Jack O' Lantern Journey

Another sign of fall and Halloween are jack-o-lanterns.  We took a stroll at the Franklin Park Zoo to gaze among 5,000 illuminated jack-o-lanterns.

 While waiting our turn, we observed a live carving performance and enjoyed playing tic tac toe with miniature pumpkins.

 What was simply amazing was that all of these images were made out of pumpkins put together to make a much larger image.  Amazing, creative and beautiful.  We are all officially in the Halloween spirit.

Fall is Apple Picking Time



 Fall in New England = Apple Picking.  We've enjoyed heading to Connors Farm the past few years and so headed back on a day the weather man predicted a 76 degree day.  It seemed as all of Boston had the same thought!  We headed out early and beat most of the rush.

 New this year was a mini-train with a track that ran around the perimeter of the farm.  We eyed what trees looked good for apple picking yet to come.

 Every year Connors Farm creates a unique corn maze.  Scattered throughout the maze are clues that help lead you in the correct direction.  We made a few good guess as well making us find the exit in record breaking time... 23 minutes!

Micah enjoyed our water friends hanging out on the beautiful fall day.

 When we had our fill of farm activities, we headed to the orchard for apple picking.  There is nothing like team work to get to the ripe apples up high!

 It's way easier to pick apples if someone hold a branch down for you.

 We enjoyed tasting as much as picking.

What does one do with so many apples???  You start backing.  This was Izzy's first try at making a pie.  Rather than a traditional crust, we opted for a twist and made a cookie crust.  Depending on what it tastes like, she may be making this for Thanksgiving as her contribution.

 The finale to our day was picking out pumpkins for Halloween. 

Liz's 41st Birthday

 The final celebration of September was my birthday.  My actual birthday was a crazy, busy day filled with the children's activities.  We therefore celebrated the following day (Friday) which heralded in the weekend.  I came home to the house decorated with a birthday banner and balloons.  Izzy worked hard on creating a sugary concoction that even I thought was too sweet.  But she won points for creativity coming up with worm and slug gummies going in and out of the cake and cookie crumbled dirt / sand.

King Richards' Faire

 Fall hallmarks activities such a renaissance faires.   We all have enjoyed visiting King Richard's Faire the past few years and decided to go back this year given lovely weather.  Dressing the part always makes the experience more interactive.  I still giggle when others bow or curtsey to the kids as the are "royalty".   

 One of my favorite activities is watching the jousting.  This year we sat in the area supporting Sir Geoffrey.  Unfortunately during the jousting to the death, Sir Geoffrey was the first to die.  Maybe next year our knight will be the winner. 

 Face painting continues to delight the kids.  Micah this year requested to join and picked out a Patriots logo.

Pierce School FitFest

 A Pierce School tradition shortly after school resumes is FitFest.  This is a fun afternoon gathering promoting physical fitness by having fun with friends, neighbors and teachers.  A passport is purchased allowing students to go through 10 stations.  Each station is a bit different.  This year they ranged from yoga to parkour to field hockey to potato sack races.  In addition to the 10 stations, there is a 1 mile run that kicks off the afternoon.  This year Micah wanted to join Izzy and I running.  We spent the week before "training" which was definitely helpful.  That day was a mad rush to get back from church in time to change and get to the starting line.  Given that the course was blocked by police, John dropped us off ~ 5 blocks away.  We then jogged there only to find the race had already started.  We were encouraged by everyone along the route to go ahead and run regardless which was uplifting.  Despite starting blocks behind, we were able to catch up with the back of the pack and did not finish last!  I was so proud of Micah and Izzy for sticking with the run!

 Micah taking his turn at putting.

 Izzy on the zip line.

 A great yoga pose.

At the end passports are turned in for medals.  Izzy and Micah completed 7 of the 10 stations.  Victoria didn't want to do any.  She wanted to wear her cheerleading outfit and cheer us on running followed by hanging out with her friends.  As the passports cost $5 each, I informed her she had to do 5 stations or she owed John $1 for each she didn't do up to 5.  After two, she was completely fine with paying John back $3 and didn't complain at home when instructed to do so.  Yet another example of my strong willed daughter.

First Day of School

With all the excitement of summer and our wedding, I never thought I'd see the first day of school come.  But here it is!  We are all still trying to adjust back to a school schedule on top of extracurricular activities that all three would like to participate in this year.  Micah & Victoria (1st grade) have their own separate classrooms but are on in the same building.  Izzy has moved up to being a bigger kid at school (4th grade).  Her classroom is in a completely new wing of the school that I'm not as familiar with.  All of their teachers are excellent fits for each personality.  This is shaping up to be an outstanding year for all!

Izzy's Garden

Every year we try to improve upon Izzy's garden.  This year we added the white tubs to allow for more variety.  As with anything, we had trials and errors and will continue to work on perfecting our city garden.  Two plants we have planted in the past actually produced!... jalapenos and an eggplant.  The main reason why I think we did as well as we did was our neighbor's cutting down of a large tree that provided shade to the back of our condo.  Though we weren't happy due to lack of shade on our back porch, the garden certainly liked the change of scenery. 

A sampling of our bounty.  We all chuckled with our "baby corn".  Izzy was hoping for the corn to be large enough to use in a stir fry recipe.  These were too premature to be used for anything but fun nonetheless.  Our biggest success were the jalapenos and tomatoes.  Not all of them are pictured as we ate them over time when applicable.  Izzy was even able to enter her jalapenos in the county fair.