Red in the Morning

The sunrise was pretty red yesterday morning, so I got a picture with that and some red maple leaves.  As the old saying predicted, we are getting rain, but much of it was today rather than yesterday.  Last night, one of the choirs that Kristine belonged to, the Peoria Christian Crescendos, had a performance.

Outdoors with Katie

Katie helped me rake leaves and squish them down with snowshoes.  She is also looking forward to sledding this winter. Later, we went on hike in the woods to a colorful spot that we have been seeing a few blocks from our house.  We saw five turkeys, found three barred owl feathers and some fossils, and Katie picked up some burrs in her hair.  We enjoyed the hike.

.

Chilly Fall Weather

Temps were cool this week.  I saw a few snowflakes on Thursday, and on Friday morning we had frost on the lawn.  What was weird was how the walnut tree in the backyard responded - the leaves began dropping heavily on Friday while they were mostly still green.  They had not really turned very yellow yet.  We picked a lot of green tomatoes, and we cooked our red ones to make about 3 quarts of juice.  Katie and I stopped at the riverfront today briefly before doing demos at the museum for National Chemistry Week.

Falling into Autumn

Earlier this week Bradley had "Fall Break", an opportunity to try to catch up on things.  Saw some pretty cirrus clouds on Monday.  Though it was a school night, we squeezed in roasting hot dogs and marshmallows on Monday.  The Bland family visited this weekend, and we had fun carving pumpkins and roasting marshmallows with them.  St. Anthony's Church also had their Italian Supper.

Grandparents Weekend

Peoria Christian Elementary School celebrated its Grandparents' Day on Friday, so my parents drove down to enjoy the program.  Katie is still learning to ride a bike, so she got some help practicing that.  Today was my parents' 45th wedding anniversary, so they took a 1.5 hour cruise on the Illinois River on the Spirit of Peoria.  There was not a lot of fall color to see yet, but the weather was nice and there was a lot of good narration of the sights that we did see.  We also saw many of the infamous Asian carp jumping about when the boat moved slowly.  Tonight, we all went to dinner at the Burger Barge in East Peoria.

Katie's Bridging Ceremony

Yesterday, Katie "bridged" from Daisy Scout to Brownie Scout.

Demos and weather

Yesterday we did science demos at Lincoln School, where Karen is student teaching. Karen helped with a fiery demo called Dragon's Breath.  It has been warm again, with highs in the 80s, and fairly dry.  I have not mowed my lawn in over a month.  Early this morning, and sporadically through the day, we got some thunderstorms with heavy rain.  The one that overtook us tonight in Bartonville looked pretty cool.