Goodbye, Fall.

I awoke early this morning to the peaceful sight of fluffy snowflakes falling.  I do not have a photo of them, because by the time I got out of bed, they had all melted.  Nevertheless, the children were very excited.  Gus 'dressed warm for snow'.  We went out for an 'explore' at about 11:00 and there was absolutely no snow to be found.  Maybe if we went up the mountain.  We spent the rest of the day inside, doing cozy things.  Lucy and Gus built an entire village, or country maybe, which seemed to be closely related to Japan.  There was a train that led between the 'temple' and the 'tea house'.  Ella was odd one out today (which is unusual) and ended up spending most of the afternoon in her room, making some gifts for her brother and sister (!).  Then we started in on the December arts and crafts with some foldy stars from.  Very satisfyingly mathematical, they are.  I really want to find directions to make Julestearne or however you spell Christmas stars, which I learned to make in Denmark but forgot.  Before we launch whole-heartedly into winter, I will share a few more photos from our fall.  Each year, we watch as the European Beech tree that's right in front of our house turns lovely shades of yellow, then orange, then brown.  Then, one day a wind comes up and the leaves are gone.  We did have one day of jumping in the leaves before the rain made them too soggy for much fun.  I included the jack-o-lantern photo to remind myself that it was quite a momentous occasion this year:  each of the children carved almost all of his/her own pumpkin, sharp knives and all.  Only Gus needed help getting all the 'goop' out of his enormous pumpkin.  I guess we can check that one off the big list.