Falling into winter

This is a picture from Finn's birthday party down valley. Colter was showing off his hop scotch skills by crossing up his legs and doing tricks for each square. Fun party on a beautiful day that included snake hunting, pond swimming, dragon fly chasing, fort building and a scavenger hunt. September was a blur of beautiful late summer weather, getting into the new school routines, birthday parties, Blues and Brews, getting in those last sunny, warm days and a bit of travelling. It was one of the best fall leaf shows in memory. Colter is loving his school (and so are we) and learning so much already. He has made many new friends, is starting to read, write and sound out new words, learning Spanish and loving art. He has found his love for singing and performing again and we are enjoying all of the new songs he is learning. One of his favorite things is called the 100 board and teaches counting and math skills. By the end of the first week he had his first girlfriend, Amelia, and professed his love and admiration with rolling eyes and fainting on the couch. The other night he told me how he and Amelia met and that it was one of the "unforgettable" days of his life! Very expressive guy we have here. He is kind to the other children, always saying hello, good bye and calling them all by name. He is very charming and thoughtful and I am hearing from other Moms that their children are talking about him alot at home-makes me smile. Their class pet is a gecko and it is Colter's job to feed it crickets this week. They allow him to learn with his own style and do not require the kids to sit still for long periods of time, he is loving it and thriving in this learning environment.  His near constant questioning continues and he remembers so many details of what he is told, google is still a close friend of mine.  Blues and Brews was a blast this year. Three days of fun in the sun and a huge kids play area with blow up jumpy houses, slides, a climbing wall and all the running we could handle. Colter and Eli spent an entire morning making necklaces, ankle bracelets and beanbags to sell at the festival. They set up a display, did a great job selling and ended up making enough money to buy a sno-cone each. So great to watch the boys following through on projects, problem solving and accomplishing their goals-and so cute to see them create and sell their own stuff!

Dylan had so much fun on the kids stuff this year. He must have done the big slide 50 times a day. He was very determined to climb the rock wall but his favorite was jumping off and sliding down the rope. Dylan has become a non stop chatter box. He can tell a great story, is starting to set up his own pretend games and assigning characters for each of us. Recently it has been "nice guys and mean guys" or "babies and big boys", but his favorite is playing superheros-no one ever has a name, it is just "you are a superhero". Dylan wants to be 5 (still) so that he can go to Colter's school and play. He is doing a few days here and there at the Munchkins preschool that Colter went to last year and doing great. He is such a happy guy and enjoys playing with everyone. Right now he is learning opposites, counting and "sometimes", as in "sometimes you let me help you cook and sometimes no". Dylan keeps tabs on everyone and reports back to me. He lets me know if anyone has "mean havior" or "nice havior", not tattle taling, just status reports. He is very independent and will try to do most everything "by mine own self" if his requests aren't immediately accomodated. The other day I looked over to the kitchen to see him in the fridge getting his breakfast. I mentioned that I would help him in just a minute. looked up again and he was cracking eggs over the pan on the stove, and on the counter and floor........ He loves to have everything clean and is often cleaning up before he even gets started playing. "just get one thing down and then clean it up, then just get one more thing down and clean it up" he will tell me as he puts stuff away. Dylan is good at sharing and is careful when he borrows his brother's stuff. He still loves to ride his bike and his little four wheeler and is looking forward to ski season. He loves to let people know when he is too "big boy" to do something or has learned a new skill. It has been a bit lonely around the house since Colte has gone to school and we are still sorting out what to do with our time together. I'm sure we will spend lots of time at the library and skiing this winter, for now it is boring ol' clean the house and get caught up with all the pre-winter tasks.

Not really sure why all that is underlined, but we'll go with it.

 Hike on the Galloping Goose trail after school one day. Colter was exploring "evidence" of a an old train track.

Colter took part in his first art show this month. He made a bow and arrow and beanbags out of recycled material from our local eco building supply company. It was called the "Repurposed Art Show" at Ecospaces and he won a prize for being the youngest artist. It was a great experience and we were all very proud of him. He enjoyed seeing what the bigger kids came up with and even spent some of his birthday money on a shark sculpture.Dylan can put SuperDad to sleep now too. The green around Trevor's neck is his superhero cape.

Fall leaf piles are the best!

I just got back from my first "girls trip" since Colter was born. I went to the east coast with my good friend Penelope and had a wonderfully relaxing and fun time. We went to Boston and then drove to her mom's place on Mount Desert Island in Maine. We sea kayaked, hiked, leaf hunted (the colors were just starting to change) and ate a ton of seafood! I loved it up there and look forward to taking the boys in a year or two. Their place is surrounded by water on all three sides in Pretty Marsh and has so much to offer, I could easily loose a month or two there.

While I was gone Uncle Dave, Tim, Tracy, Modee, Pappy and Trevor played with the boys. From my little reporter Dylan, I have heard of every infraction of normal rules that occurred and it sounds like they had a great time! It is being referred to as "the boys weekend" and I am thankful to everyone that helped out.