Fall at the Bradfords

DISCLAIMER: Recently an unnamed member of our family dropped my camera, destroying the lens, so a friend offered to lend me her old camera until I can replace mine. Thus, the quality of these pictures is not the greatest.

So here is what Fall means to us in the lovely SFV (San Fernando Valley for the non-Angeleons out there). First, it means soccer. Our lush, green city fields offer the perfect playing surface for our children, who are forever grateful for the ever increasing city taxes which serve to keep all our public facilities kept up so beautifully. Where are we, Afghanistan???
Carissa is on the U-10 "Cotton Candy" this year, and has a great team! She is the "frustrater" (as Lee calls her), and has the best stamina of any of the girls. She's really improving each year! The pale green weeds you see are courtesy of the rain showers from a few weeks ago. And of course, MY favorite- Fall brings volleyball season which means, not one, not two, but 3 all day Saturday tournaments for Lee! The last is today, which will be the end of the season. His JV team and the Varsity are both undefeated and should easily take the city title (the equivalent of the Sac-Juaquin Section).

We graced everyone with our presence for one full game this week. Why only one, you say? Grayson+ Bleachers= TROUBLE. Plus, Derek doesn't care for the warm-up music. Fall, of course, means back to school, and the return of Miss Bradford and her loyal pupils Grayson and Derek, and the other "imaginary" class members. (There's a class list.)Things go well until the unruly students decide to not follow directions and Miss Bradford inevitably learns that teaching is a thankless job!And what Fall would be complete with out a trip to the Pumpkin Patch. We went to Lombardi Ranch with Grayson's class which included an animal tour ("Horses were brought to the west during the colonization period. Who can tell me what colonization means?? Hmmm??") I'm serious. Anyway- we skipped the tour after the "horses" incident and Grayson spent the remainder of the time throwing straw.

Then I decided to skip buying the $15 pumpkins that were trucked in and placed in the farm. "Mommy, we didn't get a pumpkin", said Grayson. "That's because we're going to a different Pumpkin Patch, honey. It's called Trader Joe's Patch." I'd say that at $3.49 a pumpkin it was a wise move.

Now I'd better get into the kitchen before the pumpkins are butchered by Miss Bradford and her class!