Hunter Safety and a Bike Ride

Wayne has passed his hunter safety course with flying colors. I'm not entirely comfortable with that.

 Now he will join a long line of family hunters.

 Something I'd rather think about than my 10-year-old son hunting, is this bike ride we went on a few weeks ago. It was a beautiful, warm day and the foliage was nearly at its peak.

 At one point we stopped for a water break out around Danile's Pond Rd. and Wayne noticed this heart carved into a tree.

 He also noticed this funny looking mushroom.

 I'g going to turn this photo (beow) into a poster.

Beaches and Trails

On a recent trip to Maine, Cole, Heather, and I explored some beaches and hiking trails near Gramma's house. (Wayne had to stay behind with Wes to participate in the end of the season Fall Baseball tournament, which they won.)

Lincolnville Beach.

 Hiking and Walking trails at Camden Hills State Park. That's the ocean shining through the trees.

If only all our fall days could be like this.

First Day of Preschool

Heather started preschool on Sept. 12th. She loves, loves, loves it.

 And she was the best dressed girl in a skirt that she and Joanie made together!

Wayne's Birthday

On Wayne's actual birthday, Sept. 8th, he requested raspberry pie instead of cake. Wayne's not a big cake eater.

 The raspberry birthday pie, all lit up with 10 candles.

On the weekend after his birthday, we had a party with friends from school. It was a baseball themed party.

 I tried to make it fun for girls too, so there was some t-shirt decorating.

 The main event of the party, was a wiffle ball game. Here, Dante is at bat.

Then, moving on to cake (cupcakes) and ice cream.

 the attendees, back row: Ben,  Natalie, Jordyn, Abby, Asom, Liam, Wayne, Dante. In the front: Well you know, Cole and Heather.

We had invited the whole 4th grade class. Wayne was a little disappointed that not everyone showed up. I was not disappointed.

Cole's Butterfly

Cole and Heather found this caterpillar on a milkweed at one of Wayne's fall baseball games.  We brought it home, lost it in the car, found it again, and fed it oodles of milkweed leaves until it was ready to make its transformation.  Cole watched it every moment that he could, because he wanted to see it molt into its pupa stage. It sheds its skin one last time, and underneath is what we know of as the cacoon.  He and Heather were lucky enough to see it happen. it took anout 15 minutes.

 After a couple of weeks, the cacoon turns transparent and you can see the butterfly all scrunched up inside the cacoon. That's when you know it will emerge very soon.  When we noticed its "transparency" one morning, Cole took it to school, in the hopes that his classmates would be able to see it emerge. Unfortunately, for them, it stayed in the cacoon all day. In the car on the way home, Cole was like a nervous father scolding me anxiously for every little bump our tires hit - and ther are quite a few! Maybe those bumps set thing in motion, because the butterfly emerged while riding in the car. We had to pull over by the mailbox and watch it happen. When we got back to the house, we waited for the wings to dry and straighten and then we let it go outside in the garden.

This is a male. You can tell by the dark spot on one of the veins of the hind wings in the photo below.

 Heather, turning into a photographer.

 Thanks for the learning experience little butterfly!

Don't Give Up on Us!

We are still alive and well up here in the NEK. I can't get pictures into my blog unless I go somewhere with some high speed, so one of these days, I'll find a chance to do that. We've been busy (fall baseball, soccer, hunter safety, trip to maine, picking apples, birthday party, preschool) and I have lots of pictures to show for it, so DON'T GIVE UP ON US!  I'll post sometime soon.

in the Garden

Who else, but Heather can get away with wearing a a sparkly, sequined skirt in the garden? Here, she's picking some of her Jack-be-Little pumpkins.

 On another day, a fist full of beans emerges from the back of the teepee.

 We're getting so much corn now we might have to sell some at the C+W.

 Another sparkly shirt!

Corn for dinner almost every night.

And just for a bit of color, some apple and sunflower photos.



Apples

Apple season is just beginning.

The backyard tree.

The frontyard tree. This is the one I like to call "The Giving Tree" because some of its branches reach all the way down to the ground just like the drawings in the book.

  

 Last year we made lots of applesauce.  I wonder if we'll go that route this year? Any ideas?