Congratulations Candice

You all know I am uber proud of my sister Candice and now we can add one more thing to the list of things Candice has achieved. She has been writing articles freelance for Creating Keepsakes for a couple of years now and teaching across the country at Creating Keepsakes University; now she has an official monthly column called "Picture Perfect" which you can check out here. You can also see a lot of video clips of Candice giving pointers on Creating Keepsakes site so if you have a chance, check them out.

Spectacular Spelunking

Sunday night we left Tennessee and drove up to Louisville to visit my brother-in-law Mark. He's there because he's in Actor's Theater's A Christmas Carol so he has Mondays off (theaters are always closed on Mondays). He decided to join us on our trek to Mammoth Caves. We visited Mammoth Caves a few years ago and fingured this might be our last chance to see them before we move back west so even though we had Creed with us and it is their winter season so they don't offer as many tours, we took full advantage and went on two tours. We started out with the 2 hour New Entrance Tour. As you can see, Creed was happy to be there. I can't even begin to explain the entrance to this tour. It was metal staircases about 18" wide that wound all over the place and crossed back over itself. I have no idea how they constructed it. I wish I could have captured a picture that could really explain it, but this was the best that I could do.

This is a picture of the Frozen Niagara formation toward the end of the tour.

And I just included this picture to highlight the fact that my husband is HOT! (except, can you read his shirt here? It says, "To Each his Gnome" and I hate gnomes and I swear he wears this shirt just to taunt me!)

I'm so glad that Mark was there to help us lug Creed around, especially since Creed was asleep for a good portion of this tour.

My least favorite part of the tour? There were a couple of spots that I saw these creatures huddled together and I thought they were spider and it totally freaked me out! (I'd like to point out that this is not an irrational fear like my fear of ducks, I've actually ended up in the hospital more than once from an allergic reaction to a spider bite). It turns out that they are cave crickets. CREEPY!

We had an hour break beofre our next tour so we lunched and Mark modelled.

Then we went on the Historic Tour, which starts at the original entrance of the cave

as pictured here (expect the stairs are obviously not original) We went from some enormous caverns, to this, to . . .

Fat Man's Misery!

It's actually not too scary because it's only tight up to your chest or waist and then there's some open space. And after Fat Man's Misery was Tall Man's Misery

Towards the end of this tour you have to go up these rickety old stairs, which shake a little bit. They are replacing these this winter so we were among the last groups to go up them. Lucky us . . .

While we were there we picked up a National Parks Passport and got it stamped at Mammoth Caves for Creed. I think it will be fun to track all of the National Parks he sees during his life.

After that it was on to Cave City, the nearest town to Mammoth Caves. I'm not really sure how to explain this town. It think most of it was built in the 50's and nothing has changed since then so it's a little rundown and full of all things kitschy, which makes it highly entertaining. Here's a typical shop.

I'm not sure how Mark resisted buying this hat when he looked so good!

And the Wigwams are another good example of the spirit of Cave City (yes, I know they are not wigwams, they are concrete teepees, but they call them Wigwams). Even though they are as far from PC as you can get, I would have been tempted to spend the night if they weren't closed for the season , just so we could say sthat we did.

We had a great time. Thanks Mark for keeping us company and letting us crash with you for a few nights!

We're Baaaa-aaack!

Larry had a surprise few days off so we drove to Tennessee because we hadn't met this little guy, Marissa's baby Logan! We drove down on Friday and then spent Saturday at the Lost Seas (A mystery that I'll have to describe later because I forgot my camera and I don't have pictures from the Garners yet)(edited to add: Marissa just posted her lost seas pictures so you can see them on her blog here). Then Lucky for us, we happen to be there the night the rodeo was in town so Logan, Creed, and I got to experience our first rodeo (big time stuff in this part of TN).

Larry and Mike even sported Rodeo sweatshirts

And my face is frozen in an awkward expression in this picture because this cowboy's hand was getting a little too low! Ahhhhhhhh!

Creed had a ball and Marissa and Mike's. I think Creed and Logan will be chums. They look at each other and smile a lot, but we had to give Creed the remote in this picture so he wouldn't maul poor Logan.All weekend Marissa and Mike called Creed "Giant Baby" and looking at these pictures I guess I can see why. What a difference five months can make!

