Play in the Leaves

I cannot even describe to you how busy things have been! Most of my time has been spent doing auction stuff. Thankfully that paid off and we raised almost $2500 for PMO and SOS. That is the most we have raised to date. I was out almost every night last week. I missed bathing the kids and putting them to bed, which isn't always a bad thing! However, last night after baths, Caroline looked at Chad and said, "Daddy are you gonna babysit us tonight?" At that point I knew that it was time for me to pick up where I left off and be here for their nightly routine...ok, so "routine" may be a bit of an exaggeration, as most nights are not that scheduled.

The weather has been wonderful here for about the last 4 or 5 days. It has been in the 60's and a couple times it reached 70...awesome weather, especially for November! Today I took the kids to run some errands with me. We ran up to school to pass out thank you notes for some auction folks, dropped one by the dentist's office, went to the bank and stopped by the post office to mail yet another thank you note. I had originally suggested that we go to the "new" playground out in Monteagle, but I changed my mind for several reasons. Caroline really wanted to go to the new playground until she realized that I had not brought any juice with us. At that moment she decided that maybe going home was a better idea. So, to "Brown House" we went!

We have tons and tons of leaves in our yard. Thanks to the six oak trees you cannot see any grass! Yesterday I raked some of the leaves and got the idea to make a maze in the leaves. I ended up making lots of connecting paths and the kids thought it was great. We chased each other around the paths and Caroline pushed Elmo in the stroller while Tuck pushed the grocery cart. He did not always understand the concept of staying on the path and frequently tromped through the leaf piles!

Meanwhile, I was enjoying watching and listening to the kids play as I sat in the rocking chair on the deck and knitted a hat (yes, I realize that makes me sound like I am 80). On a side note, I just found out yesterday that I have a spot in the Christmas Craft Show. That is great news but it means that I have lots of work to do so I didn't want to waste one moment! I was also thinking about how much I wished I could find the camera to take pictures of the kiddos. I am thinking (actually, hoping) that Chad knows exactly where it is. So, unfortunately no pictures but I am sure you can imagine the chaos that was about to begin.

The kids were enjoying themselves but it seemed like they were starting to loose interest. I decided that I needed to put the hat down and go play in the leaves. They were so excited to see me jump in the leaves and thrown leaves in the air. Caroline loved to pretend that it was raining leaves, while Tucker preferred to put handfuls of leaves in my hair. We all had bits of fallen leaves in our hair and clothes, but who cares...it was fun! Tucker just continued to squeal with excitement. I secretly think he was excited because he was allowed to throw something. He has been in a "throwing phase," or so I hope and everything gets thrown. Sometimes he is nice enough to announce, "Mommy, I frow it!" Of course that is said as the pacifier flies by my head from the backseat and bounces off of the steering wheel.

I am not going to lie, at first I really didn't have a great desire to roll around in the leaves and have leaf bits all over me for the next three days. But, I couldn't resist. Maybe my mind was going back 20 years and remembering when Chip and I would make leaf piles and play in them until it was dark and we had to go in for dinner. Maybe I was the one that had the most fun today?!?! One thing I know for sure, I am glad that I put down my knitting and took the time to play in the leaves. That's what childhood memories are all about.