Pumpkin Patch Fieldtrip

Lydia and Emily's class went to the Pumpkin Patch on Monday. A ton of parents were able to go (not me :(, but Mike was able to) and get great pictures of their kids. Each child picked their own pumpkin to take home. Emily took a long time to pick hers out, so Mike hurridly assigned a pumpkin to Lydia. They took a hay ride and made their own scarecrow.

This is a picture of their class, but I am not sure where Lydia is :)

Adella Turns 3

Our niece, Adella, celebrated her 3rd birthday party yesterday. Her birthday is actually October 29, but always better to make any celebration last as long as possible I always say! My brother Paul and his wife Allison had their close family and friends over on Sunday for lunch, cake and ice cream and present opening. It was great! They are expecting another bundle of joy in February. That will make Mike and me 9 nieces and nephews strong! Congrats Adella! We love you!!!

Pumpkin Patch Day!!

Grrr! This post did not do what I wanted it to! I downloaded a lot of pictures and then in my moving them around, many of them were somehow deleted. Once I realized it I downloaded the lost ones again, but because of the way I arranged the pictures to start with, I am not able to move the newly added ones back in, in order. So . . . . here are a bunch of disorganized pictures from the pumpkin patch. Scroll all the way down to the end of the post and these pictures at the top will make sense. :)

I always joke about how all of my friends have girls and poor Ryan has no little boys to play with. This is SOOOO true--right down to his cousins . . . he has male step cousins, but biological cousins are all girls. Come on friends . . . lets have some boys :)

On Saturday, my friend Kara and her girls Lynnea and Olivia went with us to the Hess Pumpkin Patch. Soooo fun! It cost a little more to get into than I had really wanted to pay, but there was a lot of stuff for the kids to do! Soccar ball bowling

How cute are these guys? They always have so much fun together! I promise, Kara and I did not coordinate our girls clothes! :) Again, Ryan and the estrogen :)Rubber Duckie Races while pumping water. The water would run out from time to time and the ducks would not slide. The child this would happen to would not be happy.They had a cow train. This was too funny! Kara and I rode too!! Very bumpy ride. They all loved it, but towards the end of the ride Lydia wanted to get off. She is like me and does not like it when she does not feel in control of something. The last half of the ride she was yelling "stop!" and Ryan, Emily and Lynnea were yelling "faster!" :)Musical pots and pansMilking cowsThe bunny house. Olivia fell in love with the bunnies! All the kids were trying to pet them through the chicken wire and then would pull away when the bunnies would try to nibble their fingers--laughing the entire time!! One more at the bottom of the pictures. Olivia and Lynnea "Back home on the Farm"The Corn Deer tractorThey had a slide that went underground. The kids would ride down on their burlap sacks and then walk back up the hill and go again--over and over! In the corn maze at the end of the day. LtoR-Lydia, Emily, Lynnea, Ryan--Olivia in front. We decided not to go through the corn maze because we had already been there 3 1/2 hours and they told us the maze would take at least 45 minutes to get through and that is just with adults. No thanks! Maybe next time :)

Finally, they had pig racing. They had pigs race to the finish line to eat Oreos. It was too funny! Absolutely the greatest day! Awesome weather! Awesome company!

Lydia's creepy snacks

Since Ryan's first week of Kindergarten we have realized that snack time is a VERY important part of the day at McGaheysville Elementary School. Last year and this year we receive calendars each month with the names of the children on given days for them to bring snack in to share with the class. Each child gets one day per month. Snacks always need to be nutritious and yummy. Typically I send in goldfish crackers, granola bars, bananas, etc. For the month of October I have decided to celebrate my favorite holiday--Halloween!

Lydia's snack day is tomorrow and Emily's is next Wednesday. For Lydia, we decided to make creepy popcorn hands. I imagined them a lot cuter than they turned out, but the kids had a lot fun helping to make them!! Thought I would display our finished product. A special thanks to Sarah Kesner for getting us those gloves!

Ryan filling his hand with popcorn

Emily and Lydia filling their gloves with popcorn. They had some trouble putting the candy corns in the fingernails so Ryan and I did that part.

Carter Mountain Apple Orchard

Last year we went with the Settle's to the Carter Mountain Apple Orchard Festival in Charlottesville Virginia. (Click on Settle Family to see that post). We had such a great time that we planned to go with them again this year. Due to Becky's foot surgery they were unable to go. We asked my friend, Rabia and her family if they would like to come with us and they agreed to go. In addition, my brother Paul and his family came to meet up with us for a while.

What an amazing day! The weather could not have been more beautiful and everyone had such a great time! We picked 33 lbs. of apples and are hoping to make my Grandma Leftwich's famous applesauce recipe!

This is a picture of the kids overlooking the city of Charlottesville. L to R--Ryan, Frances, Emily, Henry and Lydia. Adella had already gone, but she is in the picture below with Paul. I think the kids ate about 5 apples a piece today :)
Ryan climbing trees to pick some apples--he was loving that!!

Lydia taking a break


Henry and Mike

At the festival there is bluegrass music playing. The kids got up on this "stage" and danced and danced.