Doing better today

Creed decided to help me rake the leaves.

Isn't he charming?

I looked out the window, and what did I see?

Autumn is here and with the cold weather comes all sort of nasty viruses. Unfortunately our poor Creedicus had a visit from the Croup bug! He was so sick Thursday night we almost took him to the emergency room even though Larry's a doctor and we knew he had Croup and there wasn't anything they could do for him that we weren't already doing. It was so sad listening to his raspy breaths and barking coughs as he curled up in a ball next to us and struggled to sleep. It didn't get him down for long though. Even with his nasty cough and slimy nose, he's been a pretty happy baby during the day.

Last week I was so excited to see the tree in our front yard changing color.I was even more excited to take Creed out to play in the leaves this weekend, but he did not feel the same way about them. I'll spare you the crying picture that came right after this one.


And I just found these pictures from the other day and thought they were funny enough to share. Here he is pondering the meaning of life.
Let's hope he never really needs glasses because I'm thinking these are not a good look for him.

We wouldn't want to hide those beautiful blue eyes!

This kid is getting so big! Last week we learned that he can crawl up stairs (with Larry behind him of course). Who knows, maybe he could have done it earlier, that was just the first oportunity we gave him. Today he started clapping. I thought maybe it was a fluke, but he did it again tonight. Who knows what will be next?

Another Post About Food

Larry and I love checking out hole-in-the-wall restaurants that come highly recommended. A while back, we were eating at Katzinger's Deli in German Village. When the guy at the next table noticed Larry eating a Reuben, he told us that for the best reuben in town, we HAD to go to Danny's Deli downtown. It was a few weeks before we had a chance because Danny's is only open on weekdays for breakfast and lunch. They are a very small deli known for their corned beef so of course we ordered their classic corned beef. This is what it looks like. This is just the regular, we hear the jawbreaker is massive.

Even Creed was impressed.

We both enjoyed it (and I don't even really like red meat very much), but next time Larry says that he would order it grilled with coleslaw on it.

Chipotle anyone?

So every Halloween Chipotle gives free burritos to anyone dress up as a burrito or taco, which most people interpret to dressing up in a bit of tin foil. We decided to head over early so we could be home to great trick-or-treaters (in Ohio trick-or-treating is during a set time for each community, our was from 6 - 8 p.m.). We rushed over to meet up with the Ortons and Donny came along, but he is not pictured because he took this photo). Reba had an awesome foil belt, Chris had a bow-tie, Ellie had a princess hat, Moira had a bib (which isn't in the picture), Creed had a binky, I had glasses, and Larry had a pointy mustache. You'd think we might have felt a little silly, but mind you every person in the store was wearing foil and some were wrapped from head to toe so compared to them we were quite distinguished.

So fast forward about five hours after trick-or-treating has ended and Jess mentions she's a little hungry. What kind of friends would we be if we let her go to Chipotle alone?

Trick-or-Treat

We've made good use of Creed's Halloween costume. We took him to Boo at the Zoo a week and half ago and he was a big hit. Then yesterday he showed off at the ward Halloween party

For those of you from outside of Ohio, he's The Ohio State University's mascot, Brutus the Buckeye! See the similarities? My mom helped me make his head (and by helped, I mean that I drew it and provided the fabric and pretty much just watched my mom sew)The activity did not go super well. No one was very interested in the activities that we had planned. The grown-ups were supposed to go on a photo scavenger hunt while we did some activities, but not many people joined the scavenger hunt and then it was really hard to get the kids together while there were so many extra adults hanging around. Oh well, we tried, right? My friend asked me to post the scavenger hunt list so here it is:

Scavenger Hunt Items
· Your whole team jumping in the air
· Someone on your team dancing with a witch
· A black cat
· Someone on your team pinching Frankenstein’s cheek
· Someone carving a pumpkin
· A bat
· Someone on your team hugging a scarecrow
· A Spiderweb
· Someone with fangs
· Someone on your team holding hands with a skeleton
· A werewolf
· A smoky cauldron
· Someone on your team being scared of a monster
· Someone wearing fake eyelashes
· A cornfield
· An opposing team in their car
· Someone on your team reading a spooky story
· A funeral home
· A broken mirror

The good news is that the people who went on the scavenger hunt had a lot of fun and afterwards we got to see a lot of our friends like Meg and Alyssa in fun costumes as we trick-or-treated around the church building.

