November 5 Squirrels

Thursday:  It's that time of year when all the neighborhood is out raking and blowing leaves. It's been such a mild fall, very pleasant outside, so being outside was quite nice! I raked a total of 4.5 hours today. Half in the morning, and half in the late afternoon. I have to split it up, because the battery on my blower only lasts just so long and then it has to be recharged, which takes a few hours. The blower I have is not very powerful actually, so I do a combination of raking, blowing, and shoveling actually.

I've enjoyed my birds so much this fall. The new feeders I bought at a very reasonable price have worked out really well. They are water proofed so that the seeds are protected from moisture and don't get all clogged up anymore. The little birds come sometimes 6-8 at once!

The squirrels are loving the new feeders too ... nothing I do can keep them from climbing up the pole and eating all they want of the bird seed. I had a squirrel guard for a long time, but it never deterred the squirrels even slightly--they would just make a running leap for it and up they would go.

This first little guy climbed up the pole pretty fast, but then he couldn't figure out how to reach the feeders. He fidgeted for quite awhile, turning his body this way and that ...

For a minute, I thought he was going to give up and jump off; but then he just flipped himself over and stretched out ...

He wrapped his tail around one of the arms of the feeder and stretched with all of his might. I think he looks miserably uncomfortable! He stayed right there for quite awhile, eating to his full, while the little bird on the top arm waited patiently for his turn.

Another squirrel hopped into my window feeder and made himself quite at home too.

Now that I have my windows closed for the winter, I can't talk to these guys any more. I used to try and imitate their little sounds and they would actually talk back to me!

I have a bowl on the front porch that I fill with peanuts for the squirrels. I almost got one of them to come to my hand the other day, but then he chickened out. One of these days, it might just happen!

November 3 The Kiddos

Tuesday:  I have absolutely ZERO pictures from last Tuesday! I'm not sure what exactly happened with me, but I totally forgot to take out my phone and snap a few quick pictures.

The weather has been nice enough, all through October and now in early November, for the children to enjoy playing outside once they come home from school; so that's what they've been doing. They come in real quick after getting off the bus, eat their snack of cinnamon toast, and then OUT they go!

Aidan is generally with Aaryan. They play soccer in either the front or back yard, or go down to Aaryan's house to play for awhile. Erin runs in and out, and is usually joined by her good friend, Emmy. Cal likes to go across the street to play with Caden (I'm not positive if I have this name right), who lives just about exactly across the street from them.

Dylan and Kelly were home from work a little earlier tonight. Kelly had to go back out to pick Brendan up from play practice. Did I tell you that Brendan has a part in "High School Musical!"? He tells me it isn't a BIG part or one of the main characters, but he does sing with a group of kids and somehow rides in on a skate board ...

I have two funerals to attend this week: one on Thursday, and the other on Saturday. The Saturday one will take most of the day because it is one of my close friend's mom who went home to Jesus. This friend, Gail, is my "step-cousin" and my "other brother" David (my step-brother) is coming into town from Florida to honor his aunt. Anyway, David would like to get together with me to "catch up" on news, etc., so that's what we will do. 

Because of a busier week, I decided to delay Cal's overnight to next weekend when I will be more inclined to have more energy for him.

October 24 Schwallier's with Erin

Saturday:  I knew it would be crowded over at Schwallier's Country Basket today because, well, it is was a weekend with beautiful fall weather, and there is only one more week they will be opened for their hayrides and other fall activities.

There is a lot of "free" stuff to do over at the orchard. A nice playground. Goats to feed. A LONG slide that is really fast. They have a nice gift store with tons of snacks (not free) and other goods. Erin LOVES gift shops!

I was relieved when Erin said she wasn't interested in going through the corn maze. I'm not crazy about mazes because I get hopelessly lost in them! The corn maze is in the back lots of the orchard--you take a carriage ride out there and there are a few activities that are fun to do back there, but none of them are worth $16/person, so we stayed at the main play areas.

Look! Chickens!

I'm not sure why Erin has this expression on her face ... she is so funny sometimes!

Here she is feeding the little goats. They were VERY enthusiastic about the pellets Erin had. The little black one (middle top picture) kept jumping up almost to Erin's shoulder to try to reach the pellets. Erin is very gentle with these little goats and loves them.

Here is the cool slide ...

