Punkin Patch

I love fall and going to the pumpkin patch.  It's become and annual tradition.  This year I got to go twice.  The first time we went as a family and met up with my college roommate, Sue, and her adorable family.  We are so lucky that they live so close to us.  And also very lucky that her husband Jon taught us the secret to navigating a corn maze.

After our adventure we decided that it would be fun to all go to dinner together.  Since we live in opposite directions, though, we were hoping to find someplace close.  When checking out at the Pumpkin Patch, Sue asked for a recommendation. I believe the response was something like "oh, you can find anything you want in Laurens".  Well, I beg to differ unless "anything you want" refers only to fast food.  We did find a non-chain burger place and all the kids decided to sit at one table and all the adults decided not to claim them :) Luckily we were pretty much the only people eating there at the time.

A few days later I got to accompany the Mister and his kindergarten class back to the very same pumpkin patch for their first field trip.  It was so fun to spend time with my little guy and his new friends.  I had the pleasure of accompanying the Mister and three of his buddies through the corn maze.  Thanks to my new secret weapon of corn maze navigating, we were the only group that made it through the whole corn maze.  Apparently all the other groups got a little lost and ended up just doing the mini-maze and coming back out the entrance.  My little guys were a little skeptical that our plan was going to work.  When they saw the first group turn a different way they weren't sure...and then when they saw two groups pass us going the opposite way they started to get a little worried (and so did I).  But, I assured them (and myself) that we had plenty of time and that this was going to work and that it was nice to be away from the crowd exploring on our own.  Pretty soon they were all on board and showing me the way to go and singing and talking the whole way about how much fun they were having.   We made it out in plenty of time for a snack and everyone was impressed with our skills.  Those boys definitely earned their bragging rights :)

And then we carved up our pumpkins and decorated them for the "big show". Baby Sister requested the dinosaur, the Mister wanted a ghost, then Brad of course chose Pac Man and I made the mummy jars just because I thought they were cute and I don't love pumpkin guts.  Oh, and I also put the "tattoos" on some of the pumpkins.

Bike Riding

I know I posted this on Facebook several months ago but I just had to put it on my blog...for posterity and all.  And because I was just so, so proud of my Little Mister on that day.

Camping and Apple Picking

Before it got too cold and all the good apples got picked, we decided to head up to North Carolina for a weekend to camp.  We found a cute place that had a lot of amenities...game room, zip line, and a lake for boating, fishing, and swimming.  It even had a water slide!  It was an almost perfect weekend except that 1) it rained really hard right after we got to the lake to go swimming and 2) the lake was brown with a lot of moss and I had just read several news articles about brain eating amoeba.  Needless to say, I declined to get in the water but I still let the kids get in.  I'm not sure what that says about my mothering....

On our way home we stopped at Sky Top Orchard for apple picking.  It turned out to be a perfect day.  Warm, but not too hot and there were plenty of apples to be picked.  We missed out favorites, honey crisp, but still got some good apples.  After the picking we went on a hay ride and the kids played at the play ground.  It's a super cute place and I love it, except it is usually so crowded that I am miserable.  We really lucked out this time.

Gosh I love my family! They are just so cute!

First day of school

A couple of days before the Mister's first day of school EVER (except for preschool) he came down with a fever.  He said he didn't feel sick but he sat on the couch all day and didn't eat much so I knew he was sick.  Plus, well, the thermometer doesn't lie.  I prayed and prayed that his fever would break in time that he could go to school, but it didn't.  So, the night before I had to e-mail his teacher and tell her he wouldn't be there and break the news to him that I thought he needed to stay home for one more day.  His fever broke over night.  He woke up the next morning and promptly threw-up (probably from not eating anything but popsicles for 36 hours) and then was fine the rest of the day.  I tried to pull-off some sort of half baked homeschool scenario, but mostly we spent the day cuddling and playing and I was happy to have my baby all to myself for one last day. He grew up way too fast.

The next day, the real second day of school, but his first day, we met our neighbors in front of the school like we were supposed to on the real first day and then the whole family walked him to class carrying all kinds of school supplies that everyone else had already brought because they didn't miss the first day. And we even made him pose for first day of school pictures.  It was only a little awkward but his teachers were nice and very understanding, and we tried to get out of there as quickly as possible.