S is for snakes!  We just made S-shaped paper snakes, and then played the game Hiss!  It’s a cute, simple game, but until the kids are old enough to accept defeat, you’d better alter the rules and make it cooperative.

Please notice the mess in the background of these pictures.  This is real life, people!

Since Miles is in Joy School now, Eliza and I have a little one-on-one time a couple days a week.  S is for a stroll down the Ogden River Parkway:

I love where we live.

S is for squirrels – we got some library books, most of which were just ok, and we made a little squirrel feeder, which was completely ineffective.  We saw zero squirrels this week, and we usually have a lot around our back yard.  They’re too good for our food, I guess.

I dragged the letter S out over two weeks because I kept forgetting to do official letter S activities, but what we did do was just enjoy the Season:

We picked my grandma’s pears and some of her apples, which is one of our very favorite fall traditions.  I’ve been picking apples off this tree for as long as I can remember, and now my kids look forward to it every year.  Just makes me happy.  And we love Gommy!  The rest of her apples should be ready soon!

Of course picking apples and pears means making apple cranberry pear crisp, like this one that I cooked on the smoker.  For the record, I wouldn’t recommend cooking apple crisp on a smoker.  It was still good, but the added smoky flavor was just weird.

And here’s Miles, the grasshopper whisperer.  Another favorite thing about fall around here is that we have SO many grasshoppers all over our yard.  And they love Miles.  He works some kind of magic with them, because they won’t jump off or try to get away.  They like to just hang out on him.  He has been able to pet a fly before too!  He’s amazing!

Another nice thing about the fall is structure and having the older kids in school, so we’re free to do little kid things without them getting bored.  We’re seeing more of our preschool-age cousins now.  Here we met them at the Aerospace Museum.

One more thing for the letter S was breaking out books for the season – there are so many great fall books!

Again with the real life here – mess, pajamas, wearing only a diaper…

Some favorite fall books:

• The Busy Little Squirrel by Nancy Tafuri
• In November by Cynthia Rylant
• Fall is Not Easy by Marty Kelley
• Leaf Man and Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert
• Apples to Oregon by Deborah Hopkinson
• The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall
• All for Pie, Pie for All by David Martin

Ok, I need to stop.  But I really could keep going!  So many great books.  And yet, I’m always wanting to find more.  What are your favorite books for this season?