And the corn digging place ...

They had the duck races too, which Erin always enjoys. We couldn't find many ducks though!

We paid our $4 to ride the cow train. I opted out because my knees are too sore to try to cram them into these little cow cars. Erin was fine with me staying back to take pictures.

We went in and out of the gift shop numerous times. Erin decided she didn't want any donuts at all. We did get her an apple cider pumpkin cup, though, because she really likes those. AND since we didn't spend the extra money on the back part of the orchard, Erin got to pick out a little stuffy ... she named her little dog "Chip."

I love these pictures of you, Erin!

We took a few pictures of Erin posing in the Great Pumpkin ...

Afterwards, we enjoyed lunch at Culver's on Alpine. We had so much fun here. Erin is eight going on eighteen. She is very enjoyable to spend time with and I love her to pieces.

Silly girl!!!

I love you, Erin!
 

October 23 Erin's Overnight

Friday:  I don't usually do two Friday night's in a row (because I am a wimp); but Erin said she has been waiting "too long" for her turn ... so tonight it was!

I set out a bunch of different LEGOs for her to play with: My treehouse and my lighthouse, and I added some other little toys to make the pretending a little more fun. Erin has a good imagination, and she really enjoys making up stories with these toys. I love watching her do this.

Erin also decided to work on some Origami, and she also worked on creating a book.

I was showing Erin some of the placemats I have (which I've had for years), and she decided she would fill in this alphabet one--which was very easy for her. She advised that I put these out when Gregory comes over so that he can practice his writing skills.

We had very delicious cheeseburgers (with catsup, mustard, pickles, and double cheese) and Cheese curls too. Erin is so easy to prepare a meal for! She loves cheeseburgers, and pretty much everything else ... well, not BROCCOLI; but I didn't like that when I was her age either.

After I cleaned up dinner, we got busy mixing up our cookie dough. I tied my only apron on Erin, hiking the strap up as high as possible, and we went at it. Erin enjoys cooking and mixing and doing lots of things like that in the kitchen. We had a lot of fun baking our chocolate chip cookies.

We each ate two cookies with our small root beer floats ...

We played for a little while, but then it was time to get our pjs on for movie time. We decided on Zootopia 2, which is a really LONG movie! We decided to watch the last 30 minutes in the morning because it was already 10:30pm. I was pretty convinced that it was late enough for us to actually go to bed and fall asleep ... but I was dead wrong. Erin was not at all interested in sleeping. I tried a bunch of stuff--like playing pretty music while I was washing dishes, rubbing her back for awhile, etc. She finally ran out of steam at about midnight and was ready to go again at about 7:15 am Saturday morning.

We ate cookies and drank chocolate milk for breakfast. I know. This was not very healthy. But we had fresh cookies! And delicious chocolate milk! Besides, I knew we were going to the orchard by about 10:30 and could get some fresh donuts there.

But before we left for Schwalliers, we combed the tangles out of Erin's pretty hair (which took awhile), but we were watching the conclusion of our movie from last night, so the time went pretty fast.

Look how long and beautiful Erin's hair is!

Erin was pretty intent on finishing her book before we left for the orchard. Her book is about a camping trip that never actually happened. She said her second book is the "sequel", and that's when the camping trip will actually happen. OK.

Erin also begged for us to play a game of Pachesi, but we were getting tight on time so we played with only three tokens instead of four, and I set a timer for 20 minutes. When the timer went off, Erin was very far ahead on the board and was declared THE WINNER.

I took a bunch of photos at the orchard ... next post.

October 20 Tuesday

Tuesday:  Here is our Gregory Callaghan eating his two pieces of cinnamon toast after school today. I'm really not so sure what is desirable in a piece of cinnamon toast, but these kiddos really seem to look forward to having theirs! I'm glad! It's not the worst snack in the world. Their toaster oven can handle six slices at a time! Easy to fix! Easy to clean up! Not super sugary!

Here is Aidan. He invites his friend Aayran over each Tuesday; and he, too, eats two slices of cinnamon toast!

Here is Aaryan. The first time I saw this person, he was across the street, getting off the bus. I assumed he was female (because of his hair), but he is NOT. He is from Sri Lanka, and evidently that's how boys wear their hair there (rhyme!).

Aaryan went home to his house and then another friend came over to play soccer ...

