Halloween Highlights

October seemed to go by much too quickly. I guess it's because we were so busy moving in, exploring the area, and trying to get into a routine. We're almost there now, but we're also heading into that season when routine gets all messed up once again. So we're just trying to enjoy life and keep up with the kids' education. We're managing to do that with both books and fun stuff.

Our fall season kind of got started with an afternoon when Katie Mei started showing the ability to place eyes, noses, and mouths on faces. So I got out the construction paper, cut out the pieces, and let her go at it with the glue stick. This girls LOVES glue sticks and doesn't behave very well when her task is complete and the glue is taken away. She did a great job making pumpkin faces, and they're still on our window despite the need for turkeys now.

She did these all by herself!

Days after the paper pumpkin faces, we decided to make cookies. Merrilee had been begging me to do this, and I prepared the dough ahead of time, so we were ready to go. This was Katie Mei's first time at independently cutting and decorating cookies. She loved it!

Surprisingly, Katie Mei really is quite adept at tasks that involve finer motor skills. She's doing very well for her age.

She did her own decorating.

Grandma and Grandpa arrived last week for their first visit to our house. We looked forward to taking them to the zoo, the aquarium, and showing them around town. But I think they enjoyed spending time with the kids the most. With Katie Mei growing and changing so fast, it doesn't take long to feel like you've missed out on something if you don't see her daily. G & G hadn't seen her since August and could already tell she'd improved dramatically in her speech and skills. She really is a blast...she's got a personality that is just so animated and unexpected. She's like a grown-up in a little person's body, and she has a sense of humor that takes us by surprise and keeps us all laughing. It was a joy to share her with my parents.

Back to Halloween.... This year I got out of pumpkin carving because Grandma and Grandpa were willing to deal with the muck. This was Katie Mei's first pumpkin, so she wasn't really sure what to make of the mess. In the end, she was glad to have Grandma clean her pumpkin out for her.

Grab it here...

Open it like the big kids do...

Peek inside to see what all the fuss is about...

Stick my arm in to find the candy...

Ewwww...this isn't candy!

In the end, they got their pumpkins carved with Grandma and Grandpa's help. Grandpa even cleaned the table and floor for me. (THANK YOU BOTH SO MUCH! YOU REALLY CAN COME TO OUR HOUSE FOR HALLOWEEN EVERY YEAR!) The kids were happy they had their pumpkin faces, and I was glad I didn't have to do it.

The night before Halloween, Merrilee and Jacob, my party animals, planned a little party and invited us. Here is the invitation (the scanner cut off the side of the page, but you can figure it out):

[Those are bats next to a pumpkin] "You are all invited to a party"
"You are invited to a party. It is fun. Everyone can come it is not scary. You can talk, you can play games, you can lisin to misic. It will be fun."

"Party time ya!"

There was music,

Dancing,

And a bat!

The kids finally topped off Halloween with a trip to the Baptist church for a fall festival party. It was rainy in our neighborhood, and most of the neighbors didn't even have their lights on. We decided not to even try knocking on doors after failure at the first house, so we headed into town. The kids got gobs of candy for playing the games and having a good time. And Mom and Grandma didn't have to treck around the 'hood in the rain! Can't beat that!

Katie Mei was the cutest little bat ever, Merrilee was an angel, and Jacob was a very disheveled red ninja.

So this holiday is over, October is a memory, and we are now into November. Yesterday we went to the library for Crafternoon and the kids made the handsomest little turkeys out of pipe cleaners. When I was in Kohl's the other day, the Christmas decorations and little lighted trees were up. Now it's time to spin through decorating for Thanksgiving, planning the big meal, taking down Thanksgiving decorations, Advent season (the best part!), Christmas decorating, church Christmas events, Christmas shopping, tree trimming, Christmas dinner, and all the details in between. You know what? Today the newspaper had printed in big letters "ONLY 50 SHOPPING DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!"

This year I just want to focus on finding a church home and celebrating the season of our Lord's birth with my family. Since when did Halloween become the opening act for the Christmas season? Crazy, isn't it?

Until my next post (I have lots of catching up to do here!), I send my love,

Petrie

Katie Mei's first trip to the zoo

We visited the Chehaw Park Zoo last week and had one of the most lovely fall days ever. The day was sunny and the park was shady. The temperature was just right with the slight hint of fall smell in the air (well, in between the whiffs of Bison poo and reptile aroma).

We started our visit with a look at the black rhino and the flamingos. Katie Mei thought those pink birds were pretty interesting since they were standing there on one leg.


Then the path led into the main part of the park, with the cheetahs to the right and the meerkats to the left. We went right. It was not what I expected.


The cheetah area was a fairly good sized grassy space with a few rocks and trees, and I initially saw one cheetah pretty far off lying in the grass. Typical, I thought. The animals at the zoo are usually asleep and couldn't care less if we stared at them or not. Just about the time the thought was completely formed in my head, this larger, sinewy, "real-looking" cheetah came out of nowhere staring me right in the eye and heading right towards me. I have to admit, this is the first time I ever felt threatened in a zoo.



