Colors Galore

so many beautiful things and colors this time of year - so so grateful

Covered Bridges

When I first came to Connecticut, I wanted to find some covered bridges - wow - I have been successful recently - and what a time of year to do it!

New York New York

LOVED getting more acquainted with NYC for the day with Megan and her sister, Erin! Fun to be there on an amazing fall day and couldn't get over how beautiful Central Park really is!

That's Spanish for.....

Adelaine is taking a Spanish Immersion class with her preschool. It was a high priority to me and pretty expensive, so I confess I'm really hoping to get a bit more out of her than the occasional "Hola". This is about how it goes:

1 - Sometimes if we say an English vocab word she doesn't know she asks, "Is that Spanish?". "No, Adelaine, that isn't Spanish....do you want to practice your your spanish?" "No thanks."

2 - I turn as many of our movies onto the spanish version as possible and my observant children notice about 1/2 hour in and say "Hey.....come on!"

or 3 - Adelaine says, "Bananano0na - That's Spanish for Purple." "No it isn't, honey." "Oh"

Above is a photo of Lukas' preparation for Halloween - one is his search for a costume - a "pothead" (no.....not knowing all its possible meaning....though I do giggle inside and kind of wish he did get to glory in his humor).

Second photo is of a bat he made out of a sock. He makes random crafts and just brings them to me - this is one of them. Cut the wings, taped them on. Glued a bunch of blue/black beads on and some googly eyes. But then he sheeshily asks, "But mom, what do I do now....I only have one sock?" I look down an indeed, he had used the sock off his own feet and was barefoot now on one foot. "Well - some people have 2 socks and some people have bats...you have a bat." He was satisfied.

Boston in the Fall

Can't deny that the Veggietales song "Pirates who can't do anything" went through my head as we drove to "Boston in the Fall" on Sundays. I do thank God that we moved to Connecticut NOT in the dead of dark winter, but in fact, just before some unreasonable beauty of fall foliage. I really am in awe. Oregon is outrageous in the fall and I miss it, but there is something different about the amount of colors all over the hills around here that definitely took me by surprise. I am also super grateful that we live just outside of the city where our drives to our daily locations take us along loads of farms and golf courses and rivers to also enjoy the beauty every day.

We drove to visit a friend of mine in Boston on Sunday, stopping at a Reservoir and at Walden Pond in Connecticut. Today Adelaine had a field trip to a local farm. Both super amazing fall activities and, as now eastcoasters, we embraced them both!

Last note - Praise and a prayer for Lukas:

Praise: He was apparerently a chatterbox at the beginning of school and was obviously NOT on the teacher's goodside. Considering I can't get a word out of the kid, I was shocked to learn that she couldn't shut him up and was super discouraged to hear that he was disrupting class and not liked by his teacher. We have been talking to him a ton about respect and praying with him the last week. On FRIDAY - Lukas is getting an award at his assembly at school for RESPECT (it is the quality of the month and each grade gives an award): His teacher can't believe the different kid he is in 2 weeks. Her care for him is even drastically different and he is so proud of himself (though the award itself will be a surprise). I want to wallap that kid sometimes, but man, when he works hard at something (usually getting OUT of trouble) I am proud!

Prayer: Lukas is struggling with nightmares/scared of his room at night. We have been trying everything from more light to prayer to conversations to him coming up with ideas. He has been communicating great about all he is feeling and mostly he just worries - worries about being scared even before he IS scared. It makes for a lot of middle of the night frustrations and tired mornings.

Lainie Loo is doing well we think - want a little friend for her and are going off of food coloring and some other food addititives to see if some homeopathic remedies can CALM THE GIRL down. She is bouncier than Tigger sometimes and usually gets injured in the process.

The prankster is back

Lukas: "Hey dad - can I see how tall you are?" (ie - come see how much you weigh)
Adam: "Okay - (sure" goes and steps on the scale)
Lukas: "Oh dad - that's weird - there's a bunch of soap on the scale." (small smile, walks out)
Adam" "Yeah - real mystery how it got there."