Hello Fall

I just simply love the change of seasons. I think it because it is something new and fresh, and you get a little tired of the season you are saying good bye to. Today was the first day of fall, (it's always been fall to me, not autumn). I wouldn't say that I particularly have a favorite season. There are many good things about each one. They are all so different here where we live. I do think that makes us lucky. We are fortunate to experinece such differences during a year.

Today there were leaves falling off the trees in the neighbor's yard this morning as I let my doggies outside. The house was so dark as my hubby and I woke up to get ready for the day (okay, I don't love this part). When I look across the street, I see trees that have suddenly changed from green to yellow and light red.

Some of my favorite things in fall are the smells of bonfires which make me think of hayrack rides and roasting hot dogs and marshmallows. I like Halloween and seeing all of the little kids dressed in their favorite costumes. B's costume came in the mail today.... he is so excited. He took his nap in it today and wanted to sleep in it tonight. I love the fall decor- the pumpkins, straw bales, colorful leaves, and scarecrows. I wanted to get my boxes of house decor out this weekend, but didn't quite get to that. It is definately on the list for this week.

Here at my daycare and learning center, we have been studying about apples. Grandma Susan brought us some apples this weekend and B and I made an apple pie last night to share with our friends today at lunch.

The tots and I also made some cute acorn papers to send home that said "Happy Fall". I had found this idea at No Time for Flashcards, which is one of my very favorite blogs I have recently started following. The kids had lots of fun making these. A similar project we might be doing soon is this apple paper plate project found at The Ramblings of a Crazy Woman blog.

We also had some friends over for a playdate and I made a little after dinner snack for us to share. I couldn't find my leaf cookie cutter, so I just made circles, but told the boys that they were fall cookies because they had yellow icing and the red and brown sprinkles were the colors of leaves changing colors in the fall. I love my sugar cookies.

Tomorrow the plan is that we are making some home made applesauce! I'll let you know how it turns out.

How are you celebrating fall? Check out the Polka Dot Cottage and see how some others celebrated!

2 cool give aways...

Here at Simple Mom you can enter by tonight at midnight for a super cute birdie necklace from Lisa Leonard jewelry. I have a friend who is a proud owner of a Lisa Leonard piece, and I must tell you- it is way cool. Hop on over and check out the Simple Mom blog, do some fun reading, and then cruise over and see for yourself how lovely the jewelry is. Good Luck!

Here is another one I just found... over at Jessica's Quilting Corner, you can enter for a custom made surprise. Check out her blog and enter to win for her 100th post.

What fun... good luck to ya'll! And I want to know if you win!

5 New Books

I have an addiction. I love to buy childrens books. Every night we read books to B in before bed and we also read books during the day with the daycare tots. For the daycare, we do a classroom magazine called, Clifford the Big Red Dog. It is based on the Clifford series and this is our second year using it here. Each month we get 2 issues or "themes" and each tot is able to have their own copy to read along with. We also get a big book edition for me to hang on our board. The teachers guide comes with activities, book suggestions, songs, poems, and reproducibles for us to use. One of the other things I like about it is that it gives us a year long plan to go by for our themes.




For September the themes are Apple Orchard Colors and Friendships. With my ginormous selection of books, I am always able to pull some books out to go along with our themes. I am also always looking for new books to add to the theme selections when we are visiting the book store, garage stores, or any other place that sells books.
This weeks purchases from the book store were:






Red are the Apples by Mark Harshman Book for us to use during our carpet time while we read about our theme of apple orchard colors

Me on the Map by Joan Sweeny B will soon be learning about living on Earth, North America, USA, IA, and Glenwood. I thought this book was very cute.

Three Little Kittens by Paul Galdone Okay, what kind of mom have I been? I have not read the story of the 3 little kittens yet to B! We read it the first night and he loved it.







The Pumpkin Patch Puzzle by Sheila Sweeny Higginson Disney's Little Einsteins are some of his favorites. There are several teachable things in these books, as well as on the show. The cool thing about this book is that is comes with stencils for pumpkin carving of the 4 characters and rocket. You can bet we will be doing this with our pumpkins. We get really into our pumpkins each year.





Pirate's Treasure by Marcy Kelman This was just another fun Little Einstein choice by dad.

1 month from today...

I will be headed to the Lone Star State! Me and 3 friends from my MOPS group will be South bound to Dallas for the Mothers of Preschoolers National Convention. Can I tell you how excited we are? All 4 of us are on the steering team of our MOPS group and I am really looking forward to the experience of attending and bringing back new ideas and inspiration.

We will be driving to Dallas in my van, and it will be packed with snacks and goodies for the trip! Our hotel is absolutly beautiful and I can't wait to see it in itself! Our days will be packed with workshops we have each registered for and speakers, recording artists, and general sessions.

I'm sure we will also be having some fun along the way! Here is a photo of 3 of us at one of our Bake sales to rase some money to help pay for expenses. The other gal was still at work .

Keg Creek Days

On August 23rd, we attended Keg Creek Days in our community. Keg Creek Days is held at the Glenwood Lake Park and is a 2 day event. The day starts on Saturday with entertainment, bingo, sidewalk parade, baby contest and other fun things. There is also a pancake breakfast, pie baking contest and auction, tractor show, and pedal pull. The museum and Earth Lodge are also open during this time. B has wanted to visit the Earth lodge for some time now when we drive by. He was excited to be able to go inside of it. Last year B entered the sidewalk parade with his tricycle decorated in the "Black and Gold" catergory. He won his first trophy and received first place in his age group. This year he rode his bike and entered the "Red, White, and Blue" catergory. He won first place again this year.
Last year B was crowned "Prince of Keg Creek" and rode in the homecoming parade with the princess. This year, I was in charge of coordinating the judges for the contest and B passed out the trophys to this years winners.

** And as you can tell in the pictures, he got his face painted with Batman!

Labor Day Picnic

Well, it wasn't Labor Day technically, but yesterday we had a great picnic at Bayliss Park. We had to run up to Council Bluffs to pick something up and didn't really have any other plans for the day. B really likes fountains and Bayliss has a beautiful one, so I had the idea of grabbing a sandwich at one of my favorites, Jimmy Johns, and having ourselves a little picnic. B was so exicted to be going on a picnic. I had planned on that we could just sit at a picnic table, but of course he wanted to sit in the grass in true picnic style form. Hubby usually always keeps this old blanket in the back of his blazer, so we were able to do this.

The weather was perfect and there was such a good breeze. After eating our sandwich and chips, we laid down on the blanket and relaxed and acted silly for a bit. When we picked up our picnic area, we walked around the park to get a close up look at the fountain. They also have some statues of Black Squirrels, which are popular in Council Bluffs, a play area for kids to get wet, and some silly brick paths that B loved running on like he was a train on a track.

It was such a nice day to chill out like this and we had such a good time doing something so simple. I hope you enjoy your Labor Day as much and get to relax with the ones you love!