My Favorite Season

I love fall. Though you may hear me confess that I love spring the best after a long, hard Iowa winter, don't buy it. Autumn is my first love, and I'll claim it when I'm thinking clearly and my brain isn't muddled by cabin fever. Today was warm and lovely, hot in the sun but cool in the shade. The sky was searingly blue, the leaves are just starting to change, and I spent the whole day with my boys outside. I took some pictures of my favorite fall things...

It's so much fun to decorate in the fall. I adore pumpkins--they're so satisfyingly tactile, you just have to reach out and touch them. And I like being surprised by new colors, unexpected shapes. There are pumpkins all over my house right now. This pretty green one greets you when you walk in the front door.

Of course, as a pumpkin-lover, I'm also crazy about pumkin bars. Cream cheese frosting... What could be better? They're the perfect cool weather dessert.

And my garden is so pretty in the fall. I have a Pee-Gee hydrangea that is so heavy with flowers the branches hang on the ground. A bunch of cut blooms in a glass vase makes the prettiest centerpiece I've ever seen.

My kids love fall, too. Especially making squirrel soup, a Baart family specialty and an autumn tradition. (FYI, the soup is for the squirrels, not filled with squirrels.) We take my turkey roasting pot outside and fill it with whatever we can find by walking around the neighborhood. This year the squirrels feasted on red berries, phlox flowers, mushrooms, cut grass, leaves, bark, sticks, and rocks. I think there might be a few mystery ingredients also, thanks to my two-year-old. Lucky squirrels.

One last, sweet picture. Though I hate to admit it, I like it when the weather cools off and my kids need to start wearing warm jammies. They seem more snuggly in the fall, somehow... Anyway, I thought this was the sweetest picture--they're head to head, reading a book at the kitchen table in their pajamas. I couldn't resist capturing it on film.