Checking in....

Somehow I thought blogging would be easy; a fun way to share photos, stories, and funny anecdotes about life with two boys. Instead, what I have realized is that life is super-busy these days, and blogging is a "hobby" that has been put on the back burner. So, I'm just writing now to say that I am really not slacking off, but mommy duties are keeping me quite busy these days. I'm hoping that perhaps over the holidays I'll have a chance to catch up and share some of what we've been up to over the last few weeks. But for now, I'm off to cook cranberries for Bugaboo's Thanksgiving celebration!

A Day at Old Sturbridge Village

Last Monday, the boys were out of school in honor of Columbus Day, so we took advantage of the day off to go to Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts. From the OSV website: "Old Sturbridge Village is a “must-see” destination to experience early New England life from 1790-1840. One of the country’s largest living history museums, OSV has historians in costume, 59 historic buildings on 200 acres, three water-powered mills and two covered bridges. Visitors can ride in a stagecoach, view antiques, heirloom gardens, meet the farm animals, and take part in hands-on crafts year-round." We have enjoyed visiting OSV many times since we moved to Connecticut, but I think this was our first experience visiting in the fall, and it was so much fun! The boys love to see the artisans at work, visit the farm animals, and explore all the historic buildings. There were treats to eat, paths to wander, and we even took a little boat ride down the river to get a new perspective on the Village. It was a really great day, full of fun, togetherness, and new experiences. Here are a few of my favorite photos from the day:

Homework

Can you guess who this baby is????

If you guessed Bugaboo, then you are RIGHT!

Can you believe those big blue eyes? My, how he has changed over the last 5 years....

The following photos are part of Bugaboo's homework for the week:

This is Bugaboo doing one of his favorite toddler activities: playing in a kitchen cabinet, pulling out all the plastic boxes -- can't you just see how happy he is?!?

Here's a recent shot of Bugaboo at his belt test, breaking a board with a really tricky kick

Here we all are at the corn maze on Labor Day weekend

Here's Bugaboo at his first soccer game, trying to kick the ball away from the other team

And here's Bugaboo with Peanut at Old Sturbridge Village this week

Are you wondering why I'm putting up all these random photos of Bugaboo? It's because he selected all the photographs to share with his Kindergarten class next week. He's the "Star of the Week", so he gets to share pictures, trophies, collections, souvenirs.... he has the opportunity to tell his classmates all about himself, so these photos illustrate his story, in a way that only a five-year old little boy could.... He started out as a cute baby, grew into a feisty toddler, started taking Taekwondo when he was four, has a close-knit family, likes to play soccer, and has a wonderful brother. I love his story, because he tells it in his own special way.

Bible Day at Church

This Sunday was a very special day for Peanut and all the First Grade boys and girls at our church. It was Bible Presentation Sunday, and we had the opportunity to present Peanut with his first "real" Bible. He was so excited for this day that he had been counting down the days all week. When the morning finally came, he was ready to wear his very best coat and tie! All the first grade parents and children were called up to the alter and the parents said a blessing over their children, then presented them with the Bible. All of the children looked so pleased, and Peanut was absolutely beaming. We returned to our pew and he promptly started looking through it. We read along with the morning's scripture reader, then looked at some of the maps together. He held it tightly the whole service. At bedtime, Daddy did our first lesson from the big Bible, a great version with lots of kid-friendly information included in the NIV translation. Daddy and I are so proud of our little Peanut, and really enjoyed celebrating this milestone day together.

Peanut and Daddy getting ready for church

Bugaboo wanted to keep up with Peanut

Getting a KICK out of Soccer!

Both of the boys are playing soccer this fall. It's Peanut's second season playing, and he's having a blast. For Bugaboo, it's a new sport with lots to learn, but he has a great coach and fun teammates, and he's really enjoying it. Now that I have my super-fast camera, I'm having fun taking sports photos and trying to capture the boys in action. In fact, during the boys' first games, I took over 400 pictures. Thank goodness for digital storage and display, right!?! Anyhow, I selected only a few to put up here, because I thought they were the cutest ones of the bunch. But if anyone is interested in a play-by-play photo account of the games, let me know and I can send you about 350 of my best shots!

Suited up for the first games!

Bugaboo at his first practice

The next few photos are Bugaboo going through his extensive

stretching routine during the game -- he's flexible, indeed!

Bugaboo gets some action

Peanut making a pass to his teammate

Running... the first grade field is huge compared with the kindergarten field

The team celebrates a goal with lots of high fives!

The one in which I use every CORNy cliche I can think of....

This weekend was Labor Day weekend, so we took advantage of the beautiful weather and had an aMAZEing time at Lyman Orchards. It's a huge fruit orchard in Middlefield, CT, about 45 minutes from home, so perfect for a day trip to enjoy the last weekend of summer.

There was a CORNucopia of fun things to do while we were there....

Lyman Orchard has a huge corn maze right now, so we grabbed a map and found our way through acres of tall, green, corn.

That's a long row to hoe....

Look, it's the "children of the corn"! (But not as creepy as in the old movie)

We made it through the maze and earned bragging rights and a big CORNy sticker!

Then, it was off to the races!!!! I mean, pony rides! The boys thought it was so fun!

Peanut rode a horse named "Juan" -- I just think that's a funny name for a horse....

Then we hit the orchards..... beautiful pears and peaches and so delicious!

Peanut posing with an Asian pear -- a new discovery that we have all enjoyed.

Check out Bugaboo in this tree, below. Doesn't he look just PEACHy!?!

Row after row of fruit trees, just loaded down with goodness!

Playing a little "hide-and-seek" in the fruit trees!

A day of foraging for food, riding a horse, and getting lost in corn will leave you looking like this:

or this:

My still life creation of Asian pears

And a big ol' bowl of peaches. Yum!

So that's how we savored our Saturday -- what a great adventure!