Cub Scouts

Back in September we went on field trip with the Cub Scouts to Volo Bog where the Cub Scouts fulfilled a couple requirements.  Noah's Cub Scout pack is very family friendly so whatever they schedule we all can attend.  The kids started by doing a one foot observation.  They were supposed to rope off a one square foot area and observe what they could see close up.  We had a pretty boring spot where all we could see was grass and leaves.  There weren't any bugs in our area.  I think Noah found a few different things.  Then someone had the bright idea to make the square foot vertical so they observed the bushes.

Then we took a walk around the bog.  The boys seem like a nice bunch of kids but boy are they energetic when all together!  Glad I didn't need to keep them all in line :)  They were supposed to stop to find either 3 animals, 3 plants or 3 birds.  Here they are looking to see if they can see something in the water.

Here's my eager Cub Scout.

Soccer

N2 played soccer again this year at the Y.  The teams this year were much better matched as opposed to last year when all the older kids were on the other team so N2's team got creamed each week.  They both had their favorite positions-they both love midfield.  Noah also likes being goalie.  There were too many kids on each team so they did quite a bit of sitting out in each game.  But they definitely enjoyed themselves and we definitely found the sport that they each do well in.  We had a wacky season being rained out twice and ending a week later so it was pretty cold the last two weeks or so.  I only took my camera to one game so I didn't get a good variety of pictures.

Lexington

We went down to see David, Julie, Abigail and Jonathan and their new house over Labor Day.  We got there REALLY late on Friday due to tons and tons of traffic in Chicago but luckily they have a nice house that we were able to sneak into :)  On Saturday we decided to go to a historic Shaker village because they were having a water event.  It was pretty hot so we thought water sounded good.  By the time we got there all the riverboat tickets were gone and the water events were kind of winding down.  We were able to tour two buildings-one of which was huge!  The kids could see how people wove clothes, how tools were made, how woodworking was done and so much more.  They had a room for kids were the kids could dress up like Shakers and do some common tasks like sweeping and weaving.  The three older kids had fun in this room.

They also had a play house where kids could "cook" food in the fireplace, weave, set up the buildings into a community, match farm animals and more.  This building had some air conditioning in it so we stayed and played for a while.

We then visited the water events which consisted of squirt guns and an obstacle course. We weren't sure what to do so we just played with the squirt guns.

The following day we went to church and then to the pool in their neighborhood.  When we left the following day we went to Mammoth Cave which N2 were not entirely impressed with because there were no cave formations.  We look forward to visiting again (maybe when it's cooler!).

Haircut

I took Noah to get his haircut back in September.  His hair was getting quite long and it was time for something new.  He got the royal treatment and even got his hair washed!  I really like his new look and he does too.

Here is his before:

 Noah being goofy

After (not the best picture, sorry)

Apple picking

We went apple picking a couple weekends ago at our favorite orchard-Woodstock County Orchard.  Their orchard is no frills, just apples which we love!  We ended up picking mainly honeycrisp apples but also picked some galas.  We are enjoying our apples everyday!  We may try to go pick more next week but I'm not sure if we'll be able to manage it.  The honeycrisp trees at this orchard were laden with apples.  The branches were bent to the group with the weight of the apples.  I think we could have picked bushels and bushels of apples from just one tree!  I don't have a good picture of the trees, sorry.  I only took my phone along.  The apples we picked were huge even though the one Natalie is holding doesn't show that.