Fall Farm Fun

Let me just start off by saying that we have no pumpkin patch pictures for this year. We have pumpkins, but we did not pick them out as a family during a quintessential fall outing. Yes, I'm bitter. :) Especially after going through all of my old pictures from years past--we have gone to the pumpkin patch EVERY year except this year.

Aidan and Logan actually did go to a pumpkin patch on a field trip, so at least they weren't deprived of the experience. It's just me and Lorelai who were deprived. (Adam doesn't count since he wouldn't sign off on a trip this weekend to get pumpkins we didn't need just for the photos...party pooper! It's like he doesn't even know me and my obsessive need to take photos, ha!)

Aaaanyway...

We did end up having some other fall fun at a local farm during a work-sponsored family outing (aka, FREE!). Which is why, in Adam's mind, we didn't need another trip. Corn maze does not equal pumpkin patch, but after last year, it's a close second on my fall bucket list, so I guess I shouldn't be too bitter.





We made our way through the first section of the maze, and by that time, Lorelai was over it. She was actually over it by marker 2 out of 5...so she and I headed back to do some other activities while the boys raced their way through the rest of the maze.





We ended up at the bounce house, aka, Lorelai's happy place. Pretty sure she couldn't care less about the lack of pumpkins as long as she has a bouncy house to play in.





There were tractors to climb...



Rabbits to see...



Faces to get painted...(oh my, I can't tell you how much I LOVE that Lorelai was willing to get her face painted--she was very hesitant at first, but the end result was SO worth it. Beautiful! And she got compliments from pretty much every single person at her Great Grandma's nursing home that afternoon.)



And hay bales to climb, swings, cornhole, and other fun activities. Unfortunately, many activities were not included in the admission price, which I didn't love, but we made the most of of the free activities.





And we did get to go on a legit hay ride--with actual hay this year--so that was a win in my book.


That pumpkin we have is from a bin next to our food tent, compliments of the company event. No actual picking involved so it doesn't count.

Not pictured: the goats and cow. Why? Because Lorelai freaked the freak out as soon as she saw the cow and wouldn't go near the barnyard. She held onto me for dear life so hard that it was impossible for me to get any pictures of Aidan and Logan enjoying the animals.

The weather was not great--we had light rain for a bit which put a damper on some of our fun, but all in all, it was a nice fall family outing. We had so much fun in fact, that it was only as we were driving out of the parking lot passing by their pumpkin patch (which was oddly not near any of the other activities), that I realized I didn't have a single pumpkin picking picture.



But next year I'm already planning on going back to Phillip's Farm where we went last fall and then again in the spring for strawberries because I like their all-inclusive setup much better...plus you can pick pumpkins off the vine there. Pumpkins, people. Not a negotiable fall photo op! :)

Oh well...there's always next year. (Or tomorrow, if I can convince Adam that we NEED to go after school!)



PS: No husbands were yelled at in the making of this post. :)

The Great Outdoors

When I think of myself now, I don't at all consider myself an outdoorsy type of person.

But looking back at my childhood, I do actually think I used to be pretty outdoorsy. My house growing up had a lot of land, and I remember running around the woods with my best friend from (waaaay) across the street, climbing trees, "swimming" in the creek that flooded my other neighbor's yard when it rained, making "pottery" from good ol' NC clay we dug up, and hanging in her awesome tree house. I think we were probably outside exploring more than we played inside (without a care in the world about snakes, spiders and other creepy crawlies that were undoubtedly crossing our paths, unbeknownst to us).

And not only that, but I have fond memories of camping way back when I was in girl scouts and church youth group. I definitely did more of the cabin and platform tent camping on cots at girl scout camp, which I loved. What's not to love about one big weekend- or week-long sleepover with friends in the middle of the woods, with a lake to swim in and a campfire to roast marshmallows?

What I tolerated, but never loved though, was camping on the hard ground in tents in the middle of nowhere and peeing in the woods in the dark. Especially after an unfortunate incident at a girl scout sleepover in my back yard, where my mom later told me she discovered a snake had crawled under our tent at some point and was directly underneath us as we slept! ::shudder::

Ultimately, I think I got my fill of camping when I was younger and fully outgrew any urge I may have had to sleep in the woods. I've become far too accustomed to my pillow-top mattress, temperature-controlled and bug-free house, and indoor plumbing just steps away from my bed.

