Sunday, October 19, 2008

Glorious fall

After a great morning at church (wonderful music, practical sermon, communion, AND I had a few people to say hi to - yay!), I came back to my chilly house. I changed my clothes, layered on the wool, and played with R up in his room while I sipped some hot tea. Here's what we built together:


The marble maze is so much fun. R tires of it sometimes, but every few weeks, we pull it out and spend at least a couple of hours building different mazes and just feeding the marbles through. R makes up stories about the marbles while he's playing. (I have a video to upload, but my connection is too slow at the moment...)

Because it was such a typical New England fall day, we decided to drive up just over the border to New Hampshire to go to my favorite farmstand for pumpkins, apple cider, and cider donuts (since we missed out on those when we went apple picking a couple of weeks ago). The foliage was just amazing all the way up there. I can't help but smile at the beauty of this time of year. It makes me so happy. God really is an artist. :-)


First, we stopped for lunch at Cracker Barrel. We had to wait awhile for a table, but R found the toy section in the country store part, and that occupied us the whole wait - and the wait was totally worth it. Oh my gosh was it good. I had beef stew and corn and turnip greens, plus biscuits. A had BBQ pork, beans, and turnip greens. And, R had his usual macaroni and cheese, which he wolfed down with a corn muffin and gobs of butter. Comfort food for a chilly day.


Then it was off to the farmstand. We checked out the scarecrow contest, then picked out a big pumpkin for carving, and grabbed the cider donuts. After dropping off our loot in the car, we spent some time at the farmstand's duck pond until my hands were about to freeze off. Then, we headed home to MA.





Just before R's bedtime, the three of us huddled in the kitchen, munching cider donuts and sipping hot, mulled apple cider. A and I had ours with a splash of red wine. Mmmm, perfection.

I hope one day that R will look back on these moments with as much joy as I do.

5 comments:

heidi @ ggip said...

That sounds like a perfect fall day! I love the marble thing. I could play with it for hours! I have only had cider donuts once. I really would like one!

Greg C said...

I wonder the same thing about my boys. Will they one day look back at all we do and smile. I sure hope so. Sounds like a perfect day.

kc bob said...

Love those photos Kristen.. not quite as colorful out here.. warm fall weather must be doing it :)

Suztash said...

Boy, do I miss New England in the fall! I'm sure R will retain so much of what you're doing with him now....even if it is mostly the feelings inspired with an aroma or a color or sight. They'll be all connected to you and A. Wish I was experiencing this with you. Love you. Mom

Teachermom said...

Yep, you have achieved Autumn perfection. Cross that off your list! :) I agree, too - God really is an artist.

As for R remembering it, I think he will. I remember the fun things I did with my family as a kid, and it wasn't about doing big giant vacations; it was about the everyday kind of fun and doing something just a little bit out of the ordinary.