Signs of Fall

When I woke up yesterday morning, there was a smell in the thick foggy air that was an unmistakable promise of Fall. I had butterflies in my stomach all morning long, so finally when the sun melted the gloom away I grabbed the camera and the daycare crew and headed out front in search for more of its telltale signs.

Look what we found!:

The leaves on the maple tree in the front yard have flames of red at their tips...

The pumpkin plant has started to flower!

The back hill is golden brown and dry as a desert...

Theres no denying it now...

Hurrah! Fall has taken victory over the summer heat yet again!

To celebrate, we slaughtered the king sunflower.

(Well, actually, he was mostly wilted on his own.)

LOOK HOW GIANT!:

The kids managed to keep busy plucking sunflower seeds out of the mighty beast one at a time with a pair of tweezers for the better part of a half hour... so I seized the golden opportunity and sneaked into my bedroom to answer the call of a pile of a particularly needy heap of laundry. I was silently commending myself for the genius and creativity of my afternoon activity for the wee ones, until I looked up and saw THIS out my bedroom window...

... and just like that, I was back on the clock.

But even so, it couldn't kill my good mood yesterday... because I spotted Fall around the corner.

And my kids seem almost as excited as I am.