Finger Painting

Happiness is... watching a three year old finger paint. Especially when the three year old doesn't like getting his hands dirty, but realizes that he actually loves it!

Our Forgotten About Fall To Do List!

I was cleaning off the side of the fridge yesterday, and look what I found! It's my forgotten about Fall to Do List... which made me think of my semi-forgotten about blog. Let's face it, I'm no blogger, but I do like to post here from time to time, when I have spare time. Typically, that's summer, when I'm off work. I'm horrible at photo albums and scrapbooks, so this is a way for me to document some of my life happenings. Mostly happy times, sometimes things that are just living in my mind.

I checked more off my fall list than I thought I would, to be honest. This fall, I started a new job, C started back to preschool and we had a lot of meetings following his diagnosis of ASD. 

1.  Go apple picking - ✓ This year, we went to Charlotte's Family Orchard, in Gagetown. There were so many varieties of apples and lots of space to explore. C had a great time running around, picking apples (and eating about 10)! 

2.  Take a drive up to Fredericton, stopping at all the farm stands - ✓ It was a beautiful drive to the apple orchard, with all of the leaves popping with colour, so we decided to go even further toward Fredericton, to visit Moxon's Country Pumpkin. Besides being a farm and vegetable stand, they have the best bakery (C is all about their spoon bread!), and as a bonus for families, they have a small petting farm and playground. In the fall, they also have about a million pumpkins. Can you spot our little pumpkin in the pile? 

3.  Decorate our yard for fall - ✓  This is something my husband does every year. Corn stalks, straw bails, pumpkins. It's not extravagant, but Fall is our favourite season, so it really gets us into the season. 

4.  Carve pumpkins - ✓ C LOVED carving pumpkins. He did a lot of drawing on the pumpkins for me to carve and poking holes with the pumpkin knife. 

5.  Enjoy a walk in the park, to enjoy the fall colours - ✓ The leaves were beautiful this year. Any day we were able to to get outside to see them was a good day. 

5.  Make pickles - ✓ I did it! I made my two favourites, Chow Chow & Pickled Beets and then hubby and I made Apple Jelly. 

6.  Find a Halloween costume for C. - ✓ (but, also a total fail!)  We found a Halloween costume, but C refused to wear it. It was a really simple Thomas the Tank Engine costume, and he LOVES Thomas. He wouldn't have anything to do with it. Since he didn't want to wear a costume, we didn't go Trick or Treating, which made me sad, because Halloween is one of my favourite holidays and he had so much fun last year visiting a few of our neighbours. It ended up okay though, because he passed out treats to our Trick or Treaters. We had a TON! I think the final number was 220. That's a lot of work for a 3 year old! It ended up being a fun Halloween for everyone.

7.  Plan something special for C's 3rd birthday! - ✓ We had a nice family dinner for C's birthday. No kid party this year. Honestly, October was a very up and down month.  It was busy.  I couldn't figure out a good date and time for everyone, so I decided not to do it. I felt like a total mom failure, but many people reminded me that parties for little ones are usually for the benefit of the parents more than the kids. I still felt bad, but kind of agreed. 

8.  Jump in puddles - ✓ Many times! So much fun! I guess the upside of a very bumpy, uneven driveway has its benefits! 

9.  Get some fall candles from Bath & Body Works - ✓  Fall scents are the best scents. 

10.  Host Thanksgiving Day dinner! - ✓ I did it! This was a big one for me. I am not a "hostess," but I was pretty proud of pulling it off. It was a pretty good meal and C. made some cute centerpieces out of gourds. 

11.  Thanksgiving crafts! - ✓ This was fun! Gourds, paint, paint brushes, feathers, and anything else we could paint with. They turned out pretty cute. C was super proud of them and took good care of them, until the dog chewed one into pieces and C sat on another one and squished it. Then it was time to say, "Buh-bye gourds!" 

Thanksgiving crafts led to finger painting, which was a whole lot of fun too! This one is now in his art frame in the living room. 

The others didn't happen, but the worst fail of all would have to be:

*Sit back, relax, and breathe. <MAJOR FAIL!>  I can't remember a time when I felt more stressed than I was this fall. Work got the better of me. Home commitments got the better of me. Volunteer commitments got the better of me. It was bad. 

I was so happy that the Christmas break arrived. I have really allowed myself to take a break. Sleep, relaxation, and lots of play time with C. I think it's exactly what we all needed.