A Day At The Orchard

It was a glorious autumn day.  The perfect kind to spend at our favorite orchard with some friends.  Animals were visited, tunnel and hedge mazes explored, cider donuts eaten and a hay ride taken.  It doesn't get more fabulously autumnal than that! 

Gathering

We are gathering this afternoon to celebrate my parent's 40th wedding anniversary.  A little belated but on a glorious day such as this totally worth the wait!  I'll blog more about how we celebrated later this week.  I'm off to meet up with my sister to put the finishing touches on their fabulous anniversary gift and spend the rest of this day basking in the glory of family.  Enjoy the rest of your Sunday, dear ones!

In Search Of Acorns

A few days ago we went out in search of acorns.  We have been wanting to collect an entire bucket or two full since last autumn and we have had absolutely no luck finding any.  We thought we'd head out again this year in hopes that we'd be more successful. Our first stop was to this wonderful tree that is usually surrounded by thousands upon thousands of acorns....

Sadly, there was a total of one acorn at its base. We decided we'd visit one more spot.  

Here's a little bit of trivia for you:  This is the mill that the Pepperidge Farm mill is modeled after. 

And while we may have only found one acorn between the two places we visited we had a lovely day regardless.  One of these years we'll find all the acorns we're looking for. Until then we'll keep adventuring and seeing what beauty we discover along the way.  

{This Moment}

{This Moment} - A SouleMama Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see. We wish you a wonderful weekend!

Finally! A Moon!

I had been pondering for awhile the best way for the girls to learn about the months of the year and the days of the week.  I knew that I wanted it to be something that was learned more organically than not.  Something that was more natural than me sitting there and saying "today is_____, yesterday was_____ and tomorrow will be____" (which harkened me back to my classroom teaching days).  And finally it occured to me:  how about if we create a calendar each month and track the moon phases as well as holidays and other special occasions?!  Just brilliant (if I do say so myself)!  I printed out some blank calendars and, on October 8th, we started tracking the moon.  It just so happens that the day we began this project was the only day (until tonight) that the moon was visible. Most nights it was simply too cloudy to see it.  Tonight, while I was taking the garbage and recycling bins out to the curb I noticed that there was a beautiful, bright crescent moon in the sky.  "Girls, come see!  Come see!"  We headed outside to the driveway, looked up and their eyes grew wide: "Mommy!  Look it's the moon!  Finally!"  Quickly they headed back in and up to their room where they have hung their calendars to record the moon sighting.  This calendar sure has come in handy.  It has become a great way for them to see how much longer it is 'till Halloween, as well as record things they notice (like the lack of a moon or the first time that birds arrived at our feeder this season).  



Wordless Wednesday::Guinea Pig Tea Party



A Costume Party

This past Saturday the girls were invited to their friend Sarah's 7th birthday party.  While it was a pirate themed birthday party costumes of all kinds were welcome.  The girls dug through the dress up bin (note to self: add pirate items into bin) and put together what you see above.  "Pirates need butterfly fairies and wedding girls, mama".  "Sounds good to me, sweet girls!"  And off we went to spend an afternoon celebrating one of the girls best friends.  It was a glorious October afternoon full of playing, laughing, eating, boucing, pinata hitting and treasure hunting!  Thanks for including us in the festivities dear friends and happy birthday to Miss Sarah! May this be your best trip around the sun yet!