Auntie Ruth's visit.

Last week we enjoyed another visitor, and little more UK cadburies chocolate! Andy's sister Ruth arrived to stay the week with us before flying to Seattle to see a friend. We were able to take her around the hanger to see what Andy has been up to and show her some of the wonders of Coshocton County. The highlight of the week had to be last friday. On the first Friday of every month an event is put on for families in Main Street Coshocton. The street is closed to traffic apart from a crazy (but fun) wiggling train, and a few tractors. We were able to experience some snake handling. Abi was more than happy to hold a snake much longer than her by herself, and even Ruth was brave enough to have a go! ( I did not!) There were pumpkins piled high, a cake decorating contest, a dog show, and water melon rolling. I had never seen a real frog jumping contest before until last Friday. Abi and Matthew got to pick a frog each out of this huge bucket full of different sized frogs. You then had to sit it on the grass and make it hop three times. The frog that hopped the farthest won. Making the frog jump was quite a challenge. Abi choose a huge frog who could jump very high but was quite content to sit on the grass taking it all in. After some major stamping and beating of the ground we got it moving! Matthew chose the smallest frog which we almost lost in the grass as he was very happy to be free : 0)

We were also able to show Ruth a little of how the Amish folk live near here and of course had to stop by an Amish bakery for some cheese tarts (we try to only buy them when we have visitors!) Andy was more than happy to show Ruth a little of the night life in Coshocton which was basically a trip to Earls ice cream parlour! The weather was variable with cool mornings and then getting into the upper nineties in the afternoon. It is very hard to know what to wear each day. Matthew has decided that shorts and a t-shirt are the only things he wants to wear and I have had a few challenging mornings of late trying to persuade him otherwise. He had his first day at pre-school by himself this morning and managed really well - no tears, just a few extra cuddles and kisses and then he was happy. After I left Matthew I headed over to the first meeting of MOPS (Mother of Pre-schoolers). This year I am a group leader and it was really exciting to meet the mum's in my group and make some new friends. I did take my kettle with me along with some tea-bags and fresh milk - trying to get a hot cup of tea in America still has it's challenges! It is my job to try and arrange a few dates before the next MOPS meeting where we my group can all meet together.

Abi is loving Kindergarten especially her Art and Music classes. We are entertained most evenings by the new songs she has been learning.

The airplane Andy has been working on for months is now almost finished and he has been tasked to a different airplane now and is learning more about the electrical side of things at present. He is going to do the next blog post so if you prefer reading about airplanes rather than frog jumping then the next one is for you :0).

God Bless

Hx