More "Fall" Fun

It's just now beginning to feel like fall here in Vegas.  Yep, I know it's almost December but, even for Las Vegas, we had an abnormally warm fall.  For example, I hung up my Halloween decorations in 97 degree heat.  Ridiculous.  The weather now is consistently in the sixties and the howling wind that accompanies Vegas winters has returned.  This means that the leaves on the trees in our backyard never even really had a chance to turn; they just started falling off.  Normally a leaf-covered yard doesn't bother me but because it seems to kill our oh-so-delicate grass, I decided to rake it today.  And, of course, Matty had to help.

I threw him in the leaf pile, and he wasn't quite sure what to think.

Finally deciding he likes it and throwing leaves up in the air.

I decided the yard looked good enough and that I was finished . . . but Matty didn't think so.

He struggled a little bit to get the thing up-right.

Tidying up my mess.  Apparently my child has inherited my OCD.

When that proved to be too much, he began picking up leaves individually and putting them in the pile. *Sigh*  Why can't he be this meticulous with picking up toys?

Raking was fun, but bagging it was not.  He gave up on me after about 5 minutes and decided to go play rocks.  Stinker.

Fall Fun

Fall is my absolute favorite season.  The temperatures drop, the leaves change color, and the stores are filled with pumpkins and carmel apples.

Unless you live in Vegas.  We're still sweating in our shorts and t-shirts here, cacti stay the same shade of green, and the pumpkins and carmel apples will literally melt in the heat if you're not careful.

*Sigh*

I miss the Midwest.

But I was NOT going to let living in Las Vegas take away from MJ's fall experience.  So we've spent the last few weeks doing "fall" things, even while we sweated.  First things first was a trip to 'The Farm.' (Growing up the country, I'd say it was a pretty sorry excuse for a farm, but it was better than nothing.)  There were pumpkins to pick, tractors to ride, and a hay maze to explore.  But, as usual, I couldn't get MJ away from anything that had wheels on it.

Wasn't too sure about the scratchy hay . . . 

RUN, CHICKEN, RUN!!!

And so began my son's obsession with pumpkins.  He would NOT let go of it, even while he sat, completely exhausted, in the car.

I'm all about fostering independence, but I thought that it might be a BIT too early to introduce MJ to knives . . . so we settled for painting the pumpkin instead.

"Please, no pictures.  The artist is working."

Uggggggggggh.  Messiness is one of the hardest parts of being a mom.

"Yep, I think that just about does it."

MJ's finished pumpkin.  If you ask him what it's supposed to be, he says "Mom."  I'm not quite sure what to make of that.

A few days later, we visited ANOTHER pumpkin patch.  This one had carnival games and such, but I'm a little leery of carnies.  So we stuck to picking out pumpkins for Mommy and Daddy.

Straining to pick up Daddy's pumpkin.

These were a little bit more his size . . . 

. . . so I told him we could take one home for Oskar.

We took the pumpkins home and painted them.  Here are the finished products!

And, of course, you can't JUST have pumpkins at my house.  I decorated the house for fall in 90 degree heat.  Not kidding.  But, at least it LOOKS like fall-ish!

Fall also means football.  And, according to Daddy, it's never too early to teach the fundamentals.

"Brown-54-Razor!  Hike! Hike!"

Fumble recovery!

We don't really let MJ have candy, but we didn't want him to miss out on his first trick-or-treating experience.  Our community has a sort of "trunk-or-treat" even at the park, where local businesses come out and pass out candy.  There are also games and a DJ.  We thought it would be a perfect time for MJ to get dressed up and experience Halloween without all the door-to-door fuss.

The Incredible Hulk, ready to trick-or-treat!

Our candy snatcher getting corralled by Daddy.

Even the Incredible Hulk needs a lift sometimes.

Trust me . . . you wouldn't like him when he's angry.

Happy Fall, everyone!

Happy Korean Fall!

I absolutely LOVE fall. It's my favorite time of year. I love bundling up in jeans and hoodies. I love hayrides and wiener roasts and hot chocolate. I love the Covered Bridge Festival and my birthday. ;) But, unfortunately, I haven't been able to experience most of that stuff in several years (okay, I've had my birthday, but you know what I mean). Luckily, though, there is one thing I do get to experience, and that is the LEAVES! Now, granted, a South Korean fall is not an Indiana fall, but it still has some BEAUTIFUL colors. Oskar and I took a walk around base to snap some pictures for you all . . .

This red color is one of the most striking I've seen in a long time. GORGEOUS!

I love these little gingko leaves that fall. They are such a pretty color, and they stack pretty well. Oskar likes to run through them like a mad man!

I love this orange color too. BEAUTIFUL!

Yesterday, I joined some friends to celebrate fall in the perfect way--a visit to a Korean apple festival! After getting lost for about an hour, ending up in a field, and ultimately following the one person in our party WITHOUT a GPS ("Hey guys--I bet it's where all those flags are"), we FINALLY arrived!

The apple trees didn't quite look like the ones in the States. . .

But, apples are apples, and they looked delicious nonetheless!

The apple festival was small, but extremely cute! The Koreans were so friendly, and there were lots of things to do!

There was basket-making and games for the kids. . .

And, of course, all the apples you could eat!

We discovered a place where you could make apple wine. Did you really think I would pass up THAT? ;) First, you had to dump apples in a grinder. We actually got to throw our own apples in, but I could hear Jonathan's voice in my head as I got close to the grinder: "Baby--don't you DARE drop your camera in that grinder." So I put it away :(

After grinding, the apple pulp was dumped into large buckets. . .

. . . like these.

Bless this guy's heart. He was our "instructor" but didn't speak a word of English. As you can tell by his face, I think he was getting annoyed by this point, but he stuck it through! We had to take the apple pulp and put it in our jars. To that, we added two cups of sugar and a teaspoon of yeast and then LOTS of stirring.

The wine has to sit for a month before its ready for tasting. I'll let you know how good of a wine-maker I am. ;) Next up, making apple jam. We were given this little pan of jam on a burner. . .

Stirring, stirring, stirring the HOT jam. If it looks like I am leaning back, it's because I am. Between the bees flying around and the hot jam splashing up on me, I was ready to be DONE with this whole "jam-making" experience. . .

FINALLY, the Korean ladies poured out the HOT jam into jars. VIOLA! Homemade apple jam! (Yes, it was a scary experience, but the jam is DELICIOUS, so its worth it!)

Koreans have some of the most unique handicrafts I have ever seen. I got such a kick out of these. Check out the one with snot running down his face. . .

Before we could go home, we had to let the little ones pick some apples. Because of the language barrier, we couldn't really understand if we had to PAY to pick the apples. So we told the kids to just "pretend" they were picking the apples. . .

. . . that didn't work so well. So we just took the apples and walked away. . . quickly.

And a blog post is never complete with a cute picture of Oskar. In honor of fall, I threw him in a pile of leaves and snapped a picture. You can almost SEE the loathing in his eyes.

Happy Fall, everyone! :)