Hurray For Fall!

I love Fall. It is by far my favorite season. There's something about how the light goes all golden, and how you can smell the sort of dry-leaf smell in the air as you crunch along the sidewalk that just makes me feel festive. Not to mention, the turning of the leaves signals so many fun and festive things to come; it's a precursor to the holidays.

One of my favorite Fall activities when I was growing up was playing in the leaves. One of my older brothers used to rake the leaves into a sort of floor plan, where we all had our own bedrooms, and there was a living room area, and you weren't allowed to walk over the "walls", you had to use the doors. I love those memories.

In the past, we've posted pictures of our kids playing in the giant piles of leaves we rake up from our front yard. It seriously is a giant pile, it can easily accommodate half the neighborhood. This year, the leaves took much longer to fall then they normally do, but we still managed to get some good pictures with a few cousins.

One of Maisie and Dany's favorite things is to be buried completely, except for their faces.

Morgan and Rory wanted to help get in on that action.

Spencer and Morgan were mostly just content to sit in the pile and play.

And here's that light I love so well in the Fall.

Everything looks nicer in light like that.

A day or two later, I was making pies for the Bayly get-together. I swear Fall seems like the only time I ever make pie. Lately Rory is very interested in anything to do with the kitchen; she always wants to help out, and be a part of any stirring, mixing, measuring or rolling that takes place. And so that Saturday, I had a little pie helper.

She does quite a good job, for only being two. It was fun to see how proud she was of her work.

And something that doesn't happen every year, we had a new niece born into our family a few days before Thanksgiving! Millie Jane Rogers, at a tiny 5lbs 13oz's.

Aah, I love the Fall.