Jenny's Farm Stand

A couple of weeks ago, we headed to Dexter, a small town, just west of Ann Arbor, our destination... Jenny's Farm Stand. We've heard of this place since we've lived here, but never actually gone to check it out and since this is most likely our last fall in Ann Arbor, we figured we'd better check it off the list of things to do.

Jenny's was great, we got to feed various animals, climb on a straw mountain, complete with tunnels, pick out pumpkins, ride horses and go on an extreme hayride. This was not your typical meandering through the woods, these horses were running up and down hills. You had to hold on or you were flying off the ride. It was SO much fun! Remi and I loved it and Remi kept saying, "again, again, more turn, more turn."

We met up with our dear friends the Lu's, climbed the mountain, drank some cider, ate some donuts and in general enjoyed a wonderful Sunday afternoon.

Remi feeding a goat

Climbing the straw mountain

"punkin, punkin. I want punkin."

more mountain climbing

tunnels

our friend, Elyse

yeah, I rode a donkey

Rite of Passage

The time had come... I had finally turned four and I knew this momentous occasion would be coming soon. Then, it happened! Two weeks ago, I became an official hockey player. Not a living room hockey player, not a backyard hockey player, but a legitimate "lace 'em up" hockey player. A hockey player that has to wear a cup! Like I said people, this is no joke, this is the real deal

I am a Timbit and proud of it! I proudly wear #2 for the blue team and am happy to say that my jersey actually stinks! It already has that hockey smell, the one I've heard of, but never really experienced! Mommy has now experienced the stench from the "other" side, the parenting side. Yes, she appreciates the stink, but nonetheless would like to thank her parents for putting up with it for over 15 years!

I have hockey practice every Saturday from 10 to 10:50am, which requires leaving the house at 9:15 to get to the rink by 9:30. That's when mommy descends upon me! It takes us 1/2 an hour to get ready and after that 1/2 an hour, we're both exhausted. You want to know the hardest part about getting dressed? No, not the skates, but the GLOVES!! Those buggers are tough. Getting 1 finger and 1 finger only in each finger hole is proving quite challenging. So much so that mommy is contemplating creating a hockey mitten!

My teammates and I work hard! We fall down quite a bit and we're all pretty quick to pop up at the beginning of practice, but after about 25 minutes, we start to fade... Some of us are crawling around on our knees, others are perfecting their snow angel technique for the upcoming snow, and others, well some just stand there, as if they are frozen. Sure we hear the outbursts of laughter from the stands, but when ever we look up, we see our proud parents giving us thumbs up and raising their hands in the air in victory. As a team we usually take break in the penalty box, while the coach orders us to open our mouths so he can squirt some water in our general direction. By the 50 minute mark, all of us are clamoring to get off the ice. Our feet hurt, we're all sweaty and most of us are hungry and thirsty. As our parents peel our gear off, we look around at each other and ever so slightly smile, the smile of pride.

My buddy Gordy and me

now with our mascot, the reminator

Mommy giving me one last tip before we hit the ice

It's go time!

I'm the blue guy where you can't see my number

Right in front of the coach between the center circle and the M

Yeah, already have my "hockey" smile perfected!

Michigan Football Game

Two weeks ago, I got to go to a Michigan Football game with daddy. No people, it was not the Michigan/Michigan State game. Those tickets were going for thousands of dollars. Our tickets rang in at a solid $50 total! Thanks Mac! Anyway... We were going to bike down to the game, but daddy's bike had a flat tire, so we ended up walking, which may be fine if you are an adult, but let's just say it's a struggle for a 4 year old. We finally got there, after daddy broke down and carried my 50 pound self to the game, we tailgated with friends, watched the band march in and then found our seats and enjoyed the game up until the 3rd quarter. That's when I said, "I've had enough, can we go home now?" Maybe in a year or two, I'll be able to sit through an entire game. Either way, I had an awesome time with my daddy.

