Apple-Picking, belated

This weekend we celebrated Thanksgiving with Dave's family

and, the day after, went out and bought a Christmas tree

for the coming advent season. With much shame, I remembered

that I am still owing a post about our apple-picking adventures

late in the summer. Oops. Thought I'd better get to it before

I'm also posting about Christmas.

So in late September we went to our usual apple orchard

to pick honeycrisps. We only go there to pick honeycrisps

because after eating honeycrisps, it is hard to eat any

other variety of apple and not think, "ugh, mealy". Over the

years we have also become disgusting apple snobs - we

even prefer the locally-grown honeycrisps (they were

a hybrid developed at the U of M) to those that turn

up in the supermarkets from Washington or Michigan.

We were not as fortunate as in previous years, to have the

beautiful blue skies of fall as our backdrop.

In fact, we spent very little time actually picking (and eating),

because it began to rain soon after we got there. The trees

were relatively short but the girls still had a little help

reaching the apples.

Hey Mum, Dad - here are the goldencrisp trees - remember those?

(Goldencrisps are like a crisper version of Golden Delicious).

There were several ways to get between the visitors' center

and the apple trees - on foot, by tractor,

and wagon.

At the visitors' center, we bought snacks while waiting for

the rain to subside, and wandered around admiring the

pumpkins and gourds (look at that sky!).

We left with our apples and two little pie pumpkins,

saving the real pumpkin picking for another day.

Giving

Today we dropped off our Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes in church. This is something we have done since 2005 when there was only Emily to get excited about it. This is the first year that Jenna consciously participated and we plan to keep doing this till the kids find another good cause to which they can better relate.


We collected the contents of the boxes all through the summer, and the girls quite enjoyed shopping for stationery, art supplies, toiletries and other treats for the "poor children who have no toys". Yesterday, Jenna and Emily solemnly distributed these items among their shoeboxes ("we each get a girl and a boy!" said Emily). Last year, we could not find good dolls in the stores so I sewed some. This year, we bought dolls, which is nothing like handmade, but the girls got to pick them out, at least.


We decided that the boys would not get dolls - they got little metal cars instead.
I so enjoyed watching Emily and Jenna meticulously filling their boxes - counting out pencils, folding the little Tshirts, choosing colors of toothbrushes and combs ("one comb with a handle and one without for each box" was the final decision) and picking out their precious sour candies from our candy stash to give away.

Thanksgiving is almost upon us. And this year, as with every year, we have a lot to be thankful for. We want our kids to be many things, one of which is to be giving. As soon as everyone is old enough, we are going to volunteer for something local! There is no point in hoarding toys (although we do that rather well); there is also no point in depriving them of toys. Both are daft, but if we can help them be generous even in their abundance, it will enlarge their hearts to love people a lot more. That's what I think, anyway.

And there are so many good causes to choose from, so we picked something the girls could understand - other kids and Christmas gifts, or their lack thereof. We were initially thrilled to hear about a tour of the OCC processing center downtown, at which the kids would get to see what happens to the shoeboxes between collection and delivery. What a fabulous experience! Sadly, we were too late to sign up, so perhaps we'll do that in 2010 .

We are also excited about other opportunities to give this year. The girls (OK, maybe not Kate) have been shown the Samaritan's Purse (organization that does Operation Christmas Child) gift catalog and asked to pick out some things to give to people who have even less than no toys. Emily has narrowed her choices down to a water filter for people who don't have clean water, a plane ticket for children to be flown to hospitals, and something else I don't remember off-hand - could be a goat. It will be interesting to see what Jenna picks.

Next year, we are also planning to sponsor a child with Compassion International. What fun it will be for the girls to choose a friend in a faraway place to help!

Faith

Jenna, kneeling before the snowman the girls made
out of blankets, a felt carrot, plastic broomsticks, and
their dress-up magician's hat:

"Dear Jesus, please don't let our snowmen melt. Amen."

Jenna is 3 years old

O happy little Jenna!
Funny, kind, serious, mellow, big-hearted child!
You love cuddling and pulling mom's hair. You think
your veins are owies. You love anything in sets. You turn
everything into a sheet of cookies for baking. You are
so good at puzzles and so assiduous in your crafting.
You love foam stickers and make the most beautiful art.
You surprised us by how early you knew your ABCs
and numbers. You are so thrilled to be able to get
yourself a drink, which you drink with a straw and
a fork. You've given up napping because you think
"sleeping is boring! Boring!" You think it is wonderful
to be big enough to use scissors, and spend many
happy hours cutting paper into teeny little pieces. You
only want to wear dresses. You say the funniest, funniest
things. You ask us, "Is this working for you?" and
"Does this help you?" and "What's that purple thing?
I mean the indigo, NOT the violet!" You invented the
Jumping Bean dance. You are so, so, so proud to be 3!

Three weeks late, here are photos from Jenna's birthday weekend:


G. Karen and G. Arne came to celebrate with us.
Jenna asked for a blue Hello Kitty cake, so we gave her one.
I got slightly carried away with my star nozzle.

Her little blue playhouse/candy store that had to be
made in secret over one and a half weeks of late
sewing nights. So much fun. More photos here.


A quiet moment after her party to enjoy her new doll
(thank you, G. Mae and G. Desmond!)

Kate is 19 months old

Ah, our Kate. So much packed into one small person.
You are potty-training. All by yourself.
Just because your sisters can do it. You love being big and anything that makes you feel big. You dispense your own water from the fridge door.
You undress and dress yourself (well, just pants).
You want to help bake, cook, clean.
You say, "Come too?" and "Have it?" so you won't be left out.
You tell knock-knock jokes, not very well.
But we still laugh, so we can hear you say, "Funny. Joke." You say, "sorry", "hello mum!", "There it is!"
"What, mum?" when we call you. You love reading and will come to us with your
stack of little books, pleading, "Weet! Fofa!" so we
will read to you on the sofa (our laps are your
second choice, but only if you cannot convince us
that sofas are best). You sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star -
and will continue after the second line if we help.
You do Jesus Loves Me with actions. You've mumbled,
"Mum, favorite song, please" so we will sing you back
to sleep. You pat your little chest and say, with
rounded eyes, "(S)cared!" when you are startled.
We love watching you be gentle with your dolls.
You adore dogs. You love the Disney princesses,
and collectively call them all Prettyrella.

You simultaneously wear us out and are so
much fun to be with - what's not to love?

More Fall Updates

We are having a beautiful, beautiful autumn! After a bitterly
cold Halloween and that early snow (followed by days upon
days of miserable grey), we were blessed again with the
clear blue skies, sunshine and crisp cool air of fall.

Also gorgeous, lingering sunsets


migrating geese

and morning frost.


The past weeks were even warm enough to hit the
parks again, which we did every day if we could. One
afternoon, we surprised Emily with a picnic tea at a new
(and now favorite) park- we picked her up from school
and headed to "the black, purple and blue park" (Jenna
names parks by the color combination of the play equipment.

Two weekends ago, we went to another
favorite park and took photos.




And Dave has put the yard machines away for the winter.
We have many, many trees in our yard, and therefore lots
and lots of leaves, still falling.





Haven't forgotten that I owe you all Jenna's and Kate's
chronological updates. We've been busy enjoying the
fall (and navigating the weird naptime-school
chauffeuring thing).