Apple Picking

One of my absolute favorite annual outings is when we go apple picking. Mostly because fall in New England is nature in all it's splendor! The weather (which is crummy for about 10 months of the year here) is just perfect - low humidity, warm sun, crisp air, clear blue skies. Add to that the array of colors as the leaves change and my children running happily through the apple orchard plucking apples at will and cheerily munching on them - seriously, what's not to love?

I asked around this summer for raspberry picking places and was told that this was the place to go. Since we are far from the orchard we used to visit, we thought we'd try them for apples too.

We took a tractor ride to the top of the orchard.

And started picking!

Jane was tall enough this year to pick without help.

Look, a perfect one.

Jacob was recently given a pocketknife. Several "enemy-apples" perished at his hand.

We brought a picnic lunch and added cider and donuts to it from the orchard store but the kids also filled up on fresh apples.

We have never done a corn maze before and we were excited for this one.

It is actually really high, much higher than I had imagined. You really cannot see over it at all! In fact, we lost the 3 little girls for a while but since there is only one way in & out I wasn't too worried. We wandered looking for them for a while but then found the exit ourselves & they were already out.

The boys had taken off  ahead of us while we were finishing lunch and had a ball racing around inside.

A fun day. This is definitely our new apple picking place.

Brotherless

Today I took our friends three kids after school because they are moving. My kids get along really well with these particular kids, even though they are all girls Jacob generally seems pretty happy - he has a lot in common with their middle daughter.

They had an afternoon snack and went outside to play.

I went upstairs to change a load of laundry and happened to glance out of the window. All the girls were jumping on the trampoline but Jacob was wandering barefoot in the backyard. He had his favorite sash from the dress-up box tied around his waist (it's his "holster") and a wooden rifle in one hand and a big plastic sword in the other. I stopped and watched him for a moment. He climbed onto the rocks around our back flower beds and swung first the rifle and then the sword in circles. He looked off into the woods, then climbed down. I could hear the girls still squealing and laughing on the tramp as he ambled around the backyard by himself again.

My heart broke for him just a little bit, this son of mine surrounded by girls. I have always thought that 2 girls and 2 boys would make the perfect family - everyone gets a brother, everyone gets a sister. When I had two girls and a boy and was expecting Jane, I really thought she would be the brother for him. After she was born our family felt finished, even though she was another girl. Rick works really long hours and we are far from family help. My hands were full with a teenager and two babies - and trying to give sweet Emy sandwiched in the middle - some of my time too. There was no guarantee that another baby would be a boy ....  we decided our family was complete.

Truthfully, Jacob and Jane are great buddies and have been such great friends for each other, but as he's got older the gender difference has played out a little more. All he wants to do is play "guys" and Beyblades. One Saturday recently he told me he was bored. "Why don't you play with the girls?" I said. "They're playing play-dough." He gave me a withering look. Encouragingly I said "Maybe you could make a fort out of it." Exasperated he replied "Mom, I already played American Girl dolls with them and I know they're going to make cupcakes!!"

I guess it's why I am willing to let him be a bit over-scheduled. At least each afternoon is spent playing sports and often on a team with other boys. He's running off energy and enjoying time with other guys. I think it's good for him and he seems happy to be there.

I think having all these sisters will eventually help him be a better husband and a more tender father. At the very least I think he'll understand women more.

In the mean time, I'll keep him busy and try to have lots of play dates.

 

'Cause man, I love this little dude and all his boyishness - with every last bit of my heart.

Overscheduled

 After a whole lot of juggling I have our fall schedule all set up.
And it's crazy.

I don't know how I manage to get myself into this every single school year. I always start out thinking that I'd like to keep things simple. I want down time for me and for the kids - time to have play dates over, or spend time as a family. Time to do "nothing" after school.

We had a family rule that each child needs to do one sport and an instrument. After Rebekah switched back and forth (violin, piano, flute, guitar) and didn't master any instrument - we changed the to rule to "You need to take piano until you graduate high school." Swimming is also very important to me, so we make sure our kids are strong swimmers. Once they have "mastered" swimming they can choose to continue with swim team or stop. For us, mastering is earning their "great white shark" badge at the place they swim year round.

So when I set up our schedule for the year I start with those two things. Typically we have had swimming AND piano on Wednesdays. It seems to work well and gets them both out of the way on the same day - leaving other days free for play dates, other sports, etc. Even though we switched piano teachers this year I was able to push for Wednesdays and keep that nice set up.

Then comes the filling in with other sports.

Emily LOVES lacrosse and wanted to do a lacrosse clinic this fall (even though its the lacrosse off season.) It's on Thursdays. Emily also has swim team practice 6 days a week. The coaches want you there a minimum of 4 days - we decided to shoot for 5. She needs to miss Tuesdays for Achievement days (in a couple of months that will turn to Young Women's) which means she swims Mon & then Wed-Sat, doubling up on Thursdays. The pool is only a couple of minutes from our house, so I reason I can drop her off (her practice is usually 2 hours long) and come home to make dinner and then go back for her.

