This past Sunday, we had decided to squeeze in our annual pumpkin-farm-trip between an adult soccer game and a family dinner at Meemaw and Grandpa’s. Unfortunately, mommy woke up with a sore throat and a fever. So…instead of driving a pretty long distance like we normally do, we hit a farm stand right around the corner (so to speak) from our house. The boys still had a blast and we were home in time for me to take a nap and for Brian to catch the end of the Bear’s game.

This is the same place we went last year for Aiden’s preschool field trip…which is how I knew they had fun stuff for the fall!

Each year, they do this amazing corn maze. I think the average time is around 30 minutes to an hour to get through it. The guy standing at the entrance to the field told us it would take over 2 with the boys! Um…no thanks!

They got this hay-bail maze instead!

There were some boxes filled with soy beans, oats and dried corn for the kids to play in (yes…yes we DO live in the Midwest!) I thought it was cool that the containers in each different box were products made with either soy, oats or corn!

There were some really cool climbing structures too…

…the train was the most popular with our boys. Brady ran from the red caboose all the way to the front car, leaned out the window and yelled, “all aboard!” You had to be there, but it was hysterical!

mini tractor race-course

petting zoo (Brady is cracking up in this picture even though you can’t tell).

I swear they were feeding the animals honey-smacks!

Aiden peek-a-boo above the wall of a castle climbing thing

There are several different pumpkin-picking options ranging from a hayride out to the field or this one: grab a wheel barrow..

…and walk into a little area of grass next to the main building (remember, I was sick…so we went with this one)

Brady tried to take home the entire patch and kept loading this small ones into the wheel barrow!

Logan, as always, was quite indecisive and took his time finding JUST the right one. Here, Brian is making a case for a very nice pumpkin…which was rejected. He finally found one though. :)

The boys wanted to carve their pumpkins this morning so, despite the fact that daddy was at work, we went out to the back patio. As we were getting ready, a huge flock of geese flew over our house

This site amazes me every year…and I think I always take pictures (a few months ago, I found one on my phone from last year)!

Cleaning out the guts:

The finished products! I cut Logan’s exactly how he drew it. It’s supposed to have a mask on and be Bat Man. I was just impressed at what he drew…despite the fact that it doesn’t look much like batman :) Aiden just told me which shapes he wanted for the various features.

I’ve been wanting to take family portraits for a few years, but Brady in particular just wasn’t, “ready for prime time” (ie: not willing to sit still and smile for up to an hour). I finally decided that this was the year. Also, I’ve been waiting for Fall :)

I told my mom the other day that she should be worried…her grand-children were clearly abducted for like 45 minutes last Saturday as three other (more well-behaved) children took their places. Brian and I were SHOCKED at how good they did during pictures! Our only problem is that Brady is still struggling with smiling on command… but oh my gosh did he make for some hysterical shots!!!

The photographer was AWESOME and he gives you ALL the pictures from the session for like…cheap! I picked up 2 disks from his house today. I’m just pleased beyond belief with the shots we got!!

Here are a few of my favorites!

This one might be coming soon to a Christmas card need you! I just have to crop out the biker in the background!

Actually, I really dig this one with the arch in the background. The park where we went is amazing for pictures!  

This one just totally makes my day!!

Brady intruded on the mommy and daddy pics :) I didn’t realize that my hand is still bigger than his head!

    

Aiden’s preschool pics came back last week!

There were several different poses…he did really well for all of them…guess my kids are used to getting their pictures taken!

Notes have been sent out!

Unfortunately, no school pics will be sent home for Brady since he’s not actually in school yet. However, we’ve been having more bedtime problems and he happens to be up right now even though he’s supposed to be heading towards dreamland. He saw me posting pictures and wanted me to take one of him. Tada! Now I have to convince him it’s time for bed…for real this time!

I think I’ve done enough camping posts that, at this point, we all know the drill. Last weekend (10/8 – 10/10) was our second trip of the season and our third “Halloween” weekend adventure. This year we had 10 kids…and the only thing we could think of that came in a group of 10 was bowling pins. Thankfully, the crayon costumes from last year’s trip worked well in white with red stripes! I found some round hats that previously had snow men faces on them at Michael’s. The faces came off easily and the kids looked somewhat like a group of bowling pins.

Other items of note: the weather was PERFECT – warm during the day and cool at night. Some said too hot in the day and some said too cool at night, but it wasn’t a torrential downpour like the last time so I was a happy camper (haha – literally!)

pictures and some more re-cap:

This picture is purely for reference next time. We were debating how we had done our tents in the summer. I said “I might have a picture on my blog that I could pull up”. Now I know I do!

We arrived Friday around 5 and set up camp. The kids stayed up late to go on a sing-along hayride and everyone went to bed late. Some of us (Brian, Logan & Aiden along with others) had to leave camp the next morning to drive back for soccer practice and games (Anne and Brian are the coaches for Aiden, AJ and Ryan so they couldn’t skip it. Logan said he “didn’t want to let his team down” by not showing up). Aiden had a little nap in the car on the way back to camp (Anne and Jeff’s car)

The tent was too hot and Brady was tired. He got his pillow pet bumble bee and tried to make himself comfy in Joel’s chair… he actually later took a nap in Anne and Jeff’s car too. Jeff was trying to drive Matthew around so I threw my little guy in…at least he got a little rest!

We tie-dyed some pillow cases for trick-or-treating then some of the kids (note: my “I’m not artsy” one!) wanted to paint at the activities center.

Look at his cool alien guy! (Aiden strangely did NOT want to paint – go figure)

In formation. We are missing little Kate because she wasn’t in the picture-takin kind of mood.

They didn’t have a costume contest this year, just pictures with Yogi Bear on the big stage. As the kids were climbing up, one of the girls who works at the camp said, “hey! weren’t you the crayons last year?” Then she yelled to someone – get a picture of this! She said to me, “this is brochure material!” too funny.

Brady hasn’t quite learned how to smile on command…but it’s so stinkin cute!

Logan and his stash. The kids got a LOT of candy. The camp ground was super crowded that weekend. A lot of people were running out.

Isn’t that just beautiful!? And talk about efficient…no door-bell ringing necessary…just walk up and down the sites! One other funny story: as we were all walking around, a girl pointed at the kids and said, “oh! you were the crayons last year, right?! you guys are legendary!” We might be out of creative ideas though…better start brainstorming for next year (HA!)

Back at our “place”, Brian and Jeff were handing out the treats. Little Matthew (1) was actually helping them. I didn’t get a picture, but it was hysterical! When we ran out of candy, Logan went and got his bag. He dumped it on a chair and the kids proceeded to hand out all of his stuff to the trick-or-treaters coming by. They all had a blast doing it and I couldn’t have been more proud of Logan – so kind and giving! He only picked out 4 things that he wanted to keep for himself. Later that night, after all the kids had stopped coming by, Logan asked for a plastic bag so he could pick up trash in the forest!

Cousin Jack stopped by with Memaw and Grandpa to trick-or-treat with us. (he’s the ghost!)

The moms in our bowling shirts

One of the big treats at Halloween camping is sugary cereal (Boo Berry, Frankenberry and Count Chocula). Here are “the cereal killers” on Sunday morning. The adults always eat Mr. Cheesy or Senior Cheesy (a delicious concoction of bacon, hash browns, cheese and eggs…or sub chorizo for the bacon for a Mexican flair!)

This is Aiden with his head inside of his pillow case on Sunday morning looking for a treat. I basically let the boys have a free-for-all on the candy until we got home. Now it’s all been stashed in the top of the pantry and all but forgotten.