Autumn

It's hard to say what I love most about the fall.  Watching the changing colors of the leaves is definitely at the top of the list - burnt oranges, burgundies, greens, all kinds of yellows . . . This weekend at our weekly celebration church service, we talked about the concept of a beautiful death.  True - the leaves are dying, but they're never more beautiful than when they're transforming.

There's definitely something special about pumpkins to me, especially the little ones.  Yesterday I discovered that another plus to fall is that it gives the kids an easy way to take on more responsibility around the house.  They both enjoyed sweeping all of the pine cones out of the driveway.

I'm really into scents, and all of the pumpkin spice and apple cider candles make the house feel so cozy.  We don't have a fireplace, but the candles feel like the next best thing.

We took the kids apple picking on Saturday.  We went to a different place than last year, and it was cool because this farm had animals (including a lama), a hay maze, and a massive hay hill (which Serena fell down several times :).  I'm really into coupons, so it helped that this farm was giving away free apple pencils if you presented the ad from the Metro newspaper.  Although picking the apples is fun, I especially like the hot apple cider donuts at the end, and seeing that, even though our kids are getting older, long car rides still put them to sleep :).

It's also pretty interesting to drag the boxes out of the crawl space so we can put away the kids' summer clothes, and take out the fall clothes from the previous year.  Each time we do this, we end up with at least four bags of clothes to give away - the summer clothes that we know they won't fit next summer, and last year's fall clothes that we hoped would still fit this fall, but didn't quite make it.

I took the kids shopping on Sunday for their picture day clothes (picture day is on October 1st), and although I usually don't enjoy shopping, I liked watching them pick out their outfits, and seeing how their personal styles are developing. Serena picked out a very cute outfit, which was no surprise for our little fashionista.  I was hoping for one outfit that would work both for picture day and an upcoming wedding, but interestingly enough, she ended up with a picture day outfit, and a party dress that wasn't quite what she wanted for picture day, but was perfect for the wedding.  Go figure ;).  I had a new experience this year.  Cairo has decided that he wants to dress up more, so we bought his dress shirt, a tie, a reversible belt, dress socks, and dress pants.  We ordered his shoes from Zappos, because the selection for dress shoes his size at Kohl's is very limited.  Thankfully, his outfit will work for picture day and the wedding :).  I can't wait to share their school pictures on the blog.

Coming attractions:

• Dishon's birthday
• Serena turns 11!
• Thanksgiving at home
• A romantic getaway to the Settler's Inn in early December
• Cairo turns 10!
• Christmas in Charlotte, NC

Enjoy the fall, everyone! :)

Settler's Inn in the Poconos.  Can't wait!!!