Two shoes go CLOMP CLOMP!

One of my most favorite, if not THE most favorite, books is The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams.



I love this story because it can become so interactive...and what child doesn't like to be a part of a story?  Anyways, for the last two weeks we've been reading this book and the kids have loved it.  They practically read it to me the last few days!  I highly suggest this for any early childhood classroom


We finished this week with our Halloween Party (yes, I realize we "celebrated" on November 1) due to a scheduling conflict with a fire safety presentation we had to postpone our Halloween celebrations.  It ended up we could have had our party on Halloween after all because of Hurricane Sandy - Red Cross was to do our presentation.  But oh well...  The children still enjoyed the party and I had a refreshing taste of some humanity.

A family came in, two of their children are in my class.  They weren't dressed in costume for our party.  As I questioned whether or not they had brought their costumes, Mom began to cry.  When I pulled her aside to talk to her more in depth, I found she had not been able to purchase costumes for her children due to her financial situation at this time.  At the same time I was pulling Mom aside, another parent saw her tears and immediately offered up some costumes she had at home.  Mom agreed, and the children were not only dressed for our party, but the other parent GAVE the costumes to the family for Trick-or-Treat this weekend.  As I witnessed this all go on, I couldn't help but smile - humanity still does exist!  I'm proud to have such caring families with children in my class!

I mentioned Hurricane Sandy earlier in this post...  I live in Ohio.  That's right, Ohio.  And we (we being "Ohio") were unfortunately affected by "Sandy."  While most of our Buckeye State suffered only high winds (high meaning gusts up to 60-70 mph) and lots of rain - we're on day 8 here - the Cleveland area was left without power for most of the week.  On Monday evening, the winds picked up suddenly and the rain intensified, Lake Erie was described as being "angry" and power outages were becoming more and more popular.  By 10:00 p.m., a huge majority of Cuyahoga and Summit County schools were already closing...  By 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday - nearly everything, schools and businesses alike, in Cuyahoga County were closed, with the rest of NE Ohio following close behind.  Portage County fared well through the storm, with only minor damages, but school officials "played it safe" and schools were closed throughout the county.  Our center and one other center in our agency stayed open.  I can't speak for the other center, but we only had 12 kids in the center all day...  So the day was used to catch up on some much needed planning time - and the kids even helped! :-)  Two of my little girls drew pictures of what was happening that day, they even asked for help to write "Hurricane Sandy 2012" on their artwork.  While the people in their pictures were smiling (because hey, these two little ones were happy to be at school), it was neat to see the connection they were making as to why their class only had four children in it.  We hung their artwork up on our door and they have received many compliments.  I think it's pretty safe to say that Ohio experienced its first "Hurricane Day," and quite possibly its last as well.  My heart, thoughts, and prayers go out to those who are suffering tremendous destruction from "Sandy" - from Ohio to up and down the East Coast communities have begun the clean-up process that from a few short hours will take months to years to fix.

A Day on the Farm

Every year...usually the last Thursday in October...I take my class to a farm with a pumpkin patch.  The last few years we have visited Guyette Farms in Mantua, Ohio.  This year we had a particularly beautiful fall day!  The temperatures were in the 70s all day, and relatively speaking there was not much mud - although we did bring back our fair share of corn kernels in pockets and shoes from the corn kernel box. 

If you live in the area, and are looking for a fun, fall time on a farm - Guyette's is the place!

                                            A view of Guyette Farms from our hay ride!

                         A neighboring farmhouse - presumed to be part of the Guyette Farms family

They offer a corn maze with multiple ways to get to the exit - for those who prefer less tramping around a corn field, or those with small children.  The farm also has a hay bale maze for the real youngsters, as well as a hay bale obstacle course, tunnel slide into a box of corn kernels, and a giant corn kernel box to play in.  This year, Guyette's added a clubhouse to their hay bale obstacle course.  Larry Guyette always finishes our trip with a fantastic hay ride, which ends with the children getting to pick out their own pumpkins.  In addition to the hay ride and fun places to romp and climb, visitors can also meet some of the farm's animals...

                                      

This little guy was only about two weeks old!  So cute!!

