Play-Learn-Grow-Repeat

One of the things that constantly amazes me is how far in advance we have to plan things for our kids. We needed doctors and daycare reservations for our kids LONG before they were even born. You sign them up for sports two seasons before they’re scheduled to play them. (I’m still in shock that I had to sign Andrew up for spring t-ball the other day)

From Friday Mom – Jaime:
And I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that parents are already talking about getting their kids enrolled in kindergarten. Yes, I know my son is in pre-k so kindergarten is the next logical step.

In our district, kids have to be 5 by September 1 in order to enroll, and Andrew misses the cut off. I keep thinking how much time we have before he’s six and enrolling in “real” school. But I guess that’s not really too far off.

Scary!

I am NOT old enough to have a kid in kindergarten! But even if I wanted to remain in denial, it’s still right about time for thinking about this stuff. Do we put Andrew in kindergarten in our town? Do we keep him in kindergarten at daycare? It’d certainly cost more with daycare, but it’d still be open til 6:15… We have no real answers yet.

For the time being, I think we’ll enjoy a weekend without soccer. It sounds like a good weekend for apple picking and hay rides. I love fall!

Have a great weekend everyone.

Oh, and I would be terribly remiss if I didn’t say, GO YANKEES!

From Wednesday Mom – Janelle:
October is here, and finally we have a fall- like day in Mississippi.  The temps are in the mid 70’s, and the air is crisp.  My hair is less frizzy, and I am wearing jeans.  This means the hot and humid summer has come to an end.  Although, sometimes we get these fall teases only to have temps back in the 90’s a week later.

Tate and I took advantage of the nice weather by going for a walk in the woods.  The woods where we live is a simple nature trail with some trees.  We found all kinds of leaves, acorns, bugs and rocks.  We ran up hills and rolled down them.  We crossed over a bridge where we saw several fish.  We stopped at the playground and raced down the slides together.  It was so much fun.  Tate loved it, and so did I.  I hope to do this more often with him now that the weather is tolerable.

October also means annual trips to the county fair and pumpkin patch.  Our weekend schedules are busy, but hopefully we can find time to squeeze them in.  The boys love finding the right pumpkin, and I love the food.  Stay tuned to hear about our fall adventures to include Daddy’s birthday and Halloween.

From Friday Mom – Jaime:
I was never a real big fan of the fall season. I like the warm weather and longer sunny days of summer. But with the colder weather, we get post-season baseball (apparently they start playing some other sports – though I won’t devote any space to them here), hay rides, apple picking and, of course, Halloween.

For the past couple weekends, we have gotten to take Andrew to do cool fall fun activities. One weekend we went apple picking. Andrew and another little boy ran all over the orchard pulling apples off the trees and probably caused a great deal of confusion to a poor gopher who found his gopher hole suddenly filled to the brim with apples that had fallen off the trees.

We took him out to a local farm that had a massive corn maze. He loved running through the maze, checking out the animals and playing in a big sandbox full of corn kernels. And, of course, there was the obligatory hay ride, in addition to some rubber duckie racing.

Last weekend Andrew picked out his own pumpkin and went on a hay ride. They decided that a pumpkin patch was a good place for a large inflatable bounce house – so Andrew got to do that too.

Andrew is very excited to tell anyone who will listen that he’s going to be Captain America for Halloween. I think he’s going to look absolutely adorable, though I question whether he’ll actually keep his mask on. Two of his friends at daycare are also going to be super heroes.

On Monday afternoon, they’re going to have their annual Halloween parade. I’m so happy I get to see Andrew and all his friends in their costumes. (Yes, this really was up in the air. I was supposed to start a trial on Monday but the case settled this afternoon)

I guess despite the cold weather, fall can be pretty cool… Have a great weekend everyone.

Jack was invited to a birthday party that was held at a local Pumpkin Patch.  He was so excited for this party; for the fall fun and for the cupcakes.  I was excited for the party as well since I has been planning on making a visit to the pumpkin patch anyway.

We arrived at the party and the first thing Jack spotted was the large pumpkin bounce house.  I swear those things are a magnet to him.  It never fails that he will get a least two bruises when he is finally done bouncing.  That particular time he came out with six.  I know he loves them and his huge smile makes it so hard to cut his time short.  Luckily, there were many other activities for him to participate in.  There were sack races, (pretend) horse races, pony rides, a corn maze and our favorite was the hay ride.

Unfortunately, it’s nothing shy of 85 degrees here.  With the heat and the bright sun, it was hard to get into the fall mode.  We took a short hay ride and arrived at the “patch.”  This year the drought was so bad that all the pumpkins the farm grew died and withered away.  The farm had to buy store bought pumpkins and scatter them over their fields for the children to pick.  Pretty funny if you ask me, but what else do you do when you have several birthday parties to prepare for?  The kids had a blast and didn’t notice.