Jacob loved tennis this summer and wanted to keep playing through the year. I called the Racquet Club and the only day they had open for his age group was Monday or Thursday. I really like to keep Monday free, so signed him up for Thursday. I figure I can drop Em a few minutes early at lacrosse and get Jacob over to the Racquet Club in time. He has Cub Scouts on Tuesdays (I'm his leader) and wanted to play soccer too. I signed up late for soccer (who knew the deadline was mid-summer??) and found out he did not make a team. What?? Racked with guilt for breaking both his heart and his father's I signed him up for two soccer clinics - one that is basic skills and one that is shooting. One is on Thursday and the other on Friday. You are supposed to only be able to do them if you are registered for soccer but I called (twice) and they said he could do it. The Thursday one is after tennis but I figured it would be good for him to get the exercise and he really wants to do it. At least it will get him two days of soccer per week. Still feeling guilty I called the rec dept and left a message offering to coach a team, if they had enough extra kids (who didn't get on a team) to make up a whole new one. Having not heard back (and worked out with Rick to come home early on Fridays to coach from 6-7pm) I called the rec department again, this time offering my husband - who actually knows how to play - as coach. They did call back and let me know that they had managed to get Jacob onto a team (Rick said it was because I bugged them enough - maybe so, but at least he's on a team.) His team practices on Tuesdays and plays on Saturday mornings. It works on Tuesday because it's at 5:30 and Cub Scouts ends at 5. I decided to take him out of one or both of the clinics. Trouble is, Jacob now knew about them and wanted to do them both. Aside from that the Thursday clinic has 8 boys in it and they need a minimum of 8 to run it. That means (1) It's a small group and he'll probably get a lot out of it (2) If I take him out we ruin it for the other 7 boys. I decided to let him stay in both.

Jane is also playing soccer. Her team plays on Saturday mornings too and practices on Friday evenings, which works because she also wants to do Daisy Scouts again, which is right after school on Fridays. I'm not starting her in piano until after the February break next year. Partly because I think she needs her reading skills to be a little stronger but mostly because it's so expensive and I am hoping we're not paying for anymore landscaping then & can afford it! That means she "just" has swimming, soccer and Daisy Scouts. Of course, her Tuesdays aren't free because she gets dragged along to Cub Scouts with me. It's OK, she loves it and totally thinks of herself as a Cub Scout. Then I got an e-mail from the Mother of one of her friends - does Jane want to do the American Girl after school club on Mondays? I hesitated - Monday is our only free day (other than swimming for Em.) I like to get laundry done and have a mellow afternoon. I'm always trying to have Family Home Evening then .... but .... Jane is always begging Emily to play American Girl dolls whit her. I know she will love it and get to do something fun with other girls her age. I decided to ask her.

"Jane, would you like to do the American Girl Doll after school club?"

"YES!"

"Even if it means you don't have a free day for play-dates?"

"YES!"

I signed her up.

Then I filled in the after school calendar -

MONDAY

2:45 -3:45 - Jane - American Girls
5:00 - Dinner

6:30 - 8:30 - Emily - swimming

TUESDAY

4 - 5 Jacob (drag along Jane) - Cub Scouts

4:30 - 5:30 - Emily- Achievement Days (bring her at 4)

5:30 - 6:30 - Jacob - soccer practice (drop early and go back for Emily)
6:45 - Dinner

WEDNESDAY

3:45 - 4:30 - Jacob & Jane - swimming
5:00 - Dinner

5:30 - 6:30 - Jacob & Emily - piano

6:30 - 8:30 - Emily - swimming (Take Em during Jacob's piano lesson)

THURSDAY

4 - 5 - Jacob - tennis

4 - 5:30 - lacrosse - Emily
5:30 - 6:30 - Jacob - soccer clinic
6:45 - Dinner

5:30 - 7 - Emily - swimming
* she's not swimming on Thursdays until the lacrosse clinic ends
(a lot of back and forth for me on Thursdays!)

FRIDAY

2:45 - 3:45 - Jane - Daisy Scouts

4 - 5:30 - Emily - swimming

5:30 - 6:30 - Jacob - soccer clinic

6:15 - 7 - Jane - soccer practice
7:15 - Dinner (& family movie night)

SATURDAY

8 - 9:15 - Emily - swimming

varying - Jane - soccer game

varying - Jacob - soccer game

How have I done this again? Its crazy!

I decided that Em won't swim on Thursdays until lacrosse is over. I'll always have to make dinner before school gets out and get a babysitter to stay at the house on Thursdays with Jane (or drive the other two) if we ever want to have a play date over for her. Jacob did also ask to join the after school chorus club on Mondays and I told him no. We have to draw the line somewhere!

Truthfully, I love that they can do this. I love that we have the means (other than adding piano for Jane) to let them do the things they enjoy and want to try. I love that they are moving and fit and healthy. Things have changed since I was a kid. It seems like by about 9 or 10 years old kids have to be dedicated to one sport. By that age all practices are multiple days per week. Its frustrating to me to feel like I have to expose them to every sport they might possibly be interested in before they hit the 3rd grade and have to specialize! Still, it's the way it is and I want them to have a variety of sports to choose from, and this is the way to do it.

If it was going to be like this all year, I don't think I could do it. Soccer, the soccer clinics, lacrosse and American Girl dolls all end in November, by Thanksgiving. Jacob wants to pick up basketball (his true love) over the winter and Jacob and Jane want to take ice skating lessons. I think that should be manageable. We'll be gone for 11 days in October on vacation, which will break it up a bit. I only registered Jacob for the first session of tennis and he may just want to keep that as a summer thing. If it gets to be too much, we'll just cut back.

For now, I am definitely getting one of those cheesy "Mom's Taxi" bumper stickers!

Fall

Jane came down to the kitchen this morning. On her way over she passed by our patio doors and stopped and gasped.

"Mom, it's fall!" she exclaimed.

She's right. In the past two days these trees have gone from completely green to colorful and dropping their leaves.

I'm sad to see summer go but I think it is going to be really beautiful around here when the woods circling out house are ablaze in fall colors!