scenes from the circus: fall fun

Kathleen recently completed her first book.  Granted, it was only a few pages long, but she titled it, signed it, illustrated it, and dictated the text.  I was impressed!

She called it, "Day Story." (I don't know why. But she seemed very confident about it.)

Obviously, she wrote it.

The first page:

Once upon a time, there was a ladybug who lived in a kitchen.  One day Kathleen found that ladybug.  Her mommy put it in a jar for her.

And then the last page (which was also the second page, in case you were wondering):

Sometimes Kathleen's mommy let Kathleen take the ladybug out and let it crawl on Kathleen's hand.  

It was just a baby ladybug.

Okay, so it might be a bit lacking in plot or character development, but I'm pretty much in love with the illustrations. The ladybug! The hand!

And just when I had grand plans of saving the "book" somewhere for posterity, Kathleen announced it was for Rosie.  Rosie, the lady who cuts Jim's hair (and gives the girls each a lollypop when they go).   I'm not sure that Rosie appreciated the book for the great piece of children's literature I believe it to be, but she received it, nonetheless.  Maybe I'll get the first published book.

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In case you were wondering about that forehead scrape that John David was sporting in the faux-summer post, it's almost gone now.  (It's a miracle how quickly children heal!)  He'd gotten it the day before while playing in the backyard.  I hadn't actually seen him fall -- I think I was cooking dinner.  But John David wandered over to me with a big scrape on his head, and I exclaimed, "Oh, no!  What happened to you, little man?"

And Madeline filled me in.  With all the nonchalance of a three-year-old big sister, she explained, "He was just trying to get in the playhouse.  Through the window."

I honestly couldn't keep from laughing.  Because, yeah, that sounds about right.

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So, this wasn't my idea at all, but something I saw on Ohdeedoh recently -- glow in the dark bathwater!  Actually, the bathwater doesn't glow (that probably wouldn't be particularly healthy for our littles!).  The post just suggested playing with a glowstick or two at bathtime.  When I spied glowsticks at the dollar spot at Target (two for a dollar!), I figured it was worth a try.

It was a rousing success, although I'm not sure that the photos communicate that perfectly...

We've tried it with green, orange, yellow, and purple glowsticks now.  And though the girls most enjoy the "girly" purple color, they're happy to take any glowstick in the water at bathtime.  And to bed afterwards, too.  That makes it a double win!

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Though the weather has kept us from enjoying most of the warm, cozy, typically fall foods (until now -- the weather's finally turning cooler), we haven't been able to resist the urge to add some pumpkin to our diet.  We've braved the kitchen in the morning, before it has gotten too warm, and we've found two new breakfast treats we thought worth sharing:  pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin granola.

The pumpkin pancake batter was a bit thick and therefore difficult to work with, though that could be because we made the batter with whole wheat flour.  I threw in an extra egg and more milk to thin them out, but the batter was still thick.  Thick batter notwithstanding, my children wolfed them down.  And I have to admit, they're pretty tasty with all those spices and some maple syrup.

I was a bit more nervous about the pumpkin granola recipe.  As it turns out, it was easily as popular as pancakes.  (And I realize that's quite a claim!)  I foolishly left the pan of granola to cool on the counter top while I showered and dressed one morning, and came downstairs to find that my little monsters had snacked on at least a quarter of it before I'd even stirred in the cranberries!

Incidentally, Kathleen has her heart set on hosting her best friend for dinner on Halloween (we did that last year -- and anything we do once is practically a tradition for her) and is convinced we should serve pumpkin granola for supper and pumpkin pie or cake for dessert.  At first I tried to explain that granola's not a typical dinner meal.  She didn't really buy that.  And then I tried to explain about how we don't know when Flash is coming, and how if we're able to host guests we might be limited to something like pizza, but I suppose granola's a pretty low-effort meal, too.  Maybe she'll get her way after all!

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My sweet cousin Katherine and her husband Rob recently traveled to the Bay Area for a bit of a getaway.  And because they're wonderful and generous, even though they were traveling without their own children (who are each six months older than Kathleen and Madeline), Katherine and Rob spent a morning with us -- along with Nan and Grandpa and my siblings and their littles -- at the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito.  Predictably, I do not have a single photo of my cousin or her husband.  Aargh!  I do, however, have lots of photos of little people frolicking at a great museum.

John David, Madeline, and cousin Emily running and playing on the "Golden Gate Bridge" with Nan.

After they'd been playing a life sized nest, Madeline decided she should lift John David out of it.  They both wound up rolling on the ground, laughing.

John David needed no help climbing in here.  Unfortunately for me, he's a natural.

Four cute cousins in a canoe.  (Or something.)

Our children refer to the Bay Area Discovery Museum as "the museum with the trains," which distinguishes it from the Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose ("the museum with the bubbles").   This was the first time John David was aware of the trains, and he was completely enamored of them.  He didn't quite have the fine motor skills to keep the little train on the little track, but with some help from Grandpa he was happy, nonetheless!