Pre-Halloween Hike

We took a short hike at Valley Forge National Park this afternoon in order to make the minutes until trick-or-treating pass more quickly and to satisfy my intense need to take a fall hike and crunch through leaves. "Hike" isn't entirely accurate description of our trip.  We visited the woods, using a wildly variable pace, alternating between plodding and running.  Not so much walking.  The stopping and starting was slightly maddening since I really just wanted to go for a good HIKE. Regardless of pace, the fresh air was most welcome. After visiting my favorite grove of ancient tulip poplars, we took a few minutes to explore the cannons and log cabins too. 

Artillery Park at Valley Forge

Tomorrow, of course, is the BIG day -- Halloween.  As you would expect the kids are rather excited to trick-or-treat (read that: bouncing off the walls).  Scott and I are excited to start our evening raids into their Halloween candy bags.  There are a lot of things about having three kids that make life kind of challenging, but one definite perk in my book is that we get not one, not two, but three bags of Halloween candy all to ourselves in the evening.  A nibble here, a nibble there, and no one is the wiser.  Ha-ha-ha-ha, Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha,  HA-HA-HA-HA (read that: mad scientist laughing). 

Eco Thought for Today: Raking vs. Blowing

Fair Warning:  I have climbed onto my environmental pulpit for the afternoon.

Consider this -- One leaf blower generates as much carbon dioxide in one hour of operation, as a car driving 100 miles.  Leaf blowers, unlike cars, are not regulated for carbon dioxide emissions. 

Consider this -- Did you know that the average leaf blower runs at about 75-85 decibels, and can be heard at a still loud 50+ decibels over 50 feet away?  Prolonged noises above 50 decibels can damage hearing and even cause a measurable increase in stress hormones in people, like your neighbors.

Consider this -- Leaf blowers have small two-cycle engines that also emit other airborne pollutants, so by using a leaf blower you're impacting the air quality in your own yard.

Why not give your neighbors' ears and your power blower a break and pull out your rake this fall?  Raking is great exercise, and by the authority granted by my environmental scientist degree, I hereby absolve you from going to the gym on days that you rake.  (So, you avoid even MORE carbon dioxide emissions by not driving to the gym!  Bonus!!) 

Is your yard too big to tackle with a rake?  How about making a pledge to rake some portions and blow others?  Could you go one step further and compost some or all of your leaves and reduce your carbon footprint even further?  Give it some thought.  If you are already a committed recycler (or even if you aren't), why not start thinking about your carbon footprint and about ways to make it smaller. 

As for our family, we don't own a leaf blower, and I don't think you can tell by looking at our yard. I definitely don't miss the noise or the gas smell in the garage.  Bonus -- I get to crunch through the leaves in the fall, and our kids love jumping in piles of leaves that we rake up.

Ahhh....Fall

10 Things I love about fall, in no particular order: 

1) Crunching leaves
2) The smell of fallen leaves and wood fires lingering in the air
3) Candy corn
4) Ginger snaps
5) Brilliant Leaf colors
6) Crisp autumn weather
7) Feeling like I should make soup for dinner
8) Pumpkin picking and carving
9) Jumping in leaf piles
10) Wearing cozy sweaters
11) Phillies post-season baseball

Recent Fall scenes:

Abby, The Artist

Giving her pumpkin huge eyes ("Like Mine," she said)

Caroline, The Mad Scientist

(Having a little too much fun with the pumpkin goo)

Nearby my House

Playing in the Leaves

"Fashion Disaster Day" at School

Check.

Breakfast Guest

Ben had a special guest with him at breakfast yesterday morning:  The Flash.

Really, it was his Lego-based interpretation of the superhero named Flash, but the whole thing couldn't have been more real in his mind.  He was so happy to have a Superhero guest for breakfast, he was beaming!

