Back-to-School

My friend, Linda and I have a back-to-school tradition. About fifteen years ago, we must have taken our first back-to-school shopping trip. The purpose was not to buy for our children, but to spend a day together after our kids had gone back to school in the fall. Neither of us loves to shop or buys clothes often, but everybody needs to get some clothes on occasion. I have come to look forward to these shopping days. Even when the kids were teens, we would still wait till they were back in school. Even when the kids left home, we would wait. Even when I went back to school to finish my degree, we would wait. Now that our kids are all in their mid to late twenties, we wait. This is our season!


Linda made the trip down to Des Moines this weekend. We had a great time. We did shop for some clothes. I need work clothes and I need a bigger size this year! I am such a yo-yo.


We certainly cannot spend all of our time in the malls, so we planned for some other fun as well. Saturday morning we went downtown to the Farmer's Market. Its a great weekly event....not just a market. We bought mums, squash and apples. It feels like fall!


We made a quick trip out to Howell's to see the barn full of dried flowers then headed to Drake Stadium to meet Dale for a football game. Although we enjoyed the beautiful day and the stadium, the game was a blow out. It was homecoming but the opposing team was very strong, as they have been in the past. We left before the fourth quarter and went back downtown to eat at a favorite spot, Royal Mile. It was yummy and fun to eat the authentic British food.

All these autumn activities and browsing the fall edition of Midwest Living magazine led to one more outing. On Sunday we headed to the pumpkin place to buy a few pumpkins. I got a white pumpkin as well as the traditional orange. They look nice on my little patio. Its Fall!