Harvest Party - TX Style

This past weekend, our family hosted a "harvest party" for our neighborhood. There were 19 adults and 22 kids present. No, the headcount was 20 adults and 21 kids. (I had to revise the number of adults, now that our son is 18!) It's a good thing the weather was perfect for spilling out into the lawn -- otherwise, our house would have been really full. It's a big house, but not THAT big!

Mr. Smith grilled tri-tip and tube steaks for the crowd, and the neighbors all brought amazing side dishes to share. There was no shortage of food, conversation, and neighborly cheer.

The first annual pie bakeoff was a success -- tasty, too. There were 10 delicious entries.

The very distinguished panel of judges took their job seriously. It was quite entertaining to watch the trio of pie connoisseurs at work as they thoughtfully considered the appearance of each entry, diligently taste-tested, considered the "mouth-feel," cleansed the palate with red wine, made notes, and repeated the process over and over and over again.

When their bellies were full and their wine glasses were empty, with a groan or two of satisfaction, the judges retreated to an undisclosed location to tally the votes -- and refill their empty glasses. ;-) The competition was fierce, but the judges were fair and balanced. This was a blind tasting, so they only knew the number assigned to the dessert, but they had no idea who the baker was.

"Honorable Mention" went to Millie's coconut cream pie. (That's my girl!)

Helen's Pumpkin Crunch Pie took 2nd place.

And the winner...

Lexie was crowned the 2010 Marshall Point Pie Queen! This ten-year-old's very first attempt at making a lemon meringue pie was obviously a success. (FYI, her dad was NOT one of the judges!)

I didn't take very many photos, as I was too busy fulfilling the role of hostess, but I did manage to capture a few grinning faces.

Tori, Olivia, Liesey, and Kaytlynn prettily posed for my camera. :-)

Adrianna was feeling a little camera shy.

Too cute!

Katie, Millie, and Lexi had no trouble smiling.

The Thomson triplets are ALWAYS smilin'!

I'd better wrap up this blog entry so I can start researching pie recipes for next year's neighborly bake-off. I still cannot believe that my twelve-year-old bested her own mother in the competition. I'm proud of my girl's efforts. Really! This was the first time that Millie made a pie all by herself. Beginner's luck? I don't think so. I am certain that Grandma Florence would be proud of her granddaughter -- coconut cream pie was her specialty. :-)

Do you think that a coconut creme gene exists?!

TX House Update

I have been asked (repeatedly!) to share some photos of the new Smith Haus. Sorry for the delay. It's just taken a while to get these images developed. I have been in the digital darkroom diligently downloading, and it's now time to share.

There are not pictures of every single room, so the tour will not be complete. Perhaps you will have to come for an actual visit (instead of a virtual one) to see all of our square feet. ;-) Wait! My feet are not square.

We have lived at the new address for three months & have managed to paint every wall, have shutters installed in several rooms (Phase 2 of the shutter project is slated for 2011.), and hang some artwork. It is beginning to feel like home more each day.

I have captured a few of my "mostest" favorite details, so I hope you enjoy the tour.

Here's a sphere.

I'm thinking that painting this to look like a globe would be pretty cool. Not really! We have three big "bowling balls" on brick pedestals on the front side of the house, and I could not resist capturing one in B&W.

We have quite a bit of wrought iron work in the house. This photo was taken in the wine grotto, which could also double as a jail cell. For some strange reason, I think of the phrase, "What hath God wrought?" when I see wrought iron. I know, I know -- bad puns abound.

This is a dining room chandelier tear.

Back splash detail

Foyer chandelier

(Yes, I actually had to lie on the floor so I could get this image.)

Our kitchen cabinetry has pullouts that are really spice racks disguised as support corbels. Sometimes I forget where the dried oregano is hiding.

Shutters -- up close & personal

You have patiently waited as I shared some of the little details of the house. I will FINALLY share the bigger/whole picture. We are s-l-o-w-l-y moving from micro to macro views.

