Stay away winter!!!

The last few days here have been unseasonably warm, so we've been enjoying the nice weather! The trees have changed color and most of the leaves are still up, so it is really beautiful here right now. Jason is well into school and is very busy between his teaching assistant position and the full-time course load he has this semester. Imagine grading 30+ papers while trying to write your own! Here is the typical view we have of him with the computer (ooh, behind him is an owl that Ellie made out of paper plates and decorations):

The kids are both really happy playing and learning together. Ellie can make Rowan laugh like no one else, and she enjoys "taking care" of him. It's so nice that they can play together now! Although, they are beginning to plot trouble together too. Rowan usually is the one to figure out how to get into something, and then Ellie helps him. Here they are putting colored pencils into each hole of a notebook:

I don't know if I have mentioned this before on our blog, but Ellie started going to a nearby preschool 2 afternoons a week. It really stretched our budget, but we thought it was worth it for her to have friends to play with, especially over the winter. Luckily we have found out that we will be receiving some funding available for student families that will make it very affordable for this semester. We have to pay each month, but then we'll receive a lot of it back at the end of the semester. Ellie LOVES going to school, and they do such fun things there. Tomorrow morning they are going on her first field trip, to a pumpkin patch. It's nice for me to have a short break from her (about 4 hours a week) and it wears her out too! Here she is taking a rare nap on the couch: