First Day of Fall

We love the Fall season here. The weather cools, the trees are painted a beautiful collage of color. Football season is in full swing. It is just an exciting time!

We are going to do lots of fun things this Fall. Identify and collect leaves. Watch for migrating birds. Make lots of things with pumpkin as a main ingredient. Enjoy the wonderful weather and journal in our nature journals.

I am going to browse through a wonderful resource from Five in a Row, the Fall Nature Study. I think the kids and I will read through parts of it together. Today they are going to do an Autumn word search, and I hope to get out some paint and let them paint something in Fall colors.

Hmmm...I may feel the need for a new header soon!

Airshow!

The air force base nearby had a fantastic air show a couple weeks ago. It was hot, muggy, and all the food was extremely expensive. Think $20 for snowcones for a family of 5. We managed to have a good time anyway.

Our favorite was watching a re-enactment from the Pearl Harbor attacks. They had the Zero from the movie Tora Tora Tora! and a P-51 Mustang. It was great to have a visual for the event that brought the U.S. into WWII.

The kids enjoyed a fun family day. I got a fantastic sunburn, that has now resulted in a monster fever blister. So all in all I call the day good. Will we do it again?....meh...probably not.

Play Ball!

Last night was our first night of Pitching Machine baseball. It is kind of scary to see a machine whirling balls toward your little guy, but Monkey never flinched. He did quite well. He did not get a hit, but that was expected. I am sure he will do better. I am considering askking the neighbor boy (who is an all-star player) come over and pitch to Monkey. I have zero skills in this department, and Andrew's shoulder is shot from a zip line injury last year.

Puppy woke up dry last night. That is amazing. We will see if it transforms into potty training. He is showing some interest. Mostly his interest is in being obstinate about it unless it is his idea.

What have I been doing?

Well...I hate to admit this. I really do.

I have been watching tv shows and movies. We got a subscription to Netflix. I love Netflix. I love the no late fees, and I especially love the new feature of instant watching with streaming video.

So my new obsessions have been:

• 30 Rock, very funny show, I paced myself, only one or 4 a night.
• Anything to do with Jane Austen, almost done with that.
• Heroes, yes, I am very ashamed of myself.

Now, let's talk about Heroes. Andrew and I are watching this together, which is fun, but also drives me insane because I have to wait for him to watch the next one. He is home this week, so we are getting a lot done in this area. We completed Season 1 last night, and watched 2 episodes of Season 2.

I cannot stand how much gore there is on this show. I would love it completely if we didn't have to watch Sylar cut someone's head open every time. I have smartened up enough to see it coming, and close my eyes. But seriously, how much blood do we really need to see. I would be fine if they just showed someones horrified face as they yelled, "Oh my gosh, his head is cut open and his brain is missing! Must be that darn Sylar again!" Apparently, this is not what is hot in today's TV.

I have also enjoyed an educational documentary or two. The Life of Mammals was great!

What exciting thing did we do Spring Break 2008? We watched TV!!!!

Musings of a Monkey

Said to me as I prepared dinner tonight. Where does he get these things???

Mom, sometimes I act like a spider.
Sometimes I act like a rabbit.
And sometimes, I act like a monkey.

Also, as we came home from a date and picking the kids up from the sitter:

Monkey - Did you have fun at the dance mom?
Me - Well, yeah, Daddy danced one dance with me.
Monkey - Which dance? Was it the chicken dance?
Me and Daddy - Laughing uncontrollably while searching for paper and pen to right that one down!

Merry Christmas - The Ugly Cry

Last night my in-laws surprised me with the perfect gift. I cannot believe it! I have not received a gift this thoughtful in a long time. I also have not had one of these since I was around 6. I hate to show you this picture, but if you look really hard, you might see how excited I got.

I have been looking for a bike at thrift stores and garage sales for a while. I found a baby seat to attach to the future bike a couple months ago. Today my husband installed it. Tomorrow morning we are all due a nice bike ride.

My MIL is the hostess with the mostess! She is also a fine baker. Here are some shots of her beautiful cookies and her lovely display.

Extracurricular Activities

Mouse, Monkey and I are all in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever this year as part of our local community theater. We have learned so much about the production of a play. You would not believe how many people it takes to run a show. Props people, stage managers, directors, actors, lights, wardrobe. We are down to 2 more practices until we go LIVE! We will perfom seven shows altogether.

Mouse will be a little angel with the line: My daddy says there is no way I can be an angel!
Monkey will play the part of Hobie Clark. He gets to tell everyone that his dad doesn't have a bathrobe for him to play a shepard, and that his dad hangs out in his underwear. (Monkey thinks this is the best part of the play. LOL!)
I play the part of Irma Slocum a gossiping old bitty who second guesses every decision of the mom/director of the pageant. My favorite line? "You better nail down the church, and lock up the silver service, and hide the collection plates, before they clean them out!" Said about those disgusting Herdman children. Hysterical!!!!

One thing we learned is that acting is more than just knowing your lines. You have to believe that you are that person. You have to pretend you are really doing all those things and saying those things for real. Last night's practice was the first time I really "acted", all the other times, I was just trying to not forget my lines. It was a neat feeling. I may have to sign us up for another play soon. The kids seem to enjoy it. Mouse likes the singing, and Monkey likes the acting. We will see how we feel after 7 shows. Ha! Ha!

Thanksgiving

We had a lovely Thanksgiving filled with family and feasts. It was very relaxing and refreshing. Mouse had a great idea. She collected fallen leaves and other items to make a seasons wreath. We took cedar limbs and wire to make the wreath, then added leaves, berries and a deserted wasp nest. We enjoyed a long walk through the woods where we found deer rubbings and a rabbit.

We are so thankful for the beautiful world we have been provided by the Lord. We especially love the woods in Fall.

Yesterday Papaw shot an 8 point deer. We were invited to come see it, and ended up staying for a lesson in how to dress a dear. It was a little gruesome. Puppy was all good until they took the antlers off. Then he was sad they killed the deer. Mouse and Monkey enjoyed all of it. Wierdos!

It was a good lesson in providing for our family with wild game and a good anatomy lesson. Did you know that a deer does not have a ball and socket joint in their front legs? Only muscle joins the shoulder and leg. Pretty cool. We also saw what a bullet does to muscle. Pretty gross.

Annual FIAR Ornament Exchange

Here are the ornaments we made this year to exchange with other families from the Five in a Row Message Boards. The kids and I enjoyed our time together painting and visiting. We ran out of trains, and the local stores ran out of trains too, so we had to improvise with rectangles and make stamps. Our ornaments are from the book Mailing May. This was a book about how a little girl was mailed as freight on a mail train in Idaho that her uncle worked on. He delivered her to her grandmother's house in Lewiston Idaho. The cost was .53 cents. Very cute story.

These are the ornaments we received this year. These include the 2 we made and an extra from our friend Heather W's family. It was so fun to check our mail each day! Thanks FIAR friends!