Fall is Here!

...and we are loving it.


That tasty treat would be a caramel apple, made by Tim. Tim is so creative. I love him so much. (Is that too mushy for a blog??) I am so NOT creative, and he makes my life way more beautiful, interesting and TASTY.

What inspired this beautiful apple, you wonder? Well, I'd be pleased to tell you.

Pretty much anytime I ask Tim what he wants for lunch/dinner, he says, "something GOOD." Poor Tim. I want something EASY. Not too long ago, after church, we were hunting for something GOOD to eat for lunch at home. If I remember right, we went for something EASY in the end...grilled cheese. Hmmm... Lunch was lacking something. Fruit? I suggested that we had a couple of apples, and we could make some kind of dip...caramel, or cream cheese... (I'm still thinking EASY at this point.) Well, with Tim in charge, the apples will need to be GOOD. Thus: Caramel apples with white chocolate drizzled on top. They were SO DELICIOUS.

In case you are inspired by GOOD things, here's how we made them:

We washed 2 apples (of course).
We melted 10-15 unwrapped Brach's Caramels and 2T of water in a bowl in the microwave.
We spooned the caramel over the apples, and set them on waxed paper on a plate in the fridge while we ate lunch. (Really, they didn't peel off the paper at all...perhaps there's a better way?)
After lunch, we melted Almond Bark (again in the micro) and spooned it into a baggie.
After cutting a little bit of the corner off, we squeezed the bark onto our cooled apples.
We pulled the apples off the paper, and cut them into slices with a big knife.
We ATE them, very happily. :)

In other fall news...I have more pictures of tree climbing. The pictures I took just didn't do the trick for showing how high our little rascals were. Tim took these, and this is the first I have seen how high up Trevor was. It's a little shocking...

In the first one, you can barely see Trevor in the center of the picture:


The second one is a little easier. Try to remember where int he tree he is, so you can find him in the 3rd picture:




Oh my goodness...was he ever high. I'm not sure what I think about that. I am keenly aware of my lack of understanding of how to raise boys.

Soccer is also Fallish, so here are some more soccer pictures...

This is from Trevor's last game. He is 2nd from the right. Look how small he is compared to the others!


He played really well that game.


Here's a couple from an older game:




And William's last game...he got to play Goalie 2nd half:




In the SOUTH, blowing and raking PINESTRAW is Fallish...

...and lots more fun to do when the kids help:











And, another Fallish thing is, of course, hatching Triops...
What? You haven't heard of that? Well, you are missing out!



Here is our set-up.

We bought a kit of Triops eggs while in Branson this year. The kids have been begging since March to hatch their eggs. Well, tis the season.

If you are curious, you can go here to see a page about Triops.

We had to make sure the water was the right temp before we started, hence the heating lamp. Then we added our egg mixture:



All that debris floating in the water came with the eggs. After 1 day, they hatched. I think you can actually see one triop floating in the water in that last picture. It is a light brown speck, floating in the middle of an open area, just below the "GLAD" sign on the bottom of the container.

So, now, just 1 week later, we have 6 baby triops swimming like crazy in our bowl.


Yes, in the dirty water, you can see one of them...he looks a little like a horseshoe crab. We are having a blast with them.

We'll keep you posted on their growth, of course!

Fall is also time for CAMPING.
We are getting camping fever...which can sometimes be alleviated just by setting up a tent.





We are actually psyching ourselves up to go camping soon. Time will tell what we wind up doing, I guess.

Lastly, here's a barrage of old pictures I came across from the last few months:

Crazy:


Smooth:


Thoughtful:


Here's a nice one of WonderWoman


This is of Trevor dancing. He has this hilarious, bobbing, bouncing dance that makes us all laugh.


This is when Samuel was the King of the Class for a day.


He brought home a book that the class made all about SAMUEL.


Happy Fall!

Tree Climbing and Spy Glasses

Aahhh...It is (finally) nice outside! We have really been enjoying playing, working, eating and hanging-out outdoors. A new thing for the boys is tree-climbing!



We have all these really great trees at the new house...but I guess with all the oppressively hot weather, the boys just hadn't thought of climbing. But, hooray for homeschool...our curriculum plans for a "nature walk" each week, and it got us outdoors. We have been keeping a nature journal, and each week we sketch a tree from our yard. This week was Trevor's turn to pick a tree, and he picked a Magnolia.



We had a great time sketching and examining our tree. (I have always been fascinated by Magnolias, but have never really had a chance to go up close and check one out. I have entertained the idea of just walking into someone's yard and enjoying their tree, but I thought that might be weird.)

Well, this time of year, they go to seed...


The inner part of the flower (the "fruit") turns color and then opens...


...and slowly drops its seeds to the ground.






Then it dries up and falls off the tree.


Amazing.



Man, I love how God made things!

Well, the boys did NOT spend as much time as I did looking at the trees. After looking for 1 or 2 minutes, they were ready to climb.

Can you see William in there?


As their bravery mounted, they climbed higher and higher. I think they went up at least twice as high as William was in the last picture.

William was the first to go up.


Then Trevor joined him. When Samuel got home from school, he wasn't far behind.




It has been a daily activity ever since.

* * * * * * * * *



Samuel came in from school yesterday with these cool shades..."Spy Glasses" he proudly calls them. He wore them the WHOLE rest of the day...even while playing computer. I'm sure they made everything green, but he didn't care.



When I saw his bloodshot eyes at bedtime, I had to tell Samuel he couldn't wear those glasses all day anymore... :)

Soccer, Soccer, Soccer...

And other stuff, too.



Soccer has been so much fun this year. Just this week William and Judson played against each other, and it was so fun to watch.

I mostly have mediocre soccer pictures to share. It seems like either the light is bad, or the kids have commandeered my camera, or I'm too distracted by visiting with friends or family.

William is enjoying the game...


He gets in a few good kicks just about every game.


(I warned you they were mediocre!)

Trevor has really improved this year. Boy, that just didn't pack the punch I wanted.
Trevor has REALLY improved this year. I can't believe he is the same kid we watched last year. He still enjoys playing Forward, and gets some kicks in. But his new great thing is playing Defense.

Ok, here's a really bad picture...but look close:


If you look close, you can see Trevor (the little one to the left, with his arms out, kicking the -hidden- ball) running up to some pretty big kids...the ball is behind that person's head in the picture. Trevor has just become un-afraid of the ball, and of the other boys. He is DETERMINED to keep that ball away from the goal. It is so fun to watch him working hard and having fun.



Not sure who took that one, but I like it...Trevor looks happy.

We have had other fun on the weekends...


One of the boys had the idea to play Croquet a while back... that was a lot of fun.


I don't think William was swinging that at Samuel's head...There was a lot of "high-sticking" going on, though...

We have also enjoyed flying airplanes...


How fun is that????


Thanks for the planes, Grandpa!! (And the Croquet!)


William flies the most, but the other boys really enjoy it, too...


(And wasn't that a pretty picture?! What a nice yard for flying airplanes!)

Also, Tim built the boys a ramp for their scooters and bikes...


I'll just splash up all the pictures I have of that and let you enjoy their different faces and concentration...and notice when they get "air".













Last one...


Lastly, we have been enjoying one of our new "toys"...a Cool Daddy Fryer. Man, have we had some good food lately. Or, maybe I should say "tasty"...not sure how good it is for us. At least it's good for morale... Good and tasty.

We made these wonderful donuts on a Saturday morning recently:



We got the fryer with Christmas money from Joe...Thanks for the fryer Joe!!







YUM!