Pumpkin Patch

After going to the same pumpkin patch for six years, we decided to try out a new pumpkin patch.  This one got rave reviews from a few friends, and it has free admission, so we had nothing to lose.  

I love this photo - doesn't he look like he's having so much fun!

They had a TON of pumpkins, so it took a while to find the perfect pumpkin.  They had all different kinds, I found a flat white pumpkin that I love! 

Karsten found a football pumpkin!

For some reason, I didn't think about a group photo until we were on the hayride on the way back.  Darn it!  

We got the annual photos in front of  a fall scene - the old place used an antique truck, this year it's a wagon.  

A Football Morning

Crisp fall weather just feels like football season.  Karsten's game was at 9am this morning, so although the day was supposed to be warm, it was still a chilly morning on the field.

He's having a great time playing this season.  They are in a K/1 league and it seems like they have been bigger and faster than all of the other teams they've played.  They're starting to run 'real' plays and understand what each position is supposed to do.

The coach is doing a great job rotating the players so they each have a chance to make a touchdown, check out Karsten to the left of the referee, he has the ball and is running for a touchdown!

Team huddle after the game - good job boys!

The team work continues to get the wagon back to the car.

Did you know...

"God and Santa created EVERYTHING."
-Liam

Last Apples of the Season!

Karsten's football game for today was cancelled, so we made plans for all kinds of fall fun.  We started the day at the farmers market and got some sweet potatoes, butternut squash, honey and tomatoes.  Next, we planned to go apple picking at the local orchard - the perfect fall fun.  When I checked their Facebook page, they were picked out for the season but still had apples to buy.  I searched and found another orchard to check out, but when we showed up, they were closed! So, we went to our local orchard and picked apples out of a box rather than off trees.

We still had a great time enjoying all of the fall festivities including the popular photo opp.

We enjoyed some apple spice donuts - delish.  I called Karsten sugar lips because he ended up with half the sugar on his mouth.

Can you guess who tried to get a bunch of sugar on his lips as well?  But, check out those lashes!  Why aren't mine that long!

Shortly after I took these photos, I was taking a picture for a cute family in front of the pumpkin backdrop.  All of a sudden, Karsten burst into tears and kept saying (ok, yelling) 'it hurts, it hurts'. I tried to focus on taking their photo while Scott calmed him down and tried to find out what happened.  Karsten had swatted a bee away from him and apparently it stung him.  We couldn't see the stinger in his finger, and neither Scott or I had ever been stung so we weren't sure what it would look like.  We went back to the car, wiped off his finger with a wet wipe and put on a couple of drops of Lavender oil.  He said it still hurt, but when we got home, it had only swelled up a tiny bit and we still could not see a stinger.  We washed his hands and added a bit more Lavender oil and Tea Tree oil.  By this evening, he couldn't even find the spot on his finger where he had been stung!  

Friday Night Cards

The boys are always worn out on Friday nights, and we are too, so as much as we wanted to have a movie night, we wanted to make sure they got to bed on time.  We decided to play a game and the popular vote selected Go Fish.  We searched high and low but could not find our deck of cards.  I randomly remembered that I have a miniature deck of cards from when I was little, and miraculously I knew where they were.

We need to work on Liam's Go Fish poker face.  He often tells us what card he draws and you usually know what cards he's holding.

Wordless Wednesday - Cool Dudes

Haircuts and Legos

This week was the monthly Lego build at the local Lego store.  We usually make it to these once a month (unless I mess up the signup process like last month!). This month, it worked out that my haircut was on the same night, so the boys went to the Lego build then met me for dinner before my haircut.  It worked out perfectly so I was able to spend a little bit of time with them since they'd be in bed when I got home!

This month they made a friendly werewolf.

The boys decided they were 'too big' for the kids pizzas and they wanted a grown up size pizza.  Karsten ate all of his and Liam ate half of his!

 

Fall Fun Begins

One of the mom's in Karsten's class organized a hay ride for their class.  There was a good turnout and we had beautiful weather.  I had no idea our local park offered these hayrides, but it was cool that we were able to reserve a few wagons just for our group.

I was able to get these three to hold still for a minute for a photo.  They met in kindergarten and became fast friends - we're so lucky that Karsten has found such great friends and we've really enjoyed getting to know all of the families.

Liam was excited to hang out with the big kids - he did a great job keeping up, but he also hung out with us from time to time.

Once the stairs were wheeled up to the wagons, the kids immediately flocked to them.  But, they had to wait a bit before they could get on, so it seemed like a good time for another photo opp.

During the rules, the driver told us (ok, mainly this group of boys) that they should not pick at or pull hay from the bales.  They did pretty well wit this, considering they were sitting on hay for an hour and they weren't supposed to play with it.

After the hayride, we had a bonfire to roast hotdogs and make smores.  I told Scott that I'd never roasted hotdogs over a fire (or perhaps I did it in Girl Scouts many many moons ago) and he looked at me like I was crazy!  

Luckily, Scott cooked all of our hot dogs.  That was safest so we didn't end up with raw or charbroiled hotdogs. :)

It was such a fun night - we enjoyed getting to know some families that we don't see too often, and the kids had a blast playing with each other.  These are all of the first graders who were there - I can't wait to see a group photo like this in a few years as they continue to grow up together.  We're lucky to have found such a wonderful school community!