Falling for foliage

When the leaves started blushing this October, I was itching to go on a leaf adventure with Lil’ A. In BSF, we were studying the creation in Genesis and we had just spent a week focusing on God’s creation of the trees & leaves in Puggles (the little people version of AWANA). All of this creation talk was the perfect excuse to get outside, talk about the changing seasons, work on colors & thank God for His unbelievable creativity. Alexa was game, so we hunted for leaves over the course of a week. We walked to trees in our neighborhood & a nearby park. We drove to tree-lined streets in search of the perfect leaves (if there is such a thing as leaf theft – we were guilty). We even ventured down a less traveled road when a bright red bush caught our eye. Unfortunately, all of this took place in October before the color in Oklahoma reaches its height. But heck, it’s all about the journey, right!? And so, we surveyed our collection on the counter - threw some away, kept the others, and pressed them in my hefty Gardner’s Art Through the Ages to dry for a couple of days (I knew that five pound art history book would come in handy someday).

I had this brilliant idea we would make Fall bookmarks to send to our family by making cutsie leaf arrangements & melting the leaves between waxed paper. Now, I’m not a Pinterest gal (I struggle with all forms of social media); however, I did read a few “how to’s” online and I guess I can’t comprehend instructions too well because this is how the waxed papered beauties turned out. Hmmmmmm . . . not quite what I envisioned. In fact, you can barely see the leaves at all. It’s like looking at leaves with cataracts. I clearly didn’t earn my degree in Early Childhood Education.


Luckily, the waxed paper pulled away from each other about two hours after ironing it (without damaging the leaves – thank goodness), so I went to plan B – good o’ faithful contact paper.

At the end of the day, these were a few of the beauties we managed to save. I know what you’re thinking . . . they make for huge bookmarks. However, they work great when you’re enjoying a few chapters of art history.

Since I’m on the topic of leaves, I can also show-off our lil’ October Glory maple that finally teased us with its gorgeous foliage. We planted it three years ago and it has either been too burned by the dry/crazy hot summers, too damaged by hail, or too windblown to have any leaves to show for itself when Fall commenced. This year, however, it got a chance to shine and we basked in every minute of it (literally). After three days of “ooohhhs and aaahhhhs,” the leaves were pretty much gone. This made all of us a bit sad, especially Alexa. She’d look out the window during breakfast and say, “Oh no! Where did the leaves go?” Another hard life lesson for a two-and-a-half-year-old. Now . . . to explain why I’m pulling out the frostbitten flowers.