Trick or Treat!

What a nice night.. the weather was great..just chilly enough & loads of sugar!!! Check out my little detective & dorothy:0

Jack's poetry

Jack's homework Tues. night was to write fall poetry. This one was my favorite.

orange and round
touching ground
sparkling in the sun
rolling downhill
until done

Ben

Tonight was my long awaited concert night to see Ben Folds play with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra. I loved every second of it !!! He even stayed after the CSO left the stage & played "army," "annie waits," "hiro's song" (with bongos) & "rockin the suburbs." i felt 20 again....thanks ben :) sham on!!

Pumpkins..

We finally got around to carving our jack-o-lanterns tonight. loving pumpkins & the mess of it all:)

Reading..

"Stormy Night" by Michele Lemieux
I picked up this little book at a bookstore this weekend..lured in by the simple illustrations. Loved it. It's long for a picture book & full of questions most ask ourselves throughout life. Pretty heavy, yet surprisingly uplifting at the same time.

Farm Chores

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Today was our "family farm chore morning" at Stratford's Eco. Ctr. I signed us up back in sunny June. I remember being so excited about it. But as the early fall came roaring in wagging it's windy cold tail..I have to admit, the thought of being out in a field of goats on a windy cold morning didnt sound that appealing. I came really close to cancelling. But something told me not to..not sure what voice was leading me to follow through with our commitment..maybe it's the many times I have to push my "not so eager kids" into the pool or out of bed in the morning. But I managed to stay positive & roll myself out of bed today. It really wasnt that early. We didnt have to arrive till 9:30..my kind of farm:), but it's a 20-25 minute drive. John was up & riding his bike at 7:30a, so instead of my usual alarm clock..Jackie woke me & was actually dressed!! We crept downstairs for breakfast without waking up Ms.Mad-Maddie. She's not one for alarm clocks either, but usually the natural downstairs noise seems less frantic than me saying "it's time to get up!"

We made it out to Delaware & what a fun morning we all had. This place is serenity..farmer jeff explained it best by saying.."it's like the outside world just melts away out here." Totally true & a great reminder of quiet simplicity. I've written about this place before, and this is only our third time visiting, but each time we leave it feels like a place we want to go back to..often!

We picked swiss chard for the chickens & hand fed them. We gathered only one egg from the coop..an intern had taken in all the eggs:( Filled up feed bins, watched the hog family eat & even climbed up on the hay loft & dropped over hay leaves. We took a walk out to the fields & fed the goats & even brought Liberty..one of the friendly girls in to be milked. I couldnt talk J&M into milking her, but John & I were able to. That was a first for both of us.

I'm not sure why I get so excited about farm outtings..maybe it's the country girl in me. Maybe it's partly that I like seeing how excited the kids get when they experience things they never usually have an opportunity to do. It was a fun morning on the farm:)

listening to..

October

Looking back at our old octobers. remembering it was october that we moved to ohio 4years ago. Wow..time flies.

Fall

fall blows kisses of bright colored breezes,
all fluttering among the sweet smells of fallen leaves.
orange, brown, green, red all float above my head
& crunch under my feet.

Friday's are fun..

Especially when there's no school & you can stay in your pajama's all day....we'll almost all day. Yaya came over & finished "dorothy" for maddie. She didnt like the hemmed version of the dress for some reason..still cant figure out why she wants it so long. Maybe it just feels fancier;)
Remember the long lost beanie babies..the webkins of the 90s.. Yaya has a bunch & brought over some for the kids. Jack decided to organize them in his own way:)

Imagining Pajama Parties..

I'm signed up for a pajama bottom sewing class in Nov. Yesterday..I bought my flannel. I couldnt resist the castle flannel that I saw in the remits bin. I think Maddie will like those :)

It's been rainy & cold for last few days here, so pajama bottoms are sounding really nice right now. Unfortnately, I'm off to Maddie's preschool field trip to a pumpkin farm..rain or shine they go. She's so excited!! Pumpkin pix later.

Let the tapes spin.

This morning I heard Jack asking Maddie if she wanted to listen to music in his room & of course she liked this idea. They have my old collection of classroom tapes with books & children songs, but Jack couldn't find that box of tapes..instead we found an old box of John's tapes in the closet..probably from high school. Jack was excited. He thinks cassette tapes are pretty cool..probably in the same way I think vinyl albums are awesome. This old box of tapes brought back lots of music memories. As Jack played Steve Miller Band's "Book of Dreams" I found myself singing along & Jack watching in wonder.. He loved it!! Remember discovering your parents music collection & spending hours looking through album covers when they were like a storybook. I brought out my old tape box that I use to lug around in a shoebox & cant wait to share it with Jack & Maddie.

Anything funny happen today?

After school I'm always trying to get the scoop of the day from Jack. One question that usually gets him talking is "did anything make u laugh at school today?" I get all kinds of silly stuff & hear about how he gets the giggles with his friends.
So today..I ask myself the same question... My answer would have to be, walking in the bathroom tonight with Maddie in the tub telling me to listen as she sang the wizard of oz song. Then she changed it to 'twinkle, twinkle, little star" & proceeded to blow bubbles in the water to the that tune..laughing in between bubbles. Jack & I cracked up!!

Soccer

Today Jack's fall soccer season with Pegasus ended at the "dublin champions league." They played so hard yesterday & today, winning their first 3 games sending them in the championship game against the "thunderbolts"...Pegasus vs. Thunderbolts..sounds like something out of a greek myth. Unfortunately, Pegasus didnt end up carrying the thunderbolts away. They came up short 4-2. Lots of fun to watch & Jack had a blast.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Listening & Dancing to..

Fall Favorites

This time of the year I always get the itch to pull out the yarn & needles. Knitting...one of my favorite things to do as the weather turns cooler. So far I'm just working on some quick scarves for an upcoming craft show. This definitely got me motivated to use up some of the yarns I've had for awhile.
Also over the weekend we made a trip to Stratford Ecological Ctr for their "Farm Festival." While we were there we saw a lady spinning wool & got to feel the changes of the texture of the wool from when the sheep are sheared to when it is ready for spinning. The kids also got to run around & enjoy themselves. Some of their favs were the horse drawn wagon rides & candle dipping. Maddie was soo disappointed we didn't have time to ride the horses. Maybe next time.

Rainy, Wet & Cold

The last of our vegetables from the little garden we planted...a reminder of summer. The weather has turned cold fast & it seems like it wont stop raining. Missing NC today.

Seeing Pink..

Quoting from Wikipedia..."Conjunctivitis (commonly called "pink eye" or "Madras eye"[1]) is an inflammation of the conjunctiva (the outermost layer of the eye and the inner surface of the eyelids), most commonly due to an allergic reaction or an infection (usually viral, but sometimes bacterial[2])." Last week it was Jack...this week me. Another reason not to share pillows:)