29 Years and Counting: A Beautiful Fall Weekend

With the end of September here, we in Michigan know that if it's nice outside you better take advantage of it because there is no guarantee of another nice day, especially if it's a weekend. So, with that in mind we began our first official fall weekend.
Friday night Liz was out with Lexi, so the 3 older A's and I headed down to check out the playground at Angus Elementary. It's been a long time since I've been there and I was impressed by the size of it, as well as the fitness equipment they had for the adults. The kids loved it and just ran around from play area to play area, having a great time yelling and running and not having an adult yell at them for it :)

Andrew loved running around the play areas, and I loved thinking about how well he would sleep that night.....

Amerie just climbed all over everything saying "look at me!"

Holding still for a moment, right before leaving (apparently they were pretty exhausted).

I wish I could [still] do this.....

...and this....

...and of course this.

Saturday was more of a typical Michigan fall day and it threatened rain all day, even though the weather channel said it wouldn't rain until evening. The cloudiness made us feel like not doing anything but instead we decided to make a trip to the Mt. Clemens Farmers Market. I had never been there myself but I had heard about the nice veges at amazing prices :) For dinner I made eggplant parmigiana with the baby eggplant we had purchased using a recipe from WholeFoods.com. Yum-mo!

We bought this giant cauliflower for $2.50! (yes, it fills more than 1/2 the shelf in the fridge)

Saturday night it was back to the playground. After we got home and Liz bathed them all and put them to bed, she was convinced by the way they were all fast asleep within moments of their heads hitting the pillows, that a playground visit should become a nightly ritual. And with the fitness center and track around the play areas, her and I will be able to get in a nice workout, too. I'll keep you posted on how well this works out for us ;)

Sunday after church we made Pumpkin Pancakes. I'm not sure where Liz saw the recipe but we basically just added a small can of pumpkin to a double batch of pancake mix. I also added some cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. Boy were those a perfect start to the day!

Then it was off to the cider mill. We decided to try the Franklin Cider Mill for the 1st time. Very charming, very good, and very expensive! We enjoyed our cider and donuts (after waiting in a very long line) and then took a little walk into the village of Franklin and along a walking path which actually ran along 14 Mile Road.

There was a creek with some ducks in it.