As we walked out to the patch, Jack stopped me and specifically told me, “Mommy, I need to find the perfect pumpkin.”  He quickly turned around and ran to find the most perfect pumpkin of them all.  He searched and searched and finally found the best one.  He was so excited to show his father and me that he ended up tripping in the field and landed yet another bruise.  Boys will be boys, right?

It melts my heart to see Jack so happy. He will forever be my “perfect pumpkin.”

Growing up, one of my favorite things about October was not Halloween. (I proudly wore my “this is my costume” t-shirt through most of my middle school and high school years.) Instead, every year, I would look forward to the Harvest Festival.

It had all the great (read: really bad for you) festival foods… the sausage and peppers, funnel cake, snow cones and caramel apples. It had awesome rides. My favorite was the huge slide that you would ride down on a potato sack so you would go extra fast. It had a petting zoo and hay rides.

Even though I haven’t been to a Harvest Festival in over 10 years, I still remember the last one. It poured rain – so badly that they closed down hours early. When I came home from college in October my freshman year, I was so disappointed to learn that they weren’t doing the festival anymore.

Until this year…

My mom emailed me a couple weeks ago telling me that they were bringing the festival back. Instead of being a weekend long event, it was only one day, but I didn’t care. I was so excited to be able to share one of my favorite memories with Andrew (and Hubby, who has heard me lament the shutting down on the festival on more than one occasion).

Andrew just thought that we were going up to see my parents, who just got back from a trip to Italy. We had to tear him away from his trains and bike races, but he had a great time. We played at the petting zoo, feeding sheep, rams and even a big cow. Andrew went through this fun house about 30 times – he raced through ball pits, up cargo nets, ran across a rickety bridge and slid down a massive slide.

Although he steadfastly refused to get his face painted, he begged for a pumpkin on his cheek after meeting a cute (older) girl who was sporting one on her right cheek. Luckily, he didn’t see the dessert tent and actually ate a hot dog, one bite at a time as a condition for getting back on line for the fun house.

The festival was a bit scaled down, but I am so glad they brought it back. Hopefully they continue the tradition next year so we can continue to share it with Andrew.

This past weekend my husband was out of town and I was home alone with my two boys (for the first time).  We were asked by some friends to join them at the county fair.  I thought to myself, “How am I going to handle an infant who is always hungry and a 3 year old that can’t hold still for more than 5 seconds”?   I decided to brave it by myself.  I knew I would have some help from the other daddies that were there.

We arrived at the fair and instantaneously Jack had a huge smile on his face.   He saw the giant Ferris wheel.  We had a bit of a walk to the entrance and I’m pretty sure he asked to ride the Ferris wheel at least 110 times.  We entered the gates and walked through a large arena that housed animals such as   cows, goats, rabbits, ducks, chickens, pigs, etc.  Jack’s goal was to pet them all, but I was a little apprehensive.  He touched all he could and thought it was so cool.

Once we made our way through the arena we entered the “fair.”  We found our friends right away and the rest is history.  I bought Jack 10 tickets and explained to him that each ride costs 1 ticket and that he would have to choose his most favorite rides.  He managed to ride on a mini roller coaster, motorcycles, giant slide (with me), hot air balloons, helicopters and of course, the Ferris wheel.  I was fortunate enough to have awesome friends who helped Jack on and off the rides while I tended to Tate.

We ate dinner which consisted of corn dogs, a drink and a deep fried Oreo for dessert.  Wow… that was quite the gut buster, but we enjoyed every single bite!  As we left the fair I asked Jack if he had fun and he told me, “mommy, everyday should be a fair day where we eat Oreos”.  I laughed and was happy we went and Jack could experience his first county fair!

Many people love the heat of the summer. And while I must admit that I love being able to wake up and go jump in our pool, there is something special about Fall. I love the sound of the crisp autumn leaves crunching under my feet. I love taking hikes with Brady in the woods behind our home. I love the cool chill in the air. And as a teacher, Fall also has a sense of newness about it: new school year, new goals, new initiatives, new clothes (sad, I know). I even love the excitement of football.

Fall is especially fun as a mom. I am not sure what kind of activities there are for kids in other parts of the United States (and world). But here in the northeast, we have pumpkin patches, apple orchards, hayrides galore, county fairs, “Farmer’s Fair,” many “haunted” places (for the teenage years, not now), and much more. Brady’s personal favorite is what he calls the “Corn Park.” They have small corn mazes for kids, large areas for kids to dig in soy beans and corn, a petting zoo, slides, and much more. I can’t wait for our first trip (which is only 2 days away). It is one of the highlights of Fall in Pennsylvania.

