Late summer and fall begins

Summer is over now and Lauren's favorite season is in full bloom, or whatever fall does. The summer was nice, I got to take lots of time off, it wasn't too hot, and we saw many of you.  We've been to two county fairs, a pick-it-yourself apple orchard, amusement park, lakes, and many other places.  Adam and Evan spent some time with both sets of grandparents.  We're looking forward to when all the leaves change, we'll figure out somewhere nice to go hiking. 

Adam began preschool this month, he goes 3 days a week from 9am to noon.  He loves it of course and brings home little crafts every day.  It is run by a Catholic parish and the other day he came home and said something about how they pray differently, which we thought was funny.  He's a full blown person, he shares well, he helps his brother, gets himself dressed (sometimes inside-out or backwards), brushes his teeth, and all kinds of other things.  He's desperate to play "adult games" like Puerto Rico and the card games we play and desperate to read, as that's a pre-requisite for "adult games."  He loves Wii Sports Resort and scored a 199 the other night in bowling, all by himself (he marked every frame).

He is also sneaky. The other day Lauren popped back in the house from doing laundry and couldn't find him.  After a few minutes, she saw little feet beneath the curtains.  She pulled back the curtains and found Adam stuffing his face with cookies he wasn't supposed to have.  She said he had this shocked look on his face, like a mouse eating a bit of cheese you've just caught by surprise.  Today we were playing hide and seek and I noticed he briefly stopped looking for me.  Turns out, he'd taken my hiding as an opportunity to sneak another cookie.

Evan is becoming more of a person too.  He loves some time alone with Mom when Adam is at preschool.  Actually, by himself, Evan is really fun to be with.  When he's competing for attention we call him the "Great Whiner."  He's saying words rather well now, and can identify most things by their words.  He still says "baba" for banana, "fageeta" for spaghetti, and some other wild aberrations, but we've drawn enough attention to it, he says those intentionally for fun now.  His appetite varies wildly, both in terms of quantity and what he likes: from one day eating an enchilada and a half (which he won't often eat), to another day not touching oatmeal with raisins (which he usually loves).  The only constant is his love for PB&J.  He's good at cleaning up, he smiles frequently, and he imitates Adam mercilessly.

Lauren is working Friday and Sunday nights now, 12 hour shifts.  That's been OK on Friday, because I can whisk the kids away on Saturday when she returns, but a bit rougher on Monday.  Although Adam goes to preschool, Lauren has to pick him up at noon, and she has Evan all day.  She's working in surgery again, and it seems fine.  Work can be a bit slow, as all they get are holdovers from the previous day and emergency cases, but she gets to scrub for cases and that's new and different. 

For me, work is picking up again now that it is fall.  Nothing crazy, but I feel like I'm employed full-time again.  I've already been dreading the Jan-Feb-Mar months, hopefully these will be my last at such a seasonal job.  The work is fine, but it makes everything harder for everyone else.

Enjoy the pictures!

This may be Hoffman's last year

So we went a fair bit

Adam loves cotton candy

Adam's space helmet, notice the ghost in the background

Turns out we have a bounce place near us, too bad it is the worst
This is not the picture I meant to get, but I'm not going to fix it.

Bouncing makes for tired boys

Adam showing off his rocket backpack for his first day of school

At the pick-it-yourself apple orchard, their favorite part was the cider & donuts at the end

Evan would reach, but never pick

Of course they ate plenty of apples in the orchard

Evan ate his weight in apples

We used any means necessary to get good apples.
Adam took this picture in case you're wondering.

For two weeks Dave and Catherine took care of Adam and Evan for us, one week in Fairport and one week up at Hedges Lake, which we really appreciated and the boys really loved. 

Everyone came up for a weekend, Emily came back with us to Albany to watch Adam and Evan for another week, which again we really appreciated

We told Adam to go near the fire for a picture, he seems to have gotten too close

Adam and Allison rowing

Evan loves sticks almost as much as marshmallows, and yes that's his smore I'm holding

They had a nice time up at the lake

Adam goes exploring

Heading down to the lake