Hangin' Out

Although school, soccer, and church activities seemed to dominate our lives this past fall, we all still found ways to just hang out and have some fun. Xander started piano lessons which he has loved...

and has attempted to pass on his new musical skills to his younger brother. Just warms the heart, doesn't it? I wish they would always get along this well (as I type they are yelling at each other in the other room).

David and I took Savannah to see the latest Hobbit movie which we all thoroughly enjoyed! (The perks of homeschooling!)

After spending weeks immersed in Ancient Egypt in school, Savannah taught Noah all about being a mummy.

Breaking free!

My cute little Egyptian boy. He put his costume together all by himself...pretty impressive!

The kids spent every available hour after school outside playing with friends. They ran around the neighborhood like wild kids, completely carefree of life's responsibilities. Oh, to be young again. Well, not really. But they do have fun playing football, tag, running around the neighborhood playground, riding their scooters, and playing in their fort. One day I was walking one of the neighbor girls to her door and came across what Noah insisted was a plastic snake. I was a little unsure but Noah said, "See, Mom? Watch!" and went to pick it up...and that's when it moved! Noah's hand shot back so fast that I couldn't help but laugh. I know by looking at the picture that you'll wonder why we ever thought it was a toy snake but it was so teeny and lying flat and still. It must have known I was taking its picture because it raised its head and almost smiled at me.

One afternoon I heard Xander calling for me from the backyard. This is what I came across.

Noah is too much!

Who can resist such fun fall leaves?

The boys kept raking them up into huge piles and made me take several sequence shots of them running and jumping into the leaves.

David and I spent the fall season carting kids around to their soccer practices, cheering them on at their games, keeping busy with work and church assignments, and enjoying football games and for me, lots and lots of reading. One of my favorite things that occurred this fall was we got new carpet in our family room. Earlier in the year Xander had burned a small section of our carpet as he experimented with what would happen to a Kleenex if you held it over a flaming candle. Well, no surprise there, the Kleenex caught on fire and Xander flung the flaming cloth away from himself and onto my floor. Thank goodness a big burn on my floor was the total sum of the damage. It gave us a great excuse to get new carpet which we were sorely in need of.  I had to include a picture of the burn...X marks the spot! As we say, X for Xander!