Fall has special meaning this year, since it is Brady’s first year of school (well, preschool). So it has also given me some “new” mommy time. Of course it is spent working, but it is great. I get ten hours per week to work while Brady is in school and can focus more on him when he is home. So all in all the “newness” of this season has been a welcome change in the season of our lives as well.

The calendar says it’s fall. But today it was 90 degrees and more humid than a lot of days this summer. So I’m not entirely convinced that we’ve somehow progressed to fall. But the kids are out at the bus stop and the stores are full of Halloween candy, so whether I’m ready for the seasons to change, I guess it’s going to happen anyway.

I talked one of the young lawyers groups I’m involved with into doing some family-friendly events. Most (if not all) of our events typically involve bars and lots of alcohol. There’s nothing wrong with that and I enjoyed those events immensely pre-Andrew.

But those gatherings are always on a Tuesday or Thursday night. So there has to be something REALLY worthwhile going on for me to take time away from my family and ask Hubby to leave work at 4:30 in order to pick Andrew up.

I considered it a major success that I talked us into some events that we could do on a weekend with our families. The first such event was last weekend. We went apple picking. And it was SO much fun.

It was the first weekend that the orchard had fresh, hot donuts. The really good kind topped with cinnamon sugar. And they served the kids apple cider in sippy cups shaped like apples.

After donuts and cider, we went out to the orchard to pick. They had at least eight different kinds of apples and Andrew raced up and down the rows of trees, finding all the ones which were on branches he could reach. He delighted in twisting the apples off the tree, swinging from branches like a monkey when he couldn’t reach any fruit.

We followed up the apple picking with a hay ride. And apple pie made with the apples we had picked. (I actually baked! How impressed are you? This is actually a monumental thing…)

Andrew keeps asking when we’re going to go again. He also keeps asking about “pink girl” – who is his new love interested. Her name is actually Bella (who was wearing a pink fleece). She’s blond. Older. A real cutie.

Apple picking was a huge success. Hubby and I had fun. Andrew had a great time. And really, what more can you ask for from the first fall weekend?

Now get out there and enjoy the fall. Have a great weekend everyone!

Fall arrives tomorrow, and we are ready for it.  Unfortunately, the temps are still in the 90’s here in Mississippi, but hopefully soon we’ll feel the cooler weather and breezes blowing by.  It can’t come soon enough.

Fall is probably my favorite season.  I can remember when I was in school I looked forward to the changes of fall. I loved new sports, school clothes and supplies, especially a really cool new planner (which I still do to this day).  I loved smelling the crisp air and attending fall festivals.  When I think of fall I think of jumping in a pile of leaves, caramel apples, football games, and most of all Halloween!

I asked Jack what his favorite season was the other day.  He replied with “Um.. me like Fall, mommy.”  I asked him why and he said because that is when “Cat in the Hat” comes on.  I laughed and thought to myself wow, what a rough life a 3 year-old lives.  PBS is airing a new show, The Cat in the Hat.  He has been seeing the previews and they mention the show will premiere this fall.  Every day since the first time he saw this he asks if it’s fall yet.  Well, finally I can tell him that fall has arrived and his new show has started.  He squeals with excitement when it comes on and points out every character on the show that are in his books.

I hope you and your family enjoy the upcoming season.  I know we will look forward to spending time outside and enjoying the beautiful weather after a terribly hot summer.  So, as my neighbor’s yard flag states… “Happy Fall, Y’all!

Last week my family and I decided to take a last minute trip to Lake Tahoe.  My husband had been there before, but I never had.  I thought it would be a fun adventure for all of us since we are moving soon and it may have been our last opportunity to do so.  Living in the central valley of CA doesn’t make for great scenery, so seeing tall mountains, crystal blue water, and breathing fresh air was very exhilarating.

The trip was also a test to see how Jack would do on a long car ride.  The drive was a little over five hours.  Next week we’ll be driving cross country, so I wanted to see what we were in for.  Surprisingly, Jack did very well.  Aside from the expected tantrums, he was quite a trooper.  We tried to keep his attention on what was outside of our windows.  Whether it was pointing at the cows or passing by several trains (which to him was the best part).  We did eventually have to break out the DVD player.  It’s amazing how that little piece of technology can keep a child so still and so quiet.

On our trip we decided to go on a hike and show Jack the woods.  He had been on several hikes in the past, but each one gets more and more exciting.  He recognizes new and old things, and he is fascinated with the most basic discoveries. For example, he stopped and looked at every stone he could lay his eyes on.  This two-mile hike ended up taking a VERY long time, but knowing he was having a blast we would’ve stayed there all day.  He also loved to watch the little critters roam all around.  He encountered many birds, bugs, and his most favorite was a chipmunk.  I never heard him laugh so hard or see his eyes get so big as when he spotted the little critter.  I had to laugh out loud as I watched him wave and say goodbye to the chipmunk.  The little things kids say and do are priceless.