October

I am really sad to see October go this year. The biggest reason is because it was the birth and death month of my Grandfather, but there other reasons too. We had a great early fall in spite of our loss, but we also got to see family we hadn't seen in years and I was able to do many fun things with the kids. We went to a few farms for festival days where we picked pumpkins, drank cider, fed animals, played in hay, enjoyed the wonderful weather and the beauty of the changing leaves, and mostly got to hang out with good friends and family. Our annual kids' Halloween party was so much fun, and trick-or-treating at Cousin Candyce's to "get candy, get candy, get candy" (in the words of Jerry Seinfeld) were some highlights as well.

I really enjoyed watching P experience new things. She was too young before, so this year she embraced feeding chickens, carving and painting pumpkins and her excitement to be with her "sriends" was adorable. One of my favorite memories stems back to the dread pirate chicken - why always chickens with me? I just don't know. Anyhow, P was feeding chickens at Stratford Farms and Grammies took her into the chicken coop so she could see chickens laying eggs. There were probably around 15 hens in the coop awaiting the arrival of their beautiful little hard-shelled goo filled babies, and a few nests had eggs in them. It was really neat to see P find the white treasure in the nests...ooh ahhh went mommy and grammies when we found a nest with an egg. Teaching P not to touch was easy - she is such a sweet and respectful little girl (disclaimers should be inserted here). But, then there was this hen that was very curious about P's intentions. Our little feathered friend kept peeking around to see if P...and only P ...was still lurking about the henhouse. It was quite funny to see that hen peak around the corner of her nest to check out the little intruder. I can only imagine what was going on inside that little feathered pea brain - "hey, kid, step away from the egg." or "YOU are still here, c'mon, I need a little privacy. Laying an EGG you know."