Gleaning and a direct quote...

Ah, fall. My favorite season by far. The boys and I celebrated the season by joining our homeschool group for a gleaning field trip today. We went to this great farm that I've been to at least a couple times before...you get to go on a hayride and the tractor stops at 3-6 different fields (depends on the time of year and what's ready for harvesting). You clamor off the trailer and get to fill two bags per person with whatever veggie is being harvested at that stop. Then, you all try to fit your heaps of bags plus all the people back on the trailer as you continue your journey around the property until you get back to the main area...not an easy feat with as many of us as there were.

While many of the families were intent on actually gathering a bunch of vegetables, my boys (who, um, dislike vegetables rather much) and I decided to take a different approach this year...gathering with the intent of creating with the veggies. We're going to attempt to make vegetable boats...using a half a squash hollowed out as the hull of the boat and adding things like carrot oars and corn husk sails. Should be interesting. In any case, it made for a bit easier time keeping track of our bags, since we didn't collect nearly as much as the others. ;)  Asher actually preferred staying on the trailer to harvesting anything but made an exception for the pumpkins, choosing one of his very own:

 

Micah, unsurprisingly, thought the whole thing was great fun and wanted to help harvest everything. His short little legs and the uneven ground made that a bit tricky and I ended up carrying him as much as he'd let me (yeah, I'm pooped) but he insisted on making his own way through the corn stalks when we collected Indian corn (one of my favorite stops...they're so beautiful for decorations). Here's Micah trying to find his way back out of the field and shrugging his shoulders as if to say "where do I go now?". Noah, you can see, is trying to show him the way:

 

Once back at the main area, we used the wagons provided to haul our loot back to our vehicles (I also hauled Asher and Micah who wouldn't have made it that far and back in any sort of decent time) then enjoyed a picnic lunch. Having refueled, the kids were let loose to explore the hay mazes, corn mazes, tractor peddle cars, a big mountain of hay, a big mountain of dirt (guess which was more popular with most kids *laugh*...course, we managed to steer Micah clear and the other two thoroughly refused to go near it, as they oddly dislike getting dirty), one of those inflatable bouncy slide things, a petting zoo and more.  Noah quickly figured out that walking on the walls of the hay maze was much quicker than trying to find one's way the traditional way, and set to directing his brothers from above:

 

Whew. Long morning/afternoon. And now there are bags of potatoes, carrots, sweet corn, Indian corn, gourds and pumpkins sitting in the kitchen. (We opted to forgo the tomatoes, beets, cabbage, chili peppers, shallots, and onions.) I'll deal with them tomorrow. :)

Oh. And a direct quote. Had to take the boys with me to my design team meeting tonight (for The Treasure Box) as Nathan was out of town. As we were unloading to head inside (just long enough for me to grab supplies and take them home with me rather than staying there and working), this is what I heard:

Noah: I'm soaring. I'm an eagle. (as he takes off "flying" up the ramp to the store)

Asher: I'll be a bee. That way people won't antagonize me so much.

Honest. That's exactly what my recently turned 5 year old said. Apparently, we were antagonizing him too much today. I guess we're lucky he isn't really a bee or we'd have been stung.  ;)

So. Busy day. I'm really looking forward to adding a bit of fall decoration around here using some of our loot from the farm. I haven't really decorated for the seasons of late...young kids and all making it difficult to justify going through the trouble. But I remember my mom always decorating all out in the fall and I miss that. So I hereby resolve to do better. What are your fall decoration traditions? 

Knights are more skilled.

Than Musketeers apparently.

The boys watched a Mickey Mouse version of the Three Musketeers the other day and now are fully immersed in pretending to be Musketeers and, for some unknown reason, Knights. Somehow Noah decided to compare the two and they've decided that Asher can be a Musketeer and protect the king but Noah is older and more skilled and, thus, is a Knight instead.  I gave up on the whole potential history lesson to be had and will get back to it later...gonna just let them be for now.

On the plus side, it doesn't seem to have deterred them from their intent to all be cowboys for Halloween. Whew, as I've already started collecting things for their costumes. So, what are your kids (or you) going as this year? 

ETA: The boys just informed me that Micah has now moved up from just baby brother to Musketeer...Ash was promoted to Knight...and Noah, apparently, is King. I, of course, am the evil witch half the time and the Queen the other half. (Honest, this is what they said.) Weirdos. :) 

Pshew!

Okay. So I don't know precisely how you'd spell it, but this is what I'm going with. It's the sound Micah makes when he "blasts off" pretty much anything that remotely resembles a plane. Here's a quick layout I just finished about his love of things that fly (I'm sure there will be more as he looks to be obsessed with planes in the same way his brothers were taken with trains).

 

Incidentally, this layout uses stuff from the September kit over at Those Were The Days. The site is actually going to be taking a break for awhile, so get these kits while you can! I love this particular kit but also adored previous months...some of which are still available. Check it out. :) 

Oh. And you two RAK winners...email me back already. These goodies are burning a hole in my hubby's office! :) 

I didn't forget...

Ugh. I promised some scrappy-ness over the weekend and haven't delivered. I didn't forget. I ran out of photo ink and haven't had time to go get more. Bleh. Sorry about that! I really will do some scrapping this week and post it. Honest. :)

One other little note...I've been reorganizing and purging the house (especially unused toys) and swapping out summer clothes for fall ones this past week.  It's such a wonderful feeling to do that every so often. But. In swapping around the boys' clothes, I made a startling discovery. My Noah is growing up on me. As is to be expected with three boys, we mostly just pass the clothes down from one to the next...picking up a few new things for each boy every now and again, right? So, obviously, Noah benefits from this being the biggest. And he just keeps growing on me. Not that he's huge by any means, but he keeps outgrowing these clothes. As I was on the lookout for some good deals to add to his wardrobe at the store the other day it suddenly dawned on me...I can't shop in the "little boy section" any more for him. I have to head to the "big boy" section. Sniff. I told ya. He's growing up. (And, incidentally, Asher better get a move on...Micah's wearing almost the same size shirts already!)

Thanks all!

First of all, thank you all so very much for your comments and thoughts! I truly appreciate your input and especially thank you for sharing your own stories with me. Hugs to all who have lost someone!!

Secondly, both Noah and Asher (of course) wanted to pick a name so I have two RAK winners:  Gladys (Oreosmom/CKMB) and  Jennifer (Jingle/CKMB). Congrats! I'll email you later today/tonight, okay?

Well, I have to jet right now...full day planned. I'll be back this weekend, though, with some scrappy goodness (not memorial album related probably but fun nonetheless) so be sure to check back! Thanks!