Today we took great advantage of our fall weather by dragging out the 3 pumpkins Ken bought, a blanket, and the leaves I bought last year on super discount from Michaels. Ken raked up as many leaves as he could to pile on the blanket and we took pictures. (I really need to get Ken to use the zoom button!) Trinity was rather leery of both the pumpkins AND the leaves but we won her over.

The boys took turns working on raking up leaves… next year I need to keep an eye out for little guy rakes I think!

And of course there was some leaf jumping!

Our other big excitement – Ken brought the little Step 2 slide back inside, cleaned it and put it back together for the little guys. I doubt it will stay in the livingroom – most likely it will be moved into the basement for the winter, but for now (until Trinity gets used to playing on it) it will be up where we can closely monitor… this also means moving some toys to the basement… goodness I don’t even want to THINK about where we will put the Christmas tree (it also requires the play yard around it to keep some semblance of order).

It has NOT been a crafty day for me – I finished my cross stitch last night and then spent much of today chasing kids and sorting school stuff. Trinity passed out in the livingroom with Ken before I got up so he let me sleep in a bit which meant when I got up it was already later than I figured. So I figure TOMORROW I will take a couple hours of Me time and stitch stitch stitch. Though I AM looking forward to posting the free pattern version of the stitch I just finished. I figure I WILL put that up sometime this week along with the other freebies I have waiting for Ken to set up.

Sleepy Baby

The boys on the other hand, have immersed themselves in bugs bugs bugs. Lots of colouring and chattering about all sorts of bugs… everything from ladybugs to spiders and of course Emanuel’s favourite – bees. I am hoping to be done our bug unit tomorrow and move onto pumpkins. After all we only have the pumpkins in the house in one piece until Saturday!

Something I have not mentioned  – but I should have – on weeknights – that is MOST weeknights, my sister in law who illustrates the webcomic my brother writes draws on ustream. She does that comic and her own as well as random drawings. I will warn you, some of the drawings ARE a bit more mature (re boobies) and the conversation in the chat can get a tiny bit racy but it is fun. Check out her blog site, everything else is linked from there! Today she posted a recipe for home made hot pockets that I want to try out… though I think for us  tomorrow we will try out making and freezing our very own french fries!

So Ken is still fighting with Public Health to get the boys (all 3) their dental appointments. For some reason they keep telling us  they will call with an appointment time and then nothing happens. Ken has been on them for MONTHS! We do not have dental coverage or the money to go to a regular dentist so our only option is the Public Health dentist – 10.00 per kid. This would be Emanuel’s first official appointment so I really want to get them in BEFORE their yrly appointments with the doctors.

On the topic of health – I am happy to report Ken’s is excellent and he is down to no longer taking multiple naps a day! It is refreshing to be around him with this new, more positive outlook. He is starting to care more now about things like the house being clean and less cluttered (something that has always been an issue for me), as well as WANTING to be around his family more. In fact, he is much more tolerant and patient with the boys even at their worst. I am so glad!

The new crafty ladies group has already been an absolute godsend – not only am I getting to know some lovely, witty ladies but they are passing along hints and ideas and RECIPES!!! I am now going to improve my hot cocoa even further with the addition of ground up candycanes – I cannot wait  to try that one! And then there is an addition to my apple recipes – apple butter – I am going to try that one with the next batch of applesauce. Not only that but there are crochet and knitting pros! So I may just make my goal of learning to knit in the new year – AND one of my sewing groups (a lovely small one) has a couple of ladies who are willing to mentor a beginner knitter. Talk about wonderful! I am determined to find a new recipe a week…

So our Halloween decorations are up… the costumes are ready… it really feels like fall is here.

Now all we need to do is throw ourselves into our fall, pumpkin and Halloween lapbooks! Oh and go out for some lovely walks – if the weather holds we are heading back to the nature centre on Thursday to check out the paths – think my jogging stroller will do the job over the bumps? It worked at the corn maze!

Smile and Let the World Smile With You