What a Party!
Well, Saturday turned out to be the event of the season...at least in our household! Saturday afternoon our friends and family got together and celebrated Madeline's birthday, and just enjoyed some time together.

We had quite the spread of food, and I think it's safe to say that everyone enjoyed the fruit of Mike's labor over the grill. There are countless reasons why I am fortunate to have married this man, and I have to say, having his mad grilling skills at my disposal definitely makes the list! Slow-cooked chicken, twice-baked potatoes, southwest eggrolls, chicken spinach and asiago brats...this man can cook, and Saturday we all reaped the benefits!

Madeline had plenty of friends to enjoy between church friends, school friends and cousins. Here are some of the girls playing in her bedroom before the party got rolling.
Timothy had some friends to run with too. Here he is with his buddy AJ, who is only a few months older, but fortunately for us, a good size or two ahead of Timothy. In fact, Timothy is wearing some of AJ's hand-me-downs in this picture. We're so grateful that Lisa dresses him so well =)

Madeline decided that she wanted a Tinkerbell party. So, plates, napkins, balloons and cake were all decked out with Tinkerbell. Here she is before blowing out her candles.
There's no way better to round up the kids than the promise of candy. Here's Madeline taking a whack at her pinata, and a picture of the whole bunch of kids making a mad scramble for the goodies it held.

One of the treats of the day for me was enjoying the favor of my "neice" Cora, who reached out for me every time I was around, and spent a good part of her time at the party on my hip! I sure love being loved =)

Madeline was very blessed to receive so many beautiful things for her birthday. She got lots of beautiful clothes,

a camera of her own,
some scrapbooking supplies,
some Tinkerbell figurines,

decorations for her highly fashionable crocs,

her own Bible, complete with her name on the cover, from Mimi and Papa, and lots of other nice things!
The kids enjoyed running around together and jumping on the trampoline. When things settled down a bit, Timothy did some reading for Grandma Elaine.
After everyone was gone, Madeline tried on some of her new clothes, and especially had fun dressing up like a pioneer girl complete with her new bonnet. She is looking forward to reading all about Kirsten and starting the "American Girls" series of books.
Since Madeline's birthday was actually on Friday, our family decided to have a celebration on Friday night before all our company arrived the next day. Here she is in the jogging suit we got for her,
and here in her new outfit and sporting her cool new roller blades!
We went out to dinner and had some fun at Chuck E. Cheese, here is little brother with a balloon from our night out,

and getting a hug from big sis!
Last weekend, some friends from church called and asked if we wanted to head over and visit a "Pumpkin Wonderland." Here are Madeline and Timothy with their friend Payton who they had lots of fun with that evening.
They got to go through a corn maze.
The whole family enjoyed some dinner together.
The kids put the back of their placemats to good use.

Timothy's hard work...
Madeline's masterpiece.....
Mommy's one track mind....
The kids had a great time and stayed busy til they hit their pillows that night. Everyone slept well and enjoyed the beautiful fall evening!
Well, there's an update....I'm off to study!

-shannon

Sunny Days and Field Trips...

Our family has been enjoying the sunshine during these first couple weeks of fall. I'm looking forward to the leaves changing colors and enjoying some campfires, but in the meantime, I took advantage of the fact that my kids were all dressed up and took a few pictures on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

The arrival of fall means that we are looking forward to celebrating Madeline's birthday in couple weeks. She'll be eight on October 12th. I can hardly believe it! She's grown so much and is enjoying the second grade with many of her old friends and with a teacher that she loves. She is doing great in her classes and is becoming quite the little reader too! Today she brought home a sign that hung on her locker for the first couple months of school, and in addition to her favorite subject (science) and color (yellow) it listed what she wants to be when she grows up (a doctor and an ice skater).

My friend Mindy has been coming to our church for awhile, along with her little girl, Cora. Last Sunday after church we went up town to a Victorian bed and breakfast and enjoyed a Fall Tea with some friends from church. We had a nice time, and the kids enjoyed playing with Cora while the mommies were away. Here are some pictures that Madeline took.