The place where I was standing was only about eight to ten feet off the ground and there was a fence around the cheetah's area about four feet out in front and below me. You can see from the photo that the fence really didn't even separate me from that cat. And though I don't have any photos of him heading straight for me (I was trying to get my camera out and hanging on to the stroller ready to run all at the same time), his look was sinister and I would swear he was eyeballin' Katie Mei like she was lunch. I could envision one swift leap and he'd be over that fence to grab his sweet snack.

Finally, as Katie Mei and I stayed in the background, the creepy cat walked away and jumped up on the rock to stare down the meerkats. I was left with that shivery feeling of what it must be like for people who live in areas of the world where wild cats are a real threat. Those animals are absolutely gorgeous, but they are still beasts of prey and are not to be taken lightly. I think the reason this one really bothered me is because it really did look right at me as if it was sizing me up. You don't usually have zoo animals look at you as if they care.



I was ready to high-tail it out of there. I've always wanted to go on a safari. Now I'm wondering if that's such a good idea....

So we moved on, passing some monkeys with whom Katie Mei seemed to find a common bond. She really enjoyed them. After we left the park we asked her if she remembered seeing the monkeys, to which she replied "Yes! Jacob mukmuk!" (her word for monkey). Hmmmm. I wonder if she thinks Jacob and monkeys are one in the same. Takes one to know one.

Then we got to the black bears. Miss KM knew exactly what the huge black animal was through the fence, which surprised me. She has seen lots of drawings of bears in books, but as in most kids' books they are the Teddy Bear-looking cartoon bears. I don't know where she might have seen a real bear photo. But in any case, she knew it was a bear. And a BIG bear it was. However, if cheetahs are the fastest land animals in the world, how come there was more fencing for the bear than the cheetah? This lead me to wonder how high a cheetah can actually jump, and this is what I found: http://hownow.brownpau.com/archives/2005/11/deer-and-cheetah/ . Makes me feel better about the cheetah not eating my baby.

We then took a meandering path to see an eagle and a couple bobcats. Neither was very interesting. I'll skip on those photos to save you the trouble of trying to find the animals among the trees.

The trail then brought us to the American Bison. This is a beautiful, powerful, amazing animal. I was really surprised by how large he was. I know I've seen bison in zoos before, but maybe it was our proximity to him that made me realize how truly awe-inspiring they are. I then started thinking about how scary and wonderful it must have been to witness a stampede of these things thundering across an open prarie early in American history. It is so sad that these beasts' numbers have dwindled. As powerful as they are, it's a wonder they aren't more of a national symbol like the bald eagle.

Katie Mei was very much taken with the bison and didn't want to leave. We had to stand there for at least 15 minutes while she watched him lick his own nostrils and tried to imitate him. Blech.

When we could finally convince her to leave the bison, we passed by a few more displays and made it to the zebras. Ahhhh, real zoo animals, right? Seems we always think the three main ingredients for a zoo are elephants, zebras, and giraffes. Why is that? This little zoo was beautiful and had not a single elephant of giraffe. Maybe it's just because they're so exotic that we always think of them as being in a zoo.

Anyway, the zebras were delightful, and like most of the animals in this zoo, they were active and close enough to see and enjoy. Katie Mei had no problem identifying the "zee-bahs".

We rounded out our trip with a kiddo photo on the cement turtle. I couldn't resist, since we also have a photo of M & J on a cement bear from our first visit to a zoo with the kids back in 2006.

(now)

(then)

And we eventually came full circle and found the meerkats. They had to be the cutest little boogers I ever saw! And I think they thought the same of my kids!

This little guy found Jacob rather interesting. Maybe he thought Jacob looked a little like a monkey in sunglasses.

Katie Mei found some fast friends in the meerkats.

Our visit to the zoo ended with a trip to the reptile house, which was essentially a bunch of snakes, toads, and lizards behind glass so that flash photography results in pictures of reflections of flashes of light. No lizard pics. Sorry folks.

We did get a photo of the gopher tortoises digging and flinging dirt, though. So here is the final photo of Katie Mei watching the "too-too" dig it's hole.

Hope you enjoyed our visit to the zoo as much as we did. And despite the fact that I was originally going to title this post as "The cheetah wanted to eat my baby", it was a wonderful visit and we're looking forward to doing it again soon.

Love,

Petrie

The Week in Photos

This was the weather ten days ago. Merrilee was flinging herself off the diving board to cool off, I was sitting on the porch with my Diet Coke cracking pecans, and Jacob was off playing with neighborhood kids (and wondering why they disappeared everytime he came in the house for a drink of ice water....why do boys do that? Girls usually wait for their friends.). Anyway, it was about 91 degrees here that day.

Today is a different story. We went to bed feeling chilly, since it was chilly yesterday in the 60s. But I'll do all I can to hold off turning on the heat. Using the heat pump officialy marks the end of summer for me (yeah, I know summer ended in September, but you know what I'm talking about!), and I just can't bear the thought of saying goodbye. But last night it got down to 64 degrees...in the house! I gave in and turned on the heat upstairs so the kids wouldn't turn into popsicles. It wasn't until this morning after I got up at 7 am that I turned on the heat downstairs. I crumbled. It was just too cold. Our digital outdoor thermometer said it was 39 degrees out there. UGH!!!!!