Close-Up:  The Flash

I really do marvel at the imagination of children.  They are so creative and not unbound by the laws of everyday.  Kids look at toys and think of hours and hours of adventures.  I see toys and think hours and hours of cleaning.  Even when the kids ask me to play with them, it's almost hard to get those imagination wheels turning again.  I really do envy that innocence!  But, at least I can enjoy watching it in action.

Cringing

Three separate items made me cringe this weekend:

1) Subtitled, "Why E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E should be required to take a Local Flora/Fauna Natural History Class" -- I was browsing the Travel section in this weekend's paper, daydreaming about taking a trip to an exotic destination.  The front page article was on the gorgeous fall colors in the mountains of some nearby state.  To be honest I couldn't read the article because I couldn't take my eyes off the picture, which was captioned something like, "So-and-so basking in the brilliant fall colors."  There was a picture of a nice young woman, fortunately clad in a jacket, with her arm around a tree.  Even in black and white, I could tell the tree was some kind of maple with either light orange or yellow leaves, and there was some other bushy tree with a different, more darkly colored leaves all over the trunk below the canopy.  Even in black and white, grainy newspaper photo, I could tell that the woman had her arm around a giant poison ivy vine in the photo.  Aaaaahh!  So, here's today's natural history lesson -- leaves on poison ivy vines turn a beautiful scarlet red or bright orange in the fall.  Please, plan to enjoy it from a distance.

2) Oh Ben. You know how kids love to smash their faces into windows to get a laugh?  Sometimes it's even kind of funny.  Ben thought it would be fun to smoosh himself against the sliding glass door to entertain Scott and I this weekend while we were sitting on the deck outside.  Only, this time he wasn't wearing any pants. 

3) On a related note, could someone please tell me when children start feeling modest?  Not that I don't want my children to have a positive body image, but a little discretion around guests would be nice.  Or, at least we could skip the post-bath streaking/dancing when we have guests....Ummmm.....sorry about that Andy and Trish....  (But, at least I remembered to warn you to shut your eyes)

11 Years!

On a warm, sunny, fall day eleven years ago today, October 16, 1999, I married my best friend. 

To kick off the celebrations, we made french toast and bacon for breakfast.  (The bacon didn't last long enough for a photo.)

Guess who cooked the french toast?  Not me!  And, not Scott either!  Although we helped with the batter and pre-heating the pan, Abby cooked the french toast, and it came out perfectly.  I feel bad to have underestimated her cooking skills, but I was pretty surprised with her delicious results. We haven't ever let her "do the flipping part" before, as she puts it.

Today:  Nothing special (regular Saturday errands and chores and one meeting thrown in for good measure).

Tonight:  A date with my husband at our favorite restaurant, Restaurant Alba, with free babysitting generously provided by my parents (thanks!!!!). And, then Phillies playoffs to watch! 

Baseball??? On your anniversary??? Actually, it's perfect. If it weren't for the great game of baseball, Scott and I might never have become friends. When we met in our freshman year at college, I was an Orioles fan and Scott was a die hard Yankees fan.  We traded a few heated conversations about our American league rivals. And, over time this rivalry grew into friendship and more. So, good luck to the Fighting Phils today, and Happy Anniversary to us!

Penn State Class of 2026 and 2028

S-T-A-T-E

Go State!

I knew there was going to be special visitor at the Farmer's Market today.  So naturally, we went to buy apple cider and broccoli in the rain with our camera.  Caroline and Ben enjoyed meeting the Nittany Lion for the first time.  They'll enjoy seeing this photo when they start college at University Park in 13 or 15 years.

I felt a little bad for the Lion since the weather wasn't cooperating for his visit.  I felt even worse for the Nittany Lion costume.  When it was time to go, he drove off into the sunset with his tail hanging out of the car door dragging along the road through all the puddles.  Caroline asked, "Mom, is his tail going to break like that?" 

Flash Forward

Every once in a while some of the things my kids say take me by surprise -- in a good way (yes, they also shock me too, but that is a subject for a different day).  One second they are acting like regular little kids, and then they will make an observation or a comment that just really startles me and gives me a little glimpse of an older child awakening.  It's marvelous. 