View from our seats

Apple Picking

Rosh Hashanah wouldn't be complete without apple picking. We headed out to our favorite apple farm to pick some yummy apples. Remi and I both had a blast climbing the trees and picking apples. It was the first day the orchard was open and we basically had the place to ourselves and the trees were filled with big beautiful apples. Of course, we came home with way to many apples, so mama set to work in the kitchen. Bakes apples, apple bread, apple crisp, apple pies, etc. All frozen in our freezer, ready to be pulled out as soon as an apple craving hits us. Of course, no apple picking trip would be complete without an apple cider donut. I devoured mine and remi basically just licked hers!

Trying to carry our pickings

Remi, of course, couldn't stop picking the apples. Kind of like her daddy...

September! Where have you gone?

September was a busy month for us... I was busy recovering from having my tonsils and adenoids yanked out. Mommy and daddy told me my throat would hurt, but I didn't really grasp how much! The whole "you can have as much ice cream as you want" bit was in NO WAY worth it. Eat ice cream! Are you kidding, it hurt to simply exist, much less try to eat or drink anything. Plus, I had a bad reaction to the meds I was on... I was not handling the narcotic well, it basically made me crazy and when I say crazy, I mean crazy! I would cry on the floor for an hour or more at a time and sob, "I can't stop crying, I don't know why I'm crying!" Finally after dropping the meds cold turkey, it took 3 days to return to my normal lovable self. I don't know who was more relieved, mommy or me. I think mommy was beginning to think this was my new baseline behavior and attitude and contemplated running away. Luckily, everything turned around and we didn't have to file any missing persons reports looking for mommy.

The high holy days were in the month of September, along with many other Jewish holidays, which resulted in me missing 7 days of school in September. While I enjoyed celebrating the holidays, I think we were all a bit relieved that October had rolled around.

Speaking of school, I now go to school 4 mornings a week! 4 years old, 4 mornings! Mommy was a bit sad to have me gone for one more morning, as it cut down on our special time. But I'm doing my best to skip my naps, so I can have special time with her that way. I'm not sure if she's happy about the swap...

We celebrated Rosh Hashanah quietly, as our house was torn apart for yet another one of mommy's home improvement episodes. And we hosted a break fast for Yom Kippur with many of our Ann Arbor friends. We built a sukkah for sukkot and made homemade Torahs for simchat torah. All in all we had a great month of holidays and were able to go on lots of fun adventures b/c of school being out.

What else... Ahh, yes, we all got sick! School has started and once again, I am the deliverer of the nasty germs! It has run through us all once and is now in it's "second" showing, rearing it's ugly head AGAIN! Mommy is none to happy about this and daddy, well daddy in on the interview trail, trying to find us a place where we may actually get to live for more than 4 years, so he may pop his head in for a day or so, but then he's off again. The good news is he has lots of interviews and hopefully we'll know where we are headed by the new year, the bad news is, we never see him and when I do, I'm usually pretty mad at him for being gone all the time, so I'm not very nice to him. So daddy, if you are reading this while you are in some random airport or hotel, I'm sorry, it's just that I love you and miss you and want you to stay at our house for more than a day!

So, that' about wraps it up. September has come and gone, the leaves have started to fall and we finally broke down and turned the heat on in our house! Fall is here to stay!

We biked down to band practice one Saturday before a football game. There was a sky writer in action on that day. M GO BLUE! The official town saying was being written in the sky.

Dress up time,. Not my best smile...

What the F^*$@ are you looking at?

Bubbles, bubbles and more bubbles!

We had so many bubbles we could barely see Remi when she sat down!

S

Family Photo's

Once again, we met up with Glenn and April Livermore for a family photo shoot while we were out east. These guys took pictures of mommy and daddy getting married! Since then, we've all become friends and a trip to Gloucester isn't complete until we see Uncle Glenn.

This Remi looking at the reflection of the rest of us in the window. Mommy and daddy are in blue and I'm the sliver of purple.