Fall is Here!

Tan lines are gone. Flip flops are tossed to the back of the closet. The vivid colors of the flowers are replaced with the myriad bold colors of fall leaves and browner grass. Cooler breeze instead of sweltering heat. The battle over the heat temperature begins. Aromas of smelly Apple Spice and Cinnamon Vanilla candles ready to permeate the air. Sounds of splashing at the pool seem so far away from the sounds of our kids wrapped in warm jackets swinging on swings and running over crunchy leaves in their tennis shoes with SOCKS on!

Our CRAZY September month is finally over with its three birthdays, start of school, start of a new routine, a new country for that matter, and we are no longer have walls of boxes surrounding us. We can now call our house a home with freshly painted walls, homey decorations and rugs, and our own personal touches on an organizational nightmare. We are home and ready to enjoy all that fall will bring. Shedding of late burdens and onto new terrain. I'm looking forward to the soups, apple crisp, cobblers, and warm cozy nights together inside cuddled up in a fuzzy blanket to watch a movie with warm popcorn and hot chocolate, football games galore, play inside games, and yes scrapbooking! I told myself that I would wait until it got cold outside to break out the rolled tape adhesive, colorful papers, touchy-feely embellishments, and those stacks and stacks of pictures that are just beckoning me from their slumber within the mountain of photo boxes.

I love the newness that each season brings. . . I also love that I have a garage where I can go into and actually find all the decorations that I have for each season. Sometimes I like to just go in there and look at them. I don't think I have decorated with all the decorations year round that I have in any home we have lived in yet. Nah. Who am I kidding. I still will probably not use all the decorations that I have, but I can get to them with ease. aaaahhhhhhhhhh. I love fall.

We were able to go to the DCM's house for an embassy wide Apple Picking. How fun! Wouldn't it be nice to have an apple orchard in your backyard? Jamie, we are all jealous of you. The girls had a ball and Dylan spend most of his time with an apple in his mouth. We climbed trees, picked apples from the trees, picked up apples from the ground, threw out the yucky bruised apples from the ground while the girls weren't looking, got hit in the head by a few falling apples, Dylan chased dogs, Haley climbed up me to get away from a few dogs, got a whif of the Apple Brandy that they made from the Apples, etc. Needless to say, we came home with a load of apples.

The handy dandy Mexico bag that we used to collect apples.

Nice Candid shot, B!

Like Father - Like Son

yummmmmm!

Look!
Haley is not screaming hysterically, crying uncontrollably, or trying frantically to run up ANYTHING to get away from this puppy! It's a breakthrough! Poor girl. I hope she realizes that dogs are friends, not predators. Sooner than later would be helpful since the Hungarians don't use leashes here.

P.S. Pumpkins...another thing I took for granted. We go to the store here in Hungary this time of year and there is one or two dinky ones that are quite pricey. You know they cater to the Americans because they call it a "Halloween" instead of a pumpkin. :) Our first one rotted a week after we got it, so we bought another. then another. then another! They are making a fortune off them. Americans are suckers for pumpkins.