Trunk or Treat

This year marked the first ever Trunk or Treat at Oakdale Baptist Church, and by all accounts it was a success with hundreds in attendance.  The Lord provided the PERFECT fall weather for our outdoor event:  clear skies and just chilly enough to feel like autumn.

Kudos to the folks who did trunks tonight!  To mine and Tim's delight, many of the trunks had a theme, and people went all-out decorating...

Joy manned the "Duck Dynasty" trunk, and even quacked at those who were given candy...

Susan had the Purple People Trunk...

And ayone who knows Kim's love of the Saints wouldn't be surprised by her Saints-themed trunk...

Susie's trunk was an open mouth of candy.  Quite creative.

Thomas had a good old-fashioned, country trunk...

While Aaron - our Upward Basketball Director - took this opportunity to hand-out Upward information for Monday's evaluations at his trunk...

Robert and Rebecca's trunk indicates that they're fans of some college or another, but I'm a little fuzzy about which one it is.  :)

Rumor has it that UNC fans were receiving extra candy at the other trunks.

But that claim can neither be denied nor confirmed.

But perhaps the cutest trunk award goes to Angela, who at 9 months pregnant brought the sweetest accessory: soon-to-be-born Baby Wyatt.

  The concessions volunteers cooked and handed-out hundreds of hot dogs and countless chips...

 And Jeff proved that you can use absolutely anything for the glory of God - 

even your tractor.

 

 

Can you believe that in 41 years, Tim Barnette has never learned how to do a cake walk???  Angie Ruffin runs a good one, and she taught Tim how it's done.

We appreciated the youth group, who ran carnival games in the gym.

Our youth pastor TJ - a seminary student who commutes from Southeastern - and his wife Anna have been such a blessing since they joined us early in the summer...

Tim's favorite costume of the evening had to be...

the boy who came dressed as bacon.  Yum.

Great job by all at OBC Trunk or Treat 2014!

-The Preacher's Wife

Tea Party

A backyard tea party with my little girl today.  I doubt that even the Mad Hatter and Alice could have such fun as we two...

IN the pleasant green Garden
  We sat down to tea;
"Do you take sugar?" and
  "Do you take milk?"
She'd got a new gown on–
  A smart one of silk.
We all were so happy
  As happy could be,
On that bright Summer's day

When she asked us to tea.

The Tea Party 

-by Kate Greenaway

Coastal Carolina

 Our homeschool theme study for the month of October is the ocean, so we just took a fieldtrip to the coast.  

Stop #1:  The Coastal North Carolina National Wildlife Refuges Gateway Visitor Center.

All five of us had a good time learning more about coastal wildlife and how coastal areas are maintained.

 One of the kids said, "Look!  Nana would love that deer!"

(Their Nana loves feeding deer in her yard, and she actually talks to them and they understand her.  Which is why she is "The Deer Whisperer. :D)

 Stop #2:  The North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island.

Since our last trip to this aquarium, they've added a new turtle rehabilitation section, where we learned how sea turtles are being rehabilitated and released back into the wild.  It was SO COOL!  First, the kids each picked-out a plastic turtle and took it to a diagnostic lab.

Every little turtle is different, and the kids see how their turtle checks-out when it is given a physical exam.  One turtle might be diagnosed with an obstruction, while another might be diagnosed with an infection or an injury from a collision with a boat.

Next, the kids took their turtles to the rehabilitation lab.  There, they would watch a video where marine biologists told them what was wrong with their particular turtle, and how to treat the problem. 

The lab would have replica medicine and tools, and the kids would be shown in the video how to use them.  Christopher even had to perform surgery on his plastic turtle! 

Of course, not all of the turtle rehabilitation at the NC Aquarium was make-believe.  We were able to visit the actual turtle rehabilitation lab, where real sea turtles are being restored back to health.  Once given a clean bill of health, the marine biologists simply take them over to the beach and set them loose in the water.  I bet that would be wonderful to see...

We also saw lots of other ocean creatures...as well as a few freshwater ones, too.  Arguably the cutest critters we saw were the otters in the exhibit "The Otter Banks."  Get it???  We were at the Outer Banks and the exhibit was called "The Otter Banks"!!!

 And John - my shark lover - got his fix of shark teeth at the aquarium.

Fun day of learning for our whole family.  And I have to mention a great little restaurant right outside of Nags Head that we tried for the first time:  Basnight's Lone Cedar Cafe.   I had the shrimp, which was good, with root vegetables which were great, and the parmesan-spinach grit cake which was AMAZING.  That grit cake was one of the best things I have ever eaten.  Seriously.

Those root vegetables were actually grown on-site at the restaurant's extensive garden which is grown right on the Pamlico Sound.