Finally...Fall

Ahh...Fall...my favorite season. I love sleeping with the windows open and feeling chilled. I adore little girls in knee-hi socks and cable knit cardigans and there is nothing like the sight of trees aflame with Autumn color. Fall...love it.

Of course, Fall also means Pumpkin Patch time. We go every year. This year, we are actually going twice. Saturday we went to Gentry Farms as a family and this weekend we are going to Honeysuckle Hill with our Sunday School department. There's no such thing as "too much pumpkin patch" right?

Forrest thinks that there is definitely such a thing...he's "too old" which I think translates loosely into "he's too cool" for the pumpkin patch. Unfortunately for him, our household is not run as a Democracy...it's more like a Dictatorship. A very loving Dictatorship, one with lots of perks and privileges, but at 13, no vote is, well, no vote. Anyhoo...next week, he'll be playing big brother to a kid without a parental chaperon...at the Pumpkin Patch...and I think that is cool.

Speaking of the pumpkin patch...you know it's been a scorching, bone dry summer when you get to the patch, wander to the corn maze and find a sign like this:

Munchkin Maze indeed. Normally, the stalks would tower over Mark (who is 6'4), this year, they reached to Cammie's shoulders.

In other news...

-I am officially on a self-imposed book hiatus. My laundry is happy about this(subsequently, so is my husband)

-Chloe earned her full orange belt and is reading (very,very cool). (This pic is from a competition a few weeks ago).

-Forrest is working on his entrance essay for JPII. He's excited, so are we. I just can't bring myself to tell him that he'll have to wear a tie to school everyday...don't want to dampen his enthusiasm or remind him that this is yet another issue in which he doesn't get a vote.

-Cammie is well on her way to the Olympics. She is killing me with her gymnastics prowess. (She is also killing the foot board to my bed by doing flips off of it, ditto the ottoman in the family room).

-Hannah is learning to play the trumpet. I thought my days of hearing that obnoxious sound were over when Forrest switched to the guitar. Nope, another child has succumbed to the allure of the brass honker.

-Sophie is revelling in the fact that as a first grader, she can impart wisdom to her sister who is but a mere kindergartner. Let's just say she is taking her role as mentor very seriously.

Here's a pic of Cammie and her friend Vovie. They are the bestest of friends and this is how they get from point A to point B when together...holding hands and skipping...