 

The huddle we met on our hay ride.  We were disappointed to see them all behind a fence...last year they followed the wagon and even got in the way and Farmer Larry had to get off his tractor and "shoo" them away.  But at least the cows were safe... :-)

 

 

All in all we had a wonderful trip to the farm!  It never seems like we can spend enough time there, and this year seemed especially short-lived - with super weather, well-behaved children, and helpful parents, time just flew by!  I'm looking forward to next year's trip already (Farmer Larry shared a few secrets of how he is going to update the experience on his farm!)!

 

Fire Safety and Prevention

This week was "Fire Safety and Prevention" for 2012.  Every year I try to cover the topic during the appropriate time (the first week of October).  So naturally...that was the "study topic" for this week...

We always try to schedule a visit from our local fire department - they do a great job of talking with the kids about fire safety, prevention, and answering the children's questions.  And they usually bring their ladder truck and all their gear.  (I think I get just as excited as the kids do!)  Well, this year a co-worker attempted, multiple times, to schedule the visit for our center.  No luck.  So, I said well...I've always had success, let me try.  About a week ago, I gave a call to the fire department.  I left a voicemail with the appropriate person, explaining that we'd like to invite them to our center this week, although I knew it was really short notice, we would still love for them to come out later in the month if this week wouldn't work.  I still haven't heard back - and the fellow teacher tried calling again, too.  Talk about a disappointment!  What is "Fire Safety and Prevention" week without firefighters?!?  Well...

I've been improvising and following my lesson plans as if we never even tried to schedule the visit.  We've read non-fiction books about fires, smoke, and safety.  We've read fiction stories about firefighters, fire trucks, and fire dogs.  We've had daily discussions about stop, drop, and roll, crawl low under smoke, firefighters, and so forth...  The children have seemed to not only enjoy our lessons and activities, but they have actually been paying attention and learning, too - YES!  Goal number one achieved!  (Have I mentioned I have fabulous classes this year and I'm not surprised by their quick-learning?)

Monday's lesson focused on smoke detectors and stop, drop, and roll.  I assigned the children "homework" to look for smoke detectors at their houses and around school.  Immediately they all pointed out our smoke detector in our classroom, and we conducted an impromptu fire drill - they did great!  We come to today...

I asked how many children had done their homework - of course, ALL of the children raised their hands, but when called on, only a few could remember what the homework was.  Preschoolers....gotta love their enthusiasm! :-)  I got a few "we have two smoke detectors - one in my room, one in the kitchen."  Some children explained they also had smoke detectors in their garages.  But only one story involved the whole class...

My little boy, the "'tater bugs" little dear, was eager to share his findings from doing his "homework"...  The story began like this...  "We have two.  I have one in my room....and one....one in the....one in my room.  And one outside.  Yeah, outside.  So I have....two (but of course holding three fingers up)."  "Oh, I replied, you have three smoke detectors at your house.  Is the one outside in a garage?"  And the story gets better...  "No, I have two.  Look, there was this fire and smoke.  And I had to run outside and my mom came too."  Of course I questioned for further details...."is that where you used to live?"  Etc....  This story sounded so believable!  A little girl pipes up "did the firefighters come to your house?"  And the story takes a turn!  Yes, the firefighters had gone to his house and sprayed it with water.  And him and his mom and dog all jumped out of the way, out of the house.  (These are not exact, but very close to his own words, by the way).  And all "these guys" (pointing to all of the other children) were in the house too, and they all had to run out.  As the story went on and on, this little boy continued to tell us how our high school student volunteer was also in the house, and he ran out too.  Then our volunteer grandparent and my assistant were on the roof, and they needed to get down because they could get hurt.  So they jumped and ran away from the fire.  The story went on and on like this, mostly repetition of the same details, a few new added here and there.  And then it was my turn to be included...  I of course had been feeling very left out.

The plot thickened as I joined our Granny and my assistant on the roof.  And we were now dancing.  He scolded each of us, with his hands on his hips, saying "you guys need to get down because you could get hurt, get down, you will need to be safe."  Each of us agreed and thanked him for trying to keep us safe.  We all (children included) were quite into his story, and had a good giggle.  Well, later in the day - maybe about two hours or so - he brings this event up again.  "Hey, you remember when you were dancing on my roof?"  "Uhm....yeah?"  "Well, you were sleeping too."  "I was sleeping?!  How was I sleeping on your roof?"  "In your bed!  Your bed was on my roof, and you were sleeping in it!"  I should add, that all the while this story is being told, and continued, the little boy was quite serious.  "Oh...well, I'm glad I didn't fall off!"  "Yeah."  And he continued to eat his snack.  Out of nowhere, a little angel pipes up (this little girl rarely speaks, and almost never in front of the group), "Ms. Kristal, if your bed was on the roof and you were sleeping in it, you would just slide right down!"  Laughter erupted...

