Feelin' Fall

We have been spending as much time as we can outdoors so far this Fall.  We have been known to experience all four seasons in one day in our fair city, but so far Fall has been mild and lovely.  Yesterday I noticed my children singing, giggling, and playing cheerily much more than usual and wondered to myself what might be different for things to feel so light.  I think the combination of being outside a lot, spending quiet time at home, and planning a few challenging activities for Rowan have contributed to the atmosphere.

We went to the Bird Sanctuary with some friends and had a leisurely walk.  We stopped along the bank of the Bow River for lunch and to play.

Building an Inuksuk along the bank of the Bow River (Bird Sanctuary)

At the Bird Sanctuary 

 The following week I decided to pack the kids up with some lunch and drive somewhere we have never been.  Anytime we're driving in the country or toward the mountains I see places and think we should plan to stop there some time so this day I thought we'd just head out and see where we ended up.  We ended up in Priddis, a hamlet about 10 - 15 minutes outside of the city.  It's a beautiful little spot with lots of trees and the colurs were beautiful.  We stopped at the playground beside the community centre then walked accross the main road to the tiny church to go on a Crunchy Walk (stepping on crunchy fallen leaves).  To Poppy's delight there were many ladybugs to hold and examine.

Painting in the kitchen

 We joined several homeschooling friends for a trip to the Corn Maze, also about 10 minutes outside of the city.  Rowan had been there last Fall with his Beavers group and was excited to show Poppy and I around.  The maze itself was great fun although I was a bit nervous of losing the kids in there as they would run ahead or take a different turn and giggle hysterically.

 There were lots of other activities at the Corn Maze - a huge bouncing area with a large piece of rubber blown up to jump on, farm animals to feed and pet, a great playground, huge slide, bike racing track, and much more.  I think we were there for nearly 3 hours.

 My brother has been a Truck Driver for many years and recently bought his own truck.  Our family is very excited for him and we enjoyed getting to sit in the truck.  He even took the kids around the block in the cab - very exciting for them!  It reminded me of one of our first activities with a home school group when Rowan was just over 2 - we went to a local trucking dealership and the kids were able to go inside the trucks and learn all about them.

 Poppy has been enjoying the Playful Patterns (tangram) set a lot.  Rowan enjoyed something similar I made out of felt pieces when he was about the same age. as long as he could make truck pictures with it.

 I picked a bunch of flowers and leaves from the garden and yard to make scenes and pictures with.  One of my older daughters who no longer lives at home was visiting and decided to join in - hers was very elaborate and she spent at least an hour on it (see the dragon above).

 This past week we again took a drive to Somewhere New to explore Fall, and ended up at Glenfield in Fish Creek Park.  This time we took the dog with us and played fetch in a bit of water.  She was in heaven.  The kids enjoyed finding sticks and rocks of all kinds.

Those are some of our October adventures.  Rowan is still in his Art class studying Tamara de Lempica and is nearly finished painting his own portrait in her style.  His piano playing is really coming along and he's getting more confident all the time (also grumbling about practice less since we have a new daily rhythm that includes practice every week day at a certain time).   Rowan started a french class at my homeschooling neighbour's house with about 6 other children (the moms and younger siblings come here while the class is in).  This coming week we have a few new activities starting - Poppy starts her OWN music class (as she likes to remind us!) and a library story time class.  Rowan starts Drama as well and I'm excited to see how he likes it.  That's all for now!