Not much order to the following pictures, but we got to go to my folks last weekend to soak up some color and revel in the fall air. 

Henri spotted a balloon on the trip up

Not peak yet, and of course I didn't begin to do justice to the gorgeous color there was, but I tried getting some shot out the car window regardless. 

There is no rhyme or reason to how these loaded. But, backyard of my folks.

I was trying to get a decent shot of this gorgeous leaf. She was more interested in twirling it. 

The horse waited patiently for his apple but Doppler ended up stealing it to play fetch with. 

The old milk shed

Apple picking. Aunt Sharon and Gram have been working hard to bring the old apple trees back to fruiting, and they are really sweet this year.

So. Much. Color!

Changing top down

The drought has hit pretty hard. Neighbors' wells are empty, and the pond is completely dry.

#nofilter

We watched the tractor parade in Charlotte on Sunday

The boys made their daily appearance, much to the delight of everyone. 

He was a grump getting there, but the minute he saw his first tractor he was enthralled. 

Lots of leaf throwing

Moms teeny tiny crab apples

Our near-death experience of the weekend. Hiked Sunset Ledge with the kids, everyone in just vests and no hats. Felt very cold, it was super windy but we figured we were just being wimps. Got back to the car, 35 degrees. So grateful the kids didn't get hypothermia, it was pretty miserable. 

Hudson was a trooper. He loves to rock climb, and at this size almost any incline is a climb. 

We turned around right before the ledges. Still had the whole hike back, and the kids were shaking. 

Tuesday I hauled everything but the beds out of the kids room and went through everything. Threw out 3 garbage bags, donated 3 Ikea bags worth of stuff. Felt great.

Sheep at Drumlin Farm

Mother Val (sadly currently on hospice) turned 60 on Thursday so we had a small birthday party for her

And then tonight we gathered up a group of friends, descended on an unsuspecting friends house with pizza, and headed over to watch Clemson play soccer. The boys loved it. 

It's been a fairly typical week here despite the holiday on Monday. Playgroup on Tuesday, Drumlin Farm on Wednesday, birthday party on Thursday, helping our neighbor with his meds and playing with his cat today. Hudson and I go to the gym daily except for playgroup days. Unfortunately the permanent teacher for his gymnastics class wasn't a good fit (read; she had no control over a group of very ill-behaved kids and I'm not paying for chaos) so we won't be attending BUT the Y has Tikes gymnastics for half the price so he'll take classes there starting in a few weeks. I don't think I'm gaining any health benefits from attending the gym (actually, I'm gaining weight, oops) but it adds some structure to our days and I think will be really nice to have once the weather turns nasty. Looking forward to a very low-key Saturday. Maybe the kids will sleep past 6???? Ha.

Octobering

The loose tooth that just wouldn't give up. So Steve yanked it with gauze. Unfortunately he also told her the tooth fairy didn't exist, so there goes all childhood innocence for both her and Hudson. 

This is for my mom; a few streets over this guy has an insane garden, he could probably feed the whole block for a year out of it. Had a great squash year.

This tree always turns first, and always has the best leaves. 

He loves music

Hard to see, but it says "You have a friend in....FLORIDA". Didn't know Jesus had a summer place. 

At playgroup this week I had the kids hammer leaves so the color transferred on to paper. They has a blast, but I overlooked how insanely loud that was going to be.....

Took Saba out to our favorite falafel spot. Just discovered they have a loyalty card. I would have a lot of free meals by now!

Nightly homework. Generally I make them go outside the minute we get home since it gets dark so early, and is only going to get worse. She's good about knocking out her math sheets  quickly.

New baby rhubarb leaves! It survived transplanting the beginning of the season AND the drought we've had, so I'm optimistic that in a few years I'll have a decent patch to pick from. I miss Grandma Elsie's a lot. 

My geranium in  a blue pot continues to do well. It always makes me happy to walk by it 

He found some rotted wood riddled with insect holes. And then the bugs started crawling out of the wood and he was thrilled to build houses for them. I made him remove them from near my house; wood devouring critters do not belong in my home!

More of the same

It's been a full week, but that's mostly because I had a baby shower today that I've been working on. We went to playgroup on Tuesday, decided to drop the Wednesday one on our way to it (the mom's were cahraaaazzzzy and the kids awful), went to Drumlin Farms on Thursday, shower set and prep all day yesterday, shower today. It's nice to have a little break before the next big entertainment project starts up (Christmas at church), and I have some neglected knitting to get to.

That's 24 fun colors in Sharpie format! Bought them to have the ladies decorate wooden play blocks as a shower activity

These were the prizes for the winning team for shower games; the nose is chapstick

Was in nursery on Wednesday and just had one kid

Super sweet and friendly goat at Drumlin. I got in lots of cuddles. 

The Discovery Center activity was checking out animal pelts

but the huge attraction was the Wooly Bear caterpillar they found on the road

He really is a great rock climber

Cookies for the baby shower

Like usual, all the work, and no pictures to show for it. We did a circus theme and everything turned out great. OH! Big news, for me anyway: Last evening as I was making supper, a down the street neighbor stopped by with a bag of tomatoes. And then gave me a gift certificate for a free 6mo family membership to the Y. Guys, that's $100/mo and we've wanted one because there's babysitting so I could bring Hud during the day, plus the pool for all of us to use this winter, but that would be a stretch to swing. I scared Lou when I got teary and hugged him, haha. We are surrounded by some pretty amazing people.