Halloween Adventures
We have had a week+ of dressing up crazy and eating lots of junk. "Beggar's night" on our street was my favorite although we don't have many pictures. Friends Liz, Jeremy and Baxter (tigger) came over for dinner and joined us out on the front porch with all of the rest of the neighborhood (plus some!). Liz is faculty in public health and was a sick person "should have got my flu shot!" We had over 200 kids at our home in 2 hours and nearly ran out of candy. Luckily Read's stopped by with a cute princess and pea pod and some backup candy.


Cadie actually had 2 costumes and wanted to be a lion for playgroup.

And the full Toman getup:

Unplugged
We took an extended weekend trip to explore a little bit of Northern Ohio. The area was beautiful! There are so many different hardwood species around here and the autumn colors are gorgeous.
We started off in Kirtland Ohio, a small town with historical significance for our church. Here is a picture in front of a home that my great-great-great-grandfather (got that?) lived in during the 1830's. Crazy that it is still a home!

Then we headed to Holmes County - Amish capital. We stayed at a B&B and definitely need to head back again. We took a buggy ride, toured a cheese factory, ate lots of good food, and shopped for furniture. My favorite part (besides the buggy ride) was sitting out on the porch watching and listening to the buggies go up and down the road. I could seriously adapt to the Amish way of life - horse and bike transportation, no TV or internet, and living local.

On the way home we passed the Longaberger Basket building. Yes this is a functioning office building. Sorry for the quality of the picture, Cadie was cranky in the car and we were not stopping.

Fun!
Enjoying crisp weather at the park


Friends over for playschool (learning about eyes and ears).

Camping
Our next-door neighbors invited us to their family tree farm an hour south of Columbus to join 70ish of their other best friends for a night of fun and camping. I'm ashamed to say that this was Cadie's first experience in a tent. But happy to report that she slept well - better than her mom who was awake checking on her every hour. The 20+ baby kittens were a hit as was the pumpkin carving and running around crazy with her BFF Kelsey. Now that we pulled off one night in a tent we are trying to squeeze in another adventure before the weather turns really cold.

Fall Festivities - Let's go!

I love this time of year - besides the great weather there are so many festivals and activities. We already have something planned every weekend through November!
Last weekend we hit the local Ox Roast and Eric ran a 20K in the Hocking Hills area just south of us. This weekend is all work/back to school parties but I'm also trying to squeeze in Oktoberfest.
Hocking Hills is the closest we get to mountains around here but it is beautiful. Lots of trees, even some coniferous! I thought there would be lots of hiking trails for Cadie and me to explore while Eric was running but we only found a short one to a playground area. I'd like to head back to Hocking Hills sometime when we can stay longer.
The Ox Roast is a local tradition and fund-raiser for the high school. It was fine but I think we'll enjoy it more when Cadie is big enough to ride some of the carnival rides. She did enjoy the bounce house and I won a 2-Liter by tossing a ring!

Virtual Pat on the Back
I'm giving myself a virtual pat on the back for my amazing shopping skills. A friend here in Columbus taught me a little about Couponing and my life has changed. A couple of weeks ago I made my biggest get yet. Here is all the stuff I brought home for a measly $3.72. (For those of you that don't know - one bottle of juice by itself is normally close to $5)

I was able to do this with coupons on top of sale items and "bucks back" from previous shopping trips. Then, at the register I got $3 in bucks back and $5 off $25. I used both of those register coupons this week with manufacture's coupons and sales to get 3 jumbo packs of Huggies for $5 each. CRAZY! Now what to do with all this money I'm saving...

Toman Blogging
I finally blurbed our blog for 2007 and 2008 into a book. It has been fun to look through the past entries and remember what we did, especially in the months leading up to Cadie's birth and just after. That seems so long ago! It reminded me of why I keep up this blog. It is a great way to share our activities with family and friends but it is also the best way for me to journal our family memories and activities. One day I'll be a witty blogger that has hundreds of followers but for now I'm happy with the boring day to days of the Toman Blah Blah Blog.
That said, here is what we have been up to. Cadie and the playgroup visited a firestation and had an awesome time with the firefighters and their gear. Fireman Smith put on all his clothing and gear including oxygen mask and worked with the kids to not be afraid of him in case they are ever in an emergency and need his help.

When we walked through our home for the first time I stood by the front door and said "that would be the perfect place for my baby grand." Ha ha. I didn't have a baby grand and Eric thought I was nuts. But... a vigilant eye on Craig's list brought about my dream. Eric's mom visited us for a week just after we got it and Cadie would lead us all into the front room and have us clap for her piano performances.

Eric was away for a week at the end of August for a conference and then had a major deadline so we didn't see much of him. We have been busy this last week making up for it! We watched wild turtles and frogs at a local metro park, ate gyros at a greek festival, played at the science museum, and caught the last Clippers baseball game of the season. Here is a picture of Cadie and Eric in front of the large lilly pads at Goodale park.

And here is Cadie eating a hot dot at the ball game (it was dime a dog night!)

Nauvoo