Run for Dan Sams

A dear friend of ours has been diagnosed with Gleoblastoma Multiforme stage IV (brain cancer) in July 2007. He invited all willing family and friends to train with him for Disney's innaugural Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 6.5K race last Saturday October 27th. Lots of family & friends joined him in the race in which he completed with no problem after finishing radiation and 2 rounds of chemo! Dan is one amazing guy!!

I injured my achilles tendon and could not run but Jeff ran the entire race next to Dan while a group of us non-runners cheered him and all of the other runners on. Way to go Team Dan!!

Grant & Dad's New Project

Jeff decided to have a project that he and Grant

have as their own. They are working in our garage on an "extra-house for sleepovers" for Grant and his friends. Grant is the chief engineer/designer

and Jeff is the general contractor for the project.

Grant has several drawings and many ideas as to what this is to look like.
Grant is very enthusiastic about this project and is really working hard with his Dad. Daddy is allowing him to use some of his power tools and saws for the construction of the house. So far, one wall is built that has a frame for a door and a window. Grant and Dad have made a few trips to Home Depot for supplies and are working on the next wall now. We will keep you posted on the progress of Grant's house, so keep checking!

Pre-Halloween Fun

We had some friends over to carve Jack-o-lanterns with Owen and Grant for Halloween. We had 5 pumpkins to carve and 8 kids to "help". It was loads of fun for the kids and loads of clean-up for the adults! Remind me next year to PAINT the pumpkins instead of carve them! Everyone did an awesome design on their pumpkin and at the end of the day the jack-o-lanterns looked great!

Oktoberfest 2007 at the Pifer's

The beer was done, the costumes were rented and the food came in by the truckload! Thanks to all of our friends for making our first annual Oktoberfest in Celebration a big success! Everyone came in such a great party mood and each couple slaved over an authentic German dish to share with the crowd. The food turned out great and even better, the beer Jeff and Rob brewed won the blind taste test!
Jeff and Rob's hombrew beat out some stiff competition of Yingling lager (2nd) and Spaten (3rd). Their hardwork paid off! The event of the night was when Jeff and Rob revealed the name and label of their prized beer. They chose Dan Sams to roast and "honor" with his photoshopped image on the label (Jeff and Rob just couldn't help themselves.) "Randy Dan's" lager was the hit of the night!! Thanks Dan for getting the joke and being such a sport!

Owen's "Real" Birthday

We just finished celebrating Owen's "real" birthday according to him! He and Grant were off school on Friday, his birthday, and Owen decided what we should do for the day. Owen wanted to go to A & W drive in and have a birthday lunch consisting of a hot dog with cheese and a rootbeer float. After lunch he wanted to go to the store and spend the money he got for his birthday which was burning a hole in his pocket rather quickly! Owen's beloved hand held game player broke a few days before his birthday so he decided he wanted to use his money to purchase a new one. Boy was he a happy birthday boy after that purchase! Later that evening we took Owen and his good friend Tyler out to TGI Friday's for dinner at Owen's request. The wait staff came and sang Owen Happy Birthday (which he loved) and then they sang to two other little boys as well. Owen went to their tables and wished them a very happy birthday too! On the way home we picked up another one of Owen's friends Justin and we all then went home for a sleepover birthday party. One more round of Happy Birthday was sung to Owen this time with a Carvel ice cream cake and his good friends and family. The boys all had a great time and so did we. Happy Birthday Owen! Grant you're next!

Happy Birthday Owen!

Owen is 7!

We celebrated a week early on 9/30 with an "eco-tour swamp buggy ride" with lots of Owen's friends along for the fun. It was a beautiful day for a ride in the swamp which was actually not too swampy due to lack of rain the past few months. We didn't see any gators but everyone got to feed the local cows oranges and the driver let Owen "drive" the swamp buggy for a few minutes since he was the birthday boy. Owen thought that was so cool and so did all of his friends! We did have a slight problem with the swamp buggy when it just stopped in the middle of a field miles from anything around. We all thought we might have to walk but luckily our driver John was pretty handy and got it restarted within 10-15 minutes!! That was a close one!!

After the ride we took everyone back home for pizza and a piece of Owen's requested Titanic cake! We had lots of fun climbing Daddy's climbing wall and playing in the sandbox. It was a great day we all agreed!

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Another new family member

Meet Frogger! He has become Genevieve the turtles' companion. Genevieve seems really happy to have a friend around now! Both animals seem content in their aquarium and are now extra happy because we finally found a food they both like. We were worried because Genevieve seemd not to eat anything for about 2 weeks. The local pet store suggested freeze dried shrimp which she really seems to like now. Frogger is enjoying dining on live crickets! Geez, even our amimals are picky eaters!