Rosh Hashanah Day off from Preschool

Thanks to their Jewish Preschool, the twins ended up with a day off from the grueling work of playing with play dough, listening to stories, and playing on the playground.  So what to do with a free morning on a nice day?  We opted for a fall bike ride on our favorite trail along the Hudson River.

At our mandatory snack break, the twins spent most of the time spreading dandelion seeds.  

Kadence asked me a few days ago if we could plant some dandelions in our yard.  I told her that nobody needed to plant dandelions because they were really good at planting themselves.

One time we went on this trail, we needed to kill some time while David was in a meeting downtown and we went the other direction into Albany.  We found a little park and now every time we go on this trail we have to end with a stop at the park.  There were crocodiles swimming all around the equipment, so they had to try to stay up on it or run really fast along the ground so the crocodiles wouldn't get them.

Then Austin and Kadence got a little silly.

We spent the afternoon moving the rest of the new mulch from he driveway to around the bushes in front of the house.  Kadence decided that she needed to redecorate the wagon.  Everything is better when it's pink (in her world)!

We rounded out the evening with our typical Friday night pizza and a movie (Up).

Jewish facts of the day:  Rosh Hashanah - New Year.  Celebrate with family and friends, and share apples and honey for a sweet new year.  Ring in the new year with a call from the Shofar (ram's horn that is blown into).  For the 10 days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (Day of Forgiveness),  think about the year that has passed and the year that is to come.  On Yom Kippur, fast and pray for forgiveness for the things we have done wrong.  The Shofar sounds again at the end of Yom Kippur to mark a new beginning.

Hangin' around the pumpkin patch

Since autumns are really spectacular in the northeast, we try to take advantage of it all.  While Hannah's in town, we went pumpkin picking.

This is Austin's new cheesy photo smile.

He's big enough to carry his own pumpkin!

 

She finally found one she liked...

...but it's a little big to carry.

Sisters!

Bring it on fall!

C is for Cookies

 Since Kadence could climb up onto a stool she has loved to help me cook EVERYTHING.  She loves cooking!  As soon as I walk into the kitchen I hear the stool scooting over and a little voice asking "What are you making?"  Today Hannah is visiting (just 2 days doing recruitment at a local university) and we thought it was a good opportunity to refill our chocolate chip cookie dough ball container in the freezer.  David loves chocolate chip cookies.  Even better when they are hot out of the oven.  To allow him this luxury as often as possible we make a big batch of cookie dough and freeze it into balls using a cookie scoop.  That way we can have warm cookies within 15 minutes of the urge and only have to cook 2 or 4 on a small piece of foil instead of having a whole batch cooked and tempting us to devour them before they get dry and old.

Kadence made most of the batch herself, but Austin had to help a little. 

 I have happy little helpers.