October Happenings

October flew by with preparations for winter in our yard and garden, a trip to Lansing, Will's birthday, and of course Halloween.  Here the girls are below counting the winter squash we grew in our neighbors yard to save on space in our own garden.  

As you can see above, there was plenty to share.  We also finally picked our last crop of green beans, tomatoes, peppers, basil and rhubarb.  A hard frost claimed the plants the night after we picked the above produce, and I will be the first to tell you I was relieved!  We still have parsley, cabbage, carrots, beets, swiss chard and peas chilling in our garden, but they don't overwhelm me like the other veggies with their sheer bulk and do okay in the early season frosts.

Our chickens aren't as happy about the colder weather and have definitely slowed down their egg production.  We went from about ten eggs a day this past spring to two eggs on a good day now.  Our handful of loyal customers have had to go elsewhere for their eggs, but fortunately for us, we haven't had to buy eggs at the store yet.  Here are our chickens below, enjoying a pot luck of fridge leftovers.  I had yogurt a bit past it's prime for human taste that the chickens went wild for.  It was entertaining to watch the chickens faces covered in white cream.

Will had a meeting at Michigan State on the first Saturday of this past month so instead of missing him on the weekend, the girls and I decided to tag along and visit my aunt who lives in Lansing while Will was working.  We visited my aunt's favorite places and restaurants in town and even enjoyed time spent in the Children's Garden at MSU.  A great day was had by all, and I was happy that my kids got to see a new side of their aunt who treated me to many a weekend in Lansing when I was a kid.

Will's birthday was on Sunday this year, which ensured an entire weekend of festivities.  On Saturday night we went out to a nice Italian restaurant with Will's parents and on Sunday we spent the day on a fall color drive, at a cider mill where we narrowly escaped being attacked by a pair of hungry goats when we unwittingly walked into their pen, pumpkin picking, opening presents and enjoying birthday dessert.

It was a beautiful sunny day on Will's birthday.  Interestingly enough, as we were driving to go pumpkin picking, we saw a giant X in the sky - and this was AFTER the great goat escape.  We are hoping this is a positive omen on Will's birthday!?!  Here we are below pumpkin picking in our friends giant garden.

We had fun outside in shorter bursts this past month because of the the falling temperatures.  In the top left picture below, the girls discovered the warm air coming out of the dryer vent one afternoon after they had convinced me they were too warm to wear jackets.  Busted!  They put jackets on after that!

Early in the summer we had promised the girls that they could get a treat from the ice cream truck the next time they filled up their apple tree.  This helped quiet the begging every time we heard the tell-tale jingle coming down the street.  Once they upheld their end of the bargain however, the ice cream truck stopped coming!  It finally came by one afternoon this past month right at dinner time.  A deal's a deal, and I was just happy that they could experience their hard-earned ice cream truck treat before they forgot all about the lesson in patience they had learned.  Who knows where the truck was all summer, but we were all excited to spend a small fortune and ruin our dinner.  Summer was officially complete!

This fall has not been kind to Lucy's allergies.  Here she is below after sneezing probably about fifty times in a row, with force so strong it caused her to repeatedly bash her head into things.  I swear I felt really bad for her but also had to take a picture and stifle my laughter.  Poor thing!  Click.

Speaking of allergies, it is a well-known fact that I am really allergic to cats.  Earlier this month, two kittens found their way into our garage.  At first we tried chasing them out but they just kept coming back.  Both of them would just stare at us while we worked and played in the yard, meowing like whiny toddlers.  Finally, we couldn't take the meowing anymore and fed them a piece of pumpkin pie.  After texting several people in the know about cats, we decided that pumpkin pie might not be the best choice for all creatures, despite the fact that our children and chickens love it.  We bought a small bag of cat food, and our fates were sealed.  Sadly, one of the kittens disappeared not long after.  It was as if the remaining cat turned all of it's attention on us at that point though, and became the friendliest, cuddliest cat you ever did see.  We took the kitten to the vet and learned that he is a healthy two month old boy kitten, and is now officially ours.  Because of my allergies the cat is living in our garage, but the vet assured us that he would be just fine with a warm, insulated cat bed, food, water and of course, love.  It is safe to say that Lucy is in love.  I voted for the cat to be called Sassafrass, as it seems Lucy gets extremely sassy whenever the cat is around.  When I asked her about why she couldn't handle sharing the cat or coming inside to eat, she told me that she just "loves the cat so much that she can hardly stand it."  We have named him Charlie, although I still call him Sassafrass McGee when Lucy is being particularly possessive.

