Oh what a beautiful morning ...

Saturday morning, November 2:  Brendan woke up at 7:00 AM with, "Grandma, Guess what?" I think Brendan asks that question about every five minutes! I will respond, "What, Brendan?" And then he begins a series of very interesting facts ... to inform me of lots of the cool stuff that is inside his brain. Brendan ate a heaping bowl of Captain Crunchberries, but fizzled out at the end because I don't think he truly liked them. [Note to self:  Next time you take Brendan to the grocery store and ask him to pick out his favorite cereal, use a little common sense and remember--not everything that LOOKS good actually TASTES good. As it was, Brendan wasn't sure about his choice and had three different ones all lined up--all of which were vastly different--so I asked him to pick just one of the three. I should have helped him pick out one that had more of a successful chance of being consumed.]

 After breakfast, we read for awhile, played with a few things, watched some funny Youtube videos (i.e. funny cats, funny pigs, etc.) but then we decided to take a little hike and combination playground outing over to Knapp Valley Forest.

 Brendan and I went straight BEYOND the playground to the high hill that overlooks the playground. We climbed it to the very top. I was hoping there was a trail that led into the woods from up there, but there wasn't! It was quite chilly outside (and I have little endurance for cold), so I coaxed Brendan back down the hill and we entered the woods from down there.

 Brendan is a very good explorer. He has good observational skills and enjoys himself. He likes to DISCOVER. Me too!

 We talked about the pretty leaves, the fallen branches, the shadows ... God's awesomeness in creation ...

 We found this hollowed-out tree. Brendan thought a squirrel family lived inside. I agree.

 This is a red maple tree. Brendan told me people can get maple out of these trees by drilling a hole and then bringing a bucket to catch the maple. He told me he had seen this done on a field trip last year in Kindergarten. 

 The sun was partially shining, which made the woods all that more beautiful.

 This is heaven to me. I don't even need Lake Michigan when I am surrounded with such beauty. And that's saying a lot.

 We had been in the woods long enough ... and I was starting to get too cold (and I have a scratchy throat too), so we raced back to the playground. This is a really nice place to play.

 Oh my word, Brendan. You are so darling.

From the playground, we drove over to Krispy Kreme to watch them make some donuts. I don't have pictures of it, but at one point, we noticed that the donuts on the assembly line were getting "caught" on a little notch and instead of flipping and proceeding, they were piling up and turning into BLOBS. We watched it happen again and again, pointing to it and talking about it (we had glass between us and the workers), but then finally a nice worker noticed our concern, approached the problem spot and fixed it. Voila. Donuts moved along, flipping upside down and proceeding along to be frosted, just like they were supposed to do. The worker smiled, gave us the thumbs up, and kind of made our day!

 I love these pictures of Brendan. But ... I just love everything about this little boy. So much to love.