random happenings.

 Simon outgrew his bouncy chair.

 Amelia and Elsa had their friends Abi, Lucy, and Anna over for a movie night.

Simon is getting incredibly close to crawling. Which is ridiculous. He loves the plank position and currently gets where he wants to be by rolling. And still gets stuck under furniture a lot. Two bottom teeth popped up and he continues to drool like crazy.

 The costume box came down from the attic.

 Oliver continues to cause trouble.

 

Just when we got through some huge book report projects, it was diorama time. Amelia hates homework but loved making this rainforest diorama.

 

Amelia was selected to receive a Cobra award at school and Ben and I were able to watch her on the morning news and have cookies and juice with her afterward.

 The tree in our front yard grows more orange every day.

Elsa likes to text pictures of herself to Ben when he's out of town.

Hudson River Valley: New Croton Dam

There were approximately one million places to visit in the Hudson River Valley and I wish we had time to see more (would have loved to visit Kykuit, the Rockefeller Estate, but it didn't seem very kid-friendly). We finished up our weekend with a stop at New Croton Dam. I had read about it online and it turned out to be the perfect spot. Beautiful, scenic, and a great spot for the kids to play. We stopped at the top first and the views were stunning. I don't think I've ever visited such a gorgeous dam. We headed to the bottom of the dam and found more beautiful scenery, fall colors, a playground for the kids and lots of leaves to play in. My brother had just finished up his medical examiner rotation. Or was it forensic pathology? Whatever it was called, he entertained us with lots of gruesome stories over the weekend. Apparently Vermont has a bit of a wild side. The kids were sad to leave their cousins (and weren't too excited about the long drive home). We're already looking forward to next year's "meet in the middle" trip.

Thanks for a fun weekend Vermonters!

 

I loved the puddles of leaves under these trees.