Larry has worked during the last four Halloween's so it was especially fun having him with us to hand out Halloween candyCreed loved hanging out on the lawn and watching the kids in costume run by.We always give out full-sized candy bars and we almost ran out this year because we had more trick-or-treaters than we usually do. The Zozes came and hung out with us as our last trick-or-treaters approached. I hope that you all had a great night too!

I solemnly swear I am up to no good!

So every year Larry and I have thrown a Halloween party for basically the same group of friends, plus or minus a few people who are fans or not fans of our chosen theme. Last year was Hitchcock. This year, with the release of the last book and fifth movie, what kind of children's literature fan would I be if we didn't choose Harry Potter for our theme? (Yes, I totally realize that some of you are going to read about this and think that I am a HUGE nerd,).

This is our last year throwing a Halloween party in Columbus so we went all out. The owls went out with our invitations weeks ago. They looked like this

And they said this:

As you all know there has been a major breach of security in the wizarding world with the publication of a series of books by muggle J.K. Rowling detailing our history. The Ministry of Magic is doing our best to spread the rumor that Mrs. Rowling’s works are nothing but silly fiction, which means wizards everywhere have been forced to assume muggle identities while the ministry of magic works to research how a mere muggle like Mrs. Rowling obtained this top secret information.

All wizards are asked to gather at a secret location disguised as the Ford Home on the evening of Saturday, October 27th at 7 p.m. to discuss this matter over dinner. The utmost has been done to provide security at this event so come in your true wizard form.

Search Mrs. Rowling’s official site for an original sketch of “The Midnight Duel”. The sketch will not be easy to find, and locating it will provide proof that you’ve researched the security breach caused by Mrs. Rowling. At the bottom of the sketch there is a different name for this chapter, which is also the name of the blog (www._________.blogspot.com). Once you obtain the blog address, RSVP by posting a comment with your true wizard identity and your assigned number. DO NOT REVEAL YOUR MUGGLE IDENTITY in order to maintain your secret identity until the gathering.

Your assigned numbers are: ______, _____
The aurors are hard at work so we have faith that all will be known soon.
-The Ministry of Magic

The answer was Draco Duel so the blog where everyone rsvp'ed is here.

We started out with a simple dinner of chili or squash soup, salad, corn bread, and butterbeer (thanks Ortons for coming up with a butterbeer recipe and Richardsons and Beazers for bringing squash soup). Larry made an awesome Harry Potter soundtrack that played throughou tthe evening with music from the movies and from the band Harry and the Potters. We were so busy setting up for the rest of the night that the tablesetting wasn't so pretty but I did manage to serve the chili toppings from little pumpkins, and I put up a sign that said, "Catered by the Leaky Cauldron"

And we had pumpkin donuts for dessert so I could make use of my soon-to-be Christmas present again (Thanks Santa!)
And my favorite suckers from Startups
Larry and I greeted our guests dressed as Dolores Umbridge (too bad you can't see my gold kitten broach in these pictures) and the Weasley twins. Larry kept switching off telling people that he was Fred or George and getting annoyed that people couldn't tell them apart. Creed was a mandrake (an idea that I got from my friend Jessica). Note to self, next time I'm hosting a themed party and I get to choose my costume first, don't choose the most hideous costume possible!
I LOVE how fun and creative our friends are. Check out their costumes. Lucious Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange.
Nymphadora Tonks and Aberforth Dumbledore. I don't know how he did it, but he had a "spell" that allowed him to randomly throw flames throughout the evening. Fleur Delacour Cedric Diggory and Cho Chang Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom Minerva McGonagall and Quirinius Quirrell Hagrid and Trelawny Rita Skeeter and Remus Lupin. He grew his beard out for weeks for this and had fur coming out of his collar and cuffs since it was a full moon and her tiny hat says "press" on it.Harry Potter and Luna Lovegood. She had a copy of the Quibbler with funny articles in it.After dinner I gathered everyone together and told them:

Before we discuss Mrs. Rowling’s disastrous book, you must first take a tour of the city to understand the gravity of this situation. After seeing how wizards have been degraded and forced to disguise their businesses as muggle businesses, you may understand how widespread the effects of Mrs. Rowling’s books have become.

