Halloween

Sunday was a very cold, windy, and rainy afternoon, but this dinosaur and butterfly went trick-or-treating anyway!  Gramme and Poppa were here for a visit.  They helped keep the dinosaur in line and put the butterfly to bed when she got tired.

Apples and Applesauce

On Tuesday, the kids and I went apple-picking.  There weren't a ton of apples low enough for them to pick, but that did not hamper the outing.  The kids were content to explore the trees and help me taste-test which ones to pick.

Yeah, he's wearing a crown.  They learned about King David on Sunday, and he's been wearing it everywhere.

Today we set up a little assembly line to turn some of our apples into applesauce.  As we were working, Micah kept saying, "It's like an orchard in here!"  Then as he was telling Scott about it tonight, he said, "There were lots of at-tivities we could do!"  All the kids took turns using the peeler.  Hannah's favorite was washing the apples.  And Jackson was pretty passionate about cutting the apple slices into chunks.

Her clothes got wet washing apples, so she stripped, of course.

Should I not have given a two-year-old a knife?

And for a bonus, here are some pictures of playing in the leaves.

Micah almost always neglects to take his helmet off after riding his bike.  It drives Scott crazy.

Oh, yeah, funny story about the band-aid on her chin.  A week and a half ago Hannah fell down the stairs and got a big gash on her chin.  It was borderline for needing stitches, and we decided she would be okay without them.  Then Tuesday night, she slipped while climbing into her highchair and caught her chin on the edge of the table, opening it back up again.  It was pretty wide, so I called the nurse's hotline and explained the situation.  She asked me a bunch of questions and strongly recommended we take her to the doctor that night.  Scott took her to the ER at Akron Children's Hospital.  They couldn't put stitches in because it had already started to heal from the original injury, but they cleaned it out and gave us some medicine to put on it.  So...our first trip taking a kid to the ER was for a scrape and a band-aid.  Nice.  :)

[Seriously, though, I'm really glad we took her to have the opinion of a suture specialist and to have professionals hold her down to clean it so we don't have to worry about infection.]

Nature Walk

Nap time for Hannah has been a bit troublesome lately.  We decided to try making it earlier, which seems to be working.  However, it also means that the post-nap pre-daddy chunk of time is much longer now.  To fill what can sometimes be a trying stretch of the day, I took the kids on a nature walk today.  It was a little cool and drizzly, but not too terrible.  We went to a nearby nature preserve that has a boardwalk path.  Micah brought a bag to collect treasures along the way, and Hannah happily contributed to it.  We all enjoyed ourselves;  I'm sure we'll go back again.

Pumpkin Farm

Micah's class will be going to a pumpkin farm later this month, but I decided to take the kids to one here in Brimfield this afternoon.  I didn't think I'd be able to convince Hannah to wear her adorable pumpkin coat (she usually will only wear the coat Aunt Laurie got her), but she let me put it on her without a word!  And then she retaliated by refusing to look at the camera for any pictures.  Oh well.  Hannah and Micah enjoyed the kids' maze, pulling the wagon, and playing in the hay.

Suite Retreat 2012

 I am so blessed to have had the opportunity yet again to spend the weekend with these wonderful girls - talking, eating, laughing, and crying.  I am even more blessed to have a husband that stayed home with the kids (including Jackson on Monday).  And even though he wasn't feeling well, he still cleaned the whole house!

Timmy!

Fall Day

Today is perfect fall weather!  The sun is shining.  There's a small breeze.  And it's warm enough to be comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt.  After a busy few days, it felt great to have a slow-paced morning at home, then spend a lot of time outside.

Here..

..he...

...comes!!

Micah has really improved on his bike.  The first time he rode a long stretch without falling, he shouted to me: "I'm riding like a normal person!!!"  He can get himself started now, and can usually stop without crashing.  He now has his first set of "bike limits": he's allowed to go as far as the stop sign on one side and Miss Lynn's driveway on the other side.  :)