Leaf Pile

After a quick mini-winter between summer and fall that lasted for all of one day (I'm talking about that snow day last week with a high of 28!), fall has finally started falling.  We have climbed back to 80 a time or two, but over this weekend it's been highs in the 50's or 60's, and the leaves are falling from the trees.  While I didn't find summer to be as unbearable as usual, which I believe is because I spent more time outside this year in the heat than in years past and got used to it, I'm still embracing jackets and the cold with open arms.  This past week our back yard hit critical mass, and the first leaf pile of the year was born!  We all had a wonderful time in the leaves!

Brooke was excited to have the leaves back, and was ready for a pile as soon as they started falling.

I believe Winry played in the leaves with us last year, but I don't know that she remembered it, so this was her first time (for her)!  She definitely loved it!  We had a great time jumping in and eventually had to stop for dinner, but the leaves had also been mostly crushed into tiny pieces and the pile wasn't much compared to when we started.  Definitely not enough for Monica to jump in when she came to call us for dinner.  I'm sure we'll get a larger leaf pile later in the year, and we've already combined more leaves into our first pile.  However, when we went out to jump the second time I was re-raking the pile and found a dead bird in it.... I really hope it wasn't there the whole time... Anyway, we threw away most of the original pile...

On Friday (yeah... leaf pile Monday, next story Friday, it was one of those weeks) Brooke did a dance camp.  It's fall break this week, so they don't have dance class and instead hold camps.  The best part is that you don't have to be in dance class to attend camps, and so Brooke's friend Eleanor went to camp with her!  I asked Brooke if there was anything important I should include about dance class, and she said "Me tumbling! We did frog hops, and kangaroo hops!  We also did donkey kicks like this (insert video that doesn't exist)!  Eleanor also had a lot of fun with me, and Eleanor had a sandwich and Cheetos!"  So wise.

Another thing from dance class was making poms.  I don't know that this was actually related to dance, and was probably more a craft time type thing, but once Brooke got home it was definitely all about dance!  Just look at that pom pom dance!

On Saturday morning we helped clean the church, which means DONUTS!  Church cleaning was pretty great though, Winry and I first went around to restock everything, and then she came and helped me sweep the gym floor.  As we finished Brooke and Monica finished cleaning the bathrooms and we were off to donuts!  The girls both picked pink, and Brooke got sprinkles and Winry got M&Ms.  Everyone much enjoyed themselves, except Monica who is not eating sugar currently.  She went next door to sprouts and got sweet potatoes.(Not to eat right then, for later... and I still enjoyed myself!)

Saturday night we had dinner outside in the back yard, and Winry kept helping her pacifier eat some pizza and saying "num num num!"  And that catches everything up.  I hope everyone has a great week!