Autumn Sunshine

I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house.
~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

You can't necessarily tell it by the weather here yet, but fall has arrived!

Yesterday we had fall muffin tin meals for lunch--cheese leaves and acorns, apples, pumpkin cookies, and of course, chicken strips and potato wedges grabbed at Reasor's after gymnastics. If grocery store deli food doesn't say fall, what does?

When we were at Michael's, we found these plastic leaves and acorns. Alice loves playing with them!

Of course we have our fall books out, too. A few new ones have joined our old favorites. (I thought I had done a post on our fall books before, but I can't find it, so maybe I will try to do one soon!) At the bottom of the picture above, you can see the basket of fake leaves that Alice likes to play in.

Today we went to the arboretum to start our tree study for the year. The weather was perfect.

Jack chose to observe the flowering dogwood. He liked the name. I know you're surprised!

We saw this little guy getting ready for winter!

When we got home, Jack made a rubbing of a leaf from his tree and drew what it looks like now. We also read this book, which follows a maple tree through all of the seasons. Jack wants to go back soon to see if it has changed any.

Coincidentally, I realized this evening that today is the start of Take a Child Outside Week. This is not something we participate in formally, but I think it's a great idea to remind us to get our kids outside and enjoying nature, especially now that it's not so horribly hot!