The One and Only Perk.....

The only perk of having a sick child.....great cuddle time!

 

 

Leaves Are Everywhere!

A massive oak tree resides in our front yard which provides much needed shade in the summer and a good amount of work in the fall. This is after the tree dumped most, but not all, of the leaves. Thank goodness we have leaf pickup provided by the garbage company this time of the year. Could you imagine how long this would take to pick up by hand?? Yeah, me neither ;)

 

 

The first two pictures are prior to the leaves you see below. Combined, the pile was about as tall as Maverick and the full length of our front yard.

 

 

Halloween 2013

Happy Halloween from Thomas, Mickey and Dumbo!

 

October 31st was a busy day! We started the day out with a little time with Brady in the morning and then headed out to drop Baron at school for a Halloween party.  We got to visit with my cousin Emily when she came to pick up Brady Boy, then they left and it was off to pick up Baron again. We squeezed lunch & a nap in before we were out of bed and into our costumes and off to see Aunt Tia at work and Nana at home. We then hustled home to meet Grant who picked up candy to hand out on the way home (I couldn't/wouldn't buy earlier because it would have been eaten prior to Halloween) and then off to pick up pizza. Honey and the Medford Family joined us for pizza and then we were out the door to our trick-or-treating adventure. Honey stayed at our house to hand out candy (Thank You Honey!) and it worked out great because three houses in and Elliott told me she was scared of the masks. She ended up home with Honey and was happy as could be. Maverick and Baron had a blast trick-or-treating with the big kids and after 2 hours, the adults finally called it a night.

 

 

Teeth/lips are courtesy of school goodies and the awesome candy cauldron is from Aunt Shannon!

 

 

October Family Zoo Trip

One of my fondest memories growing up was/is our annual trip to the zoo with my dad. This was something I loved to do and so did my dad (and still seems to). We make it a point to go when the weather is nice enough the animals are out but not so hot that it is no longer enjoyable. This year the trip was pushed back to Oct due to just general busyness but the day ended up great. Cold & overcast in the morning but it burned off to be a warm day. We even got Grant to go this year (he is not a big fan of the zoo) and the kids loved it. They walked everywhere (although the stroller did accompany us....I know my kids afterall ;) and loved the ability to view the animals with Nana and Papa. Baron's favorite were the monkeys & sea lions, Elliott the lions and Maverick the monkeys but really loved everything! Only bummer of the day was the train ride was shut down but we will hit that up next time we go and I wish I would have taken more pics. I was too busy enjoying myself watching my kids enjoy themselves with daddy, nana and papa.

 

On our way (*note the fish cracker he put on his foot)



 

Two Men and A Lady

These boys don't love their sister at all ;) 

 

 

Pumpkin Patch

We ended up at the pumpkin patch this past weekend with the Medford family and as usual, had a great time. It was a beautiful day as we loaded all 6 kids and 4 adults plus all of our crap necessities into their motorhome for the hour trip and headed out around 11:00ish. The motorhome was a brilliant idea on their part because it allowed the adults to converse and the kids to play/watch movies all the while in their safety restraints. We got to the pumpkin patch just in time to watch a massive pumpkin being hoisted up by a crane and dropped into a large blow up pool. We then purchased wrist bands because this pumpkin patch was that big and had that many activites for the kids to do. A good friend had told me it was the "state fair of pumpkin patches" and she wasn't kidding around. There was food, bounce houses, forts, giant swings, play area with industrial sized tricycles, zip lines, petting zoo, bumblebee trains and more that we didn't get to. Kim and I ventured into one of the bounce house mazes with the kids and we determined we are definitely not as agile as we once were. We finally got out of there around 6:30ish, pumpkins in hand. We then had videos and fresh donuts on the way to dinner (after the greatness of the day, why not?!) to round our day out. We were home with kids in bed by 8:30 and Grant & I worn out. Now every time the kids see the pumpkins, they ask to go to the pumpkin patch ;)

 

 

Apples Apples Everywhere

We picked 4 buckets of apples recently and have been working on canning up homemade applesauce. You really can't compare homemade to store bought especially when we make it chunky style (SO good!). The kids have been loving it and it's nice knowing we have some put away for a little while. We had a few left over apples and Sunday was one of those dark, cold, windy, rainy, miserable kinda days where you don't want to do anything but stay home. So....I talked my darling husband into helping me make an apple pie. If I haven't mentioned it before, my husband is an incredible cook. He is very advanced in the kitchen and while the idea of making an apple pie from scratch is intimidating for me, it's easy peasy for him. We followed an Alton Brown recipe fairly closely (he's a favorite around here) and wound up with a pretty great pie. There are a few things the Mr. said he will do/try differently next time but I was pretty proud of us for a first attempt.

And I love the pie bird!