I can feel it. Fall is coming. We went outside to play this morning and I was pleasantly surprised. It was one of those perfect mornings when you'd like to stay outside forever -- lots of sunshine, deep blue skies with white puffy clouds, a comfortably warm temperature, a gentle breeze. Perfection.

One of Jacob's favorite books is Little Cloud by Eric Carle. Every time we go to the library, he asks for this book. Every. Time. He loves it. It is about a little cloud who changes his appearance in the sky to look like a rabbit, shark, trees, etc... This morning, the three of us (Jacob, Annabelle, and I) laid in the grass and looked up at the clouds. Jacob immediately said, "Hey! I see little cloud!" Then he proceeded to tell me what he thought the clouds looked like and this developed into a story about a flying dog and a mean guy chasing after the dog and later ended up with the three of us pretending to be pirates, sailing the high seas on a pirate ship. He even gave us each a new pirate name because "pirates do not have regular names." He has such a great imagination.

While Jacob continued his story (he was up and running around at this point), Annabelle laid beside me in the grass, gazing up into the sky with the funniest look on her face. I think she thought this was a silly idea. Before she joined me on the ground, she gave me one of those, "What in the world are you doing?" looks. The whole time she laid there, her expression never changed. It was the same look she gave me yesterday when she heard opera music.

During his Classical Conversations classes, Jacob's teacher plays classical music while the children work on drawing or whatever the art project is for the day. I do this at home, too. Yesterday, Jacob finished his project and we went into the kitchen for lunch. The music continued to play while we ate. Jacob ate and listened, calling out the different instruments as he heard them. Annabelle was much too focused on devouring her string cheese to be interested in the music...until....an opera song began to play.

The song was Flower Duet by Leo Delibes. The look on Annabelle's face was so funny, I was, very literally, doubled over with laughter. I had never seen her look more confused. She had never made that face before. As I laughed, Jacob said, "What kind of instrument is THAT?" I laughed even harder. My children obviously haven't had much exposure to the opera. Even now, when I think of Annabelle's face, I can't stop laughing. It was one of the funniest things she has done to date. I so wish I'd have had my camera in hand and ready to go at that moment. If only YOU could have seen her face!!

A couple weeks ago, my sister, JoBeth, visited us for a few days. It turned out to be a very busy week with school and church events, but somehow, we managed to carve out a little free time in our hectic schedule. We even went to the beach one morning. I must say, it was a very fun four days and we were all sad when JoBeth had to get back on the plane to head home. As JoBeth made her way through security, Jacob, Annabelle and I watched a couple airplanes take off from the runway. Jacob looked up at me and said, "Is Aunt JoBeth gonna BLAST off?????"

Here are a few pictures from JoBeth's visit. (Thank you, JoBeth, for remembering your camera when I didn't!!)

JoBeth stayed home with Annabelle while Jacob and I were at Classical Conversations. By the looks of these pictures, I'd say they had a fun morning. :)
Can't you just imagine what is being said in this pretend phone conversation? I think Annabelle is saying, "You've GOT to be kidding me...."
Mommy bought me a backpack. Can I go to shcool too?

It was a beautiful morning down by the river.....