this just means winter is right around the corner

it's fall time here in michigan which means only one thing. winter is coming. and we're not looking forward to it. but before winter comes there is raking to do. hayden has been asking me for weeks now if there are enough leaves on the ground to make a big pile. finally, there were. so after his bowling league on thursday, jessica, justin, hayden, talan and i all went outside to rake and play in the leaves. justin had never raked leaves before as he lives in florida. i'm sure it's the most exciting thing he's ever done. it was great to have someone to help me out. thanks for the help, justin! i can't wait to have you come over and shovel my driveway and scrape my car off this winter!

i think justin was asking hayden "what the heck is this thing?":
so hayden demonstrated what to do. although, for whatever reason, he thought the best place to make a big leaf pile to jump in was on the concrete:
ahhh. he gets it now:
jessica helped too. she made sure talan and dante were well taken care of:
talan's first fall. autumn i mean, not as in falling over:

hayden liked to eat the leaves his first year too. it's like a family tradition:

the piles were formed and the fun began:




he was not so happy to find out we had to bag the leaves for the compost man that was coming the next morning. we told him we would put him in the bag and the compost man would come and get him. the threat didn't work. he begged us to let him sleep out there in the bag. "i'll stay warm in the bag" he told us. i thought about it, but for whatever reason, decided against it:
and now, 4 days later, we have a bunch of new leaves to rake. maybe tomorrow....justin, whatcha up to tomorrow?!