Eclectic Echoes

We had a full October. Eric had a field trip to Bushy Beach October 4. When he saw all the monarch butterflies on the blooming seaside goldenrod along the beach, he wanted to bring us to see them. During the monarchs’ migration that seems to be a preferred pit stop. When we went on the following Saturday, we missed seeing the hundreds of butterflies that Eric saw, but we still spotted a few stragglers and had a fabulous time walking the 5 mile round trip to the beach. Johann had his nature notebook with him and drew pictures as we went. Before we got to Bluff Point State Park, we stopped at Avery Point for Eric to take some pictures of the birds and Johann to make some drawings.

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The trail through the woods to get to the beach was beautiful. We saw several squirrels, chipmunks, and birds. The most interesting evidence of animals was the footprints I noticed in the mud. Johann studied and recorded them in his notebook. It was exciting for him to take his book-learned knowledge from Field Trips with Jim Arnosky and be able to positively identify the animal tracks. Eric took pictures. Over the following couple of days, they worked on mapping out the animal rush hour traffic jam that we recorded.

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Johann learned about Columbus Day. In answering his questions, we got onto the topic of Leif Ericsson. Johann asked why we celebrated Columbus Day if Leif Ericsson was really the first European to come to North America. He thought there should be a holiday for him. At the time, I didn’t know there is now such a day named for him (October 9), and agreed. I confessed that the idea of Columbus Day always bothered me. He wasn’t the first. His mission was a failure. No one corrected him when he called the native people here Indians, they just went along with his mistake, which would really annoy me if I was a Native North or South American. And he only made multiple trips to the New World out of greed. But he was the impetus for Europeans wanting to come to America and settle here.

Johann asked if we could have an Eric the Red Day on October 13 and a Leif Ericsson Day on October 14. He even wrote it on the calendar. I did some minor research to make a Viking-inspired dinner for both nights. Eric took Johann to the toy store to get the small Playmobil Viking boat and men for our table centerpiece. I quipped that a Pippi Longstocking Day would have more meaning to me than Columbus Day. I need to watch what I say. Pippi Longstocking Day was October 23.

Eric had a crunch for schoolwork and exams. We carved the pumpkin for our neighbor down the hall. Then it was already time to pick apples at Holmberg Orchards. We went October 21. The people at the orchard said we missed picking raspberries, but we were welcome to eat what we could find left on the bushes. Boy, was that good! I tried to put the breaks on the volume of apples Eric and Johann were picking, but to no avail. I wasn’t sure we’d be able to eat them all before they went bad, but we did it! With the half bushel we brought home we had apple pancakes, apple pie, apple crisp, apple turnovers, apple fritters, Great Grandma Heupel’s applesauce, applesauce spice cake, and just plain apples! A new favorite snack was all the apple peelings we had while I was baking. Johann said we had apples just like Rebecca Estelle had pumpkins in Too Many Pumpkins from story time on October 19. She had so many pumpkins, that after she had scooped out all the seeds and cooked all the pumpkins into everything imaginable, she had a pile of seeds in the corner of her kitchen that engulfed her rocking chair and stood taller than she was!

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Our old neighbor, who owns a pajama store and an angel paraphernalia store at Mystic Village, invited us to the pajama breakfast at VooDoo Grill October 29. If you showed up in your pajamas, you got free coffee or tea. If you showed up in Nami’s Jammies, breakfast was on our neighbor. So Johann and I got a free breakfast and we had fun at the restaurant pajama party. After we helped a friend move some furniture into her storage unit, I put the finishing touches on Johann’s Halloween costume.

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Eric and I managed to dress up for Halloween this year too. Johann went as an elephant in his pajamas at bedtime (think Babar’s child getting ready for bed), Eric went as a mad scientist (not much of a stretch there), and I went as a little girl in her pajamas (Johann says I looked like Pippi Longstocking). After trick-or-treating at Mystic Village, we walked in the Halloween parade down Main St. and then trick-or-treated in the neighborhood near the fire station on the way home. Earlier in the day Johann had his dental check-up. Halloween was the only opening they had, so I took it! Johann has 6 loose teeth, one of which is so loose right now, I don’t know what’s holding it in! It didn’t fall out for Thanksgiving, but I think the dentist is right that we will have that super cute Christmas picture with a lot of missing front teeth.