Family Mellmann

Today Katherine celebrated her birthday and turning twelve with her annual dinner at Koto's, a little extra screen time, and a few presents. It was a great day to celebrate.

These are some of my favorite fall colors. When trees have shades of multiple colors from green to red, they are just beautiful to me. I would love to have a yard full of trees that make these colors every fall. Sadly, peak color has passed and now the leaves are falling to the ground very very quickly. The temperatures have turned, and I'm afraid my Teva (our favorite summer shoe) wearing days are numbered.

Cranberries are in season!   Time to bring out the cranberry recipes.

I had the pleasure of driving and chaperoning a field trip for the kindergarten through sixth grade classes today. Our destination was the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne Vermont. As usual, we enjoyed the museum a great deal. However, on this beautiful Vermont fall day, the real show was in the trees.

With Patrick nearing the conclusion of driver's ed and his one year of driver training, thoughts turn - already - to a motorcycle license. The next motorcycle safety class does not happen until spring. In the meantime, we have had our eyes open for a low powered, light weight motorcycle that Patrick could use as his first bike. Jörg found the perfect bike, near our home, and purchased it while I was driving Patrick home from an "away" soccer game. Patrick's new–to–him motorcycle is the red one. It's a Suzuki GZ 250. I'm not certain, but I think he has already put almost 10 miles on it…just driving around on the driveway. :) As is often the case, the gateway drug leads to the purchase of bigger drugs. In this case, a Yamaha 400. A newer version of the same bike that Jörg rode in his late teens and early 20s, the Yamaha may be as close to "midlife crisis" as this family has ever seen. And no one in this house considers this a crisis. :-)