Fall leaves--our list of things we want to do this fall

We haven't done this for a few years, so I thought it was time to do it again.  I made a tree out of brown paper, and some colorful leaves out of construction paper.  I wrote an activity on each leaf, so as we do each one we can put them at the bottom of the tree and watch the leaves fall. 

Seeing this up on the wall makes me happy.  It reminds me that no matter how busy I am, we can take the time to enjoy this season, and all the things that make it special.  It reminds my kids that we have fun things coming up.  Most of all though, it just looks pretty.  I also love that it's big!  We emptied this space recently, and I'm loving having the wall space.

Most of these activities are already things we're planning on doing, and some are just new things we hope to do.  No worries if we don't get to them though.  We've already made 1 leaf fall, apple picking!

 Our list of Autumn activities:

Bauman farm field trip
Pick apples
go to halloween trail
give a service (raking leaves?)
make leaf pictures outside
play in the leaves
leaf cork painting
make caramel apples
make book character pumpkins
make a fun Fall treat
celebrate Mom's birthday
fall scavenger hunt
fall color walk
owl cookies
eat pie
eat donuts on a string
balloon pumpkin patch
watch a fall movie
erupting pumpkin faces
make a Thanksgiving craft
visit art museum
make halloween costumes
Read: Junie B. Jones, Boo and I mean it
Read: It's pumpkin day mouse!
go camping in the Fall
zoo in the Fall
OMSI in the Fall
Gilbert house in Salem in the Fall
Read: a fun book of choice
make homemade applesauce
crabbing at the coast

Desiree

A piano!

With Aaron starting piano lessons, and April playing her broken keyboard more and more it was time to look at piano options.  We went back and forth between a real piano and a digital piano several times.  Looking at cost options ranging from free (for a real, but old piano from Hubby's parents) to a digital, to an expensive real piano (newish, and not free) we had a hard time deciding how much to spend, and how much space we need to use with each option. 

About a month before piano lessons were to start Hubby started researching all things piano.  I'm so glad he likes to do that because I didn't have the time to.  But, I love that he knew all the best options, and was thankful for all his information.  He took the 2 older kids to several different piano stores both with real pianos and a lot of digital piano options to see what they liked.  After a lot of talking and back and forth saying "okay, lets get a real one, no lets go with the digital, no lets get the one from your parents (but it needs tuning and its' big!)" we finally decided on a Yamaha Digital piano for now. 

It was exciting to open up.

 We got the pedal bar unit so we could have the nicer pedals.

It's Kinda funny that a piano that sounds so cool can come out of a box.

 Lots of little pieces to put together!

 Ta da! a full size digital piano!

It plays great, and the sounds of piano fill our house. I love it, and the kids love it too.  It fits very nicely in this one little spot too.  Maybe someday we'll get a real one, but for now this works for us.

Desiree

She's 13!

Oh, my!  This girl is already 13! I can't believe it still, but it's true, she's growing up way too fast.  She is such a great part of our family, and I am always thankful that she was first!

She absolutely loves peanut butter cookies, so here she is with a batch she made for a "get to know you" YW activity.

She loves horses and her finally finished quilt!

For her birthday we couldn't celebrate on her actual day because we were getting ready to go camping.  I felt bad all day, but thankfully Daddy found some logic games to give her for gifts at camping when we got there.

Finally, after our camping trip we were able to squeeze in her birthday party at LimeBerry.  August is a hard time for birthday parties!  People are so busy with vacations (us too!)

She invited her local friends, and thankfully a few were able to come.  But, on the day of I noticed that not very many could come, so I posted on Facebook that we would be at LimeBerry at 3pm.  I'm so glad I did because one of her friends came up from Salem came and surprised her. I didn't invite the friends from down there only because I didn't want them to feel like they had to drive so far.  One of her YW leaders also came with her little girl.  It was so nice.

 All the brothers getting bored after all the goods were eaten.  LimeBerry really needs an activity of some sort like a tv or games.  I should have brought something, oh well!

Happy 13th to our April!  13 is going to be an awesome year!

Desiree

My August gratitude list...

I made a special effort in the month of August to write down at least 2 things I was thankful for each day.  I love how thinking about what I'm thankful at the end of the day helps me to really keep things in perspective, and know truly blessed I am.

My August gratitude list:

• Cubscout camp
• Making my yard a more beautiful place
• teaching children
• parks with shade
• friends
• camping
• friends while camping
• songs around the campfire (hymns specifically)
• my home
• teaching children (didn't realize it until now that I wrote this one twice on 2 different days)
• clean rooms
• making plans for Fall
• change!
• library cards
• morning walks
• homeschool friends
• cute hair cuts
• resting from the world (sabbath day)
• no television
• mornings at the park
• healthy children
• birthday dinner outings
• warm crockpot roast dinner
• April's fun ideas
• kids' birthday party
• packing for a fun trip
• peaceful mornings
• birds chirping
• fun camping trips
• saying sorry
• clouds
• laughing with friends
• free things
• knowledge
• cooking with my children
• educational videos
• hard work/satisfaction
• my family
• homemade bread
• pictures of my kids

 I could definitely see a few repeats in there.  This was great, and I intend to keep going!  I am going to start a journal, and keep a running list.  It's neat to see what things I was thankful for, and I can look at each thing in this list and remember why I wrote that particular thing.

What are you thankful for today?

Desiree