We were in Walmart the other day, looking for “dark blue pants that aren’t jeans” for David to wear for Beavers, when we saw a display of Leapster games on sale for under $10, which is about a quarter of the regular price.

I bought David a Leapster when he turned 4 so he’d have something to do during the long drives, train and plane rides that seem to pop up a dozen times a year, so I stopped to see what was offered. I picked up two games for David and one, I’m embarrassed to say, for me. I couldn’t help it. Nostalgia got the better of me when I saw “School House Rock!”

And last night, curled up on the sofa in my office, I could be found blissfully singing along to “Conjunction Junction” and “Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla” while the rest of the family did… well… whatever they were doing. I was too wrapped up in the game to notice.

I’m happy to say today David reclaimed his Leapster, and even watched and played the School House Rock games with me. He was fascinated to see stuff I watched as a kid, and did quite well on the grammar game after watching the videos.

As your body grows bigger
Your mind grows flowered
It’s great to learn
Cause knowledge is power!

David went digging through the workbook shelf today and uncovered the AEP’s “The Complete Book of Our Solar System “. It’s a tough book to work through, with lots of copy work, but he kept at it for a lot longer than I anticipated. I have to admit that there’s a good variety of activities and puzzles, so that it seemed worth the effort to get through the more dull pages to get to the games or riddles.

After working through about 15 pages, we went outside and collected autumn colored leaves. We put them in his nature journal, then spent time identifying them with a leaf identification book I didn’t even know we had.

Then he decided it was craft time, so we made some monster  paper lanterns that turned out kind of cute.

Now it’s nearly nine o’clock, and I’ve still got a bundle of work to catch up on before I can get some sleep, so I sent David off to watch a few shows on TV before he heads to sleep. I hate to condone TV, but sometimes I need the solitude to pay the bills.

I still can’t believe how lucky I am to be able to watch him grow and learn. As much as it can be exhausting some days, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

David has a serious fascination with fall and Halloween. I’d say he probably likes Halloween more than Christmas. He loves dressing up in costumes. He loves candy, and he loves crunching in the leaves.

Already he’s noticed the Halloween stuff in the stores and started asking me to make jack-o-lantern sandwiches (which are just english muffins with a slice of cheese cut to look like a jack-o-lantern).

He’s also started thinking about fall crafts.We made this cute little scarecrow face after seeing a similar craft package here. We had all the supplies necessary in our overflowing craft box, but if you’ve got a group of kids or would like to make a whole batch, the price for enough stuff for a dozen of these can’t be beat.

We did place an order for a bunch of other neat crafts for autumn and Halloween, though. We bought this pack of six fleece silly monster tied pillow craft kits as a Halloween craft. I plan on taking most of them out with me when I visit family so David and his cousins can all do their own pillow monster together, but I opened one to see if David was able to do the craft on his own. I’m happy to say that the tying is easy (though he got some of the pieces mixed up, fudging it after the fact didn’t make the pillow look bad at all).

I almost decided on the witch pillow craft kit, but thought the monsters were a little more generic, and could stay on the bed all year long.

And, a sucker for a bargain, I also grabbed a pack of 12 wooden hockey game craft kits for four bucks, only to wonder, now that they’ve arrived, what the heck I’m going to do with a dozen of the darn things. Maybe his Beaver group will be able to use them.

David loves the new bookcase, since a lot of his favorite books and workbooks are on the bottom shelves.

I am sore, very sore, but happy tonight. After what seemed like an eternity of storing books under my desk, under the bed, behind chairs and hidden beneath and above just about every piece of furniture in the house that was capable of hiding my overflow, we’ve finally started building and staining my new bookcases.

Here’s a picture of the first eight-foot solid-oak giant…

Tomorrow I have to do a second coat, attach the back panel, then start on the second bookcase.

I can’t wait to get both of them finished. With any luck, there’ll be an empty shelf or half a shelf so I can reward myself with a visit to the bookstore.