Finally Fall!

After months of heat, heat and more heat, it is nice to see Mother Nature finally relent a little bit and remind us that there are more seasons than just summer.  Though it still gets in the low 80s most days, the 50s at night (with open windows and fresh air for sleeping) are making me feel that autumn is finally trying to make its appearance in the South.  October also means life is in full swing: Cliff and I are halfway through the semester at the college, Laura has already completed a quarter of 2nd grade, and Nathan is about 6 weeks into preschool and very used to his routine.  Here is what we've been up to.

Nathan wrote a book for preschool.  He called it Simba, and it was a story about a lion.  He illustrated the whole book and dictated the text to me.  Look at his penmanship on the cover!

Nathan continues to love his soccer league.  The Soccer Wolves may not be the most organized crew out there, but they sure make up for it with enthusiasm.  Nathan loves to run, run, run!

Running after the ball.

Happy boy after a recent game.

A couple of weeks ago, we used the kids' free passes for the Macon Museum of Arts and Sciences that they got from Summer Reading Club at the library.  It was a nice, little museum and a fun family afternoon.

Intense game of giant checkers at the museum.

Touching a snake at the museum!

As a project sent home from story time at the library, I traced Nathan's body, and he colored in the picture to look like him.  What a fun projcet!

Last weekend we had a visit from Cliff's parents that coincided with the college's fall break.  It was great to visit with them, and the kids were thrilled to have Grandma and Grandpa around.  We spent Friday evening downtown at the First Friday celebration.  They had a display of big trucks and tractors for the kids to explore, and they held a "candy dump" in this parking lot; they filled the bucket of a Bobcat with candy, dumped it in the parking lot, and let the kids go at it.  It was amazing how much candy our kids brought home!

Trying out one of the tractors at First Friday.

The next day, Laura had her first county-wide math contest as part of her school's math team.  We were so proud of how she did.  She made it to the final round of second graders, only one of two 2nd graders from her school to do so.  This put her in the top 15 2nd graders in the county that day, with 4 schools represented.  We are so happy she enjoys math so much!

Laura and her good friend Riley wait for the contest to start.

Laura got a ribbon for making it to the final round!

Preschool continues to go well here at home.  The biggest challenge is keeping up with this smarty pants!

Cool game idea I found online.  It incorporates counting, adding and fine motor skills in one activity.

This evening, we attended a chili cook-off party thrown by another couple who works at the college.  Everyone at the party had a connection to the college, including several friends of ours.  We had a nice time socializing, and the kids had a blast playing with friends.  They provided a babysitter at the party who did crafts and played games with the kids, and then took them down by the lake in the backyard for s'mores over the campfire.  A fun night!

Nathan and his buddy Joshua pretend to row the boat down by the lake at the chili cook-off party.

Gina