Happy Fall Ya'll

We are enjoying a crisp, but, damp fall so far.  Fall is one of my favorite times of year.  Once I get through the shock of the rapid drop in temperature it is truly enjoyable.  I even decided to spruce things up around here a bit and it makes me want to rush into the kitchen and BAKE!

I have been busy baking lots and lots of yummy fall goodies.
Yummy things like pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin spice cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting, apple pie and fresh bread and sausage bread.

Unfortunately where we live there has been a bit of a drought this summer and as a result we were unable to go on our usual apple picking adventure.  We did head down to the orchard and buy some delicious Cortland apples (my favorite), but, it really wasn't the same as getting all three boys out there to pick...but life goes on :-) 



I think one of the reasons why I enjoy fall so much is the anticipation of Thanksgiving, Advent and Christmas.  I love spring too and summer is wonderful, but, there is something extra special about this time of year as we all gather together and things settle down (as much as one settles with three active boys).  My boys enjoy this time of year too.  We have been counting down to Christmas for the past month and although they are excited about Halloween being so close, really, in their sweet little minds their thoughts have already turned to Christmas. 

My middle son loves to talk about what he loves about Christmas and it is not all about the gifts that he is hoping to get.  He loves the things we do together as a family just as much.  All three love the sounds of the season and I have to admit that we did listen to the CD that I made last year of the Children's Choir over dinner last week and it made everyone very happy.  They all sing in the choir and love to practice the songs and I love that my oldest son loves to play the piano even more when there is Christmas carols involved.


I really did not even intend to come here and talk about Christmas.  Sorry about that!

Like I said, thoughts of fall lead me to thoughts of Advent and Christmas and that is one of my favorite times of the year! 

I am *trying* to plan things in advance this year and not at the last minute too.  I figure I have 82 days to plan and enjoy :-)

Okay....okay enough about Christmas, lol!

Things here are going very well and school has kicked off to a great start.
We are finishing up our first quarter and all of the changes we made have been SO great!  We have changed over to a mostly literature based style of learning and I think they love it as much as I do!  We spend most of our days reading GREAT books and wandering off the path here and there to discover so many things.  It has been lots of fun this year and the change is going well.  We are still trying to work a few kinks out and implement a few more changes, but, all in all it's been very good!

We are also joined a Co-op this year and meet weekly and are all learning Spanish, Science, Art and Music Theory.  We look forward to it each week and we've all made some great new friends! 

I will make a separate post about exactly what we've been doing school wise, but, trust me if you are ever thinking of making a switch to a literature based style of learning it is definitely a great way to go!  The funny thing about what we've been doing is that what we are studying is leading to so many new discoveries and fun places not too far away to check out.  I love that about homeschooling.  You can just pick up and go check places out!  So cool!  The boys love it too.  My husband is getting a kick out of hearing me tell him about something new I discovered that ties into what we are learning, especially when it's a hands on thing we can go see.

I hope everyone is enjoying fall as much as we are!