Spectacular Autumn

With the weather limiting their outdoor play, and me restricting the roughhousing indoors (mostly for my own sanity), the kids are getting more restless these days, charging me with the task of redirecting all that energy by finding constructive things to do.

What's the most fun thing you did in school today, Ana?
Reading.

Hm. OK. What's the second most fun thing you did?
Ummm... Reading.

Tell me about one thing that you did in school that was not reading, but was interesting and fun.
Let me think... Nope, nothing else was fun. I don't want to have a conversation about this anymore, Mama!

And thus ends most of my probing into the day's events at school.

Oggie, on the other hand, is full of stories, some of which I suspect happened entirely in his own dimension of the universe. (Or so I hope).

"I was a raindrop and I fell from the sky and I turned into a giraffe today."

"I drawed the sounds I heard and it was dark and noisy."
...

And progressively his stories degenerate to the predictable 3-yo fascination (no thanks to Stool Scanner App): "I made bum gravy today and I stirred it together with my pee and made a yucky soup in the toilet!"

Anyway, I was flitting around the house gathering the 30-odd books due back at the library soon, shivering under three layers of sweatshirts and cardigans (well, the thermostat did say 60°F but I think it has taken to lying, just to spite me), muttering to myself Haven't I reminded them enough to not leave the books scattered about the house? How many times have I showed the spot we put the library books?... when it occurred to me that Fall, the beautiful, gorgeous Autumn, is slipping away.

The bright yellow maple leaves against the deep periwinkle sky in our driveway, the reds and oranges and browns bursting with ardor down our street, the gusty winds spreading chilly discomfort daring the burning sun to touch my skin as I watch the kids rake the fallen leaves... What would we do without the changing seasons and the promise they bring?