Fall!

We've had a fun few days around here.  The weather has FINALLY cooled off and we are all feeling a lot more lively and a lot less grumpy.  It's amazing what the hot summer weather does to your motivation especially when it wears out it's welcome like it did this year.  Anyway, after a couple of weeks of having zero enthusiasm for projects, Zoe and I finally got back to what we do best during Owen's naps and did some messy experimenting the other day.  We stole Daddy's shaving cream, filled 3 ziplock bags with some, added food coloring and went crazy!  First we just wanted to see what colors we could make and then we decided to see what would happen if we "painted" with it on some watercolor paper.  After playing around with it for a long time we scraped all the excess foam and realized we'd made some pretty cool paper!

We cut the corner of the bag and squeezed it out like icing...fun!

Before scraping it off

There's a piece of paper under all of that!

Finished product!  I love that you can kind of see her hand prints in there...

Yesterday, to celebrate Fall approaching we made a "Fall Tree".  She and I colored the trunk together, she cut it out and we both added what we wanted to it.  I cut out the leaves and she helped me put them on the tree.  I'm hoping to collect leaves as they begin to fall and add them to the tree...

Today, Nathan took Zoe to see her first college football game and they both had a ball.  They were gone ALL afternoon, which meant Owen and I had some rare, quiet one-on-one time together, which was really, really great.  I spent an hour and a half following him around as he crawled all around Smiley Court checking out all manner of sticks, acorns and flowers.  Once in a while he'd stop to clap and smile or show me something and I soaked every second of it up.  I realized that I never really had time like that with Zoe, since we lived in the city when she was that age.  She and I couldn't just walk out our door and quietly investigate the world like that so it felt really special.

All in all a great start to the new season!

Before the game

I love this series of pictures Zoe took...so funny!

Actually I think Daddy took this one, but still.

Sweet little Owen, so excited to discover these flowers.