Fall has arrived...

Alexa's 2nd grade picture

With the arrival of fall came school, soccer, and a little more field hockey. It meant the start of Girl Scout meetings, harvesting the last of the vegetables, and Halloween!

This year Alexa did soccer through the Thomaston Recreation Department. There were only four sessions and I must be honest - I didn't make it to a single one. I used that time to do errands around the house or grocery shopping, allowing it to be something between her and her dad.

Alexa in one of her many poses before game time

The first day of school arrived prior to Labor Day this year, just after the "hurricane". I had actually had my "first day" of school the day before when we had an assembly to welcome back all the teachers and ed techs. This year was a little different because we made a goal of getting Alexa onto the bus in the morning. It doesn't pick up at the house, but rather just down the street. Alexa quickly made friends with the other kids!

We also made it apple picking, eventually. The month of September flew by so quickly! We went with my brother and his family to Schoolhouse Farms. It was nice to go someplace so close to us. And we couldn't have picked a more beautiful day. It was a sunny and HOT October day. The kids had so much fun gathering apples, and we've all had fun eating them.

Then before we knew it it was Halloween...or at least close. We took advantage of another beautiful day to decorate the front yard. The kids and the neighbor kids had a good time. And it looked great, for awhile. Unfortunately the neighbor's kid would tear stuff out of the ground whenever he got mad at the girls.

The rain did a number a few days later also. Then just before Halloween I took everything down because we got this...

That's right. We went from beautiful and sunny to snowsuits! Got to love Maine weather...

Pumpkins were easy this year because we grew them in our garden. They started as little seedlings from the preschool and yielded 5 pumpkins! The kids each picked out their own and cleaned them out. There were lots of pumpkin seeds to eat. And I used the pieces we cut out to later make pumpkin bread.

the final results!

Trick o' treating was fun this year. I cheated and pretty much picked out the twins costumes for them, purchased a month earlier at Walmart. Alexa wanted to be a zombie. She unraveled from the waist down before we even got out the door (hence the grumpy face in the picture). We walked from our house, down Roxbury to Fluker and onto Knox. I was astounded by the number of kids once we hit Knox Street! Then down Main Street to home. It took us an hour of walking. The kids did great - no candy along the way and only 2 pieces when they got home.

off we go!

home again...