Compton Corners: Falling into Fall

Joseph has the first fall birthday of them all.

His "big gift" this year was joining a soccer team. He is doing great and loving it!

His very first game ever he scored one of the points. He was so proud! He is already talking about next season.

One of the gifts was a book with a life-size foldout of a tyranosaurus mouth. Looks like Joseph would fit into just one gulp.

Remember Freddy? He showed up in the yard all of a sudden. We were pretty surprised he'd survived the lawn mower all summer. We happily returned him to his native lands in the neighborhood park.

Our first field trip of the new school year was to Washington-on-the-Brazos State Park. They had a special homeschool day with lots of live exhibits like a stagecoach, shooting demonstration, pewter casting, medical care of the 1800s, music, cotton picking, and all kinds of farming demos. Of course, the farm animals were the favorites. This is a great place! We'll definitely come back next year with Michael and Sarah. (They weren't able to come this year because they got to spend the week with Grandma and Grandpa in San Antonio)

One of the partners at Matt's old firm invited us over to dinner at his new home in the country around Magnolia. It is a beautiful place. They gave us a tour, let us do some shooting, help feed their chickens, and have a bon fire to roast marshmallows. The kids really want chickens now.

We also started co-op again. Because of covid craziness, all the classes were held outdoors at Burrough's Park. It worked out great. I helped teach the preschool class under the big pavillion. The kids love having so much room to run around. The older kids did a variety of classes around the park like photography, sports, nerf gun wars, and art.

With the beautiful fall weather, we've really loved being outdoors more: playing in the backyard, gardening, bike rides, exploring local parks, and we even braved a trip to the zoo.

Some other projects we've done: Sarah made a model of a heart out of marshmallow, graham crackers, and frosting. Yum!

That inspired us to create constellations out of mimi-marshmallows and pretzel sticks.

Michael and Sarah got muddy doing a microscopic waterlife class at Kickerillo Mischer Preserve. (The birthday hats are in celebration of the birthday of the father of microbiology, Anoni van Leeuwenhoek.)

Sarah and Ada made some cute felt baby blankets to donate to the Interfaith Quilting Bee that is coming up.

Sarah's birthday is next in the fall line-up. She wanted a dragon cake, so this is the best I could come up with. I think she liked it.

Close on the heels of Sadie's birthday is Halloween! We had a co-op party at the park, and Michael won a prize for his gumball machine costume.

This is just a hilarious picture from a house near the library. I laughed so hard all the way home.

We had another Halloween party for the Activity Day girls (including masks.)

At home, we made monster cupcakes. That seems to have become a tradition.

And we had a Trunk-or-Treat at the church. Matt ordered some very life-like skeleton arms that he waved over the candy while he moaned "Candy for your Bones!" Most of the kids thought it was pretty funny, but some of the little ones were terrified.

Trading treats with our friends the Litherlands.

And of course, we went trick or treating around the neighborhood. We ventured out thinking that not many folks would be handing out candy this year, but I think in our area anyway, it was pretty much business as usual. The kids came home with soooo much candy!

The day before Halloween, we had another really fun field trip out to the Oil Ranch. I think we had even more fun this time than the first time we went a few years ago.