Leaves, Leaves, Leaves.....

We spent the morning raking up leaves...and leaves and more leaves. They look so pretty on the trees and they are so much fun for the kids to play in but MAN, that's a lot of leaves. Which means a lot of raking. And bagging. But remember how much fun it was to jump in the leaves after your parents raked them up in big piles? And just walk through them, kick them, throw them...and have leaf fights? Our leaves are still a little wet because we have had so much rain lately but it didn't seem to bother the kids. Too bad we can't still burn leaves because I LOVE that smell and it definitely brings back many childhood memories.

 

After a relaxing Sunday I am headed out on a date--dinner AND a movie while the kids are with their grandparents. hOoraY!!! We are finally seeing The Informant, which was filmed here where we live and although it has got mixed reviews I must admit I am super excited to see it because of the food--

my brother prepared the food for one of the scenes. Exciting!

"The Creation Of A Thousand Forests Is In One Acorn. " 

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Fall Walks And One Embarrassed Mom

Yes, I am still going on about how pretty it is here right now   and we are trying to take at least one walk every day while it is nice out. Last week it was rainy and gloomy and before I know it it's going to be snowing here in Illinois so we need to take advantage while we can. The trees are so pretty right now and we have been taking our little bags with us to collect lots of leaves--we have found huge leaves, heart-shaped leaves and every few steps Charlotte finds "tiny, adorable leaves." So yesterday we were on a walk and I guess I was looking off another direction because before I had a chance to look back up Charlotte says, "Some people sure do have big, fat bellies!" At first I thought she was talking about me so I looked at her and was just about to give her a lecture about how that is not nice and we shouldn't say that--but instead I look a few feet in front of us and there is a woman dressed all in purple walking a dog wearing a purple sweater and YEP, she had a pretty big belly. And YEP, she heard Charlotte. UGH. Guess we will be taking a different route today, just in case!