Lots of Leaves

The interest in leaf-collecting has been at an all-time high this fall.  Every walk or adventure outdoors ends with handfuls of "the prettiest" leaves.  We have stuffed many leaves in books to dry and then display.  Incidentally, the librarian told me one of the ladies there really likes all the leaves we forget about....oops.

There is a beautifully colored dogwood tree up the block and around the corner from our house where it is like a rainbow on the grass.  What a heavenly place for leaf-loving kids to play ;-)

It was so warm this week, we ended up in summer clothes which was such a nice treat.  Except when the the kids went to jump in their first leaf pile of the year....

The dried leaves were unbearable scratchy, and they gave up on this favorite fall tradition pretty quickly.  Oh well.


One day, the two of them just went for a walk up to the dogwood together.  What a sweet sight I stumbled upon as I rounded the corner.

After gathering about 400 more leaves, they headed around the block to the tulip tree where they gathered dozens more.  These new leaves never made it into books for flattening.  Instead there is now an indoor leaf pile on the living room floor.   For the geckos, of course; the ones that live in the gourd houses below the big window.... 
More on that later :-)

Glorious Fall

The leaves are just about done with their show here, so we have been admiring, collecting and frolicking for as long as we can before the trees empty themselves of their last golden beauties.  The colors this year have been so breathtaking.  It's hard to imagine the brown and gray that await us when it's nearly 80 degrees at the end of October!!

Fall

 The window ledge is piled with gourds...

The piano has a new fall-themed vignette going on...

There are dried leaves on every available surface...

Handfuls of the last wildflowers have found their way into vases on the table...

The kids are back in thermal knit again...

It's fall.... and we are loving it.

Adored

Warm!

It was beautifully warm yesterday.

After weeks of cool and rainy-ish weather, this was so needed.  The wind tried to steal our enjoyment by blowing in 25mph gusts, but we refused to go inside!!!

It's a good thing we savored it all too, because today, it's cool and rainy..... again.

Bits & Pieces :: October

*Chloe likes to brush her hair upside down, hanging off the side or front of this chair.

*The kids helped me make tons of meatballs one day.  Chloe always eagerly digs right in to whatever I'm cooking and gets messy, while Evan sort of stares at the mix for a while, shivers at the thought of sticky hands, makes the usual "um, eeewwww, um..... I don't know.... okay.... eeeee... yukkkkk" and then puts his hands in.  After that you'd never know it bothered him at all.

*Chloe flips methodically through horse picture books quickly cataloging her favorites with colorful bookmarks.  Dozens of bookmarks.  Luckily in this book, one specific horse won first place in her mind.

*Working diligently on a paint-by-number set she got from Granny and Grampa on her birthday.

(Leaves and gourds sitting nearby are just a sampling of the piles of autumn goodness my kids collect every single year. My piano is covered with flattened dried leaves and the front windowsill has a pile of twenty gourds on it.)



*She's been playing with her hair a lot once again and shredding the front into scraggly layers.  I thought she was really outgrowing that, but I guess not....

*This is a card game the kids made up for their dogs and helicopters to play called "four-way war."  And even if it's 47 degrees outside (in October!) it is still comfortable enough inside to wear the minimum amount of clothing.

*This guy doesn't show up in too many photos because he's always outside on his bike or scooter or driving an RC around the neighborhood.  He and Chloe have taken to exploring our block and across the street together.  Of course these adventures are how I end up with piles of leaves, crabapples, walnuts... And if he's not outside, he's in his room with the CD player on memorizing new Sandra Boynton songs.  There is nothing cuter than hearing him singing along to this silly music he loves.

*Chloe and I spent a good portion of the morning making a mural on the sidewalk together.  She worked on a horse stepping on a rock while I drew a garden nearby.  She observed and added the same details to her side.

This is what we ended up with:

Pumpkin Farm 2012

The agonizing wait is finally over, and Evan has already started the countdown to next year.
Pumpkin Farm Day was awesome!   
(Pictures are in no real order and neither are my commentaries.  Just a jumble.)



We met up with friends and spent an afternoon in the sun (and wind), shedding and adding layers as the day progressed.  Evan and Jed have been non-stop talking about the peddle cars from last year, so that's where they spent nearly the entire time.  Fifty laps each, easily.

Animal lovers.  They found this caterpillar almost as soon as we arrived.  Chloe took it down the slide over and over again.  They also each carried their beanie baby kittens in their collars for a good part of the day.  Amazingly we didn't lose either one (although at bedtime we got pretty nervous when Evan's "Chip" was nowhere... oh yeah, it was on his bed already where he put it.)

Chloe had a lovely time with Ysabet who took her by the hand and made her feel really special all day.  This is the first year the kids have strayed from me and played without me.  It was odd, but completely perfect.  They loved it and so did I.

Chloe adores these wooden horses.  She talks about them like Evan talks about the cars.  The biggest one, the "Clydesdale," is her favorite.

Best friend.

Chloe was impressively strong this year and actually maneuvered this heavy thing almost completely by herself (there were two places on the track where she needed a small push).  She went around several times too!

Our friends left before we did, so we had a couple of extra hours where Evan and Chloe did some things together, including some more rounds on the peddle cars, of course, some sandbox digging and a rousing game of prisoner on the hay bales where yours truly was the jailer of sneaky jail-breaking children.  Tiring.

I am still in awe at how much time these boys spent on the cars, including some heavy-duty off-roading when no one else was around.  (Evan's legs are aching today from all the work he did!)

I love this little impromptu moment right before giving hugs good-bye, especially since Olivia jumped in there!   Too bad Chloe's face is behind the Clydesdale's ear.

Kings of the Pumpkin Farm!

The goat kids got quite a bit of horn-scratching from Evan -- they really liked him.

Slide pictures never turn out great, but all five of the kids were up there at once so I had to take this one.  The girls were going down together, on the same slides, and trying not to hurt each other while the boys were tobogganing like penguins at full throttle on their bellies. 

Tradition relived.  They were so NOT excited to do this....again.  But we made them.

The kids were almost sleeping at 7:30pm, and slept about 12 hours each.  Both of them have achy legs and knees today :-)

And I am sunburned.  In October.