Discovery Place
Recently, we drove to Charlotte to visit the Discovery Place museum. We met some friends there who recently moved to Charlotte from Winston Salem. We had so much fun! We ended up taking a picnic and spending about five hours in the museum seeing a puppet show, aquariums, a very cool pulley display and the most favorite section of all…kapla blocks! We must have spent three of our five hours playing with these very simple and completely versatile and fun blocks.
Evan’s Apple Tree
Several weeks ago, our friends Bill and Margaret began thinking about Evan’s birthday in December. They were going to be visiting us in October and wanted to bring what Evan wanted when they came our way. Evan spent at least three weeks pondering the question of what he might like to have for a gift. One day, while we were in the van driving, he said to me, “Mom, trees are better than toys.” I was so touched by his sentiment and we talked about the ways that trees help people as we drove down the road.
About a week after that, Evan asked if I thought Bill and Margaret would get him an apple tree for his birthday. We called to see and they were excited by his unexpected request. They spent some time researching trees that would do well in our area and chose one to be sent from a farm in Georgia and that was big enough to possibly give a few apples next year. How exciting when that box was delivered!
When Bill and Margaret arrived a few days after the tree, we had a spot chosen for it and had started preparing the ground. Bill helped Evan and Grayson to get the tree settled in the ground for the fall.
Later, Evan asked if we could use apples from his tree to make apple crisp and applesauce next year. You bet we can! Yum!
All About Me quilts
Wow! Grandma Nancy is so cool! Who knows how many different fabric shops she visited, but she found fabrics that show most everything my guys have been interested in since they were babies: apples, blueberries, tools, insects, trucks, frogs, snakes, planets… Beautiful! Evan’s is trimmed in red and Grayson’s is trimmed in blue. Each night, the boys snuggle into these beautiful “All About Me” quilts and say they are covering up with their “Grandma quilt.” So sweet.
Every day, each boy gets up and straightens out his own All About Me quilt. Their room is so bright and happy with their beautiful quilts spread out over their beds.
Thank you, Grandma Nancy!
See, yard work can be fun! :)
With the cool weather this past Saturday, we were all inspired to get outside and get some things done outside. Grayson and I were working away in one garden pulling weeds like crazy. When we were almost finished, Grayson got all excited yelling that he saw a turtle. When I looked, there was a tiny, baby turtle moving around! It was about an inch across.
I was afraid to do much more weeding in case eggs were buried, so I started cleaning up. Ben was over by then and he spotted a second baby turtle! What an exciting time! Evan ended up naming the turtles Rock and Shell. We went out several times over the course of the day to check on where they had buried themselves to stay cool and protected.
Just before leaving this garden, at the base of the rosemary plant, Evan spotted a toad hiding. My goodness! I guess it pays to weed your flower beds. 
Applesauce–Yum!
We recently traveled to Levering Orchard near Pilot Mountain and purchased enough bushels of apples for our family and for two friends. We had to take the back seat out of the van to fit in this many bushels! Evan and Grayson have always been very helpful in making our applesauce, but this year they were in the kitchen helping with pretty much every batch. Wow! Thanks, guys!
After making it through the 3 1/2 bushels that were made into sauce, we started using our peeler to get the slices ready to dry and freeze. The boys kept close by and would take the long long peelings and eat them together. There was a lot of giggling going on.
Enjoy!
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