Jumping into Fall

I decided today was a good day to rake leaves, and because I'm not a terrible parent, I invited the kids to come outside to do one of the best fall activities: jumping in leaves.  I raked them into a giant pile, and then had all the kids jump in the pile, with varying techniques and varying results.  Joshua started far away, and in a dead sprint headed toward the pile, launching from a distance and crashing right into the middle of the pile.  That was expert technique.

Clara doesn't have quite the leaf-jumping proficiency that Joshua has, so she jumped a little late and almost overshot the pile.  But it was still a reasonable approach, and it worked fine.  Here she is:

Hannah, on the other hand, might need some work on her technique, or maybe just on the concept in general.  Here's what she did:

She jogged up to the pile from a short distance away, stopped, leaned over, and then jumped into the very front of the pile, and then just sat there for a few seconds with pretty much only her head in the leaves, before finally emerging. I have video of it, and it's utterly hilarious. I laugh every single time. It's so cute, because it's so her. Interested in doing what everyone else is doing, but a little unsure and not quite adventurous enough to go all out.  But she did it over and over again, doing it the same way every time.  It was adorable.  Here she is on another jump:

  We then played in the leaf pile some more.  They enjoyed burying themselves in the pile.

 Lastly, I let them throw armfuls of leaves into the air, which created some great pictures, as the leaves at that point were pretty much obliterated into small pieces, resulting in a confetti-like effect with the leaf remnants reflecting the setting sun.  We had lots of fun, and it's really too bad this only happens once a year.