If the day after Thanksgiving is Black Friday, what's the day BEFORE Thanksgiving?

Well, here are a few pics from Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving.

Derek and Grandma are the horn section!

Of course Grandma is multi-talented... here she is making pies with Maren.

And here she is giving Deacon a haircut!

Check back very soon for full coverage of Thanksgiving 2012!

Deacon's Class in the News!

Well, Deacon's class is on the cover of this... newspaper? What do you call these publications that are mostly advertising but they have news, too? A circular?  Anyway, now I can't find a picture of the cover online, so I put the actual paper on my dryer and took a picture:






















Deacon, not smiling:


You can read the article here, on the Tolucan Times website.

Fun Fest 2012: Indiana Jones and the Fountain of Life!

Disney may own Indiana Jones now, but that didn't stop us from using the iconic character as our inspiration for Fun Fest 2012. Thanks to Andrew Rog of Cross Eyed Photography for most of these pics!

Indy tends to find himself having to examine issues of spirituality more often than he likes. This provided many storytelling opportunities for Derek as he constructed the script for the epic 17 minute skit.

The crew! They've had a combined total of 2.5 hours of sleep in the past 4 days.

Azerbaijan, 1935

The show starts with Indy in a familiar predicament, this time with his sidekick Sanjay. Despite her tough demeanor and large authentic Thompson submachine gun pointed at the guys, the lovely Fatima cuts the ropes and gives them a clue that will help them later on.

Sanjay, helping Indy find the Fountain of Life.

Sanjay tells Indy the important clue given to him by Fatima.

And accidentally sets fire to a spider web, which contains another clue! After this, a confetti cannon sprayed plastic spiders all over the crowd!

Sanjay has a talent for seeing the future. He sees Calvary... Calvary Chapel Burbank! He suddenly sees the gathered crowd and hands out candy to the kids.

Back to his adventure... Indy and Sanjay take cover as a massive rock slide threatens to bury them!

It turns out Sanjay drank some poisoned water earlier in the show and isn't feeling very good.

Indy finds the "Fountain of Life," which is revealed to be out of order. He has no choice but to humble himself and reluctantly say a prayer for Sanjay.

His prayer is answered as, with God's help, he puts the gathered clues together to discover that if he strikes a nearby rock, life-saving water will save Sanjay's life.

Sanjay awakens and the men walk into the sunset, with Sanjay discussing Indy's need to look into the biblical account of the Ark of the Covenant - unbeknownst to Indy, the subject of the next big adventure in his career.

Derek and Steve, ready for Fun Fest 2013.

Here are a few cast/crew pics!

I'm not sure who to credit for this, but someone cut together a two minute summary of the show, which you can view here, on the CCB website.

The show is also available for your viewing pleasure on the TV in our living room.

October 2012 is in the books! On to November!

The END of October - Part 1

October has finally come to an end!

October 31st was full of activity. The kids had the day off due to a teachers' conference, so Derek took the day off, too, and everyone had fun.

Except Derek, who was still finalizing things for the Indiana Jones show at Fun Fest.

The kids empty the gunk out of their pumpkins.

Deacon wore his TV costume and tried to maneuver around all the other trick or treaters.

Astronaut Maren

Almost done trick or treating. Deacon ditched the TV and became a field reporter. Jason was a thunderstorm. As his mom said, you have to be a real man to wear that outfit!

Check back soon for AFB coverage of CCB Fun Fest 2012: Indiana Jones and the Fountain of Life!

A Few Thoughts on Today's News

For those asking for an official AFB statement on today's stunning news out of Burbank and San Francisco:

We at the AFB think Disney is the perfect fit for the Star Wars franchise, and we are absolutely in favor of more Star Wars movies.

Rambling thoughts:
Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that today we'd hear the announcement of Star Wars sequels. I will wake up tomorrow in a world where Star Wars sequels are in preproduction... It is all very exciting and thrilling and I'm still processing all of this.

Thanks to Steve Kwant for this logo for Star Wars: Episode VII.

I just like to type EPISODE VII!!!

School Pictures!

Here are this year's school pictures!

Maren, grade 3

Deacon, grade 5

Trunk or Treat 2012

Welcome again to our October, the time of year when the fun just keeps on going, and going, and going...

Last night was the annual trick-or-treat-at-school-with-people-you-know-so-you-know-it's-safe tradition known as Trunk or Treat. Our theme this year: Indiana Jones and the Trunk of Terror.

Poor Indy finally got crushed by that boulder.

It was nice having Grammie along to help greet the Trunk or Treaters!

Deacon wore his TV Anchorman costume again. Now with working lights inside. Derek said I didn't configure his suit jacket & suspenders correctly, though, so I'll have to work on that for the next outing.

And this is Astronaut Maren!

The Bauers in their Minnesota Vikings Fans costumes! HA

Elena, Suzanne and I are dressed up as... OURSELVES!! How clever.

A few other decorated trunks...

After it was over, our car started without a hitch. Didn't even need jumper cables this year! Here are some final shots of us with Trunk 2012.

Coming to the end of the month - these last few days of October will be eventful and maybe, possibly even fun. Soon we'll have full coverage of the final events of our crazy October: pumpkin carving, trick or treating, and CCB Fun Fest 2012!

Fall Festival 2012

It's hard to believe we attended our SIXTH Fall Festival today at St. Paul's!

How times have changed.  I used to start making costumes in early September; now we do them the day before Fall Festival.  This year we bought Maren's Astronaut costume, but Derek worked until 4 AM this morning on Deacon's costume:

This year, Deacon wanted to be a news anchorman.

The humble beginnings of DNN.  He even had a working headline "ticker" at the bottom of the screen.

Astronaut Maren takes a breath of Earth air.

Deacon's Live broadcast was really live!

Grace, Micaela and Maren. Micaela was Cleopatra.

The best thing about this costume was that I got to buy Deacon a suit, which he wore willingly. The jacket, anyway.

Maren picks out a prize!

Ms. Hartel read all 6 of Deacon's scrolling headlines. I'll list them below.

After the costume contest: Deacon plays auxiliary percussion in the first performance of the year for the St. Paul's Concert Band!

I worked in the Prize Booth all day.

A movie!

OK, here are the important news headlines for the day on DNN:

ELECTION SURPRISE: FEDS LOWER VOTING AGE TO 10

MR. KOEPPEL: "PACKERS WIN, EVERYONE GETS DAY OFF"

FALL FESTIVAL DUNK TANK WATER TOXIC; TEACHERS SUE

MR. MINDOCK REPORTS COCKROACHES MISSING; POLICE INVESTIGATING

"BRING YOUR DOG TO SCHOOL DAY" CAUSES HUGE LACK OF PRODUCTIVITY

ST. PAUL'S CLOSES FOR WEEK DUE TO FREAK OCTOBER SNOWSTORM