Fall of 2010

I know we have already posted our annual blog entry for 2010, but we have decided to build up some blogging credit. We figure, if we post 2 or 3 times before the close of this year, we won't have to post again until 2014. So, buckle up. This may or may not be (but definitely will be) a long-winded and random post filled with many pictures of our kids and the things they have been involved with over the last few weeks. So beware....extreme boredom ahead. Grab yourself a cold drink and/or a pillow if you intend to read the remainder of this post.

Lately we have been trying to teach our children the value of service. Our hope is that if we instill this principle in them while they are young, they will always have the desire to help others who are in need.

One day, earlier this fall, we bundled up the children and headed down to Grandpa and Grandma Holt's house to "surprise" them by raking their leaves that had recently fallen to the ground. Below are some pictures of the girls and our family as we raked up the leaves.






A blog entry about the Fall season would be incomplete without pictures of the offspring in their Halloween costumes. Milly was Sleeping Beauty and Anya was Tinkerbell.

Below are the obligatory pumpkin pictures. What would Fall be without pumpkin pictures?


And last, but not least, as we have previously mentioned in an earlier post, Amelia started pre-school this fall. She absolutely loves it, and it has been very good for her. Recently she was given a homework assignment. She had to catch an insect, create a home environment for it, learn all she could about it, and then bring it to school and teach her classmates all she could about it. She went outside and caught a grasshopper. Because it had stripes on its wings, she named him "Stripey". I know, I know...original huh? She gets her creativity/simplicity gene from her father. Below are pictures of Amelia and Anya in the back yard searching for an insect, gathering sticks and grass to create a home for it, and just "doing her homework" (a gene she did NOT get from her father.)

Below: Milly and Anya after a hard day of bug catchin'.

Oh, as for Stripey the grasshopper? After serving his/her purpose as the homework assignment, he was released back into his/her natural habitat. No grasshopper was harmed in any way during this homework assignment...unless you count the emotional distress it suffered from being locked up against its will for 2 days.