Scattered Thoughts . . .

After Gee, Lukey and Kenzie made chocolate chip cookies, I was exhausted and in desperate need of a nap so I moved over to the couch where "The Santa Claus" was playing on the television while everyone else cleaned up the kitchen. The kids were exhausted also so I was hoping they would follow me to the couch... no such luck.  I awoke a fairly short time later (it seemed like a short time later, anyway) to the sounds of giggling outside. I got up and went to the window to see if I could figure out the reason for all the wild giggling... Lukey and Kenzie were having a leaf fight with Gee! I grabbed my camera... swapped lenses for my medium telephoto lens... opened the living room window... and started shooting photos from a distance... At this point, Kenzie grabbed her sweatshirt and came inside to see what Papa was doing... I somehow shot more than 500 ph

After creating some artwork to send overseas to Uncle Adam, the kids jumped into making some chocolate chip cookies from scratch. First, Gee measured out each of the necessary ingredients and put them in separate bowls... then the kids added the dry ingredients together in one big bowl... then they added all the wet ingredients in another big bowl... Lukey mixed up the dry ingredients with a whisk while Kenzie mixed up the wet ingredients with a big wooden spoon... Then, they broke some eggs into separate bowls... then added each bowl to the big bowl of wet ingredients... Adding some vanilla... Little by little, they added the dry ingredients to the bowl of wet ingredients... and taking turns scooping out the dry ingredients and adding them to the big bowl of wet ingredients... Then, making nice little balls of dough... ...well... mostly nice little balls of dough... The cookies were delicious and, unlike pre-made

After raking and playing in all the leaves out in the backyard, we headed indoors with a collection of colorful autumn leaves that Lukey and Kenzie had collected. Gee pulled out some wax paper... some crayons... some newspaper... and then Gee, Lukey and Kenzie put together two pieces of colorful art by diving into an autumn leaf art project. This art is being shipped to Uncle Adam who recently commented that he was missing some of Vermont's autumn color. Although he is missing some of Vermont's autumn color, Adam is fortunate enough to be enjoying an authentic Octoberfest in Germany (which definitely interests me far more than some funky-colored trees) .  The kids had a lot of fun putting together this little art project with Gee... After cleaning up the kitchen, the kids then made some delicious chocolate chip cookies, from scratch, with Gee's help. Then Kenzie picked up the telephone and called Nan and Pop to brag about making cho