Fall Is In the Air

Distinctive seasons are one of the many perks of not living in Arizona anymore.  Just when I was getting tired of having the AC running in the house, cool weather moved in.  Today we are enjoying overcast skies and a cool breeze dancing in through the doors and windows.  No worries, because I have been looking forward to autumn for weeks! 

Dad, check out how good these mums look at the base of the mailbox holder you and Andy made!

Mum clippings gracing the kitchen in a Polish pottery vase.  Thanks so much, Gigi!  And Kisti, Brynn & Kira - I know you girls approve!

Acorns from the backyard!  The squirrels work so hard to pick and drop the nuts, but then they have very little opportunity to harvest, thanks to South Paw and her big-dog presence.  I on the other hand enjoy finding them in the grass with my bare feet and using them as free decoration!

My Gardening Assistants

 

Always talking ... and I don't want to hear it about the shorts: he dressed himself!

Checking out the lawnmower ... and telling me ALL about it!

Big Truck Day

Big Truck Fail Day

We tried to make it fun

And tried

And tried some more.

Even the barefoot music dude

Couldn't get the boys to get over

how loud the horns were blaring.

We thought it was a bad idea to allow all the kids to have fair-game at the truck horns.  But we had a good time anyway, despite our quiet-seeking children!

Daddy Long Spider

Aiden has a love/hate relationship with spiders.  He finds them fascinating, but is dreadfully afraid of their webs.  I call him my spider-web police: always alerting me to them.  Lately, the daddy long leg spiders have been having their month of glory on our fence.  I pick them up and show them to Aiden in an attempt to break his little phobia.  Courtesy of the dead tree in our back 40 (40 feet, but hey, it's 40!), some big branches have been landing in the yard after rainstorms.  Active imagination turned on: they are called "Daddy Long Spiders!"

Snacktime

My Little Ham

Celtic Woman

If you've never seen their outdoor concert in Ireland on PBS late at night during a telethon, you don't know what you're missing!  I like Celtic Woman for the romance & history ad Andy likes them for the thunderous drums & Braveheart-ishness.  Our fabulous friends Jack and Jen took us to the concert at a local amphitheater venue just 5 miles from our house.  Samantha the Magnificent came over to watch the boys, and they were, quote: "Great!"  (It would take another blog entry to go on and on about how wonderful Sam is!).  Anyhoo ... we were the youngest at the concert by 50 years, but we still all enjoyed ourselves, even despite the $5 bottles of Pepsi!

Yay!  We're out without kids!  

Jack & Jen

No cameras were allowed, but I tried to get a pic of the bagpipe player on our way out ... in the mass exodus, I got bumped, and ended up getting a pic of this sweet nun instead!  LOL

My favorite song was 

Spanish Lady

And the dancing fiddler was as always, most entertaining!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wzMfSiOkMQ

Parking Lot

I cannot overstate how obsessed attached Aiden is to his cars.  They don't have to be Matchbox, but be really anything that has four (or more!) wheels.  He organizes them on the dining room table to keep the organization from being demolished by his little brother.  His growing imagination and real world role-play encompasses his cars.  I present to you: "Parking Lot."

Another Day at the Duck Park

We absolutely adore the duck park in town.  The boys and I made it a date last week, and we hit the library, the pub next door, and then the duck park 2 blocks from that.  We worked on manners and eating etiquette at lunch, and Aiden even ordered his own lunch for the first time.  He was quite proud of himself.  And the park was abounding with ducks: the boys were actually overwhelmed!  ...  and then there was the squirrel! 

 Reading a book while waiting for his sandwich