Day 273: Corn Maze

Fall is my favorite season and October is probably my favorite month, but this evening, the last evening of September, we squeezed in one of our favorite October activities, a visit to the Pumpkin Patch on Sauvie Island, where we got completely lost in the huge corn maze. It was a wonderful evening and it was so hard to choose one photo!

Day 272: Farewell Old Blue

We bought a tiny, new silver car over the weekend, so today we took Old Blue to Goodwill and said goodbye.

Day 271: Opening presents

David took most of the birthday pictures today but here is the birthday boy engaged in the serious business of opening gifts before breakfast. Noah had a wonderful day - every time he heard the date mentioned on the radio, he shouted "September 28th - they are talking about MY birthday!". He went to bed singing, "And I love my cake..."

Day 270: Wilson

Up late, making Noah's birthday cake (Wilson from Chuggington - with a couple of modifications!). I am finding it hard to believe my baby will be four years old tomorrow...

Day 269: Another milestone

A bittersweet moment today when I went clothes shopping with Anna, who now no longer buys clothes from the 4- 6 year old section, but the 7-14 year old section. Instead of just picking out a dress that we liked the look of, she selected six dresses and we went to the fitting room so she could try them all on and choose her favorite. I do feel sad that she is growing up so fast, but it was a lovely mother-daughter experience. One of my very favorite things to do with my mum is go clothes shopping, so it was very special to have my first grown up clothes shopping experience with Anna. Looking forward to many more similar outings!

Day 268: Hula Hoop

Anna and Noah had a playdate at OMSI after church with their friends Kaia and Layna. Anna and Kaia had a fun time trying out the hula hoops.

Day 267: Setting up the goal

The first Munchkin soccer games of the season took place today and we were at the field bright and early to set up the goal posts. Noah was a great helper as always!

Day 266: A new game

Daniel is working on designing a new board game, built from lego. I can't wait to play it!

Day 265: New glasses

I have needed glasses since I was four or five - as long as I can remember - and I have always hated them. I started wearing contacts when I was 18 and have been very thankful for them, but sadly the time has now come that my eyes will no longer tolerate them on a regular basis. So today, I picked up a new pair of glasses and I have decided to embrace this new look. Life is too short to be so vain!

Day 264: Dawn

We have been getting up earlier since school started, as Johnny has to leave for middle school an hour sooner than he left for elementary school. This morning when I woke up, I looked out of the window and the sky looked like this, so I ran outside to take a photo!

Day 263: Princesses on the swing

Anna and her friend Ellie love to dress up in their princess dresses and play in the back yard. I only wish Anna would put dress up clothes away after she is done with them...

Day 262: Roast chicken

Really, does anything look (or smell!) better than a roast chicken just out of the oven?

Day 261: Spiderweb

I used to be terrified of spiders and I still would rather not have them in the house, but this was a really spectacular sight in our front yard today.

Day 260: Soccer in the rain

Another victory for the Spartans, 4-1!

Day 259: Yes, we have a mole lady

Enough is enough! We have tolerated a mole in our yard for several weeks but now we have declared war, with the help of a very friendly mole trapper.

Day 258: Here comes the rain again...

I can't believe that this is the only picture I took today but it is. It was a busy, fun day and it rained - the first rain in weeks. This is a puddle in our driveway.

Day 257: Anna's first piano lesson

We are absolutely thrilled that Anna is going to take piano lessons with Daniel's beloved piano teacher. Here they are: lesson one of what we hope will be a long and enjoyable piano career!

Day 256: Warming Up

Today was Johnny and Daniel's first soccer game of the fall season. Here is part of the team warming up before the game. Fortunately the temperature has really dropped since the weekend, but note the color of the grass - in a few weeks, it will look totally different. Oh, and the boys' team won: 5 - 4! Go Spartans!

Day 255: Dilemma

This is Old Blue (or Old Bluie, depending on which member of the family you ask), our twenty year old Oldsmobile, which was kindly given to David when we moved here, nearly eight years ago. This car has been a faithful friend and we have had many adventures in it (and a near disaster when I liquified the brakes on a narrow, winding mountain road and was unable to stop - sorry Jo!). Now we have learned that it needs serious repair work done. Do we fix it, buy a newer, more fuel efficient car, or see if we can make do with one vehicle? Decisions, decisions...

Day 254: Helpful children

All the kids would much prefer to help by preparing food rather than tidying or cleaning, so I try to find them jobs that they enjoy AND which really assist me. Following this corn-shucking session, Anna went into our front yard to pick tomatoes for a salad and trod on a wasp - a terrible price for being helpful!

Day 253: Speed bumps

Noah was enthralled by the road crew installing speed bumps on our street, this one just a few feet from our driveway. If you want to see what I was doing today, click here!

Day 252: Another rose...

Remember this? This might be the last rose of summer...

Day 251: Dinner

I roasted these wonderful vegetables from the garden - so delicious!

Day 250: Harvest

Our pumpkins didn't make it this year, but we have four kinds of tomatoes, zucchini, peppers and herbs all ripe and ready to eat. And there are at least a dozen butternut squashes maturing nicely. Delicious!

Day 249: First day of Middle School

Here is my wonderful eldest child on his way to school for his first day of sixth grade.

Day 248: Last day of summer

A lovely, restful, getting-ready-for-school Labor Day. Although it is the end of summer, we have a fabulous sunflower in the backyard - unfortunately, it is the only one that made it out of the dozen or so we planted!

Day 247: Sunday afternoon hike

We are so fortunate to live close to the Columbia Gorge with its many gorgeous waterfalls. My favorite waterfall in the gorge is Wakheena ("most beautiful") Falls. Today we went on a hike with friends from church, past Wakheena Falls and up into Wakheena Canyon, which was cool and fabulously green on a hot afternoon.

Day 246: A game of fetch in the lake

Remember this? And this? Here we are again at one of our favorite places, Trillium Lake on Mount Hood. Last time we were here, we hiked around the lake in the snow. Today the kids and Tilly swam in the lake and we enjoyed a wonderful relaxing day with friends, who treated us to delicious Dutch Oven cooking.

Day 245: Chemists

Today I took my third trip to OMSI in a week (making good use of our membership after a summer out of town!) and, once again, we had a great time. Here are Anna and her good friend Natalia engaged in an experiment with concentrates in the chemistry lab.

Day 244: Back to School Barbecue

I can hardly believe it is September. School doesn't start until next Tuesday, but we had a wonderful Back to School barbecue at the elementary school this evening. I took this picture while we were getting ready - once the event began and we started serving hot dogs and burgers, there was no time for photos!