First Snow

Earlier this week we had the first measurable snowfall of the season.  Most likely it was only about 1/4 an inch.  With the fall leaves as a backdrop the snowfall was quite beautiful.  I have a feeling that we are in store for a LONG and SNOWY winter.  The persimmon seeds even agree with me.  We have been seeing spoons this year, so get your shovels ready.

Enjoy the snowy pictures from our yard. 

Below is a stop light that I encountered on my way to work.  It was really hard to figure out what color it was, so I used traffic at the other stop lights as my indicator on how to proceed through the intersection.  It is never boring around here.

 

Autumn

The colors have been beautiful this year!  

A lot of factors go into the brilliance of the season- the amount of sunlight, temperature fluctuations, cloud cover, and moisture.  What happens in the fall is that as the daylight decreases, the chlorophyll (the green stuff in leaves) stops producing food.  When the chlorophyll dies off and fades away, the brilliant reds, oranges, yellows, and purples that have been present the whole time are uncovered.  Warm sunny days and cool nights help to enhance the colors that we see. Eventually the leaves detach from their branchy homes and gracefully flutter to the ground.  Enough of the botany aspect for now.

The best part of fall for kids is raking the leaves into piles and jumping in!  Our kids love playing in the leaves.  Pumpkin becomes a monster and loves to bury others under the crunchy goodness.  We have shag-bark hickory, red maple, sweet gum, ash, and a few fruit trees in our yard.  This time of the year my husband also LOVES to crack open the shag-bark hickory nuts to collect the decadent nut meat inside.  It is an extremely time consuming process and involves a hammer.  Usually you cannot make it through the season without at least one smashed finger.  Mix some of these nuts into chocolate chip cookie dough for a wonderful autumn treat! 

Fall Family Woodland Adventure

A couple weekends ago we took a hike through the forest and prairie of a local conservation area.  The kids had a lot of fun and they found a lot of leaves, seeds, and twigs.

Pumpkin seemed to be the most entranced by sycamore bark that was rolled into tubes strewed across the dry creek bed of a ford.  Princess enjoyed all of the pretty leaves.  A few nights before the hike we had a hard frost so in areas the ground was carpeted with green paw-paw leaves.

Halloweenie Fun

"The hurrier I go, the behinder I get!"

~ Lewis Carroll

I can never seem to keep caught up lately.  Anyway, here are some Halloween and family evening puzzle adventure pictures.  

We completed the Great Pumpkin puzzle over four evenings.

 

Pumpkin was the black Angry Bird for Halloween (although he switched his hat to the pig side just before the picture) and Princess was a ladybug.
 

Pumpkins, Pumpkins

Today may of been one of the last warm days of the season.  Tonight the first frost is predicted.  So we took the kids outdoors this afternoon for our annual painting pumpkins with tempera paint.  

We do not have as many pumpkins this year as in years past, so we will forgo carving a pumpkin this year.  We do have plenty of gourds on the other hand.  It was the squash of choice by the kiddos when we visited the pumpkin patch last week.  We usually opt for painting because 1) the pumpkins last longer and 2) Pumpkin wants his pumpkin to last until after his birthday in February.  He is a pumpkin fanatic!  

As you can see Pumpkin & Princess had a lot of fun decorating their pumpkins.  We did take the pumpkin inside before the predicted frost and I am sure that they will move around the house as the holiday approaches. It is never boring in our household!  (Hahaha)