It's Fall!

Now that we have overcome Halloween, we can focus on one of my favorite seasons: Fall. Well, really, my favorite season is "anything but Winter"...I'm not too picky since I just hate Winter. I love living up North in the Fall and seeing the leaves change and slowly drop, buying apples by the peck, making many many apple recipes, and I even love the smell of leaves burning on a crisp night. Also, I feel it's finally "OK" to bring out the hot chocolate and drink it whenever I want. Again, I'm digressing towards food...
Here's a picture of our backyard yesterday. Well, that's not the whole backyard, just the trees lining the back of the property. This picture was taken through the screen on the back door so it blurred it up a little bit...but I think it's beautiful and often glance over my shoulder at the view as I'm typing here on the computer.
Sam turned eleven this past Friday. He was lucky 'cause the kids were off school Thursday and Friday anyway so he didn't have to go to school on his birthday! I took them to see the Bee Movie that morning and then took them to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch, where we spent almost 3 hours! Some friends from school met us there, too. Despite all the schools being closed, it wasn't horribly crowded and the only trouble I had was when I was ordering the pizza. Mind you, it was really loud in there, but I swear the cashier kept asking me what kind of pie I wanted. I kept trying to tell her I didn't want any pie, I wanted a large pizza. Then she asked me what I wanted on my pie. I fianlly realized she was talking about the pizza and remembered that people here don't call it pizza, they call it pie. If I had wanted to be truly tacky, I would've pointed out to her that there was NO PIE listed on the menu posted overhead, only pizza. Also, as I waited to order, I was standing ON line, not IN line. Everyone here says that; I don't know that I'll ever be able to switch that one.
Anyway, Sam's birthday celebration extended to the late evening with cake and he was allowed to have a friend over to spend the night (a first for us). He invited a friend who is, of course, a fellow YuGiOh enthusiast. This friend, also, had just had a birthday the day before so Sam was really sweet about the whole thing and was insistent that both their names be on the cake and that they both got to blow out the candles, etc. Here's a picture of Sam with a YuGiOh present from us. He also received lots of $$ from relatives for his birthday which he has already spent on more YuGiOh paraphernalia. OH, and he lost a tooth during the Bee Movie so the tooth fairly came that night, too. It was kind of a busy day...
Meanwhile, Dave was at work in NYC and saw the Rockefeller Christmas tree being erected. Here's a picture from his work...it's taken with his cellphone. You can see the ice-rink on the right. He said by the time he left work, they had scaffolding erected halfway up the tree (to decorate the tree). I can't wait to take the kids and go see it when it's all lit, etc. We're told the crowds are horrendous once the tree is on display.
Oh, one more picture that I found interesting on Dave's phone. This is a picture of a landscaping crew as they are trimming some bushes...eight floors up. (Dave is on the ninth floor). Dave says the guy who is straddling the bushes and holding a broom was actually casually walking along the outside ledge and sweeping the trimmings away. He and some of his coworkers were watching him through the window with morbid curiosity. And no, there's not another ledge just below him to catch him if he fell. As someone who hates heights, I find this behavior both unbelievable and insane. But the real question is: was he sweeping towards the bushes or away?