Fall leaves

I love seeing Jane trail behind. 

Fall Break: the Pumpkinliner

The rest of the week we stayed pretty close to home, but by Friday I was thinking I should take the kids  on a day trip or something.  I asked on our ward facebook page if anyone had any ideas for something simple.  A sister in the ward messaged me about the train that goes from Connersville to Metamora in Eastern Indiana.  I looked it up and saw they were running their "Pumpkinliner" on Saturday!  It is a fifteen minute train ride and a short hay ride to the pumpkin patch and all the kids get to pick a pumpkin.  It was quite cold (in retrospect, it couldn't have been that bad.  We were outside with skin exposed and survived.  We have since been much, much colder), but we all had a great time.

We started and ended the train in Connersville and decided to drive down to Metamora to see some of their sites and get some lunch.  It was a very fun-filled day.

Janie fell asleep in between.

The grist mill is typically powered by the canal but there was a part broken so they were using the secondary power source.

On the way home we drove through Andersonville and had to stop for a picture!

Another wipeout.

Fall festival

We haven't done anything like this in the past, but the boys were really excited about going to their school's fall festival and playing carnival games. We thought we would give it a try. They all had a great time, but by the end it was almost like pulling teeth to get them to finish their game cards. 

Not very many pictures, but here is what I did get:

Janie was in her carseat the whole time. We are so grateful for what a sweet, happy, easy-going baby she has been and continues to be!

Andy figuring out his sword. 

Lilia getting me with hers and using Jane as her shield. 

Anne was excited for hers!

Unfortunately, the only picture with Benny is this one. 

It was a fun little carnival. Lilia even won something on the cakewalk! We were surprised the kids didn't want to keep doing that one. The odds were quite in their favor.

Our tree(s)

We have this gorgeous tree right in our front yard. A neighbor told me we have the tree of which people will stop to take pictures. I sure took some!

Of course, all those leaves are the leaves we have been raking. But we're definitely having fun with them, so I guess it works. 

Walking home from the bus stop. 

Looking up. 

Looking down. 

Every time I walked by I would look and marvel at the gorgeous colors. Really. Absolutely beautiful. 

If you're going to come visit, come in the fall. And we love having visitors!

I finally got around to making a leaf wreath this year. Ever since seeing one (two, maybe!) on my friend Elizabeth's blog I have wanted to make my own. I would think of it every time I walked past colorful leaves. 

I just used a cardboard oval cutout (from a diaper box), hot glue, and leaves. This is actually take two since I didn't do the first one thick enough to account for the drying. 

This is what it looks like now. The lighting is not great and the colors definitely aren't what they were, but I still think it's beautiful. 

Here is the first attempt. I love the bits of green in this one, but by the time I made the second it was way too late to find any green. 

Also walking home from the bus stop. This is one of the side trees with different beautiful color. 

I have loved seeing all of the gorgeous color around. On a family bike ride a month or so ago I saw the most beautiful orange leaves. I wish I had stopped for some of those, but it was on quite the uphill. Maybe next year. 

Game day (last Saturday) or First Leaf Raking

The weather was beautiful on Saturday. I am afraid it may be our last really beautiful day this year. Unfortunately, Spencer was on call. If he hadn't been I would definitely have been pulling for a bike ride.  

The kids went out to start making club houses in the leaves. The boys kept getting upset that the girls were trying to profit from their gathering. Once I had bread kneading (then again while bread was rising) I went out and started on a pile big enough for all. They loved it and ended up spending hours playing out there together. 

The first pile. 

Look who was hiding inside!

The second – and much bigger – pile. 

My view from the front door. You can see all four. Anne was wearing her Rapunzel dress.  

I was able to read in the living room for a while with the windows open. The only thing that could have made it even more perfect would have been having Spencer home to enjoy it with us. I really can't complain, though. He is gone on a Saturday so seldom and hasn't been on a Sunday (except for Garrett's wedding). It's wonderful to tell the kids Dad will be home because it's the weekend. For a long time we didn't get real weekends (four, maybe five days off a month). I'm not going to lie, that was hard.

Anyway, life is good. We are definitely enjoying it!