Abbi and more horse back riding.

My dear daughter is getting quite proficient at riding. Her instructor, Heather, said she has a lot of natural talent. More pictures- and aren't the fall leaves pretty in the background?

Leaves, leaves and more leaves!

So we went out side and played in the leaves. I don't know how many of them actually made it to the edge of the road to have the city suck them up, but we had a really good time.

"Come crawl with me mommy!"

"I will win- I will conquer the leaves!"

"Here I go!"

"That is a big pile and I am a little person"

"Is it a good look for me?"

Making a joyful noise

"I am getting swallowed! Okay so maybe I am not the conqueror."

"Look how they fly!"

Natasha and Aimee come to visit

We had been out of town to my class reunion and the next weekend was Red Flannel Festival- the annual day to celebrate underwear. Our house was dirty and my dear God Daughter Natasha wanted to earn some money for her homecoming. She came over and cleaned her little heart out and thus no one had to be frightened when they came for Red Flannel. Her sister Aimee- also my God Daughter- picked her up when she was done, and gave Cae a big snuggle.

Okay so now it is fall

I love the cycle of the seasons here in Michigan. Please remind me I said that in February, but who can resist flannel sheets on the bed, hot cider, and the sun glinting off the kaleidoscope of colored leaves. Caelun certainly can't.

Still Summer?

Clint had already taken Abby back to her mom's and he needed to write a paper for his class on Sunday week before last. I plunked Caelun in the stroller, and we headed off to Morley Park. It was so warm- in the low 80's it felt like summer. Leave it to Cae Cae to find the pretty older girls.

Debate Hardware

I have owed the debate kids this post for a couple of weeks now. They went to a debate at Okemos HS the weekend of my class reunion, with out me, and darned if they didn't win the JV division. Two weeks later we took the part of the team that didn't have to take the PSAT to Mona Shores HS. Darned if they didn't come in 3rd place varsity with two novices running alternating and a JV running post. The tall young man also took 7th speaker over all varsity. Here are the pics. kids- cut and past to facebook :)

October 2008 book- Dracula

For October we always try to pick some thing to get us in the Halloween spirit. We also try to periodically pick a classic. Dracula by Bram Stoker fit both of these categories. I think I was the only one who had read it before- and I read it when I was about twelve, so it had been awhile to put it modestly. We particularly liked the format of journal entries. The story line is a classic good vs. evil. the ending drags a bit but other wise we liked it. The characters are well developed and the descriptions are picturesque. We gave it three and a half stars.

More horse back riding

Abby gets better at riding with every lesson. She was exhausted after this one. She came home and had to take a nap. Heather, her instructor, commented on what good posture she has. She just has to work on tacking up and un-tacking a bit faster.