Kids say the darndest things.... :-)

'Tater Bugs

We've been squeezing in as much time as we can on the playground since we know the cold, wet weather will be moving in and playground time will be shortened significantly.  This week is was relatively dry, so the sandbox was opened daily.  Amid all of the castles, tunnels, tracks, and just general digging, some potato bugs (or roley-poleys) had made themselves a home.  That is until my kiddos dug them up!  And oh what a hit! 

Most kids thought these were the greatest little creatures.  Some though they should just dig around them, and others gave them a new home outside of our playground fence.  There were arguments about which bug was whose, and who should get to hold it next.  Which is where the term "'tater bug" was coined.  One little boy, now don't get me wrong here, who talks almost constantly, and has an answer for everything - right, wrong, or indifferent - was arguing over it being his turn to hold the beloved potato bug another child had found.  He began yelling "I don't have a 'tater bug!"  And we couldn't help but laugh.  Eventually he got his turn with the 'tater bug' and he was happy.  But these little creatures will forever be known to me as "'tater bugs."

September Sniffles. Or so I thought.

I usually get sick at Thanksgiving.  This year is proving to be much different...  It was the first day of school, I came home with a sore throat.  I figured yeah, it's the first day and I've been using my "teacher voice" - fellow educators know just what I'm talking about here.  Well, little did I know that my scratchy throat would turn into a downright sore throat, followed by lethargy, aches, and sinus congestion.  Fast forward to this past week - the third week of school...

After spending all last weekend on the couch, sleeping (well, almost all of it - in between the obligations I had for the weekend), I returned to work on Monday still not feeling that great....but obviously feeling well enough to go to work.  By 9:30 a.m. my throat was swelling and it was difficult to breathe!  Panic set in.  By 9:45 a.m. I was requesting a sub - ASAP.  I was panicking more (which wasn't helping any matter at all).  Time to take the kids outside to play...at least I know there were going to be two other adults to help manage the children...

Thank goodness the chill from playing outside helped my throat swelling go down and helped me breathe.  I ended up making in through the morning class...somehow.  But still in full panic mode.  As long as I was inside, I couldn't breathe!  My kids all left and I spoke to my boss again about the sub I had requested - no response yet...  I finally let the panic get the best of me.  I was leaving.  I didn't care if there was no sub - I needed something to fix this swollen throat ordeal.

I sped off to the Med Center - thankfully only about a mile or so from the center.  I had to wait a little over an hour - but what's another hour of struggled breathing after two?  I just waited outside and that made it not so much of a struggle.

Three plus hours,fifty dollars, no diagnosis, and a prescription for a Z-Pack later...  I found myself wandering around Giant Eagle as I waited for my beloved Z-Pack.  As much as I wanted some real diagnosis - and something to fix my swelling throat...I had an anti-biotic and was sure that would fix it...



Yeah.  It fixed it.  And added stomach cramps and pains, headaches, dizziness, and a whole bunch of other delightful side effects.  Note to self :  NEVER ACCEPT A PRESCRIPTION FOR A Z-PACK AGAIN.  The good news - my throat quit swelling after the second dose of sudafed.  And my boss has forgiven me for leaving her stranded on Monday...  She even told me to stay home on Tuesday and rest up. 

Although I'm not 100% just yet, the side effects has subsided and whatever it was I had (or had coming) has backed off.  Now I'm just hoping this was my sickness for the fall and I will actually be able to enjoy the holidays this year.....

Teacher! Teacher! Hey! Teacher!

"My name is Ms. Kristal.  Not Teacher." :-)

I think I must have said that at least one hundered times this week, although it felt like a million.  And I guess "Teacher" is better than other things I could have been called, or the name that was given to my assistant - "Your Helper."  The second thing I said at least (if not more than) one hundred times was "Her name is Ms. Chris."  A tie for second place was "Use walking feet in the classroom."  These kids are one eager, excited group!  I finished the week hoarse, and exhausted.  But not stressed - and I think this a first - to finish week one and not be overwhelmed or stressed.  (It could be a first in education history, not just mine!)  Maybe it's the experience tool in my Teacher Toolbelt.  Or, maybe it's the fantastic people I work with, or the fact that the children seemed to just fall into place when and where they should be...but it was a stress free first week - I actually enjoyed every minute of it!

