Fall, This and That

Fall weather has arrived and it is so wonderful. I love when we can turn off the air conditioning and open our windows. The kids have been anxious to get outside after school and have had fun playing with their neighborhood friends. We have been encouraging as much outside time as possible, knowing that the end of daylight savings is rapidly approaching and it will be dark super early soon.

We have engaged in some Fall festivities. Luke had his first "field trip" to Forest Hall Farms. I use the term loosely, because parents had to attend. But, we had a good time. Luke was his normal chatterbox self and his teacher remarked that she's never heard him speak so much, apparently he is very "quiet and cuddly" at school. Give him time, ladies... Now, he refers to all farms as pumpkin farms, which I love (especially since he has stopped calling all spiders "spider-man" and anything with Mickey Mouse "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse").

One really fun activity we did was trick-or-treating on the Dove at St. Mary's City. We got there about 30 minutes after the event started and the line was loooonng. We waited close to an hour. The kids made good use of the time, going to the craft tables and having fortunes told. Thomas and I were getting a bit frustrated at the long wait (particularly with trying to keep Luke entertained), but it was totally worth it! The good thing about being in line so long was it was dark by the time it was our turn and it definitely added to the fun. The decorations on the Dove were awesome and everyone was so friendly. You can tell they are history people, because they all recognized that Jack was a Union soldier. He had his spiel ready for anyone who asked about his costume and would proudly recite his regiment and offer a salute. They also had some games on the dock and we had a great time. One of the people asked Luke what he should say and Luke looked at him blankly, so the man prompted, "say trick-or-treat, Lion" and Luke responded with (you guessed it, I'm sure): "trick-or-treat Lion." After the experience Luke is sold on trick-or-treating and loves Halloween!

On Sunday, we went to Fall fun days at Mount Vernon. It was really nice, they were demonstrating all kinds of stuff, from weaving to boat building. They also had an amazing living history interpreter at the slave cabin. She never broke character! Someone asked about what happened after George Washington died and she yelled at him, "what do you mean died? He's walking down there by the river, just came and bought some eggs from me." It was very interesting (and sad) to learn more about the day to day lives of the slaves. No one wanted to leave and we enjoyed several hours outside in the farm area.

NPS was out in honor of their 100th Anniversary. The girls completed an activity and received small trophies. They also added their thumbprints to the NPS board.

Luke ran through their maze dozens of time, he'd run through, come out, yell "do it again" and go back. Meanwhile, the girls explored a nearby tent where they heard all about cooking in the 1700s.

After Mount Vernon, we headed to Six Flags. It was a beautiful day and we were really enjoying being outside. They had some fun fall activities, including a small hay bail maze and a spooky trick-or-treat trail. They gave the kids tons of candy, about 5x what they were given when they did the trail at the Six Flags in New Jersey. Everyone had a good time, but we didn't stay too long. It was a busy day!

Bugs wandered over to be in their picture. I loved that the characters were in costume.

Today (Friday) the kids celebrated the last day of Red Ribbon Week with a book character parade. It is quite the charade. Even the teachers drop the pretense and come dressed as things like M&Ms. Of course, there are many who are actually book characters. Among the many princesses and Darth Vaders, we saw some Pete the Cats, Fancy Nancys, Diary of a Wimpy Kid (don't know his name), Alice in Wonderlands, etc. Anna and Jack dressed in their Halloween costumes, but their costumes are actually represented in their favorite books. Anna was a veterinarian, her favorite books are Puppy Place and feature a vet. Jack was a Union Civil War soldier and brought along his favorite book--A Savage Thunder, which is about the Civil War. Kara wore a legit book costume, Anna's book character from last year--Little Miss Chatterbox. Of course, we have lost the Little Miss Chatterbox book, so she brought in a copy of Little Miss Neat. Luke's preschool is doing their Halloween activities on Monday, so stay tuned!

In other news, Kara's cheernastics class ended and she has not signed up for anything else. It has made our schedule more relaxed and we are enjoying the reprieve. She liked doing floor gymnastics at our local dance studio, but they moved about 25 minutes away from our house and Kara did not want to be in the car that long. The gymnastics center just wasn't as fun for her. Anna is doing a children's chorus. They rehearse very close to our house, so it is easy to simply drop her off and pick her up once a week. She has indicated that she wants to try soccer again. I think she has forgotten how unhappy she was playing, but if she is still interested in the Spring, soccer may be in our future again. Jack is doing another round of machine pitch baseball and says he plans on playing baseball forever!