Apple Day! And ducks!

 It has been a glorious fall weekend-- and it's only Saturday!

Last night we celebrated NEOEA day ( a short day for me and a day off for Melinda and Will ) with an evening at Shaker Lakes.

It was a crisp 45 degrees, brilliantly sunny and perfectly fall- a great time to avail ourselves of the lovely fire pit...

 The children ran and climbed and had a dance party out in the field...

 
We wandered through the woods and threw leaves in the air...

 ... and of course, we fed the ducks...

Pretty hard to top that, eh?  

Try Apple Day.

It was a cold morning, and there were fewer apples on the trees than in ears past... but we weren't about to let little things like that  interfere with a perfect fall day..  We wandered among the trees, picking apples, munching on them, taking copious amounts of pictures of our little ones.  They are all such children now; these trees have watched them grow, one apple day at a time.  It seems like it can't have been a whole year since a little, just-walking Ivy munched on apples in a short sleeved shirt, two years since I walked the lines of trees with a baby in an Ergo on my chest; four years since Jack ate his first apple and held our fingers to walk among the trees.

And now here they are.

The sun came out at lunchtime. We bought pumpkins, ate hot dogs and kettle corn, and enjoyed the deliciousness of the fall air.

Today was a good day.

Warmth

No excuses whatsoever for the quiet blog as of late.  My apologies.

Life has been pretty quiet itself, overall.  Fall has arrived and the days are shorter and closer to home.  There is a slight acceleration to life, that feeling that we've got to fit more in to less time, that light and color and moments all are fleeting-- and as always I am caught between the exhilaration to trying to drink it all up and keep up with the race, and a melancholic longing for the stretched days of summer...

School has been keeping me busy this month.  It turns out that a new job is a new job, even if you know a lot about it already. Two new grade levels of curriculum to learn and adapt, a new routine and schedule and the nuances of a new building and staff... all is going well, but the days are full, starting early, rushing by, work coming home and not getting done until late. Meanwhile the trees are singing the praises of the season and the colors are blazing and two little children keep growing and changing and filling every moment in between.

Here's what we've been up to as of late:

A lovely day of resales (on my own!) and then playing with Gram at Madison Park...

A new pastime-- gravestone rubbings at Lakeview...

 

On our trip there last weekend the sun broke through warm and clear and we spent our time lingering, out of all of the places, at the base of the dam.  Who needs toys, or playgrounds, when there is a slanting stone wall, gravel, leaves, sunlight...

My children, in case you haven't noticed, are exceedingly strange.  Note Ivy's fairy dress.  No need to wait for Halloween, for her.  

Ivy's days with Daddy...  The two of them visit the art museum, the mall, build window seats, and walk Jack to and from school...

The boy, and school.  He is loving it, and I am so happy for that.  He looks forward to school on Mondays, and looks forward to coming home to the daily tradition of treasure hunts. This morning he even asked to do homework, before breakfast.   Picture day was Friday, and we're selling cookie dough for his first fundraiser.  Today we volunteered at Boulevard Clean-up day and Jack was thrilled to receive his first ever piece of spirit wear.  He's all grown up...

All 5-year-old, this one. 

Evenings with mom. The afternoons go fast in the fall but we work hard to make Monday's and Wednesdays special.  We're going to a weekly play-and-read program at Boulevard, and working on setting up our weekly library night.  We are easing ourselves into our routines, setting them up like blankets around us, getting ready for the winter...

Pizza nights with friends.  Thinking of the blankets around us... a cozy evening in our home, heater chugging away, children playing and dancing, conversations about books and really, surprisingly good homemade pizza.  Fall-- bringing out the warmth that is in our lives.