Andrew Acomb

Last Saturday we had a few friends and family members over for a Halloween party to decorate cookies and carve pumpkins. To get ready for it I made yellow, orange, white and black icing. Jennifer also made over 50 cookies of all shapes and sizes. There were pumpkins, cats, Frankenstein faces, owls, leaves, and other Autumn or Halloween shapes. We had all sorts of sprinkles, stencils, and other things to decorate the cookies with. Whatever anyone made, they got to take home.

Kurt made only one cookie, but he spent a lot of time on it. He got pretty creative with it. Beginner’s luck I think. If he could have repeated it, then I might call it skill.

Tim made a bunch of cookies. Each seemed to get better than the last one. Probably because he ate all of the ones he messed up.

After decorating cookies for awhile, everyone went outside to carve pumpkins. For my first Jack-O-Lantern, I just drew on the pumpkin with a dry erase marker. I used this so I could easily wipe off any excess marker after I finished. I think my first one came out okay.

Yesterday, Jennifer and I spent a few hours with our niece Adele. First, we took her to a small park in Bremerton, Washington. It’s call the J.A. and Anna F. Smith Childrens Park. It’s easy to find. We’ve past by this place probably a hundred times, but never stopped here until Beth took us Geocaching. There is a sign for it just off the road. Near the sign there is a trail that leads down to the main area of the park. Following the trail, you cross a small bridge. We stopped here for awhile watching some of the bugs dance on top of the small pond next to us. Our attention quickly turned to the dozens of dragonflies that were flying all around us.

In my opinion, the best part of this park is the Children’s Garden. The garden is separated into sections that you can walk around. There was an area for huge sunflowers, herbs, exotic flowers, plants that bees like, wine grapes, and even a bunch of fruit trees. Jennifer and Adele ate a few fresh plums!

After spending at least an hour here, we took Adele to another park with a huge playground. The playground has a giant structure that looks like a castle with all sorts of slides, poles you can slide down, swings, bridges, and secret areas. Pretty cool place. Adele was running all over the place. By the time we were ready to go she was extremely thirsty. She guzzled down over half of my water bottle!

Jennifer got a picture of me taking this picture of Adele. You can see that picture here on Jennifer’s Flickr page.

Kurt and Wendy bought their daughter Adele an awesome Christmas gift last year. It was a Fisher Price Kid Tough Digital Camera. This has to be one of the coolest kid’s toys I have ever seen! It can store about 60 pictures on its internal memory or add an SD card for more room. The quality of the images are okay, but the best part is seeing things from her point of view. They even created a Flickr account for Adele and uploaded some of her photos. Check them out.

Today, I got to see my niece Adele Glory Lillian Daniels graduate preschool. They sang, danced, and played a little music. After receiving her diploma, Adele took the stage and told everyone what she wanted to be when she grew up: a princess.

Kurt and Wendy are the proud parents of Sullivan Dale Daniels! He was born on December 10th at 9:44 am. He weighed in at 9 pounds 6 ounces and was 21 inches long!