We chose the double Maine Coon option as a decorative feature for our master bedroom. It's good to have stuffed animals around to add that warm & fuzzy feel. All of that cat fur adds a "lived-in" quality to the new house.

The guest room has a Cal King bed ready & waiting for visitors. Hint! Hint!

The Master Bedroom

The Master Bathroom

Mud Room
(I don't see any mud.)

This could possibly be my favorite room in the whole house. Despite the fact is is called the Dining Room, we have yet to actually eat ANYTHING in this room. I know, that's pretty pathetic.

Here's another view of the non-dining Dining Room...

...and another!

The girls' rooms are through the arched doorway. Liesey's is to the left, and Millie's is to the right.

The Family Room has an enormous fireplace that we hope to use this fall/winter. We have another fireplace outside on the covered patio that you can see through the Family Room windows. (Click on the photo to make it larger so you can see the inside & the outside.)

I decided to add one more photo of the patio -- it is easier to see this one than the "through the window" shot.

The Kitchen is my favorite room in the house. The Dining Room just got demoted to second favorite, but it's a close second. Oddly enough, we dine in this room every night, but it's not a Dining Room.




I didn't even make it upstairs with the camera for this tour. The gameroom, bathroom, & the 18-year-old's bed room will have to wait for another blog entry. My son's bed probably isn't made, any way.



The parting shot is the view of the Smith Haus from the court -- all three spheres/globes/bowling balls in plain view. Can you see the welcome mat at the front door? Although it doesn't have the words, "WELCOME" printed on it, it's out. We heartily welcome all visitors to North Texas.

Gills on Wheels

The Gill fam. rolled into Keller for a brief visit as they were heading back home to CA from their DC trek. It was sooo much fun to have them here, even if the time together was short.

The girls & the Samantha twins managed to have some fun at American Girl Place in Dallas!!

We found the "Cat in the Hat" in a model home. Perhaps these two blondes are really Thing 1 and Thing 2. :-)

Saying, "Goodbye" to a good friend is never fun. :-( But at least I got 'em to smile for the camera. Photos of frowning faces do not do much to enhance a blog post!

The Gills' Wheels

The road warriors/happy campers allowed one more photo before they hit the road.

FYI, the welcome mat is always out. We LOVE visitors!

Mobile Images

The photos in this blog entry are unrelated & somewhat random, but they do all have one thing in common. They were taken using my cell phone. My cell phone definitely gets used for lots of things other than making calls. How did we ever get by with just talking on a telephone?!

A few days ago, I downloaded all of the photos on my phone just to see what was there. It's easier to see the images on the computer display than it is to look at them on the phone's small screen. I am going to share several -- not all -- of the pictures so you, too, can see what we take photos of when the "big gun" camera (a.k.a. the Canon) isn't handy.

There are REALLY big garden spiders in TX that make amazingly large (2-3 ft. wide) webs. Oh, what a tangled web we weave... We have a few "pet" spiders who reside on our fence. The web's zig-zag pattern is a pretty incredible design. I haven't seen any messages yet, but I somewhat expect to see "Terrific" printed in one of the webs some morning. ;-)


Our cat's eye through the eyes of my twelve-year-old looks kinda artsy, eh?



Liesey Lou's place of employment makes her SMILE -- especially on pay day.

Another good sign.

All kinds of wrong...

I did get a pretty good chuckle out of this photo, even though our kitty boy looks moderately annoyed. Bartholomew NEVER protests or complains loudly about anything, except for vet visits.

Millie's homemade bagels were quite tasty. And photogenic!

One of our neighborhood princesses posed for the phone.
Say, "Hello?" instead of "Cheese!"

Katie & Millie display their merry-go-round merriment.

The very first fire in the outdoor/patio fireplace seemed photo-worthy. And those flames toasted marshmallows perfectly! Sorry, no photos were taken of the s'mores; my fingers were all gooey with melted 'mallows.