Pumpkin Farm

We have a thing for small family run farms.  This farm is just a bit away from our church and has amazing prices on pumpkins, popcorn, make-your-own scarecrow as well as goats, chickens, a corn maze and games for the kids.  Did I mention that it's all free unless you are taking something home?  Yup, we love things like that.  The kids had a blast, we brought home 8 pumpkins and a bag of popcorn to dry and then went back later in the week with friends to make scarecrows.

The Missing Teeth

Here's what Liam will look like for a while now that his front teeth were helped out a bit early.  This kid cracks me up.  Only Liam would be happy immediately after having 2 teeth knocked out.  Face covered in blood and big huge grin.  Gotta love that boy and his sense of adventure.

Just a Picture

Just a few of my favorite guys.  We went back to the apple farm a few weeks ago to get the apples for canning and such.  Not many decent pictures because apparently there is something wrong with the camera and every shot shows up with a great big blur in the middle.  Very strange.  Guess we need to figure out if we can fix it or if we need a new camera before the baby arrives.  New baby pictures really should not have a great big blurry spot in the middle. 

Apple Picking

We took the kids apple picking a month or so ago.  I have totally lost track of time.  We only picked 60 lbs of apples because we knew our schedule was going to be way too hectic to allow for canning so we plan to go back likely this weekend to actually pick enough apples for anything other than eating.  It rather amazes me how quickly we can pick so many apples and how quickly the youngest kids catch on.  Everyone enjoyed themselves and the chance to play afterwards.

Camp This Year

Every September we start our school year by having the older kids attend a living history camp at our local living history museum. This year Katie and Liam were able to participate for the first time and the older 3 boys were involved in a nature camp.  Nature camp meant they did not dress up in period clothes this year but instead focused on activities based on the book My Side of the Mountain.  They learned to start fires, build shelters, spoke to a local falconer, went fishing, spent one rainy day watching the movie, made jam and had a great time.  They all came home rather tired and dirty and wet each day.    The younger 2 spent their time exploring the history museum and learning about the role plants played in life during the 19th century.  They kept a journal, planted flax seeds, learned about natural dyes from plants, made a sachet of lavender seeds and learned a few period dances. Ok, Liam said that was his least favorite activity and seemed to participate under duress but everyone had a great time.  Somehow seeing Liam dressed up in the period clothes seemed to bring out his natural devilish personality just a tad more than normal.

We also had friends join us for the week to attend the camp so the house was full with 13 kids.  Minimal fighting, lots of fun and we learned that Alan can manage breakfast for 13 kids and still bring his pregnant wife breakfast in bed.  Anyway, lots of pictures.  Enjoy.

Star Wars Party

We won a Star Wars: The Clone Wars party from House Party.  This is the second party we have won from these folks.  They are always a lot of fun.  The product manufacturer sends you samples, coupons, new products and toys.  All you have to do is invite some friends over and share the wealth.  Ok, I guess technically with some of the parties we could get away with just saying there are enough people in our own family to qualify for the free stuff but I just would not feel right about that.  Besides, we all love an excuse to invite friends over for a fun, relaxing time.

We received this game for the kids along with temporary tattoos, coupons, a DVD with out takes from the Clone Wars series and a few other treats.

The boys made cupcakes, we had pizza, watched the series premiere and the kids played outside until it was dark enough for the deer to start taking over the backyard. They may look cute but you don't want to come upon a deer at night that thinks you may be invading their territory.

  

Even the adults had a chance to sit down and talk and relax.  We actually had to drag the Dads back inside when it was time to send some folks home.  Here's hoping we'll be able to do something like this again soon.

Happy Birthday Katie

Katie turned 6 this week.  Her birthday card arrived right on time for us to all go out for her birthday dinner on her birthday.  This is becoming a very big deal to the kids.  Half way through dinner Katie leans over and asks me if they will be bringing her ice cream.  Yup, we know what is really important.

Happy Birthday Katie.  Hope you had a wonderful day.