So this is what the kids look like today:

Fall is officially here and I will finally concede to the change of seasons. And as you can see, Jacob has apparently grown a bit since last winter. His jacket sleeves didn't keep up with him. Time to pull out the size larger hand-me-downs.


Aside from the weather, we finally got around to making our first pecan pies from our own nuts. I shelled about 1.5 quarts in a little over an hour. I'm now able to shell them without breaking the nut meat inside. I just need to work on my speed.

On Tuesday I took the kids to the Flint RiverQuarium. Albany amazes me with it's small town atmosphere, but it's big-town amenities. There is an aquarium, a zoo, and a planetarium (which I haven't found yet). It's really easy to find my way around here, and I seem to take to driving around on my own much more comfortably than anywhere else we've lived. I really do like it here.

The aquarium has a lot of fun things to do, including homeschool days, discovery days, and toddler activities. We went ahead and got a family membership, so for those of you who might like to visit, we can take you to the aquarium as our guests! You're already looking at your calendars to see how soon you can get here, aren't you? http://www.flintriverquarium.com/



After her initial fears, Katie Mei was rather interested in the American Alligator.

On Thursday evening, Jay got dressed up in his blues and took us to the Civic Center to see the USMC Silent Drill Team from 8th & I in Washington DC. The program wasn't very long, but it was perfect for the kids and all three of them seemed to enjoy it.

I don't know what we'll be doing this coming week, but I heard that Wednesday is supposed to be a bit warmer. I'm thinking about heading out to the zoo. They also have educational programs and a fantastic playground. http://www.parksatchehaw.org/education.htm . That's the fun thing about homeschooling...it doesn't always have to been book learnin' or scheduled activities. We can get up and go on field trips whenever the weather bids. Here's to a lovely Indian Summer...which can't get here soon enough.

Hope you are all keeping warm and enjoying the autumn.

Love,

Petrie

Mark's Melon Patch!

Saturday was the day the kids had long been waiting for...a trip to Mark's Melon Patch to pick out their pumpkins and take a hay ride. It was a bit hot and sweaty, and the gangs of gnats have been relentless around here, but it was fun.






The day was sunny and bright, and we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful sky. It was gorgeous blue and really made the sunflowers and pumpkins shine.

Katie Mei had her first hay ride. She wasn't thrilled about being awakened from her short nap in the car, so she played Ms. Grumpy for the first ten minutes or so. She also wasn't really sure about sitting in all that pokey stuff. Dad's lap was the place to be for starters.

But once she got the hang of things, and had a little straw-throwing fight with Jacob (courtesy of Daddy starting things), she warmed right up.

After the hayride, we sat down to drink some juice and sodas. Then Merrilee and Jacob checked out the not-so-scary "Spooky Trail". After listening to their bravado of how it wasn't very scary, I told them to pretend they were scared for the photo. I have to admit, they did a pretty darned good job of making like they were scared--if you click on the photo and look at Merrilee's face up close, you'll see she's pretty convincing. Maybe acting careers are in both their futures. Just what I need...kids who star in horror flicks.

We spent the next twenty minutes trying to get good photos of the kids with the pumpkins. It was a hard-fought battle, as the gnats were so obnoxious that the kids kept swatting and slapping. I got very few photos with a picture of all three kids with all six hands down.

Katie Mei and Daddy found some fun in the wheelbarrows used for hauling pumpkins. After a few rounds, Merrilee had to join in the action.

Before we left with our pumpkins, we found a pile of discarded green plants. Upon closer inspection we saw that they were peanuts. It was nice to be able to give the kids an up-close view of peanut plants with the peanuts still attached. I think they thought peanuts grew on trees like other nuts.

We're going to wait a couple more weeks before we cut into our pumpkins. With the weather still in the upper 80s and the over-friendly gnats, I don't think it would be wise to gut our orange friends just yet.

Later ya'll,

Petrie

Still Digging Out

Seems folks yearn for a new home, a new beginning, a time to start afresh. I've had someone ask to see pictures of the house. Yeah....it's not really a good time for pictures. I've been holding back on showing off my new home or inviting friends over. Here's why:

There are still a few boxes in the living room, some of which are blocking the front door entrance.

There are still some boxes and junk cluttering the bedroom.

And I haven't really gotten around to unpacking the thousands of books in the office.

I also have a friend (and you know who you are) who has pool envy. My dear friend, I want to help you overcome the sin of covetousness. These photos might help.

Even on days which are too cool for us to use the pool, there are always swimmers.

Look closely. They are good swimmers, but they cannot overcome the power of a strong filtration system. From what I've come to learn, snakes also enjoy a good swim and end up in the skimmers now and then.

And this little guy is lucky. I can pull him out and throw him into the lawn and he hops away. It's the other ones, bloated and lifeless, that I've had to pull out and toss in the burn pile that gross me out. It's really not the corpse that bothers me, it's the...well, never mind. If I tell you, you won't come to our house and swim in our pool.

Hope todays blog satisfies everyone's itch to move to a new home and get a fresh start. ;-)

Hugs,

Petrie