Fall Farm Fun

Another fall favorite I'm going to miss: Jacquemin's Farm!

Emmett loved the corn box. I think part of the appeal was that he didn't want to have to wear his coat (for some reason he hates it) and the corn box was sheltered in the barn away from the chilly wind. That and the construction vehicles, of course. ;) 

 Gwen informed me she was cooking. (These dishes must be her mise en place. Either that or this was a gourmet table setting with multiple dishes)

Emmett condescended to put on his coat in exchange for hot (SERIOUSLY FRESH!!!) pumpkin donuts. He didn't like sticky hands. 

 But had no problem chowing down on the donut!

The girls liked them too. Who am I kidding? We ALL loved them! (side note: I originally was only going to buy 1/2 dozen for us to eat. The price was so reasonable, however, I decided to get a full dozen with the intention of taking the other half home and having donuts for snacks for the next few days. Yeah. We left with 2 donuts.)

Caroline only gave a passing glance at the corn box. She wasn't interested in "quiet" play. She headed straight for the "crazy" and never looked back! About an hour later, Gwen joined her at the bouncy race thing. When Emmett realized he didn't meet the height requirements, he was beyond devastated!

 He recovered, though, when he was given permission to go through the bouncy house despite his short height so long as he didn't climb the ladder and go down the slide. 

 And he was pretty pleased with himself every time! Just turned around and got right back in line!

(side story for posterity but no picture: Gwen got a piece of dirt?sand?mulch?grass? in her eye... and believe me, the entire farm heard about it! She was inconsolable! Eric is an MD and everything, but she squealed and bawled and pulled away and squeezed her eyes tighter and rubbed and rubbed whenever he tried to give her an examination. Finally, he took her back to the car, layed her across the seat, and reasoned it all out with her. She finally relented to opening her eye for daddy and allowing him to flip her eyelid inside out and flick out the irritating offender, saying weepily, "I trust you daddy. I really do. I trust you." As soon as it was out, she quickly recovered. Daddy was the hero of the day!

 Riding the big tractor while waiting for our turn at the hayride. 

 Our little pumpkins!

 Caroline kept her pumpkin close. 

 Gwen tried out all the different places her pumpkin could sit. Her favorite spot, though, was in her pocket. She was just so tickled that it was small enough to fit in there!

 Gwen giving Emmett a nice sister hug.

 Emmett LOVED his little white pumpkin and carried it around the house the rest of the day. He adores his "ghost pumpkin". 

Our fam on the hayride. Emmett got so excited and kept hollering and pointing, "Nother one pumpkin!...hah! NOTHER one pumpkin!" over and over again...it WAS a pumpkin patch, so there were lots of pumpkins to point at... and each one was like a revelation! lol

Catching Up-- Halloween and Fall with my Kiddos

I realized recently that I feel less incentive to blog during warm, pleasant weather when I'm afforded plenty of opportunities to socialize in real time. Lame explanation, but I have none other to offer for why my last posts have been so sparsely placed. I know that puts my blog readers at a significant disadvantage because so very few of you actually live where I live. As chilly weather descends and I see the loneliness of winter looming, I find myself face palming for not cultivating these online relationships more intentionally. I am sorry for being so exclusive and leaving ya'll  out... can I make amends with an amazingly lengthy catchall post? Because nothing says "I value our friendship" better than a plethora of photos, right? ha ha! Here they come!

 Gwen was a mermaid for Halloween and Caroline was a fish. They both helped with the making of their costumes, but Gwen's help was ACTUALLY helpful. :) She did the shells on her top and her barrette while Caroline helped glue her eyeballs onto barrettes. 

 Emmett was a shark! Well, sort of. Actually, he napped during the trunk or treat at church, refused to wear it for actual trick or treating, and barely managed to smile for this photo when we wanted to show Grandma his cuteness. So he was a shark for all of 3 minutes. :) Not a big deal since he was wearing a recycled costume of Gwen's from a couple years ago. At least I didn't spend lots of time on a costume for him this year!

 Caroline loves to pose... when I say "smile like a fish" this is what I get! lol

 This wasn't our trunk, but if we were more awesome it should have been! We were parked right next door to them, so their awesomeness sort of rubbed off on our trunk lameness (read: complete and total absence of decoration unless you count the stroller). The ocean theme was awesome and the girls thought is basically was meant for them!

 Carving pumpkins was interesting. Gwen was excited at first, but there were many tears (literally, agony and weeping) when she realized she was going to have to touch more than one handful of slimy seeds before we'd help her do the actual carving. Life is tough. But she LOVED that spider barrette we made together and wore it to school every day for 2 weeks!

 Emmett was very interested in the pumpkins. He was all over everything and every slime he could find!

 The finished products!

 There was a narrow window when the leaves were gorgeous on the trees AND on the ground (still colorful rather than drab brown) and it wasn't raining and I desperately wanted to capture it... Not sure these pics are exactly what I had in mind, but it was a fun outing anyway. :)

Emmett just wanted to play with this cute little pumpkin.

  See, isn't it gorgeous? I love fall around here!

Gwen was happy too, can you tell?

 The pictures sure got silly... but do you see how their heads are cut off? Here's the story. Our camera broke a few weeks ago (thank you, Emmett) and I have been taking pics with the itouch since my old school phone takes grainy pics. Well, this was my first time to take the itouch pics OUTSIDE and I didn't realize that I wouldn't be able to see the screen in the sunlight! I had NO idea what I was taking pics of (hence the terrible compositions and chopped off heads, lol! In fact, there were about 30 pics where I had the screen shot reversed and was taking selfies instead of pics of the kids!

 Accidental selfie with the porta-potty. Glamorous. :) But that is the scarf I made and the jacket I got at Volunteers of America for a dollar. Sigh of contentment. :)

 At the time of these pics (the last couple days of October) Emmett was getting closer and closer to walking! Most of the time he wanted a hand to hold...

 But occasionally he'd take 4 or 5 steps...

Or just plop down on the ground and beg to be picked up! :)

More pics and stories coming soon!

Eric and the Apples

Eric helped out his folks by harvesting their apples... I suspect we'll see these apples turned into sauce while we're here.

Eric is such a ham... I just like these pics because he can't resist performing and making some goofy faces at the camera.

Better do a lil catchup

We're going out of town this weekend. Eric on an elk hunt with his dad and bros, Gwen and I to Disney World with my fam. That means when we come back, I'll be swamped with photos and videos not to mention a special birthday. So. If I don't get this done now, might not ever happen.

Luckily, having been sick I've also not been going anywhere or doing anything until recently. So, there aren't that many events to catch up on! :) Gwen has really enjoyed being outside this fall.

Pumpkins are apparently a long-lost love!

way back in August, enjoying the spoils of picking fresh peaches

when I was sick, photos taken by friends and babysitters (some include my mom helping feed ducks...aka, feed Gwen)

with a group of gals from our ward going on a hayride, picking pumpkins, scary pumpkin slide, and corn box

Halloween party at friends--Gwen only wanted to eat donuts and watch Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin standing RIGHT next to the screen

carving pumpkins with Daddy