Signs of the season

I know that fall starts in a couple of days, but I was taken by surprise when I spotted this tree on my way to work today.

The leaves are just about the brightest orange I've ever seen -- and there were already several of them on the ground beneath the tree.

I'm always kind of bummed to see summer slip away.  But I must admit, this tree is a beautiful sight.

Piling up the leaves

We raked a ton of leaves this weekend.

Ordinarily I hate, hate, HATE raking leaves. Honestly, I think I’d rather be shoveling snow than raking leaves (I know, be careful what you wish for). I’ll usually do whatever I can to avoid the job and make Kris do it (there, my secret is out).

But with Kris being a little under the weather this past weekend, I stepped up and tackled the yard. She was feeling a little better Sunday. So she did come out and help. I’d say we split the work together.

When it was all done, I could not believe the amount of leaves we moved.

We’re not done. There are still more leaves to fall. And the way it often goes, the snow won’t be far behind them.

Autumn activities

I’ve been very negligent in keeping up with the latest Rooney news here on the blog. Lately life has just been too busy to do all the blogging I’d like to do.

Anyway, here are some highlights I’ve been meaning to post for a week now of our pumpkin picking excursion at the Pick a Pumpkin Pumpkin Patch in Schoharie. This place is great, with all sorts of fun activities besides just pumpkin picking. We spent more than two hours hanging out there enjoying the beautiful weather. It was sunny and in the 80s that day.



Meanwhile, Cub Scouts is now in full swing. Today we attended the annual Cub Scout Fall Family Fun Day at Camp Boyhaven. Nolan took his first crack at archery, which was pretty cool. But I think his favorite part was the kickball game with all of the other scouts.



I’ll try to do a better job of keeping up with things.

Autumn

Kris took this picture back on Halloween. I just didn't get around to posting it until now...

Falling leaves

I went for a run this morning through Central Park and so many leaves were falling to the ground. It was so pretty to see the different colors falling through the sky. This fall seemed to be nice and gradual, with temperatures slowly dropping. But I think the end is near with 26 degrees on the thermometer this morning and day light savings approaching this weekend. I'll be running in the dark pretty soon.
People ask me what's new and I really get lost in the many activities we have to say what so I end up saying not much. But the kids are constantly doing something and seem to have smiles all the time. Thomas loves preschool. If you ask him, he will say no because he loves the controversy. But he asks if it's a Kiddie Car day and cries if it isn't. He still has trouble separating when Chris brings him there, but he quickly changes his tune and goes with the flow afterward. The fire truck came this week. Thomas also has fun at story hour at the library and a social program in Colonie called Toddler Tales. We're trying to get him some boy friends so he can have some play dates. Nolan, on the other hand, is play date central. He's had a lot of boys over from school. He is finishing up soccer this weekend, has a Creepy Crawly Ball at the school tonight and is getting ready for his first Cub Scout Campout. He has a computer class he takes after school on Mondays too. So I guess that's what's new in a nutshell.
Be sure to watch the leaves before their gone. That's true of your kids too!

Rooney wrap-up

Sorry, everyone. It’s been a while since I’ve neglected the blog for this long.

It certainly hasn’t been for lack of material. Maybe that’s just the problem. There has been too much going on. This has been a crazy-busy week.

Last weekend was filled with good news and bad news. The good news was that we had a very nice visit with Kris’ parents—and the scenery on the drive up and back through the Adirondacks was some of the most beautiful I’ve scene on that route. The bad news is I forgot to bring the camera. But the good news is that Aaron was in Lake Placid over the same weekend and he did bring his camera. So check out his blog to see what the peak foliage looked like.

Oh yeah, and there was another small piece of bad news—the Yankees loss to Detroit Saturday. As bummed as I was about that, it’s hard to complain about it being one of the low points of the week when just a few days later Cory Lidle was dead after his plane crashed into a high-rise on the Upper East Side. So while I have other thoughts about Joe Torre and A-Rod, maybe I’ll save them for another time.

Work and school and, it seems, life in general have been keeping us busy lately. Looking ahead to the weekend, we’ve got another soccer game tomorrow (I’ll have to tease his coach, who also coaches the girl’s varsity team, about the incident at the girls’ game this week) and our first Cub Scout outing on Sunday—the Tiger Cub Fun Day at Camp Boyhaven.

I’ll leave you now with a couple photos Kris took of the boys playing basketball in the driveway…