Has Fall FINALLY arrived in CA?

We have very few deciduous trees on our property. But here is our lovely peach tree losing it's leaves. The boys are enjoying an hour outside while I unload the grocery bags from the car and make lunch. It looks like they have found some leaves to keep them busy. Raking up leaves. If that isn't a sign of fall then I don't know what is.

A boy and his chicken

At Bubba's school there are 3 chickens. They are free to roam the school grounds during the day. They are amazing chickens as they allow the children to chase them and carry them around. Bubba loves one of the chickens..the poppy chicken. Poppy chicken just happens to have the same name as his grandfather. Very sweet coincidence.

Here is my little boy and his chicken...

Now...I have to admit, in all my years at the school I have yet to be brave enough to reach out and pick up any of the chickens even though I have watched many children do so. Maybe this year I will be brave enough. I'm sure Bubba would help me.

Mother Nature's Boys...

I love being outside and could spend hours on walks lost in my own daydreams and filling my lungs with the scents of the outdoors. I grew up with the stories of my parents' childhoods filling my head. The ideas of playing in the creek, hunting for bugs, climbing a tall tree, picking a tomato from a vine and sitting down in the tall grasses to eat it. Running in packs with the neighborhood children, fishing, sneaking over the neighbor's fence to feed the cow, playing outside everyday and only returning home at dusk because you could no longer see and your tummy was a little hungry. This was not exactly the childhood I had but the dream of one I carried for my own children. And though we have had to tweak it quite a bit to get it to resemble something of my parents generations' childhoods, I hope my children will one day have fond fond memories of spending their childhoods outdoors. Of building mother earth houses, growing a garden, collecting leaves, studying bugs, playing in creeks, hiking, camping, climbing trees, spending summers at the ocean's edge, laying on your back and watching the clouds go by...just breathing and being still in mother nature's world. Life moves so fast with the constant bombardment of chores, meetings, deadlines, over extending one's self with so many committments that it can be hard to remember to make time to just be, to explore and discover what is in our own backyards.

Mother Earth houses created by Boy Wonder. I prefer the name Fairy House.. :-)