Pumpkin Patch

We just had the best time last week when we visited a pumpkin patch with our co-op. It went WAY beyond just a place to pick pumpkins. This place was amazing with so many things for children to do. We spent half the morning and half the afternoon there and we could have still stayed longer. The top picture is Reece and Lindsey riding our "hay-less" hayride.
Love this picture of Austin laughing with his buddy.
Catching Reece in mid-air..



My favorite spot is the play area full of corn. If you've never sat in corn before -- I must say it is quite therapeutic. Every fall I go to something like that and wish to have a box completely filled with corn. And then I forget to put it down on a Christmas wish list. :) Now you can all tell my husband what I'd like for Christmas. He might look at you funny... :)



Reece is getting ready to go down the 100 ft. slide. They did this countless times.



Hmmm...which pumpkin should I pick?

DUH!

This just caught my funny bone, so had to share it. Last night, at about 9:40p.m. Brian decides to get to bed early. It's a busy time of year for him and getting up super early for the Y each day catches up with him once or twice a week.

Well....I continued to drag out my evening until it was getting pretty late. And then I decided to go to bed and still read a little bit. So I find a flashlight, my library book and slip quietly into bed. God really does have a sense of humor because it is almost a new day and the chapter I am reading is how God designed sleep for a reason. This chapter continues to list the many health benefits of getting enough solid sleep and what happens to your body when you don't. I'm hanging on to every word and then I lay the book down and finally take in the scene in front of me: Brian sound asleep, me with a flashlight on my chest all hunkered down in the covers and reading a chapter about the importance of sleep as the clock gets closer to a new day.

This is God's sense of humor in my life! :)

So Thankful!

The UPS guy stopped by our house tonight with a Gymboree order from Aunt Nar. Christmas has arrived early with a 'fall clothing' shipment for the kids. We are so thankful for Aunt Nar who has clothed our children for several years. It gets even better. Aunt Nar buys everything on her Gymboree Visa for all those awesome gym bucks and then she even lets me get online to shop for these clothes. It is just SO MUCH fun! And, to say the least, a huge blessing to our family. Thank you SO MUCH Aunt Nar. There aren't words to express our gratefulness!
Sorry for the shadow, but this was what Lindsey picked to wear for all the Christmas festivities.
The girl is in heaven....

Reece gets just as excited as Lindsey does.
These kids love taking everything out of their packaging and they still enjoy sitting in the boxes.

Austin turns 11

Today is actually Austin's 11th b-day, but I think he's been partying ALL weekend long. Last night he got to have a few buddies over to play laser tag, at Adventure Landing, and then back to our home for pizza, cake and ice cream. It was a great night and Austin has been blessed with some great friends. The picture below is Austin blowing out the cake he made.

Here the boys are gearing up for laser tag. The sign says: "Play at your own risk". Hmmm

Back at our house eating supper. Brian had them, on video, go around and share how they knew Austin. We had people here from summer camp, church, co-op, etc. I just kept saying - what a good group of boys.

Sugar Coma....

FINALLY made it to the Cupcake Shoppe downtown last night! I have seen people blog about this place and wanted to check it out for myself. Then life gets in the way and I forgot about it. Well....Beth has her sister-in-love (they call each other that and I think it is the sweetest thing!) in town so this gave us a wonderful opportunity to have a girl's night out. Vonda has her own blog and so I felt like I already knew her, but how wonderful to just sit over cupcakes and get to know her and even Beth better.

The funny thing that always cracks me up is that people -- MANY people - are out partying late at night. My life has changed SO MUCH in the past several years. Now I find myself in my p.j.'s quite early at night and for some reason I think everyone else is at home getting ready for bed, too. Oh my no.....last night I saw that life is just getting started at 11p.m. for some people. What a fun time! Thanks girls!! You two are the sweetest and it was the perfect ending to this week!

NFL

This past Wednesday at Awanas they had NFL night where you were to wear your favorite team colors. Well......the kids wanted to participate and it kind of stumped me - not being a real avid sports person. So here is what we did. Austin and I like the color red so we just looked up which teams had red and went with those. Doesn't everyone pick their favorite NFL teams by the color??

Oh....I did e-mail Brian a little too late and ask him if the kids would get beat up wearing red/black in North Carolina. Don't know if people like the Falcons or Cardinals around here? Well....they came home in one piece....whew!

Hanging Rock

Yesterday we decided to leave all our responsibilities behind and enjoy the fall colors at Hanging Rock State park. The weather could not have been more beautiful and the colors were awesome! I think Reece had the winning 'saying' of the day. It was at the end of our second hike. We had hiked down and down a good mile to get to some waterfalls knowing full well that we would have to hike back up to get to our van. On the way back up Reece heaved a huge sigh and said: "My bones are SO tired!" Classic Reece...

Where we took this picture of the actual Hanging Rock, I thought that was as far as the trail took us. Brian showed me that we could get up this rocky path to that very tip. That was quite a hike! Yet so worth the view!





I guess if you enlarge this picture you will see that the kids and I are sitting up there on this rocky trail.
At the top with Austin as our photographer...
WELL worth the hike!

These kids were full of funny faces.......It's as if Brian and I were speaking a different language when we would say: "smile nicely" and this is what we'd get.



I really enjoyed the day because I didn't take a single picture! :)

Austin was determined to walk a rugged path just to get right up to the falls. His victory stance.
The way Austin had to climb to the falls...