But this? This makes me {almost} want to pop a tent right here on the edge of the lake and stay forever--comforts of home be damned.





While my kids aren't in scouts and don't have free reign over woods to explore or creeks to swim in like I did, they do have awesome grandparents who bought a pop-up camper, rented a spot at Jordan Lake, and took Aidan and Logan for a two-night camping trip.



Adam, Lorelai and I took the boys out there last Monday to drop them off and have a cookout on the lake.





For two days, they fished, canoed, cooked over a campfire, whittled sticks, hiked, and just generally enjoyed nature. Pure and simple.



Granted, the camper isn't as rustic as sleeping in a tent (it has a TV, sink and stove!) but I'm so glad Aidan and Logan were able to experience camping. In fact, I'm kind of jealous of them, despite my previous utter lack of desire to go camping as an adult.





Maybe when Lorelai is a bit older, we'll look into getting a tent and "roughing it" (with air mattresses, because let's be real:)) for a great outdoors adventure.

Well done, mother nature. Well done.




PS: with the exception of noiseware and a bit of added contrast on the silhouette photos, all of these are unedited iphone photos. Boom.

Making beach memories

I have fond memories of going to the beach every summer. Building sand castles, diving in the waves, catching sand fleas (we always called them sand diggers), and soaking in the sun. I'm so excited for my kids to make those same memories, summer after summer.




We're beyond fortunate to have a house to stay in, and an extra set of hands (that belong to my wonderful mom) more than willing to come and help with the kids. Let's face it, vacations with young kids aren't truly relaxing. Especially at the beach, what with the possibility of them getting swept out to sea and/or eaten by Jaws.



Obviously that didn't happen. :) And even though we may not have laid on the beach, tropical drink in hand, relaxing to the max, we did have an amazing time running on the beach...



Catching some waves...



Playing in the sand...



Splashing in the water...



Enjoying a nice ocean breeze...



Finding sea shells and sand fleas...



And we even managed to get some family pictures, including this framer. Although it was hit or miss getting everyone to look at the camera at the same time (wave! bird! whatever!)





Until next time, when we'll make even more memories. Only a few more weeks to wait, actually. :)

An excellent Easter

We had a great Easter (I resisted titling the post "an eggcellent Easter"), and I took so many photos that I had a lot of trouble narrowing them down for this post. So I sort of didn't. You've been warned :) (sorry, not sorry).


Thanks for everyone's opinion on Lorelai's dress. I chose this one because it went better with the cardi and tights she had to wear because it was a bit chilly. I think I'll put her in the other dress for Mother's day or something. :)





Since our house/yard was in no condition for guests, we headed to Adam's parents house where we met up with Adam's sister and her son Isaiah, my mom and my sister and her kids, Shaun and Raina. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I'm so beyond thankful that we can all celebrate together and Adam and I don't have to split time or have to choose one family over another on holiday gatherings like this. I love my family.



The cousins: Shaun, Isaiah, Aidan, Logan, Lorelai, Raina. The LOVE getting together.


Yay! Finally got some good pics of Grandma and Grandpa with all of the kids!


I wish I had gotten some of my mom with the boys...

The kids hunted for eggs, naturally. And the weather even cooperated! It was chilly compared to what we're used to for Easter (about 60*), but the heavy rain overnight cleared and the sun came out.



There were scattered thundershowers later in the day, but they moved through pretty quickly and didn't get in the way of the kids' fun too much. And thanks to the ridiculously awesome wrap-around porch, we could even enjoy rain the fresh air while we waited for the storm to pass.



In fact, while they were waiting for the rain to clear, the boys played some cards. Aidan and Logan tried to hustle Grandma, I think! Logan was very proud of the $.95 he won.



