The Willimers in America

New Jersey in the Fall

I felt inspired to write something this morning about the changes of autumn all around us!! I still am overawed by the incredible beauty of it all and this is our third "fall" here. The leaves on the trees are such amazing colours, the sky is a brilliant blue and we had our first frost this morning!! Plans are underway for our party next weekend, the dog kennel will be transformed into a haunted house - a working party has been set up and much black paint will be purchased. When I say dog kennel what I mean is a six foot high, twelve foot by six foot steel enclosure with a concrete floor with a rotting wooden dog house inside. Attractive eh? Anyway as we can't pull it down, we plan to disguise it, and a Halloween Party is the perfect excuse!! Photos to follow I promise.

So much for trying to do this on a regular basis!! Lets see, what has happened since the last time we blogged!! Well, Thomas has been busy at school, although his teacher has be off quite a bit and the kids are getting restless!! Chris has been working extra hard... even to the extent of working all day last Sunday sorting out a big problem. I had a Halloween kid's class on Saturday, 10 kids and their Mums, making cards and treat bags. Then we went to a local farm and "did" their corn maze, shaped like a baseball pitch (if that's the correct term) you had to pick up pieces of the map at various hidden points to join together to work your way out!! Hours of fun!! We are getting ready for Halloween and our Halloween Warming Party (sort of a house warming!) and plans are afoot to decorate the dog kennel in the garden with bats, spider webs and spooky things to entice the kids it!!

Chillifest 2003

A busy weekend!! Yesterday was soccer first thing (2 - 1 loss) and the annual Vic Tayback Chilli-fest at Matt Toll's house. 17 chilis were entered in the competition, including a Chris Willimer special entitled "Recall Tony Blair, Pete Beale for Prime Minister" - a tenuous link between the Schwarzenegger election and the history of Chilli-fest...too long and complicated to explain. Anyway, Chris won joint first prize for the title of his chilli - the overall winner of the tasting competition (much to everyone's complete surprise and the judge's embarrassment) came out of a tin!! Today saw a trip to the movies to see the Jack Black latest "School of Rock" - it didn't rock us much!! Then, on to the Pumpkin Patch for our yearly pumpkin collection ready for Halloween. Not much to choose from unfortunately, but we got a couple and carving will commence soon!

Philly zoo

Thomas and I went on a school field trip today to Philadephia Zoo. We had his classmate Caleb with us and had a fantastic time, spotting as many mammals as we could (class project!!). Had to do the reptile house too (I know there are no mammals in there) but Tom wanted to see the King Cobra. Had to "do" the small mammal house, got there just in time to see the Vampire Bats being feed. Guess what they had to eat (drink!)?