Leaves

I already posted about the drop-dead gorgeous leaves on our camping trip, but here are some more photos of leaves (and kids).

We had a spare 20 minutes after Lego Club and before Piano Lesson, so we stayed and played on the playground at school. Sometimes James is okay with this -- it seems like it would be fun, right? -- but sometimes he's quite upset about not being able to go home and stay home after a club meeting. This day, the plan was acceptable, perhaps because there was an impressive pile of leaves.

James looks like he's about to be up to something devious: 

Like maybe throwing this enormous pile of leaves onto his baby sister:

She wasn't upset about it at the time, but I did have to comb leaves out of her hair in the bath later. 

There's Amelie, also on the playground, doing a pose. She made her own pile under this tree.  

And here's Leah another day on the trail at our little neighborhood park: 

Happy Belated Birthday, James!

Well, two months have passed by and I feel like I already wrote about James's birthday in a prior post, but here are some (belated) pictures from James's small 7th birthday party.

We asked James what he wanted to do for his birthday, and I braced myself for a Chuck-E-Cheese party, but he said that he just wanted to have his cousin come stay the night - easiest birthday ever! Later he added that he wanted to go to Bonkers, and then at the very last minute he wanted another friend to come just for the Bonkers part (not to stay the night), so I guess it ended up not quite being the easiest birthday ever, but still relatively low-maintenance.

Nana Jana dropped off some bubble wands and collected Amelie so that she'd be out of the boys' hair. Leah stayed home and inserted herself in the shenanigans.

See who's on the table?

James requested a Spiderman Cake, and I stole decorating ideas from the internet. The eyes were formed with a fondant-like substance made out of of marshmallow and powdered sugar (there was a lot of it left!). James decided on the placement of the candles and the Spiderman figure (which I just cut out of a cereal box):

He did not want to invite the neighbors over for cake, and he did not want to wait on Amelie to get home from her after-school club, either, so it was just his two friends and me and Leah -- an intimate gathering.

Sam took the boys to Bonkers, where they ran around and burned off steam, and Ben managed to leave his shoes there! And no one noticed until it was time to go home the next day! I couldn't believe he wouldn't protest as they were leaving and he was in sock feet, but he says he was distracted by the Skittles he won as a prize. Fair enough.

Here's James with his loot:

He cashed all his points in for candy! (These are the only photos Sam took at Bonkers :)

 Opening presents:

They watched Home Alone 3 and were in bed by about 10.

Last but not least, we got James a bike! And he picked out this tough-looking helmet. Amelie requested knee pads, and James wanted to try them out, but hasn't worn them since.

Camping

About 6 weeks ago, I thought I'd booked us a primitive cabin (similar to our yurt experience) at Mark Twain State Park for the weekend before my birthday. Well, when I tried to double-check a few days before the trip, I couldn't find the online reservation. I called and spoke with the woman at Mark Twain, who couldn't find me either, and said that they were all booked up - it was the last weekend that the Missouri State park camping facilities had water/bathrooms. She suggested that maybe I'd inadvertently booked at another park, but the friendly woman at the central reservation office was able to pull up our past reservations but nothing for this weekend.

(Very) Luckily, I was able to find a private company renting cabins that had an opening and would let us bring the dog. I'd already started packing and told the kids all about it! When we got there, Amelie was disappointed - "It's right off the road!" she wailed. (What I was able to find was a cabin with a bathroom and kitchenette - so not nearly as much like camping as the primitive cabin in the woods we'd originally planned on.) Here's the outside of the cabin: 

But, it ended up being nice! We were on the lake side of the campsite, and got to cook hotdogs and s'mores over a (very small) fire, and then it rained Saturday, but the kids enjoyed the indoor pool. James said that the hotdogs were his favorite meal and the pool was his favorite activity. 

We used the grill for the other meals:

Amelie's explaining something:

There was a convenient playgound right beside our cabin, too.

Here's Amelie communing with nature / making clover chains near the cabin:

And Sam and Spark by the lake behind the cabin.

Amelie took Spark on a short walk and our neighbor in the cabin next to us gave him a piece of bacon. He was living it up all weekend long. 

We also played many, many board games, and the kids packed many, many books. Amelie said playing Mancala with me was her favorite part. Here she is reading: 

James and I played many rounds of Jenga, but Leah kept wanting to butt in and build with the blocks instead. "We didn't do any electronics ALL WEEKEND LONG," James protested when we got back on Sunday and I didn't immediately let him watch TV.

Leah drawing at the tiny kitchen table:

This picture's blurry and I look terrible, but we had a very cosy weekend. It also reminds me that I packed all of the big kids' stuff in one suitcase (really mostly just ratty camping things that I wouldn't mind if they got grubby), and they kept putting on each other's clothes -- Amelie's mostly wearing a size 8 and James is mostly wearing a size 7 at the moment, so it wasn't too off the mark, it was just funny -- especially when she was confused by some size 6 pants that were very obviously too small/short.

We went on a mile hike near the cabins, and it was close to peak Missouri leaf season. Sam took about a million photographs. It turns out a mile was a little much for James first thing in the morning, so we did a quarter mile loop on Sunday.

Amelie was a good girl scout and we signed the trail register and then cleared some logs from the path: 

Spark is very photogenic:

James with a walking stick:

Here is Leah in the carrier. I did let her walk the last tiny bit:

So pretty!

Amelie examining moss:

I wasn't kidding about the one million photos!

This is the selfie portion of the post. Here's Sam: 

And the two of us up on the observation deck near the dam: 

And yet another photo of our dog:

We were right next to the Clarence Cannon Dam (the cabins were the Cannon Dam Cabins) and we spent a little time there - this was by a playground area / gun range.

I stole this photo from the link above: 

There was an observation deck:

And then we walked across the dam:

Here's the view from the visitors' center.