Charlie must think that Lucy is his mom, because he lets her carry him around everywhere and will sit patiently in the basket of the girls' bikes while going for a spin and was even caught driving Lucy's play car.  Lucy is obsessed with the cat, and since the weather is getting colder, I have been letting her go outside by herself while I keep a close eye on her from the kitchen window.  This is a big step for us, and although hard for me to let my guard down while I am inside and she is outside, I do think this is an important milestone.  She has proven herself trustworthy so far, and I am proud and warmer because of it.  Here Lucy is below using her new found maturity to tell me all about why Emma isn't trustworthy.

She has matured in many ways.  Here are some things that she has shocked me with this past month:

Lucy: "Mom, my stomach hurts."  Me:  "What does it feel like?"  Lucy: "Like I swallowed gasoline."

Lucy: "Mom, where can I find a man to marry?" Me: "Uhhhh...."

Lucy: "When I go to college, I'm going to get a boyfriend."  Me: "Ummmm..."

Here Lucy is below dressed as a bride.  Will thought she was pretending to be the mother of Jesus.  He was disappointed to find out otherwise.

 Lucy has been absorbing the written language like crazy this past month too.  It was like overnight a light bulb went on in her head and she went from writing her name one day to writing every family member's name, and words like Boo, Zoo, Bear, Baby, Out and No.  It has been amazing to watch and I have to say that it has been all her - I really can't say what I have done or not done besides read to her and play with games, puzzles and iPad apps involving the alphabet.  It will be interesting to see how Emma learns to see if I can take more responsibility for this learning or not.  Below is Lucy busily writing a letter to her friends Kayla and Emily.  It was the first letters where she officially wrote everything on her own.  She was so proud!

 Lucy's brain isn't the only thing growing.  This fall is the first time that I actually had to go to the store and buy Lucy clothes other than underwear, socks and the occasional special holiday outfit.  We have been super blessed with generous friends giving us their high quality hand me downs as well as relatives who have bought enough clothes as gifts to fill in any gaps.  Lucy has grown so much and so fast this past month that we literally had no clothes that fit her.  Even the bin of hand me downs I have saved in her new size don't fit right and I am wondering if she is growing into her own unique body type and will no longer be able to just wear any clothes that are her size, and will instead have to shop like I do - based on which brand or style fits as opposed to the size.  We had fun shopping and trying on clothes even though it felt like out of the crazy amounts of clothes she so patiently tried on, only a small handful actually fit.  We are beginning to find the style and brand that works for her though and Lucy didn't seem to mind.  Let's hope the fun lasts through the teenage years!

I ended up finding a handful of clothes at Kohl's but decided to put them on hold and try our luck at the children's resale shop by our house.  Not only did I find the girl's Halloween costumes, but I found even better things at the resale shop and didn't have to spend a dime at the big box store after all.  I was so happy to actually spend less money, on higher quality clothes at a locally owned business!  A win, win, win if you ask me!

Lucy and Emma have played great this past month.  Here they are below singing a duet in the left hand picture, and sharing the iPad quite nicely in the right hand picture.

I will end this post with a video showcasing one of Lucy and Emma's favorite activities this past month - putting on performances.  It is really entertaining for Will and I to watch and it makes me happy to see the two of them playing so well together.  Make sure your volume is down, as these girls can really belt out a tune.