Spring Sprang Sprung

 

By popular demand, here's another "spring" pictorama.

Though the fact that it was February and we are getting snow here today makes this anything but appropriate.

Most of these were taken at a local park we frequent when we don't have enough snacks to get us to Baltimore or D.C.

This day was fun because we all just went with the flow and the flow ended in hot cocoa and couch snuggling after we got home.

I really don't like to be vertical, do I?

This is "blueberry pie" which was prepared with a shovel and two loving little Abby hands.

 

Ah yes, this is the day I came down with the stomach bug.  No wonder I was jones-ing for lazy couch time.

The Leaves I Love

A big storm is its way.

The rumor of heavy rain shudders through hundreds of yellowing leaves, gossiping away out my window.

We must run to go get bread, butter, flour (for cookie dough yes, how did you know?), and probably tea.  A house without tea might as well not have a roof.

Today will be inside for us chickens.  We will cluck here with a hammer, cluck there with a paintbrush, and finally squawk for a hot cup of soup at lunchtime.

Yesterday was outdoors. 

I love the way children see a pile of leaves as an invitation.

Adults (like me) have to work at forgetting the dirty bowls of oatmeal in the sink.  We have to willfully ignore  the 24 thousand toy pieces left for maybe later maybe not and so loudly out of context or the fact that we have not yet figured out dinner.

"Jump in with me, Mommy!"

My mind goes back inside to where I know the hermit crab's dish needs more water, the phone is ringing and Thank You notes for Grayson's birthday gifts go unwritten one more afternoon.

"Throw them up in the air like rain, Mommy!"

I sit down.

Consider my options.

And throw some leaves high into the air.

I am outside with them now.
Completely.

Important things can't wait.  If they wait too long, they start going to sleepovers, high school, college, boot camp, the moon. 

And as far as I know, there are no piles of leaves on the moon.

At least not the kind of leaves you will love.

Caramel Apple

Over the weekend, we went to a faraway orchard for apple picking and fall activities with Nammy and Pop.

All those pictures are on Pop's camera because I wanted to live in the moment instead of behind a lens for once.

I'm so glad I did too because the day was simply beautiful. 

The cloudless Shenandoah sky was big as Texas as we took in the afternoon.

Grayson's favorite thing was roping a plastic steer.  He swung the lasso over his head like he was an understudy in Gunsmoke.  He'd toss it over the steer's horns, catching one horn every time.  Dropping the slack, he'd then meticulously walk the remaining rope away from the steer.  Turning around, he'd give a solid yank of his line and smile like Hopalong Cassidy when the plastic beast hit the dirt with a heaving thunk.  My son is a cowboy.

Abby preferred the mile long tunnel slide.

She ran up a steep hill of grass to get the to slide with the most determined uphill prance known to man.  Even her daddy (a fast runner himself) was impressed with her fortitude.  Andy watched at the top as she climbed into the tunnel slide and I waited for her little familiar face to pop out of the darkness at the end.

Because there were ridges in the tunnel's tubing, you could hear her little voice singing a made up happy song with the vibrato of a baby lamb long before you could see actually see her.  That's the Boompa in her.  Abby hums a made up happy song when she is busy doing something she loves.  No words, just a little tune that wanders along with her mood.  It's like hearing what's inside her uncluttered heart.  There is nothing better.

My favorite was the jumping pillow.  Which is a misnomer.  There is nothing soft and cushy about that thing;  that sucker was hard.  When I was freed from the worry of crashing disastrously into one of my own children, I plowed my feet hard into the pillow with the promise of being sloppily propelled into the air so high my stomach dropped..  That was a very good time.  I want one.

Not sure what Andy's favorite activity was but if I had to guess it would be the entire day.  His parents, his family, his favorite orchard and acres and acres of open land absolutely bursting with the tangible baton pass of one season into the next.  I could see his eyes devouring wine colored leaves while we all inhaled a ciderbreeze coming from fallen apples worked over by the autumn floor.

Magical fall, the only one around who knows how to age gracefully without even trying.



 Also, we almost didn't get The Caramel Apple because the kids were tired, we were beat and it was getting late.  Last minute, Pop and I scrambled up to get a few and thank goodness we did.  So much joy comes from a dipped fruit on a stick.

Always get The Caramel Apple.  It's the best part.

Field Trip

On Saturday we went on our first local field trip. We decided on the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum in VA. Let me tell you, it did not disappoint. For a woman who is in fast forward these days, even I slowed down enough to read the signs, learn some history, and finally get to see a MIG close up and personal. These aircraft are UHmaZING and the fact that we have real people who are smart enough to design, fly, and keep track of parts (a little love for the Major there) is astonishing to me. It's an entire hangar of achievements, breakthroughs, and a torpedo launcher or six. Grayson was a little boy body with an owl head, swiveling complete circles to see, "that big one!" or "that HUGE one!" A little boy's heaven and a big boy's playground.

While we were there, we noticed the lines for riding the simulators were short. Grayson and Daddy manned right up and they climbed in that blue R2D2 together to chase down bad guys. Here's the after shot. Grayson was a touch green but Daddy held him close during and after so he didn't have to fend off the enemy alone.













We were only able to stay a short while as Grayson's bladder outmatched his trousers but we can't wait to go back so Abby and I can ride the simulator. And not the little blue one either. We want to ride the red one that rocked and spun around so violently she will think she's back in utero and so will I! (Of course I'm only joking about Abby coming with me. She's holding out her hopes to ride in the zero gravity simulator.)
This little beauty here was called a Flying Wing. Of course I liked it because it reminded me of the Jetsons and I thought it was pretty. Daddy took the picture anyway.