it was in Muskegon during the depression.  I LOVED this house. It was like walking into different rooms of my grandpa and grandma Verbrugge's house.  The house had been renovated during the depression so the upstairs could be one apartment and the main level was another.  That way two families could live in the one home.  Kids slept two to a bed on roll ups in the living room next to grandma on the couch and the baby slept in the closet.

Fire Barn and Scolnik House

Maria at the player piano, my grandma's actually worked, though

My grandparents had a bed and dresser very similar to this, and the sewing machine, plus colored quilts

They even kept the piano rolls in the bedroom closet, just like gpa and gma

The old wringer wash machine and behind Anika were big crocks

The next week we hit the Hackley and Hume homes.  The first time we went, we took a family from school with us and we played croquet on the lawn in between the two homes.  The other mom looked through the home, I stayed outside and played croquet.  That day, Anika had stayed home from school - first round of strep throat already done for the year!  When we got home, we set up our own croquet set, and we have played a few times since then.
We went back a few days later as a family to get the tour.  Hackley was the owner of the lumber mill and Hume was his accountant.  The homes are GORGEOUS.  The building set back and in between the two homes was their stable.  Each home had their own driver and carriage.  The carriage would pull up next to the house and the people inside would get out.  There is a railing there now, but very cool back in the day, I'm sure.  Brandon took a picture of every room. Not sure I'm keeping those, but it was a cool tour.  You tour all three buildings and it takes a little over an hour.  I thought we were only going to tour one building at a time for about 20 -30 minutes (I figured we would go back three times to cover them all) so the kids didn't think it was as great as I did, but they survived.

The Hume home, large and spacious.  Big rooms, wide hallways, not much glitz

Hackley Home - smaller rooms and all about the ornate. the woodwork was amazing

Hackley on left, stables in the middle, Hume on the right

Church Carnival

We've dropped in on a tradition.  Every year Celebration church hosts a carnival for kids.  Its complete with every kids game you can remember from the school carnivals.. fish pond, face painting, darts, sucker pull, ring the pop bottle, leap frog, plinko.... the list goes on.  

The church secretary and her daughter do an amazing job on the face paint.  Brandon was a skeleton, Jessica was a butterfly and Maria had flowers. These pictures don't really do it justice, it was amazing and beautiful.  Of course, I love this kind of stuff, because I couldn't do it at all even if you paid me.

The kids came home with books, puzzles, games, candy, and more stuff than you can imagine.  They also came home with stuffed animals, as you can see.  I was really excited about that one because there never seem to be enough stuffed animals around here.  Oh, if there was some way to sound out sarcasm in a blog.

All the kids helped hand out fliers in the neighborhood earlier in the week and help set up the church the night before.  Typically the carnival is held in the parking lot, but the weather was too questionable this year so inside they came.

Anika was a worker for the carnival.  She ran the 'Spin the Wheel' game. As a worker, you get all the cotton candy, popcorn, and pop that you want.  She was ok with that, but she wished she had gotten some candy, too.  Anika has to report service hours to school and she got five hours alone just off this carnival between fliers, setting up and working, so that was a good deal, too.

I don't have a picture of Matt, but they spray painted his head red. It lasted several days. If you looked at it from the top it looked like a heart.

Sportsmen for youth day

We were told by some friends that we had to take the kids to Sportsmen for youth day.  It was held on a Saturday at the Muskegon County Fairgrounds.  Saturdays are soccer days, but when I got off of work, I went to be soccer mom and sent Brandon and Matt off to explore the youth day.  They were not disappointed.  Next year, we know to make it a priority to get Brandon there earlier.  He got to shoot a bow, a 20 gauge shot gun, a crash simulator to convince kids to wear seatbelts and a few other things. There were fish tanks, raffles, free stuff. Brandon had a great time and shot quite well from what I understand.

cleaning

We have been on a cleaning frenzy.
We cleaned the house for the first time in August.... on August 31.  It REALLY needed it.  Probably needes it again by now, but we'll attack it again another day.  We all six clean together and the whole house gets done in no time.
Last week Saturday, we also attacked the van.  Truthfully, Anika attacked the van.  We spent 2 -3 hours on it.  Inside and out.  Wash, wax, tires, rain x, the whole bit. Mike, you would be proud.  We did everything but shampoo the carpets!
We've also been attacking the drawers.  Taking out what doesn't it, going through hand me downs to figure out what does, buying new shoes and soccer cleats.  I think everyone does that this time of year.  I got rid of at least 10 bags of clothes to various places and took in about 5 from people at church who's daughter is just a size above Jessica and Maria. I LOVE getting rid of stuff, but I also love hand me downs.  At least I got rid of more than I took in!
I've officially caught up on blogging. I'm not sure when my next post will be.  I guess we'll have to wait for something exciting to happen.
Today all four kids had their first fall soccer game.  Jessica and Maria are playing on the same team and their shirts are bright pink.  They call themselves the Flamingos.  They won and Jessica scored a goal.  Brandon's team won and he scored a goal.  Anika's team won and she played very well.  I only got to see Anika play because of work.  Not so much fun.  But it was a beautiful sunny afternoon sitting in the grass watching her play.
And tonight we celebrated by using some ice cream coupons at a local store.  Quite fun.  And they have raspberry chocolate chip ice cream, so I'll be going back!