Fall in Review

Before I post about Christmas, I better blog about our busy fall. First let's start with school. My baby started Kindergarten in August. Unlike preschool, she was very enthusiastic about the prospect. I, on the other hand, spent half the summer dreading the start of the school year. She made the transition very well and four months later, she is still having fun. There have been a few minor bumps in the road. It's always a little rough learning to navigate the ins and outs of the 5-year-old social scene, but I think she's doing pretty well. She still prefers to hang out with the guys being more of a horse girl than a Barbie girl. It always cracks me up when we're out around town and I see a little boy tugging on his mom's arm saying, "There's Riley! That's the girl I told you about." We might have to send her to a convent when she's a teenager for her own protection. :-)

Colin started his first full year of preschool. He has the same teachers and many of the same children as last year. He loves school and has been very excited the few nights he's had "homework." It makes him feel so grown up to have such a responsibility. He picks up on concepts pretty quickly. The minute I pick him up from school, he begins a detailed description of the past 2 1/2 hours that usually lasts until after lunch. Of course, he always leaves out the part where he gets in trouble for talking or showing off, but we're working on that.

Nothing marks the start of the school year like the Wayne County Fair. Jeff entered some photographs and won second place for individual portrait! If you look to the right of Colin, you'll see his photo. You might also notice the band-aid on Colin's chin. We took a little detour to the emergency room on the way to the fair. I didn't see the incident but Jeff said Colin, "rode the chair all the way down." We're not sure if his chin hit the table or the edge of the chair. A little glue on the cut and we were good to go.

In September, we made our yearly trek to Bauman Orchards for some apple picking. Yes, I made applesauce again, but we picked fewer apples. I ONLY spent two days in the kitchen making applesauce. The kids and I picked and froze a lot of strawberries back in June. Those were added to the applesauce. We should have enough strawberry applesauce to last most of the winter.

In October, the kids and I went to a festival at Hale Farm with my parents and brother's family. Beside the buildings to tour, they also had some additional activities for children. The first thing the kids wanted to do was play in the straw pit. There was a circular area lined with bales of straw with a bunch of loose straw in the middle. So simple, but the kids thought it was awesome. They were picking straw out of their underwear the rest of the day.

I don't know that I've ever taken a bad picture of my niece Maya. This kid just melts my heart. It doesn't hurt that she really likes her , "An Key-ee." (Aunt Kelly)There were several hands-on demonstrations for the kids to try. Here the kids are grinding corn. Colin found this completely fascinating. Even though he was a little too small to turn the wheel, he gave it all he had. I need to get one of these at home and send him to grind some corn when he needs to burn some excess energy.

The kids also got to stir some apple butter. While this was considered a tedious chore back in the day, I probably could have left Colin there for several hours. Can you tell I have a kinesthetic learner?

Here's my spunky niece, Maria. I can't remember if she was reciting scripture or preaching a sermon, but she was doing it rather passionately.

Colin had a field trip with his preschool to Ramseyer Farm. I was lucky enough to get to go along. Watching a group of three and four-year-olds trying to sit still and listen to educational explanations when there are so many fun things to do is always a trip. I was really surprised by the amount of information Colin picked up. When we got home, he explained to me what causes popcorn to pop.

We took a hayride out to the fields where each child got to pick a pumpkin and a potato. Then they divided into groups and worked through some activities. Colin's favorites were the hand pump duck race, the potato box maze and cow milking where you could see what it's like to milk a plywood cow with rubber glove udders.
Now on to Halloween. This year's costumes were all about thriftiness. While hitting the Smithville garage sales this spring, I found the Children's Place dinosaur/dragon costume (there was some debate as to which one it was) with the tags still on it. Score! I bought it with the thought that Colin could wear it in a couple years, but Riley jumped right on it and wanted to wear it this year. The best part of the costume was the way the tail swayed from side to side as she walked. Colin found his own costume while being subjected to a morning of thrift shopping. He spotted this raincoat on a rack and promptly declared that he wanted to be a fireman for Halloween. He already had the hat from a dress up set. Besides trick-or-treating, the costumes came in handy when they needed a fireman to put out the damage done by a fire-breathing-dragon.

Finally, there was spirit week at school to mark the big Orrville vs. Wooster football game. Growing up a Wooster General, it was a little hard to swallow when my daughter came home chanting Orrville's praises. I put on a brave face and carried on. Riley went with one of her friends to the big bonfire the night before the game. She came home wide-eyed recounting

her many exciting adventures. It was really hard to look serious when she told me, "There was this guys, I think he was a bad guy because everyone said 'Booooo!' and they made him on fire, but don't worry because he wasn't a real guy." That's her description of the burning of the Wooster General effigy. There was a theme for each day of spirit week. In this picture, Riley is all decked out for "crazy hair day."

Now it's time to put up the Christmas tree and break out the hot chocolate.