There was also some really yummy food, as usual. The kids all sat together and I couldn't help but think about how big Lorelai looked, sitting at the table with the "big kids" all by herself. No booster seat or bib, and regular plate/silverware. She ate unsupervised and finished everything. She's growing up so fast. Sniff. And for the record, my mouth is still watering thinking about the brownie sundae my mother-in-law made. Lorelai hopped from lap to lap begging for bites. Smart girl :)



I'm so glad we got some good photos of the five of us. It's rare, and a lot of times I forget to take these types of posed photos. Candids are great and I typically prefer them, but I find that unless I think to gather everyone for a posed photo, they just don't happen, which is sad. Because it usually means I'm not in many of the pics.



But boom. I was there. See? :) And I even wore my new favorite Target dress, even though the informal family gathering totally didn't call for it. But if Lorelai can wear a pretty Easter dress, so can I. So there.



And that concludes the massive Easter photo dump, even though there are still a ton of great photos still sitting on my external hard drive, probably never to be seen again...sigh.

A real live pumpkin patch, corn maze and more fall fun!

This year, I was determined to go to a farm with a legit pumpkin patch and corn maze instead of settling for a parking lot "pumpkin patch" with no fun extras like we did last year (and every other year before). So a couple of weekends ago on a simply gorgeous fall day (and after a soccer game that ran late and almost ruined our plans) we headed over to a local farm to get our fall fun on.



The thing I was most excited about was the corn maze. Aidan was the only one who had ever actually done a corn maze before (he went on a field trip last year)--this was a first for the rest of us, including me and Adam. I was psyched!



We grabbed our emergency "help me!" flag and a set of clues, and tried to keep up with the boys as they led the way to each stop. We chose the interactive maze with entertainment clues and learned that Dolly Parton was only 13 when she released her first album...after we went the wrong way at our first turn. Oops!. I was worried we were going to run short on time so we made it a race to see how fast we could get through.



We made it out in about 20 minutes with no more wrong answers (yay for being TV junkies) and only had to carry this little cutie for the last part of it. I think she was just mad we took the flag from her because she kept getting stuck and hitting people with it :)



There are a few of these types of farms in the area to choose from, and some of them are so expensive!! This one was the least expensive, but it was also one of the closest, so that alone made it a winner in my book. It had a lot of fun things to do besides the corn maze. I do wish it had a corn crib and a barnyard...but we still had a total blast with the activities they had.

No barnyard, but we did ride some "cows" around the pond. :)





There were big tractors and tether ball. Bonus: Lorelai only got hit in the face once!



I'm so glad Lorelai had no interest in the big, bumpy slide. The boys shot out of those things like a cannon. Twice down and they were ready quit bruising their bums.



The guys had a bit of friendly competition on the race track. Make no mistake, Adam was in it to win it--no Mr. Nice Dad going easing to let them win. I think he may have even cut Aidan off on a turn at one point. The boys didn't care one bit though, it was all in good fun...until the end when we realized Aidan couldn't reach the brake. Luckily the guy working the track caught him just in time.



After Adam's legs were sufficiently jello-y, we headed over to cornhole and the bounce house where Logan almost broke Lorelai (but let's just forget about that, yikes! They way he fell on her was seriously scary...).



Aidan and Adam also did some corn launching. They aimed for the Duke target, but no luck, darn! :)



Duck racing kept them busy for a while while we waited for the hay ride to take us over to the pumpkin patch.



But then we had to wait some more because the first one filled up. I just wish we had gotten the kettle corn they were making fresh while we were waiting. Yum!







Turns out, it was a hay ride minus the hay, which the boys were pretty angry about. Actually, and I kind of agree. Hay ride with real hay is going on my fall bucket list for next year! But once we got to the field, it was all about finding the perfect pumpkin.



Um, I didn't realize how much more difficult it is to find good pumpkins while you're trying not to trip through the field full of ruts and vines, while holding a camera and your toddler's hand, when she just wants you to pick her up because she keeps tripping (see also: this photo). All alone, since the eager beavers of the male persuasion just ran ahead and left us.



After a lot of promising but ultimately rejected pumpkins, we found our favorite three.



But by then, the last ride of the evening was waiting to take us back, so it was a mad dash from the far end of the field to pay and hitch our ride back.



We had some really great quality family time on a gorgeous day, making memories. Fall has never been my favorite season (I'm more of a spring girl, myself) but this type of thing could totally change my mind. I love watching the kids have fun and can't wait to do it again next year!



Who knows, we may even splurge for the fancy place next time...:)