A fall update--57 days down!

 We took a little family field trip to the state fair with Nana and Papa (Jordan's parents).  Most of it was riding and eating fair food, but we also checked out the art exhibits and some other interesting stuff.  This, for instance, is a sand sculpture of the four seasons.  The whole thing was made with sand and water!

The day after the fair, I took the kids to our homeschool co-op's zoo day and Suzi went to the homeschool class there, where they discussed how animals use the sense of smell.  Here is Autumn the giraffe, a few days before the birth of her baby, Kiko.  Kiko was born late at night, but later on I showed the girls the video.  It was amazing!

 Another zoo pic.  The girls love the statues!

 We did several fun crafts, such as pumpkin carving and these cheesecloth ghosts.  Ivey enjoyed this more than Suzi did.

 Here are the kids on their way into our homeschool co-op one crisp fall morning.  Ahh.  I absolutely love that they are becoming a bit more independent!

We went to our rink's first homeschool skate.  Loved it!  The girls spent time with their friends, and I spent some time with mine too.  Robert was at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

 How Little Brother entertains himself during math.  Maybe you can tell that he cried for the abacus.  He wants to learn to count!

 There were so many fun fall events this year.  Here we are at the Montessori school's fall festival, enjoying the hayride.  The girls spent most of their time in the inflatable bouncers, but there were also pony rides and a pumpkin patch.

Ivey the Bat enjoyed spending some time in the play-doh center at our homeschool co-op's Halloween Party.  Mother Goose stopped by to read to the children and play some games, too!

The girls were in a little barnyard play for their drama class.  Ivey is the chicken there in the middle, and Suzi is on the far right, playing a horse.  They did a great job.

 Suzi's handwriting.  She grudgingly follows my example, but prefers to sign her name in a much fancier way.

 In mid-October, we tried to take the girls apple picking, but they were out of apples when we arrived.  So we just bought some apples and picked muscadines.

These are a few of Suzi's Halloween decorations.  She loves to decorate for Halloween as much as I do!  I can't wait to see what she does for Christmas.

Here's the picture Suzi drew of Autumn having her baby, after watching the video.  That's not exactly how the baby came out, but I think it's cute anyway!  Then she did a little copy work.  Her writing is improving--she's not reversing letters as much anymore, and can do more writing faster without getting tired.  Still need to work on spacing, though.

We took a few days off in October to prepare for Halloween festivities and deal with a few other things that came up.  We are going again now, though, so hopefully it won't be as long before I get the next update posted!