Falling Leaves

Here are some pictures of our day in High Park a couple of weeks ago.

The kids were each given a brown paper bag with their name on it. They were to carefully pick out beautiful leaves of different colours, for their collection.

Of course, carelessly stuffing dirty, brown, dried out leaves into the bag works too!

There was one lone pile of leaves in the forested area we often visit. We could see some kids conglomerating on and around this huge pile (obviously made by a machine). We had brought our own little rakes, which we shared with the larger gang.

One of B's classmates was playing here, and her mother graciously offered to take a picture of all of us together. Well, we've got 4 of the 6 kids in the pic, plus the mother's other child....it works! :)

We took running leaps at the hill, ate our snacks, and buried our hands and feet in the leaves, pretending to lose them.

Here's Noah getting ready to run!

The babies enjoyed climbing around the perimeter of the hill of leaves.

Then they relaxed with their snacks, and watched the bigger kids jump in!

 

It was a beautiful outing. I love fall!

Little Amadea turned 1 year old last week! We celebrated by singing happy birthday, and eating pumpkin muffins she had brought from home. They were delicious!

Happy birthday, Amadea. We are happy you are part of our daycare gang!

Early Fall

One day Thomas asked, "Can we go to High Park today?" I said, "No, we're not going there today." He paused, and then said, "Tomorrow? Can we go tomorrow?" This caught me off guard. He has grown! This a new stage in his development and shows more complex thinking.

We went to High Park the next day.

Amadea fell asleep in the wagon again. Leila requested to go back into the little red wagon, have some snacks, and watch her friends play. Noah and Riley played "restaurant" on the playground. This has got to be Noah's all-time favourite pretend play scenario.

When Amadea woke up, she and I joined Noah and Riley on the playground, while Leila and Tom had a ride in the swings.

Riley, Amadea and I were seated at a "table" at the pretend restaurant, which overlooked the north end of the playground. It was divine. We ordered food from Noah, the waiter, and watched the babes in the swings.

Riley is really helping to make Amadea feel comfortable at the daycare. Here she is giving her one of many hugs. She finds delight in interacting with Amadea, and often exclaims, "Charla, she likes me!"

Here are some rainy day pictures. I have decided that rainy day play, or mucky play, is my favourite thing to take pictures of.

Amadea was very interested in playing in the muck. In fact, she wanted to crawl right into the middle of the mud puddle. I figure at this age, she's better on the beach.

Thomas had such a great time doing his notorious jumps. I had to send him to one of the smaller, less populated puddles, lest he splash mud into his friends' eyes.

Noah is not tempted by the muck, though he seems to enjoy watching the others play in it. He happily dances around them, doing his little song and dance. Leila's a little unsure at this point. If my children do not like the mud, they do not take after me! I was busy helping Riley make a mud stew, with mud, water, leaves, grass and rocks. Man, it's great to be a kid!

Grenedier Pond

One day, after we picked the boys up from school, we went on a special adventure: to Grenedier Pond!

Amadea passed out in the wagon, so we carefully lay her down and let her sleep through all the excitement.

We have been blessed, for much of September, with absolutely beautiful weather. This day was one of those days. Idyllic.

We walked to the north end of the pond, past the weeping willows.

We were on a mission to see the swans. Then we spotted them at the other side of the pond.

The kids were able to get nice and close to the ducks.

The ducks became very interested in the lunch/snacks the kids were having, so we decided to share some.

Guess who suddenly preferred our side of the pond? The swans. (We were told it was a mother and her baby.) So we decided to share our snacks with them too. There was no fighting amongst the ducks and the swans. It was a perfectly peaceful activity for us all (and trust me, those are rare).

We followed the path back, the way we had come, looking at the wildlife along the way.

Amadea woke up just in time for our departure, happy as pie.

Riley is such a cute little character. She wore this mask for the entire day! I just love her ways.

Oh, and here are some more cute characters. Thank goodness Noah agreed to get out of the wagon for the walk up the big hill! It was a beautiful outing. We are one lucky gang!