Opening Night for The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe

Tonight was the opening night for Peoria Christian High School's production of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.  Kristine did a great job as a dryad.  Beforehand, Katie did a little trick or treating at the school.  The show runs again tomorrow night.

Fall visit to Lauterbach Park

The girls and I went to Lauterbach Park late this afternoon for a bit.  Too many leaves on the ground to catch fish or hunt many fossils, but there were few bugs and the temps were pleasant.

Foggy fall walk in the woods

I watched art painting shows on PBS this morning and I got all fired up to play artist, so when I saw that it was a little foggy I made a quick trip to the nearby woods to look at the leaves.  In some areas the leaves were before or past peak, but I saw some nice views that I would like to share here.  The sun came out later, making a warm fall day.

Fall Pictures

Cleaned up the backyard a bit from the tree-cutting. Leaves are still turning color.  Katie carved up one of our pumpkins today.

Fall Break, 2014

My parents visited this weekend. Friday was Grandparent's Day at Katie's school. My father and I finished taking down the walnut tree in the back yard.  It was quite challenging and sometimes a bit dangerous and scary and we were praying that everything would turn out all right, and it did - the tree came down leaving us and our property intact. Among other things we did was attend two games of Katie's soccer tournament.  Her third and fourth grade girls Peoria Christian team made it all the way to the finals tonight, where they lost in rainy conditions.  The girls still got trophies, which seemed to brighten their spirits.

Asters

The rather warm start to October finally ended this week with a noteworthy cold front. There were reports of sleet/flurries yesterday in the Peoria area (I did not see them), making this the second earliest day in the season this has been observed in the area. The earliest date was September 25, 1942, described further at: http://www.wunderground.com/blog/weatherhistorian/notable-september-snowfalls.  The leaves are starting to turn but many have a ways to go.  I like seeing the purple and white aster flowers at this time of the year, some of the last flowers of the season.  Turns out we have a little aster plant growing wild in our flower bed.  Yesterday, Katie and I were near the Illinois River, so we took a short walk down by the docks.