Early fall fun

Well, we finally got a few drops of rain yesterday after over a month with nothing, and still our hearty church group met up in the forest for our semi-annual cook-out/campout. We decided to skip on the camping last night but had a blast (once the rain cleared) hanging out with friends around the campfire. We needed it, as life lately has been pretty stressful with Mark's wacked schedule, me having a touch of emotional burnout at work, and Evan having a three-day fever bug. We spent much of today trying to deal with our downed pear tree, complete with hundreds of rotting pears all over our yard. We've had a bonfire going all day trying to eliminate some of our piled-up yard waste. Now that that's done, we get to look forward to cleaning up the hundreds of rotting apples from our dear apple tree... ah, the things we learn when we hastily buy a house with a "nice, big yard," - we thought we had learned our lesson with the house we had in Hickory Corners, MI! Speaking of MI, we are looking forward to a trip to Michigan later this week, where Mark will be going to a conference with his brother Joe and the kids and I will be hanging out in the Detroit area with mom, friends, aunts, uncles, and cousins, and hopefully Grandma Linda too! Love to all!

We're not doing many baths together anymore cause the kids get too hyper in the tub together (and they're getting too big!) but can still do cute things, such as cover their faces in suds!
A couple weeks ago Evan woke up with this project idea in his head: to make earrings, necklace, bracelet, and crown out of paper. The kids worked together in the kitchen while Mark and I dozed (ahh, heaven!) and I came out to help with a few finishing touches, but they had done almost everything themselves, including cutting out the necklace and bracelet! Even funnier, I went to pick them up from school at the end of the day, and Evan was still in full attire!

Butterfly Kisses and Bee Beards

We've been having a buggy time lately, with the kids entertained by moth-and-butterfly hunting in our yard and even finding a winged-critter hotspot across the street. Our neighbors don't seem to mind the hunting occuring in their yard. Here are some of our recent catches!

Yesterday we hit the Honey Festival at the farmer's market downtown, where we got to see this awesome bee beard demonstration. We were all amazed to see this feat up close and personal. Hope you all have a wonderful week!

First Day of Preschool!

Although Autumn and Evan have been at the YMCA Preschool/Daycare for over a year, today was a big day because they've officially moved into a beautiful, renovated new building about three times the size of the old building, and they're in the new county-wide pre-k program. The new building has a beautifully designed playroom and then a huge school room, so the kids spend the morning playing and the afternoon in "class." Everyone is very excited about it! We feel so blessed to have wonderful caring teachers that worked so hard to make this happen (the Y bought the building, a huge white colonial-style home that served as a restaraunt the past 7 years, earlier this year and completely remodeled it to make the preschool so spacious, open, and awesome). The other big change we are adjusting to is no naps! This means they are extremely crabby around dinner (bad) but asleep by 8 or 8:30 (good).

I've got a quick cute story to tell: on Saturday, Mark was working and the kids and I had just gotten home from a morning of yard-saling and park-frolicking. While I was making lunch and on the phone with my brother, the kids came up with last year's Halloween costumes from the costume box, and asked for my help in zipping them on. I distractedly did so with a knife of peanut butter in one hand and the phone in the other. Next thing I know, it's really quiet, and I go outside to find the kids halfway down the street, in full get-up - bags and all- trick or treating! My neighbor ran out laughing, saying, "Good thing I had some jolly ranchers on me!" The kids came home when I called them, looking sheepish, and I couldn't help laughing because they were just so darn cute and mischevious!