Legends of the Fall

 Just the boys on Friday night, as Sophia was off at birthday slumber party, splashing in a the waves of a hotel pool.  Bruiser and I headed south to watch Grace and Ella perform in "Fiddler on the Roof."  We discussed the meaning of the play on the way down and soon, in Merrick's world, everything was a foolish as a fiddler on the roof.  Pointing out the absurdity that surrounds us, quickly wore him out and I had to wake him up to go into the Theater. The morning found us rested and raking leaves before heading off to his soccer game.  I had to clean the gutters alone, but the weekend long process of raking leaves certainly found him by my side as he often had to check the depth of the piles, while hollering "Cannon Ball."  Soccer is now a split shift on Saturdays with Sophia not playing until 1ish.  We had some lunch in between and raked a little more then headed back over to the play a bit. Where Merrick promptly crushed his finger in the door for a second time in as many weeks.  Then ran around like a banshee until he fell down the stairs. Sophia scored a goal and the level of play in this league is certainly a step above what she has been accustomed too.  I am looking forward to watching both her skills and mental growth of these new challenges.  Sophia ran the lawn mower as Merrick and I continued to finish the leaves in the back yard in the late afternoon light that so quickly dies this time of year.  We finished off the evening with a solid poker game and plenty of laughs. The front yard wasn't finished until Sunday morning, with the kids still sleeping.  We did make it out into the woods for some small game hunting before the Packer traffic crushed the city.  We found a scrape line from a small buck as well as a porcupine living in a hollow tree. Sophia pounded on the tree and then shrieked, jumped and hid under my left arm when the porcupine readjusted itself inside the tree with audible scuffling.  The kids took turns driving down the dirt roads and I getting pretty good at that as well.  Sunday afternoon was spent getting the house cleaned up and making it ready for our favorite thespians coming up for a late dinner.  Both a good end to a busy weekend as well as relaxing start to a new week.

October Awe

October has come and went and we stayed busy with the activity of the seasons.  There were teeth lost by both the kids, but not due to the sugar snacks of trick or treat spoils but rather just the natural aging of deciduous teeth.  Merrick had a red plate day, because he was selected to be a "Playground Pal" at school.  This is a very important job and required two days of training during his normal recess.  It is now his job, when he is wearing his official vest to make sure that none of the kids on the playground are lonely and ask them if they want to play.  He is also required to always say yes if someone asks him to play and amongst all of that work he has also been trained in conflict resolution to solve any squabbles that may occur.  This of course is cross-training as he is already often placed in charge of the bathroom, to make sure everybody "Does their job and then gets out."  He and I trick or treated in the rainy cold slog of the late October rains, but we outfitted him for warmth and dryness.  We put hand warmers in his gloves and the bagel bags over his socks were a nice compliment to the rain jacket hidden under his costume.  Sophia dressed up as a Ninja and was old enough to trick or treat with friends, alas her candy was safe.

We had two trips to the dentist, but I think there were three or four teeth lost between them and was starting to question why I should pay full price for a heads that have such few teeth.  One of the highlights was a good long hike in the Nicolet, now that it was open again.  Our tribe of six hiked back to a ski chalet and had a nice little picnic near Fanny Lake.  The weather was a bit brisk but really nice for the walk and the leaves were very near peak fall color.  Week night soccer has come to end and now Saturdays will be filled with split shift games with Merrick playing in the late morning and Sophia playing in the early afternoon.  With the time changes it will be more likely that we will have to incorporate night hikes for some activity. Headlights always add to the splendor of a good walk anyways.  With the pumpkins moved from the stoop to the garden, this weekend will continue the general yard clean up of fall as we switch gears for November.