This is Owen who has recently moved down the street from the kids.

This is the back yard of their house. It's such a nice space for the kids to play.

Their soccer game went on for a very long time. Cal is three years younger; but he's a tough little kid, so the older boys don't mind if he plays with them.

I spent some time with Erin before her friend, Emmy, came over to play. They played in the back yard for awhile, but then walked on down to Emmy's house. Emmy just returned from a short vacation to ICELAND. I asked her if she saw any waterfalls. She said waterfalls were EVERYWHERE! 

These are just some pretty little flowers in Kelly's front flower garden ... hanging on in the cooler weather, and so pretty.

It's Erin's turn to come for an overnight this Friday. We're going to go to Schwallier's Country Basket and play over there for awhile on Saturday. Deer Tracks last open day was October 18! I will so miss going there with the kids until next spring! 

October 17 at Deer Tracks Junction

Saturday:  We made it out to Deer Tracks Junction by about 10:45 Saturday morning. Their very last day of the summer season is 10/18--tomorrow! I think I got the most out of my membership this year because I am pretty sure I used it 6x; so instead of paying $20 each time for my entrance fee, I really only paid a little over $12. PLUS, they gave me four "free" passes for grandchildren! What a nice place. I swear that it is 10x better than anything Disney has put together! Whoever built this place was an absolute genius.

Since Aidan will have absolutely nothing to do with the Budgies (!!), we didn't purchase any seed sticks; instead, we purchased 1 cup of apple slices and 1 cup of carrot sticks to feed to the animals (mostly the pigs, because the pigs are Aidan's favorite animals).

We started at the pig enclosure and stayed for a very LONG time. The pigs are so cute! They were VERY hungry today. Aidan was very careful with our food supply and broke each apple slice into littler pieces, as well as doing the same with the carrots. He explained to another visitor that this was how to make the most of your food.

It was a perfect day to visit out here. Nice and cool, no rain, not even a cloud in the sky. It was little bit chilly, but that was just fine. I love this place.

In order to get to the pigs, you have to walk past the EMUs--these guys are SO aggressive! They are truly hilarious animals. I wanted to touch one SO badly but they kept snapping at me for more food, and when they SNAP, it's really with a lot of force!

But then two ladies approached the Emu with open hands full of pellets and the Emu actually ate right out of the hands of these ladies! And they let the ladies touch their heads and backs and everything. I watched them carefully to see if they were getting hurt, but they weren't ... so I snuck up on one (very hard to do) and touched the back of it's neck. Their hair is very coarse and thick--not at all soft. But their EYES! Yikes. They look right into your eyes like they've got your number or something! I felt so glad that I actually got to TOUCH one of them though. NEXT YEAR I am going to be braver and see what happens.

The sheep are behind fences that abut against the pig enclosure, so we got to feel them too. Aidan was VERY into the sheep today. They are SO cute, and it's not hard at all to pet their soft heads.

The baby goats were super hungry today. We fed a few of them, but most of our food was gone by the time we came back around to their place.

Aidan had the duck game going really well, but figured out that only the middle pump was actually working. He didn't remember that this play house had an upstairs, so he went inside and climbed up so that I could snap his picture.

They have the BEST playgrounds here. See Aidan at the very top of this climbing apparatus? There are so many different levels, with tunnels connecting, and even tunnels underground.

While Aidan was climbing, I visited with the turkeys for awhile. 

Aidan had a lot of fun in the tube pretending he was a hamster! 

And then we went back to the sheep and pigs for awhile.

I love this picture of Aidan ...

We picked out a few very small gifts at the Gift Shop. Toys were marked down, probably because it is the end of their season. I picked out four more tiny 3-D printed animals (a cardinal, a penguin, a raccoon, and the cutest little beaver--for a total of $5.99!), and Aidan was able to choose a 3-D printed dragon with movable wings, kind of purplish in color, very nice for $7.99!

We were super hungry when we got to Culver's and enjoyed a very nice meal together. Aidan gets a grilled cheese with fries every time we eat here; along with root beer, and then vanilla ice cream which he combines with the root beer to make a float. He also dips his French fries into his root beer and ice cream, which I find a little bit odd--but he actually ate every speck of his meal, so I really had no complaints.

What a nice sleepover, Aidan! Thanks so much for coming to my house! I love you to pieces.