Fall is my favorite season! It’s been a little hectic around here, with trying to get settled into our house, getting back from the beach, Maelle starting school and race-prep ramping up.
We started our fall season with a trip to Alexandria with Andrew. While we were there, we met up with Aunt Hannah, Jack and Layne, as well as Nana, at a pumpkin patch not too far away from DC. Hannah found Liberty Mills Farm, which has multiple corn mazes, pick-your-own-pumpkins and a play area for kids. It was perfect!
This was the best group shot we got… Mom and Hannah packed lunches for us, and while it was a bit windy, we had a beautiful day for an outdoor activity.
Back in Alexandria, Maelle and I made sure to hit up our favorite places, including Thai Signature for thai iced teas!
We even fit in some school time in our hotel room. We were learning the phases of the moon, and one of the activities includes studying a famous painting and sketching your own version. Looks like I was catching up on my daily Bible reading while Maelle was drawing.
Another day, Maelle and I met Andrew in the city after he finished up for the day and we visited the National Postal Museum. We had a great time! It’s very well done with lots of interactive areas and hands-on activities for kids. Don’t miss Andrew and Maelle in the lower left corner of this photo!
One of the things you can do while at the museum is write and mail a postcard! Maelle chose a few recipients, and we went downstairs to the post office to purchase stamps and send them on their way. I incorporate letter-writing each week into our homeschool as a way for Maelle to do copy work, and we call it ‘Mail Monday.’
When we got home, we decorated our front doors (eek! No steps yet…) with our new pumpkins. (The tiny ones with stickers and the carved pumpkin were from a church harvest event the weekend before.)
As part of settling back into our house, I needed to give my indoor plants some TLC. Most of them lived in my bathroom during the renovation, and thankfully I only lost a couple. Some needed a haircut, some needed to be split, and all of them needed some fresh soil. I was also planning to move some around, so some of them needed to switch pots. It took all morning, but I was thrilled with the results.
Before:
After:
Another thing I love to do in the fall is bake. Maelle and I made some pumpkin bread and used my cakelet pan that features small leaf shapes. She approved!
Before we knew it, Halloween was upon us! As usual, we planned to join the Nyes at their house for a quick dinner and trick-or-treating. I delivered a tray of goodies earlier in the day, so that we could trick-or-treat our way over more easily. Andrew found a skull-shaped baking pan and surprised Maelle and me with it!
This year, Maelle said she wanted to be a saber-toothed tiger for Halloween. I found this tiger costume for a steal at our local consignment store, and then made her the felt mask.
Initially, I was THRILLED she wanted to be a tiger, as it’s an easy costume for keeping your kid warm. Here in WNY, almost all our Halloweens are cold and wet, which means layers and coats over costumes. Unfortunately, we had a VERY unseasonable heat wave this year, and everyone was sweating to death in their costumes! I think it was in the 80s, and poor Maelle could barely wear the tiger costume with just a t-shirt and shorts underneath!
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