Today, I had a couple of those moments. Abby's came near bedtime.  She and I just finished reading The Penderwicks, which is an incredibly poignant and wonderful story of a family of four children on summer vacation (I highly recommend this book to other mom's out there). So, we were in her bedroom, and I was waiting for her to decide what book to pick next.  This is a very important decision because we are reading longer chapter books now, and this book will probably last us a month of bedtime reading.  After much deliberation she selected A Wrinkle in Time,  which I'm genuinely thrilled about since it was one of my childhood favorites. 

After making her selection, we snuggled up and started to read.  After a few pages, she interrupts me and says, "Mom, how come so many books are about good and evil? Have you noticed that?"  Isn't that a good observation for a 2nd grader?  It's true!  So, I decided to jump right ahead to high school English and told her about archetypal themes in literature, like good vs. evil, coming of age, etc.  I wasn't sure what level to answer her question, but I figured if she's going to ask me that type of question, I might as well give her the best answer I can and "see what sticks, " as one of her teachers said one time. 

Caroline's comment wasn't so much observational but more vocabulary- and presentation-based.  We were in the car together, and we were talking about our days.  I asked Caroline how her ballet class was, and I expected to hear the usual response ("Fine" or "Good" or "Fun").  Instead, she says, "Oh, it was really fun.  My favorite part is working on the barre, where we are learning some new moves for this year's dance recital.  Oh, and my friend Stephanie had to sit out because she was doing a jeté instead of a plié....etc etc"  I had to look up how to spell both plié and jeté.  All of this conversation just rolled of her tongue in the most natural way possible.  And I was left wondering is this the same child who mixes up the words "tomorrow" and "yesterday"? 

Fortunately I can count on Ben to just be my little cute boy (for now).  His best statement today, "Mom, I like being a happy boy."  I like that too, Buddy!

Super Saturday

It's not quite 9am on Saturday.  What have you been doing?  Reading the paper?  Drinking your coffee?  We've been defending the universe from bad guys. 

(Ben wanted to "try out" his Captain America Halloween costume. And who wouldn't want to do that when there are muscles built right into the costume?)

We've also been doing some morning calisthenics for good measure.

Nicknames

After watching Roy Halliday's no-hitter last night (Go Phillies!), I met a bunch of other preschool moms at a local bar at a back-to-school night get together/meet and greet.  It was fun to go to a real bar on a school night (gasp!) and just hang out for a few hours. Several important lessons for me: 1) I have forgotten just how loud bars are.  2) My clothes are ridiculously out of style, but I got a free pass on the red T-shirt because of the whole no-hitter thing. and 3) I absolutely love, Love, LOVE that bars are now smoke-free.  My horribly out-of-style clothes did not reek of smoke when I returned home at a respectable 10pm.  But, I digress.

I was talking to two of the other mom's in Ben's preschool class, and was a little surprised to learn that Ben has told all of his classmates and teachers to call him BENNY BOY, which is our nickname for him at home. I learned this when Dylan's mom said, "Oh, are you Benny Boy's mom?  I have heard so much about Benny Boy from Dylan."  I thought to myself, "Benny Boy????"

Here at home, I probably call Ben just plain old "Ben" more often than not, but we use the "Benny Boy" moniker enough that Ben now thinks this is his real name. I know this because I told Ben his real name was actually Benjamin, and he completely flipped out.  "NO, MOM, MY NAME IS NOT BENJAMIN, IT IS BENNY BOY.  BENNY BOY [LAST NAME]."  (I am using capital letters to simulate the 100+ decibel volume of his voice.  Maybe I should increase the font size too?)

After several attempts to explain the concept of nicknames and real names, I think he may now understand that Benny Boy is his nickname. Ben is quite emphatic that we will be continuing to use this nickname at home and at school, but at least he now realizes that I'm not making the whole Benjamin thing up anymore.  We also discussed his middle name, and that didn't go as well.  I may need to wait until Ben is old enough to read his Social Security card to convince him on that one.  Apparently, I haven't been yelling at him enough using his middle name like I do with the girls.  But, that's easily fixed, right!