In addition to tea parties, I've been enjoying many activities, usually just everyday stuff like physical chemistry and medical school applications (ha!), but today was a special day because I got to go to Kercher's Orchard with Timothy's kindergarten class. As you can see from the first picture, taken on the bus, Timothy was very excited about this adventure, and it looked like it was going to be quite a treat.
However, upon arriving, Timothy began to relaize that this was NOT Nappanee Elementary, and he was NOT sure that he wanted to stay! It started out as hesitating to join the group when we arrived, and quickly progressed to not wanting to walk because he didn't like grass and dirt getting on his shoes. Picking an apple? No way was he going to touch one of those wet, dirty apples hanging off a tree.
On the hayride, he wasn't so keen on the idea of me taking pictures, so these are my grand attempts.

Fortunately, there was a turning point...the gourd patch! Timothy LOVED the gourd patch! There were all shapes, colors and sizes, and he found a small orange gourd that reminded him of Jimmy Gourd from Veggietales, and it seemed to turn the whole experience around.
Here he is with the little group of boys I walked with for the morning, all of them proudly showing off their selections for the camera.
After the gourd patch there was a small corn maze, and that went over well too. Perhaps it was because there were scarecrows with riddles on them throughout the maze, and Timothy could stop and read the riddles to the other boys making them giggle to Timothy's delight.
When all was said and done, it turned out to be a nice trip, and Timothy wrapped it up by having some fresh apple cider back at school with his classmates.
Well, there's a bit of an update. We're looking forward to getting to see many of you next Saturday. Hopefully by then we'll have school pictures to hand out!

-shannon

Applesauce and other exciting things.....

Well, let's just say that the kids were more than just a little excited when they came home from school and found out how I spent my day. Being the lucky gal I am, I have a friend as good as Jenny, who invited me over to her place and picked up a bushel of apples for me to make a solid stash of applesauce out of. Don't get me wrong...I'm sure my son could consume my day's worth of labor in two weeks...easily.

In other news, our family enjoyed the Nappanee Apple Fest last weekend. The kid's favorite part by far was definitely the "Grandpa Cratchet" puppet show. Madeline sat on the front row with Timothy observing from only a distance. Both laughed until their sides hurt though!

We are also the lucky residents of a home that sits on prime realty the weekend of the Apple Fest. The Apple Fest Parade (and all the candy that comes with it) goes right by our place, so we had some friends over and the kids lined up to watch the horses, fire engines, politicians, marching bands, and, oh, did I mention the candy? There was a lot of candy....but a week is a long time to have passed and much of our candy collection is going out with tomorrow's garbage. (That's not mean...they'll never miss it!)


The past couple of weeks have been as crazy as usual here in the Renfrow household. In addition to my trip to Indianapolis, we've been busy with classes, I started volunteering at the Sister Maura Brannick Health Center, and in addition to Mike's master's classes, he's begun teaching a course for the university. The kids continue to do well in spite of everything that comes our way. Timothy has been doing great with the many transitions that now come in a typical day (Nappanee Elementary has been such a blessing!), and Madeline is such a super big sister; she is always looking out for him. I'm so proud of both of them!

Here are a few older pictures. The first is of the kids (and Cora) checking out the new washing machine. I love it! The rest were taken by "photographer extraordinaire," Madeline, a couple Sundays ago when Mindy and Cora came to visit our church.

One last piece of news for those who are following our adventures with medical school...I have an interview with the University of Toledo's College of Medicine on Thursday October 4th. I should be hearing from IU School of Medicine by mid-October, and I still have several schools that I have yet to hear from, so your continued prayers are very much appreciated. I know that I have been followed through this whole journey by such a band of faithful prayer warriors, and I cannot even begin to express how grateful I am to know this. Through my whole IU interview (much like the day of the MCAT) I was never bothered by nerves. It is a very liberating thing to be aware of the fact that the Lord has already laid out my future, and it is not dependent upon my own abilities to get me there! Thanks so much for the prayers that continue to sustain our whole family as we trod along on this sometimes tedious, but always worthwhile journey!

Happy and blessed,

shannon