Autumn Brown

Thanks to Jono for filling up the wood shed so we'll stay warm this winter.

He takes such good care of us!

Autumn Grey {glass beach}

This is Glass Beach in Fort Bragg, CA. 

It used to be a dump (don't we pick great places to put our trash).

So, the sand is full of bits of glass that have been tossed around in the waves for the last how many years.  The glass is all smooth now like pebbles.  You can just search for treasure to your little hearts content.  I could have stayed all day.

The boys liked finding live treasure.  There were fish in this tide pool.

As Joe was climbing around, he left his apple sitting on a rock which this squirrel claimed immediately.

Abby was the only one of us that found any blue glass.  But mostly she was discovering what happened to Anne Frank.

Look at all the great treasures we found!

*note: not all treasure came home with us

We did find some beautiful pieces of glass but I was most excited about these...

Tiny pieces of pottery!  They still have bits of glaze on them.

I can't wait do something with them.

You can check out others' autumn colors in the flickr group HERE.

Autumn Orange {the pumpkin harvest}

I wanted to wait to harvest the pumpkins when we had all the kids there at the same time.

Amazingly, that was hard to do.  My kids aren't that old.  It's not like they are driving themselves places.  We might have to re-evaluate.  I like us together.

They each picked one and carried them over to the hay bales.
Dylan picked the squash because they were easier to carry but it's all squash really.

Yea! That was fun.

Then we played with the camera a little.

This one of Abby...Jono put his sunglasses over the lens of the camera.  She's pretty much amazing in any tint.  I'm allowed to say that, right? She is my daughter.  I can be just as biased as I want.



I love this series of Joe.  He was trying to bury himself with the pumpkins. 

He's such a goofy kid and a lot of fun when he's not trying to be Mr. Tough Guy. 

The last picture is his favorite. 

Of course.



Oh!  One last Autumn Orange...

the holiday truck in Forbestown!

They grew their pumpkins up onto the bed of the truck.

And.  There's a goat.

Love it.

If you missed it the past couple days, here is Autumn Red and Autumn Yellow.

Autumn Yellow

YELLOW

Remember Jono's poem--Yeller Pianer? 

This is our yeller pianer. 

I love the how the angle of light changes in the fall.

We don't get a lot of color changes in the fall because most of the trees up here are evergreens.

These cat-tails around the lake are one of the things that does change.  The boys want to collect all the "corndogs" on top but those buggers are not easy to snap off!

And lastly...my sweet yellow vest that I scored at the thrift store is my new favorite thing for fall!

Autumn Red

This is Autumn Colors Week over at Poppytalk.  They have done other colors in other seasons but I thought I would jump in on this one.  It's just good creative exercise.  Focus in on colors that are happening in your everyday life.

RED

These are all tomatoes out of our garden.  We didn't get any red ones until the very end of August and we are still pulling a few off the vines now.  There has already been one cold snap.  We'll see how many more we get before the rest of the green ones become relish!

This is the Falck House.  It was built in the early 1900s.   It is built on a foundation of redwoods and has watched Woodleaf through all of its changes.  From mining town, to logging company, to camp for high school kids.  Just part of the history here.

News from the Coop

We ended up with chickens this summer kinda by default.  They needed them to be part of the entertainment for summer camp and the birds had to have a place to stay, so...the old greenhouse shed is next door to our house and was easy to convert into a chicken house.  Since they were going to be living so close to us, I requested that we get all hens.  And that's what we thought we had

until recently.

One of the girls was starting to look a little suspect--going red in the gobbler and comb region.

This week it was confirmed.

There is definite cockadoodling.

AND,

we got our first egg!!!

So at least one of them is a hen.

Any suggestions on how to get her to lay IN the chicken house?

Harry Potter Wands

Remember the thrill of July?

The warmth of the summer sun.

The giant splash as you race into the water.

AND

The great, last battle against Volde--

I mean, He Who Must Not Be Named.

Ask the Big-uns what was their favorite part of summer and, without hesitation, they will tell you

The Deathly Hallows Part 2!!!

The excitement has not waned.  We have had multiple conversations about which parts were changed and what was left out or added to the movie.  Repeated favorite lines...

("that went well" and "i've always wanted to use that spell")

Re-enacted whole scenes. 

I can't tell you how many sticks have been gathered to use for wands and how many times I've heard "expeliarmus".   Even the toddler is saying it (actually he says it more like his father--"smellyourarmpits")

And, of course, we will be dressing up as characters from Harry Potter for Halloween. 

Not surprising, I know.

So, in preparing for this fantastic event, we needed certain wands.

You know that the wand chooses the wizard and each wizard has a specific wand.

Can you believe these wands were made with paper and a glue gun?!!  I got major mom points for coming across this tutorial on Pinterest.

Much safer than a second grader trying to whittle them with his dollar store pocket knife.

It's really fairly simple:

Roll the paper.

Glue it together and let dry.

Add details with the glue gun.

Paint.

Definitely check out the complete tutorial here.

We still have to make a mad eye for Professor Moody but at least the wands are ready!

By the way, anyone know who it was that said the quotes from above or just knew from looking which wizards' wands we made???  Just wondering how many other Harry Potter nerds are out there!