Benny Boy wants to be a superhero for Halloween.  But, now I'm thinking a farmhand might be more appropriate. He could wear denim overalls, a red and white checked shirt, and some boots. I'll either have him chew on a toothpick or put some hayseed in his teeth.  And, he could hold a pitchfork as his "weapon" too.  Benny Boy would like that.  

Peace and Quiet

Breaking News.  Tonight from 5pm until 8pm it was quiet at our house.  Serenely and blissfully quiet.  How strange it seemed!  Delightful, but strange. What was even weirder was that the kids were actually home for a good portion of the time, and it was still quiet.  

I don't know if it was the rain, the sudden change of seasons, or just a confluence of good will, but no one was fighting or screaming or weeping.  Ben quietly played with his Legos, creating a team of good guys on a new battleship.  Caroline played with little cars, parking them in some kind of pattern on DVD cases.  Abby was at ballet for a while, but then returned home and ate dinner and read a pile of books to herself. So, Scott and I chatted without interruption.  We ate dinner without getting up.  It was like opposite world. 

Caroline and Ben even commented how quiet it was, and how nice it was at the house.  (I thought to myself, geez, it could be like this every day if everyone would just chill out a little.)  But, I outwardly agreed.  So, we copiously complimented everyone's delightful behavior, read extra stories to reinforce all this marvelousness.  Now, I'm just crossing my fingers that someday soon it will happen again.  Dare I hope tomorrow? 

Hersheypark Happy (mostly)

On Saturday, we took the kids to Hersheypark for some chocolate-themed amusement park fun.  The park is closed to the general public in October, but we were able to score some "friends and family" tickets through my high school friend Dina (thanks!!).  We really lucked out since the weather was perfect -- much, much better than the monsoon rains on Thursday and Friday.  It was a glorious crisp early fall day. 

Abby was ecstatic that she had graduated from Reese's Peanut butter cup size up to Hershey Bar size (ride height requirements), which allowed her to try out even more roller coasters than last year's visit, including her new favorite, the Wildcat.  Caroline graduated up to the Reese's Peanut Butter cup, so she tried out the Comet, Super Dooper Looper, and Trailblazer coasters.  Ben, now a Hershey Kiss, could even get in on the Trailblazer action.  The park seemed a lot more crowded than last year, but the lines moved quickly. In fact, Caroline, Abby, and Dad went on the Super Dooper Looper  FOUR times in a row (while I fed Ben a whole lot of kettle corn).  OK, who am I kidding.  I ate a lot more kettle corn than Ben while we were waiting.  I really do love kettle corn. Salty and sweet.

Speaking of super healthy snacks, Caroline has discovered a new favorite food:

CORN DOGS

In addition to eating a lot of popcorn, I successfully won Caroline a stuffed dog on the Whack-A-Mole game on the first try.  While I am miserable at almost all carnival games, particularly any that require throwing a ball or shooting a basket, I am exceptionally good at Whack-A-Mole.  Yes, I know I'm bragging, but it's true.  I really have a special touch with a large padded mallet. 

It was a fun day filled with lots of rides, but it was also a long day containing Ben. He was great while on the rides, but challenging during ride waits and when walking around the park. Since the park was still crowded, we spent of lot of time carrying him. Also, the discrepancy in riding levels among the three kids with two adults meant that there was a lot of coordinating and/or waiting. The kids had a great time, but I can't honestly say that I did.  I enjoyed watching them have fun, of course, but I think I played more of a fun facilitator role -- providing provisions, water, clothing, directions, driving, etc.  It was definitely not like the good 'ole days when I just went to the park and rode the rides myself all day.  The mantle of parental responsibility strikes again!!

Pirate Ship (see 4 rows from top for Abby and Caroline)