We finally have some artwork up on the walls...  Self-Portraits - that aren't too shabby for preschool interpretations.  Circle Collages - they drew circles to "The Wheels on the Bus."  I gave them ideas of ways they could draw circles - multiple crayons in one hand, using both hands, drawing a bunch of little circles all over the page, just going around the same circle over and over, and over...etc.  I have some creative kiddos - many of them came up with their own way to decorate their page with circles.  Finally, Letter Collages - this was a letter identification and fine motor activity.  But, it actually turned out really cute, so I hung them up in our Library Center.

I have also been blessed with children who love to sing and dance...  Now, not that I'm the best at either one of those, but I love to use music to teach!  And it is so much more fun when the children are into it as much as I am.  They love "Alphardy" by Dr. Jean - I even found a YouTube video to go with it: http://youtu.be/Lcusd-gbXQ0 .  And we have been learning the American Sign Language Alphabet to do along with the slide show.

I truly can't wait to see what I can teach these eager little minds this year!

The First Day of School...All Over Again!

Yesterday was the first day I had with this year's new kiddos!  And I must say...I have two very good classes!  Sure, they are full of energy, and they will definitely keep me on my toes - but I think I might just learn something from them, too!  I have one class with about half (or more) kids from last year, my afternoon class only has two or three returning children.  We don't even have too many kids who are having trouble separating...I guess they feel pretty comfortable in my classroom!  :-)

I received my first apple today.  What a perfect little gift from a student for the first week of school!  I couldn't help but feel warmth inside when I stepped on the bus to get the children to start our day and from the back I hear a litte voice "Ms. Kristal, I brought you an apple!"  After a chuckle and a thank you, she presented me with a shiny red apple.  I promptly displayed it on my desk to enjoy for the day.

We're still getting aquainted.  And the children are still learning rules and routines, and becoming more comfortable.  But I have a good feeling about this year... :-)

And We're Off!

Labor Day Weekend is over.  "They" say it's the unofficial end of summer...I say it's just the unofficial beginning of another school year.  It was an enjoyable, relaxing weekend for me...  I spent Saturday evening at Mi Rancho (best Mexican place around!) and Sunday afternoon with my family (we celebrated my birthday).  Monday was spent doing chores and my first week's lesson plans.  I also said good-bye this weekend to a 200+ year old oak tree that I grew up playing around and watching critters play in.... 

Sunday morning, 7:20 a.m.  My phone rings, it's my Mom.  Wow - what a wake-up call - she was  really excited!  Come to find out, she had an even more exciting wake-up call - Mother Nature!  As she was preparing my birthday dinner, she noticed strange things going on...weird noises, things falling off the walls, leaves swirling, rumblings....  All of a sudden THUD!  As she and my Dad started investigating, they saw the damage had been the falling down of the beautiful oak tree that stood watch and kept our yard shaded for the last 30+ years.  This was the most beautiful, perfect tree - with a straight trunk and think, perfect branches.  Just picture a child's drawing of a tree and you've got it!  I am sad to see it go!  Although, to look on the bright side....my Mom won't have nearly as many leaves to rake in the fall anymore...  And their yard will have much more sunshine....  But I think we'd all rather have the tree!  Thankfully no one was hurt, and there wasn't much damage to the house.  The tree happened to land right between the house and garage/workshop.  There is damage to both, but relatively speaking, very minimal.

With Labor Day over, I think it's safe to say my school year has officially, officially begun!  Yesterday was our "Staff Field Day."  This was the Second Annual All Staff Day - Field Day for my agency (for policy reasons, I shall leave it nameless).  A couple of years ago I happened to mention on an end of the year survey that it would be nice to have a bonding day for all staff...  We spend so many hours working together, and in our separate centers, to achieve the same goals - yet we rarely have time to get to know each other.  Call me old-fashioned, but I believe to be successful, you need to really be a team - and that requires some bonding time.  Well...last year my suggestion (along with others' to have staff picnics) made the cut!  If you live in NE Ohio, particularly Portage County, then you know yesterday was WET.  And rainy.  And muggy.  And flat out miserable.  The kind of day that you spend inside, with the AC going...  Well, not us.  Nope.  We packed up our rain coats, our ponchos, our umbrellas, and whatever else we could think of to keep semi-dry....or at least attempt to keep partially dry.

