Summer heat ... in October???

On Friday the high temp in Sioux Falls reached a whoppin' 85 degrees.  Yep, 85.  It's October!!  And this weekend has been more of the same.  October is supposed to be when you dust of the hooded sweatshirts and warm up apple cider and put away the flip flops.  But not this week.  I actually pulled all my sandals back out and even some shorts.  It's crazy.  But I'm not complaining.  If this weather means postponing the nastiness of winter, then bring it on!!

So because of the nice weather, we naturally took advantage of it and went outside and colored with chalk.

Even Charlie was hot.  We actually only spent about 15 minutes outside because Brooks was still dealing with croup and the heat seemed to make his cough worse.  But it was fun getting out while we could.

Then on Saturday Augustana College had their homecoming parade.  And since it was only 1 block away from our house, we decided to walk down and take in the festivities.  My favorite part, of course, were the marching bands.

Brooks' favorite would have to be this ...

A blue sucker.  With every parade comes candy, and Brooks wanted a part of it.  So he had his very first sucker.  And boy was he a mess!

Look at that blue tongue :)

Oh yeah.  He ate the whole thing.  Then he started working on the paper stem too ... until I took it away, that is.  What a perfect day for a parade. 

And despite the hot weather I snuck in a few baking projects too.  I actually canned my first jars of applesauce.

It wasn't as hard as I thought and suprsingly enough, they actually sealed!!!

I think I'll be making more in the near future ... now that my fear of the jars exploding has been releived.  And because I have so many apples still left, I made this beautiful pie. 

Betty Crocker ... eat your heart out!!  That's a homemade crust, homemade pie filling, lattice top and (sort of) fluted edges.  Are you impressed, mom??

This week it's supposed to be in the mid to upper 70's again so it looks like we'll be spending more time coloring with chalk, swining on swings and going for walks.  So HA!  Take that winter!