Barnyard

Its football season in AL and Adam offered to take the whole family to the game, but the kids were not interested. So, we decided to go to the barnyard. Baby bunnies and hayrides trump football for us!  We started out with pony rides on our buddy Trigger :-)

We moved onto baby animals!! Look at these sweet chicks.

And ducks..Gage's was "quackers" - he was quite a quacker!!

Quackers was making such a quack ruckus that gage didn't want to hold him anymore. But - savannah did!

Next up - piglets!  These little piggies lived up to this names. They were gobbling up bottles in seconds!

And bunnies

And feeding all the hungry lambs goats lamas donkeys ponies etc

Gage developed quite a following there!

We met starlight the new pony. Who got

 Some snacks and brushing..

Savannah found lots if eggs from their Easter laying hens - they really do lay pastel eggs!

And we wrapped up with a hayride and pumpkin patch :-)

It was hot. 90 today. Ugh. 90 in October. Even miss "I love the hot weather" was feeling hot

Gage- we know he's not made for hot weather. He was sweaty hot and ready to turn on the a/c in the car. I hear you buddy. 90 degree pumpkin picking is just wrong!!

It was a good morning though :-)

state quarters

Savannah came tearing down the stairs last week yelling that I would never believe what she found. Well, it was a state quarter. We proceeded to go through all the coin jars in the house to see if we could find them all And...we had to look them up online to read about why the picture represented each state. And again...you can see how nicely Miss OCD has lined up her quarters ;-)

Fall leaves

Fall has always been my favorite time of year. Sweaters. Boots. Crisp air. Colored leaves. The sound and smell of walking through fallen leaves. Apple picking. Snappy tart giant macintosh apples. Fields of corn stalks. Cider. Real cider that is fresh cold pressed and not pasteurized so it turns into apple juice. The smell of burning leaves and fireplaces starting to appear. I miss it. I wish I could click my heels together like Dorothy and say there's no place like home and be transported to fall. In New England. The leaves may be starting to fall here, but try are brown, and it was 88 today. Fall? I think not.

Well, the other day I opened the mail and found an envelop full of fall leaves. Beautiful reddish orange maple leaves. They were not dry and crunchy yet, but over the last day they are starting to curl, and they are starting to smell like fall. My own tiny little fall. I won't lie - I have sniffed them about ten times today. 

So, thank you to Gram Rooney for thinking of us and sending us a little piece of fall. If you need me I'll be sniffing the leaves that are scattered on the kitchen counter and clicking my heels together. It doesn't hurt to try. 

Science center

Adam is off to Germany for Oktoberfest, so the kids and I headed up to Birmingham for a day of fun at the McWane Science Center. It is awesome!  We loved this psychedelic looking projection of their movements - this was a big hit.

 The also loved these seats -- of course...it was an example of a pulley system, so MOMMY had to pull the rope to get them to the top.

 Big bubbles are always fun. 

 

 Savannah was making this bubble wall, that she could blow giant bubbles through.

 This section was all about magnets, and she loved it. They had one table that had a container of shaved metal and controls to adjust the vibration and the poles of the magnets. The one she was playing with here was a glove filled with magnets that you could experiment with.

 Guess who this is. (Gage) This what we call "smoosh face". We push all the straws to one side to smooth it out, go around to the other side and smoosh our faces into it. We love this one.

 Savannah made this cool handprint piece today. She also did a lot of smoosh faces but this was different!

 The caption of this picture should be "little brother supporting big sister's OCD".  There was a wall of "light brights" behind Gage. He would bring each crystal over to her so she could line them up in rows of colors on the table. Ah yes...my little OCD girl. She's been lining things up like this since she was a baby!

 This cool thing was a metal pole that you could spin -- and watch go through a curved line cut out. Very cool. She got that thing going so fast I was afraid to go near it.

 Gage engaged in a staring contest...with a fish.  I reminded him the fish had no eyelids,but he was going for it anyway.

 Savannah loves seahorses, so it's always fun that we get to see them there. Along with Nemo for Gage :-)

 Yes...this is a bed of nails.  It starts out with you laying on a plastic surface with holes, and then someone (your evil little brother, perhaps) holds a button on the controller and the nails raise up. We all did this one - it feels very very weird! And it hurts if you have flip flops on, fyi.

 

 On the way out, the kids were just about to get into this wind tunnel, and some other kids busted in front of them and bullied their way in. So, we watched those rude kids and talked amongst ourselves about how unacceptable their behavior was.  Once those kids got out, mine piled in. Savannah was NOT really a fan -- I think her hair was whipping her face. The winds got up to hurricane force. Gage loved it though :-)

And that was a day. We stopped at Moe's for some tacos on the way home, and Savannah fell asleep in the car minutes after we left dinner. The science center take it out of you!

Paper boy

This morning it was 52 degrees. A little taste of fall. Love it! I went out to get the paper because paper boy was laying on the couch in a blanket. He found me reading the paper with a cup of coffee in bed and melted down. He laid in the floor and cried.  I WANTED TO GET THE PAPER. WAAAA. He wanted me to put the paper back outside so he could get it. seriously? I sent him in the other room to cry and continued reading.

He came in again when I was done and asked nicely. So, I put the paper back together and handed it to him. He put his shoes on and happily trotted out the door. I watched him walk all the way to the end of the driveway, put the paper on the ground, pick it back up and bring it back to the house. With a huge smile on his face. When he got to me on the front porch he announced "I am made for cold weather. Here's your paper mama"

 

Kids are crazy.

Art tile project

While we were at school doing some volunteer work, we stopped to find the tile savannah made as part If their art project last year. Her school is built around a courtyard and this tile mural us now on one of the walls. So, she has left her mark permanently! 

It took us a while to find because she could not remember what she painted. And, once we found it? She had no idea what she painted. I only remember that when she told me  what she painted when she did this last year, I thought it was an odd choice. 

We have no idea what it's supposed to be!!

Batman

Guys wear the football jerseys for their favorite teams when they watch games. Gage wears his fave superhero when he watches superhero cartoons. Somehow I see a connection here. Gage, wearing batman as he watches batman!

Pantry reading

Our girl has discovered Magic Treehouse books and loves them. Apparently, she can't put them down.  I can relate, I am constantly reading books on my kindle I strange places :-)

I can't believe she's reading chapter books. Junie B. and the magic tree house are her favorites now. 

Smarty pants savannah is doing great in school. She has spelling tests and reading comprehension tests each Friday now, and has scored 100 on every one. 

Way to go!!

A break in the heat

Finally! After temps in the 90-100 range for months, We finally have a beautiful day. Today we woke up to temps in the 50s and a high of only 84. Yippee! If course, it will head back into the 90s.

Gage went outside and calls me excitedly saying mom come quick, you won't believe it. When I walked out he said "do you feel how COOL it is? Stand in the sun. Stand in the shade. Can you believe it!?!" 

A comfortable day has everyone outside - finally! They are swinging and shooting water guns at targets. 

They are also hanging in the hot tub, which you can imagine is the last thing you want to do when it's 100 degrees outside!!

Fall is coming, I can feel it!!

CHOM

Usually we just stay home after savannah gets home from school. Today we decided to get out and do something so we headed to the childrens museum. Gage drove the old truck.

Savannah pretended to be an astronaut using these big gloves to put puzzles together.

Gage gassed up the truck.

And both of them went crazy in the flying ball booth!

We topped it all off with some frozen yogurt at sweet cece's. Dessert before dinner's not a bad thing now and then!!