Favorite time of the year!

I love, love this time of year. We can play outside all day and air out the house and get out our warm clothes out. We have had so much fun lately. We have been really busy. We have been to the zoo and parks (unfortunately I didn't have my camera). We started preschool. Siena loves it. We had it at our house this week and Ben loved it too. Fortunately, one kid was out of town so Ben got to do all the paperwork that the kids got to do. He is so cute trying to join in on what the big kids are doing. This past week I am finally starting to really understand Ben. He says real words now and answers when you ask him a question. We went to a pumpkin maze and bought stuff to make caramel apples. We are going to a real pumpkin farm this weekend with a hayride and everything so Siena is really excited. I have been trying my hand at canning. When we went apple picking we got tons of apples. So I have made applesauce. It is delicious but it was expensive. Home canning is not cheaper! Also I made spiced peach jam. It is delicious, mainly because it calls for 7 cups of sugar. Daves mom makes it and I finally decided I should learn how to make it too. Dave has already gone through one jar. I demolished (?) the garden today and got the last bits of tomatos out. We had homemade tomato soup and it was delicious. The kids were really helpful in the process of cleaning up the garden. Siena was really concerned that our tomato plants were leaving and she said they would come back when she was 4. Everything always revolves around her birthday. Talking about birthdays... my big one is next week!!!!!! I really don't know why I should be so excited about it, it's just like any other day when you grow up...but I am. October is the best time of the year!