Men's Weekend - Growing up but not gone yet!

Most cultures have rites of passage to mark the various stages of life. Driver's licenses and High School graduation are a couple of examples from American culture. For the Leingang family there is a rite of passage that occurs during the fall following their 12th birthday.

This rite is a weekend away with Dad. It is a great opportunity to talk about the changes that they are experiencing and will be experiencing as they transition from child to teen to adult. The weekend is intended to be the beginning of an ongoing conversation that will last the rest of our lives together.



Because men are the way they are we always pair "the talk" with a weekend campout and firewood expedition.

Men always talk better when they are swinging axes or hammers or something that makes them feel "Manly" A good friend (THANKS DON!) has some land he lets us have access to whenever we want so when Andy and I saw the weather was going to be good this past weekend we packed the car and headed out of town.


This particular trip ended with Carrie, Zack and Will joining us so we could bring all the great firewood home. (Thanks Carrie for bringing the van and trailer). When Carrie, Zack and Will arrived we put them to work too.


As you can see, we filled the trailer to the top. It was a great family project, especially the splitting and stacking when we got home.

Andy and I sure worked hard. Of course, if I had remembered my Bar-Chain-Oil for the chainsaw we would have had even more wood cut. We wouldn't have had room to bring it home, but we would have had fun cutting it!

Andy, thanks for a great weekend! I thank God for the priviledge of calling you my son and look forward to watching you develop into the man he is calling you to be.

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous.
Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD
your God will be with you wherever you go."
(Joshua 1:9)

More Fort Work

Since we enjoyed another beautiful Saturday, Grandpa and Grandma came up again to work on the fort. They stablized the braces, framed the walls, put on the roof and installed 2 windows. I was surprised at how big it was when I got home from my quiting day at church.

It's looking great boys! Keep up the good work.

Harvest Party 2007

We had a great Harvest Party at church last night! It was lots of fun and we had more families from the community than we did from the church. Yeah!

We had games

and costumes

Will the hobo (not a bum)

Zack the soccer player (he had lots of costumes to choose from)

I'm a basket of clean laundry (Chris had clothes attached all over him and was a pile of dirty laundry, but we forgot to get a picture of us together)

food and an object lesson

Trunk-r-treating and a scarecrow

Dave dresses as a scarecrow with a basket of candy and sits VERY, VERY still until someone comes to take a piece out of his basket. He does a great job and the kids really like it!

a pumpkin carving contest

the Leingangs won the prize in every category (no, it wasn't fixed. There were no names on any of the entries. But we are kind proud.)

and of course, lots and lots of candy!!!

God answered lots of prayers and we are truly thankful for that!

Trick or Treating Down Memory Lane

Here are some old pictures I tore out of our scrapbooks. It was so fun looking back that I decided to share.

1995: clown and "whoo-whoo man" with Aunt Theresa

1996: scarecrow, a VERY pregnant pumpkin (the costume hid it well), and a dragon

1997: Winnie the Pooh, indian maiden, pizza (we won an internet costume contest with this one), and a knight

1998: Tiger Lily, Peter Pan and Captain Hook

(can you guess what our favorite movie was that year?)

Super Baby!

1999: my knight in shining armor rescues me from the dragon and then I ride off into the sunset with the cowboy on his trusty steed

Take Me To Your Leader

Will's pumpkin is done. Or is it a pumpkin???

Pumpkin Carving

Today we started carving pumpkins.

They turned out great!

Here take a look...

Chris' Jesus pumpkin (he is a pastor)

Andy's racoon pumpkin

Zack's scary face pumpkin

Will's pumpkin is coming soon!

The Fort Is Going Up

It's been a long while in the waiting, but the fort is up and started. Grandpa came up and helped Chris and the boys work on it all day. They got quite a bit done and are getting excited! The boys are making plans for the inside and the out as well as how to celebrate its completion.

It looks great! Good job guys!

Laying the floor

Do you see it?

Now can you see it?

The floor is done!

Putting up the trusses

Goodbye Mario

This morning the boys came up and said that our rat Mario was dead. He was a good pet despite the fact that he was a rat.

The only picture we could find is when he starred in the boys' exterminator commercial. He was not only a great pet but a fine actor as well.

We will miss you, Mario.

IKEA

After the boys' soccer game on Friday, I decided to take advantage of being so close to the new IKEA and finally go. Although I wasn't sure we were going to get there for a while. I should have gotten directions before we left. My dad came and picked up the boys and I got to spend the evening wandering the store with my mom and sister. It was a little cold and damp (not because of the weather, but becaause I dumped my cup of lingonberry juice in my lap at supper), but it was lots of fun! I love IKEA! It was really hard but I managed to escape the store with only 2 items. Their Christmas stuff was out and I found the perfect decoration for the dining room table...

While the girls were shopping the boys were helping grandpa with his new boat. This weekend's project was stripping off the woodgrain contact paper and a few other things as well. They had lots of fun and got a lot accomplished since they got to spend the night.

With the boys gone and Chris at the Men's Retreat, I was home alone. I didn't get much sleep but I got a lot of cleaning done. I checked out a digital audiobook from the library and listened to it while I cleaned. It was fun and I didn't have to feel guilty about ignoring everyone. :o)

It was a fun weekend, even with the quarterly business meeting at church! Now we'll see how long we can keep the house clean...

Co-op & Soccer & Derby, Oh My

Yesterday was a crazy fun day!

First we had Friday school in the morning. It was a great day and I was glad to be back teaching again!

Andy can really jump!

Friday afternoons are our soccer games in Vancouver and we have to leave shortly after co-op to get there. Thankfully Will made ricotta-stuffed pasta shells in his cooking class so we had a really yummy and filling lunch.

I missed the boys first game so it was fun to finally see them play a real game. They play really well! Will even took a turn at playing goalie. Grandpa and Grandma took advantage of the not-rainy weather to come and watch them play, too.

Then right after soccer we had to rush back home to race in the First Annual First Class Pinewood Derby. We were a little late but thankfully it takes a long time to race 58 cars in a double-elimination race for the first time. The race was a little long (2 and a half hours) but the kids had fun and it was great to watch them encourage and cheer one another on.

Zack and Andy both took 3rd place in their divisions, which is pretty good considering the only thing they did to their cars were to paint them and put on the wheels. But the most important thing was that they all had fun!