The day began with the usual sign-in, pick up our packets, find our teams, etc.  I happened to be lucky enough to be on a super team of women!  We were all given bandannas to designate our teams, I was given turquoise.  After deliberating and pulling out all of our creativity, we became the
TURQUOISE TORNADOES!  We decided off the bat that we were going to "blow the others away."  After a quick trivia session we set off on the scavenger hunt!

Scavenger hunt - yay!  Except this is when the day went from humid to miserable, the rain started.  A mist.  Then a sprinkle.  Then a pouring down mess.  That didn't stop any of the teams, though - we are real troopers!  Needless to say - I happened to be a lucky one who managed to only  have sopping wet feet (gross!) and damp capri pants (but only around the bottom edges).  I can't wait to see our pictures from this year's event when we meet again next year!  At least we will all have something to laugh about together - hey, that's what helps bond teams anyways, right?!

The day continued with more games and team-building activities.  We ended with building a balloon tower and destroying it before our closing awards and reminders.  I'm not sure of the ranking in this event....but we built our balloon tower up to 97 inches, and were the first to have all of our balloons popped and cleaned up!  Our hard work for the day paid off, we were the first place team!  Woot!  Woot! :-)


Today was a training on CLASS.  It's the evaluating tool that is used during our Federal Reviews and to monitor the classrooms in the program.  It focuses on having positive learning environments.  Even though much of the information was "old news" to most of us teachers and teacher assistants, it was very informational and will be very useful for us to score high on our evaluations this year, and to prepare for our Federal Review next year.  We get reviewed every three years.  It will be nice to know exactly what to expect and how to be prepared!

The L-M-N-O-P's of Back to Preschool!

It's been a busy first three days back so far....

L:
             Learning.  I have learned new faces, new names to go with these faces, and new policies and procedures.
            Lists.  I have made more lists about more topics in the last three days than I have made since the beginning of LAST school year...  Aye-yi-yi!

M:
            Meetings.  I spent Monday in staff meetings all day.  ALL DAY.  We had to receive our class lists, new policies, binders for these new policies, you name it....we received it.  I have also met the new children and their parents that I will have in my class.  It's shaping up to look like it will be an eventful year...I think the little boys I have will keep me on my toes! :-)
            Moving.  Moving boxes of materials back into the classroom.  Moving supplies into their shelves.  Moving furniture to create the perfect learning space.  A lot of the time it is moving one thing from one place or area to another, just to move the first back again!

Classroom arrangement with no materials on the shelves (that will come next week).

 

 

N:

            Notes.  During each meeting (whether it is a staff meeting or home visit meeting with my families), I'm taking notes.  I think I should have been writing all summer to stay conditioned!

 

O:

            Overwhelmed!  With all of the work that needs done, all of the new things to learn and know quickly, and all of the new faces and names I become overwhelmed.  Thankfully, I work with a fantastic group of women who not only share the same overwhelmingness at this time of year, but understand it and are willing to help make it much less stressful.

 

P:

            Planning.  I have done nothing but plan since returning to the school year (truthfully, it's been since I walked out the doors last May for summer vacation)!  I've planned how to schedule my time prepping (yet another P word) for school to start on September 10.  I've planned out home visits, classroom arrangement, materials for each learning center, bulletin boards.  I (although not written down yet) have been planning lessons and activities, too.  And though this time of year is the most time-crunching when it comes to planning....I will spend the entire year doing nothing but planning - I guess it's a good thing I'm organized! ;-)

 

 

 

Aside from all of this back-to-school stuff, I've been able to kick back and relax with two beautiful evenings spent at my favorite Mexican restaurant in Rootstown - Mi Rancho!  Tuesday evenings are Classic Car Cruise-Ins and tonight is Bike Night.  I plan to sit on the patio, enjoy the music, and visit with some of my most favorite people!  Last night was a treat, Grandma and Grandpa joined us for Mexican dinner and conversation, among dancing to the "oldies" and checking out the cars.

United Art & Education, and Mailbox, and Scholastic, OH MY!