We’ve planned this meeting around the quaint muggle holiday of Halloween, a day when muggles dress themselves up in disguise, so you won’t have to be bothered with cumbersome disguises. Muggles will just assume that you are pretending to be characters from Mrs. Rowling’s books. They will be completely unsuspecting of your true identities.

For your safety, I am putting you in teams of four wizards each and I advise you to stick with your companions to minimize the danger of this mission. I cannot provide you with a list of the businesses you’ll be visiting tonight because if it fell into the wrong hands the result could be cataclysmic. I can only give you a clue to get you to the first location and then at each location you will have to search for a clue to the next.

To reinforce the urgency of this mission, the first team to arrive back here will be greatly rewarded.

I wanted to have some sort of adventure for the evening and I figured this would be good because not only was it Harry Potter related, but since we've lived here a lot longer than some of our friends, it allowed us to send our friends to discover some of our favorite places around town. Then I gave them their first clue:

The maker of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans has been forced to put up a front in Grandview where he sells every flavor ice cream for muggles. Go to this shop and tell the cashier that you, “Solemnly swear you are up to no good.” In return you will receive and item that will be a hint toward the next location you need to visit.

So everyone dashed off to Jeni's ice cream in Grandview where the cashier handed each team a golden snitch (a gold Christmas ornament with feather wings glued on it). The next clue had a snitch inside so the teams had to smash the snitch to get the clue, which said:

As you might imagine, Azkaban was incredibly difficult to disguise. Ultimately the decision was made to turn the prisoners into human-shaped shrubs. We posed them as if they were part of a painting and muggles often visit the park they are in, completely unaware of the danger that surrounds them. For security reasons no one is permitted on the grounds after dark. You don’t want to discover what will happen to you if you set even a toe on the grounds once the sun has gone down so circle the perimeter of the park in search of the hint to your next location.

So everyone (well, eventually everyone, one team had a hard time with this clue) headed to the Old Deaf School Park behind the library downtown to see the topiary park. There in a jack-o-lantern bucket hanging on the fence were four wands that looked like this.

They had to figure out that the wands were made of paper coated with glue and paint so they had to tear open the wand and unroll it for their next clue, which said:

There’s only one place in town with homes close together enough to be able to hide Number Twelve Grimmauld Place between them. This is still the meeting place of the Order of the Phoenix so a Fidelius Charm prohibits us from disclosing the exact location, but if you head to the main park in German Village you can get an inkling of where it might be hiding. Directions to your next location can be found on the stage in the park.

Which guided everyone to Schiller Park where Larry was waiting for them on the stage dressed as Snape. He had a Pensive that we made by taping a message to the bottom of a bowl and floating that in a cauldron filled with dry ice, water and glow sticks so they had to dip their faces into the middle of the glowing fog to see the clue in the middle. This clue said:

Florish & Blotts greatly laments the day they had to depart from Diagon Alley. Business just isn’t the same for them. In their new location in German Village, they have an intricate maze of rooms that allows them to hide a few rooms with wizarding books, but they are forced to carry books on a variety of muggle subjects including the very books that created this havoc. Go through the maze of rooms to find those very books and behind them, you will find your next clue.

So they were off to one of our favorite bookstores, the bookloft. The book store is made of two old house back to back that were connected and it's quite a maze of rooms. They had wind their way through to the children's section where they found round Harry Potter glasses that said, "Under and over, you have roamed, now it is time for you to go home, back to the Fords, and be sure to hurry!"

I was nervous about everything working out, but it did. The big winners were Reba, Chris, Brooke, and Quintin. They were awarded with Chocolate Frogs, Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, and Jeni's ice cream.
It didn't take everyone too long to get back and then we played a round of Harry Potter Scene It, boys verses girls (the girls won of course). It was so fun to get everyone together. Who knows when we'll be able to get together again for the Tri-Wizard Tournament?

Now I just have one more Halloween party to plan. That's right folks, a THIRD Halloween party, but this one will be for church so at least Larry and I won't have to rush around trying to get our house clean!