Fall is here ...

On Saturday we went to the Harvest Festival at the Agricultural History Farm Park in Derwood MD. We haven't missed one in 3 years and will keep going in the years to come. It's a beautiful place, during events like this one they offer tons for the kids to play and learn and the volunteers who make this all happen are fabulous!
This year it was cold and rainy but we didn't really care and stayed for 4 hours. We made sauerkraut, oatmeal, ate roasted pumpkin seeds and chestnuts, jumped in the wet hay, got lost in the corn maze, made candles, used tools, watched sheepdogs at work, played games ... and of course had food and funnel cake and yummy warm apple cider.

Eating pumkin seeds 

making candles

it looks ... hmm ... special :)

drilling with hand drills

watching the fascinating sawmill ... amazing! 

In the sawmill, they are turning raw tree trunks into 2X4s!!

It was still cold yesterday AM but at least it wasn't raining so we decided to take the boys for a short run. Even Ty went running and completed the 2 miles!!

boys are far ahead at the beginning :)

Ty was dancing a bit!

We had a snack and made some hot cider to warm up after our run, then we prepped the pumpkins from our yard to make pumpkin puree and soup. The boys had a blast gutting them.

the grapes spell out "OWEN"

 It was 1pm by that time and we realized our dishwasher was flooding the kitchen so we spent the rest of the day sopping up water, which turned into a full on house cleaning with mopping, sweeping and vacuuming. The boys were begging for cleaning, who am I to disappoint them?!

Owen surprised me last night by reading a couple of words of french in a picture book he brought home from school. I was floored!! He's been playing spelling games lately, giving us a set of letters and asking us what they sound like. I guess it's his way of processing the sounds. Nevertheless, that sudden interest without frustration on his part really amazed me. I guess that's how it all starts huh?