Something I just love to do is go drooling at "teacher stores" with my good friend, Veronica.  She is in education too, and we've made it a normal thing to do to go find all the greatest deals on "stuff" for our classrooms and teaching.

Well, this summer...Veronica introduced me to a store in Strongsville.  United Art & Education.  (It really should be called "United EDUCATION & Art" - because it was about 90% education materials and 10% artist materials).  It's about an hour away from me...but if I go to her place in Medina first and we do lunch and the Strongsville Mall (hey, what lady doesn't like to go to a good mall now and again?!), that hour away quickly seems like no time at all.  I hit the jackpot with my first trip to this new-found teacher haven!  It's been a longstanding joke in my center that my classroom is full of "ROCKSTARS," so this year I decided (on a whim at UA&E) that I was going to do a classroom-wide rockstar theme.  I found the coolest rockstar-esque bullentin board border that I will use for my parent welcome board, among other things.  And UA&E had rockstar themed name tags - cha-ching!  I'll laminate those babies, use a Sharpie to write my kiddos' names on them, and label their cubbies - the best part - when I have students leave and/or enter my room, I can easily erase and replace names.  (Yes, I said erase Sharpie - Mr. Clean (or other off-brand) Magic Erasers are AMAZING!)  This will make cubby labelling so much easier as the year goes on!!

I've also devoted this summer to bettering my resource library.  This is where Mailbox comes in.  I've been debating the last couple of school years if I want to subscribe to the Mailbox Magazine, or just borrow current issues from the library...well, I decided on the latter.  I may change my mind this year...we'll see.  It isn't expensive, it's just something I never got serious about subscribing to - although I do love the great ideas I have gotten from each magazine I've used...  I decided to look around on the Mailbox website this summer during my time off work and found a great, free resource!  And it is SO easy!  I literally signed up and started receiving e-mails about free ideas for activities, classroom management, worksheets (which I'm not normally a fan of, but I'll take a look anyhow - it's free, why not?), and all sorts of things.  Plus, I have already ordered three alphabet resource books and got free shipping and $10.00 off my order since it was over $50.00...not a bad deal!  I especially liked this deal because two of the three books were books I had been "drooling" over in my teacher store trips for the last two years - the third book was a book I didn't know about, but follows the same format as the other two...yay! 

Scholastic OH MY!  I've been building my children's book library since I began student teaching in college.  But it has really grown since I joined Scholastic my first year of teaching (2007-2008 school year).  I submit a few orders a year, and get free shipping on all of them because I spend $20.00 or more on each order - BUUUUUT that $20.00 usually covers an armful of children's books and occasionally teacher resource books.  I already have books saved on a September order form!

It's Like the First Day of School!

So all summer long I've been reading blogs.  Blogs of friends, fellow teachers, family...  And I started thinking, hey - this could be fun!  I couldn't decide what exactly I wanted to base my blog on.  Since my mind is as organized as library shelves, I didn't want to....er, COULDN'T just start posting.  I needed a basis, a theme to write about.  And then it hit me - why not create a place to share the goings on of my preschool classroom?! (And of course, since I will have already started a blog, I will probably slip in some of my life's goings on too... :-)).

School for most teachers and children is starting soon (if they haven't said good-bye to their summers already).  I head back to begin our teacher trainings, staff team-building, and home visiting on Monday.  And of course, the ever-so anticipated preparing of the classroom....labelling, organizing, arranging, decorating, lesson-planning, the list goes on and on, and on.  And yet, it never feels 100% completed by the day the children come!  I will have two weeks to prepare for the bright new (and some returning) faces of this year's class.  Now, to most public school teachers, I'm sure they would love to have two weeks to prepare at school, on the clock.  Notice I said "home visits"....these will take up just about every second I have during this two weeks, that I'm not in a staff training or meeting of some sort.  My two weeks will be quickly diminished, so time management and strict planning is a key factor here...

Until Monday, I do have some fun things planned to wrap up my summer vacation.  I'll visit the local fair, Portage County Randolph Fair, tonight for the derby with a very good friend.  And the whole family will return on Saturday for fair food, fun, and games.  The fair is always a bittersweet event...  On one hand, it's the fair!  On the other hand, it means summer is coming to an end.  But that end brings the brightly colored leaves of fall, apple crisp, apple cider, and my husband's personal favorite - football!