"Busy"

I really dislike that term yet I find myself using it all the time.  What does "busy" really mean?  We all have the same amount of time granted to us each and every day.  Its not like it's a race to see who can be busier.  I suspect each persons perspectives on "busy" would differ based on where they are at in their life.  It's just an easy term to throw out there when life has you on the go.  On the go with all things that we've agreed to and enjoy I might add.

Speaking of, I just cracked open a book titled "Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life" that our Principal has loaned to me.  I'm only a few pages in but it looks like an interesting read.  Sadly, I'm not one to enjoy reading as a hobby so I hope I stick with it!

It's always been a priority for us to not over schedule our kids.  Sure, we want them to be involved in organized sports, activities & clubs.  But we also value the opportunity to be spontaneous and free.  We've always avoided overlapping activities.  But at the ripe old age of 8, it seems like we've hit the magic age that this gets more complicated.  Seriously, EIGHT!  It seems like the activities are more intense and have a greater time commitment.  Thankfully the girls only have an interest in swim team!  It feels good to have found a sport that they really are passionate about.

We're also trying to balance the needs and schedules so Mr. Spencer isn't drug all over the place due to the girls schedule.  That's a tough one that we are still trying to figure out!  At times I feel at peace with our efforts and other times I've got huge momma guilt.

The girls had their first fall swim meet this past weekend in Norfolk.  It was a great day of swimming!  It was the first time we've ever had to get the entire family up and out of the house at the crack of dawn.  Due to the above mentioned momma guilt we went back and forth on who would actually go to this event.  Not to mention our newly added responsibilities of Mr. Mason.  But in the end it ended up being a great decision for all of us to go.  Spencer enjoyed a really long day of playing various pickup games in the gym.  He had no qualms about asking the big kids if he could play whatever they were playing and he made some friend along the way.  I know he loves the time we shoot hoops or play kick ball in the gym.  He finally had met his match and these kids were in it for the long haul, far longer than I would last!

I know for other families it may be a regular occurrence to get the family up and going in the wee morning hours, but for us it is not.  We regularly have a hard time making it to Sunday School by 9:30. :)  For this day, our goal was to leave by 6:45am and we were pretty darn close!  It all went much smoother than we anticipated.  The kids thought it was weird to go in their jammies!  One of the highlights of the morning was watching the sun come up.  Of course by the end of the 12 hour day we were all exhausted, particularly the adults.  The kids of course didn't crash until their heads hit their pillows.

PTA related... I've just made it through 5 big events since the start of school with 1 more small event and 4 more really huge events coming up in the next few weeks.  November is my key event, one that I added to our calendar just last year.  It's a month where we focus on Healthy Lifestyles with each week of the month taking a different theme.  I'm hoping it will go as great as it did last year!  Once I get through November we'll be set.  Thanks to school breaks we've got a nice little break from PTA stuff in December and January.  We can't be fooled by these breaks though!  The February deadlines sneak up on us rather quick!

In our down time we are enjoying the College Football season!  It's a time of year we always look forward to but not always have we been able to kick back and enjoy the games.  As the kids continue to get older we find ourselves able to enjoy such luxuries while they thoroughly enjoy their down time with hobbies that are of interest to them.  Which means that they either are reading or have covered the dining table and a solid 5' perimeter in various art materials.  It's worth it though! 

Crossroads

I'm finding myself at a crossroads. The in-between phase when you've just completed a major task (2 actually, come to think of it) that consumed hours upon hours and that next major task (okay, a few of them) that's looming. A weird feeling!

Last night I had our 2nd PTA meeting of the academic year. That was the deadline that I had long procrastinated against and ultimately worked hard to meet. I also held a Room Parent meeting prior to the big meeting, also part of this larger goal/deadline. Both meetings were phenomenal in attendance, participation, support, etc... It was wonderful to distribute all of the materials I had prepared for the meeting and be done with it! We actually ran out of chairs for the PTA meeting, a FIRST in my history with the school. It's nice to see some efforts really paying off!!! It was also nice to use that as an example of WHY I'm asking parents to approach their tasks a particular way. This is gonna be a kick ass year, I just know it!

But that's all in addition to our family time. One thing I'm determined to do (last year and again this year) is to not allow my PTA responsibilities take away from our family time... as much as absolutely possible! I did miss going to the gym with the family last night, but mostly that was just me giving up my workout time. You can see how committed I am! Though I did miss shooting hoops with my boy!

Speaking of family stuff... we're just in the groove. The girls are enjoying their swim practice and looking forward to their first meet. We all enjoyed a full day at our Church Camp this past weekend for the girls' first "Tween Scene" (non)event. The girls were a little miffed about all of us (particularly their brother) being there. This is the first time they've really ever expressed such a concern, but they had every right to raise the question. Once we explained that the overall BBQ was a family event and WE wanted to come to the BBQ and it was just their luck to have such involved and overprotective parents they were all cool with it. For us, it was a family day, a family experience and if they were lucky we would let them come back without us in the (very distant) future.

As luck would have it, they (our leader) didn't really need all the help they had (due to weather and turnout) so we took off and spent 5 hours exploring the area as a family. We all enjoyed a bit of archery... I felt bad when Spencer (& I) overshot the target and the bales of hay, ultimately losing an arrow. The girls got to try their hand at tree climbing, and loved it. They also greatly enjoyed hanging out in the tree boats, particularly while playing with bunny rabbits. We spent forever hanging out with various live animals. Once we discovered that the corn maze would take a solid hour and a half to get through, and recalling the fact that our kids got lost in a much smaller maze just a couple weeks ago, we opted to hold that activity for some future visit. I also, somehow, managed to convince the kids to hold off on a trip out to the pumpkin fields. It was a muddy mess that I was just hoping to avoid. Thankfully they agreed! We had so much fun traipsing around the huge acreage. After 5 hours we still had to practically pull our kids away!

And it wouldn't be FALL without Husker football. We've certainly been enjoying the season thus far. We've enjoyed hosting game day and cheering on our Huskers. When the kids aren't actually watching football they are enjoying a stay at home day and playing with friends.

Ready. Set. GO!

This is the the week that starts the craziness.

For a family that likes to not be over-committed, in this moment it feels like we have sure committed ourselves to A LOT for the long haul.

Sure, we are always on the go. We like to get out and do things and explore things... on a whim! When the calendar starts filling up I start to get overwhelmed. There's a lot less "on a whim" time!

I know a lot of families with way busier schedules than ours. It's not really a competition. We've intentionally avoided signing ourselves, our children, up for that intense schedule. I know it will all work out. I'm actually looking forward to every single element. It's just... cumulatively it kinda freaks me out right now.

So what's going on?

Swim team started this week. The girls are way excited and so are we. But this is a huge commitment! They have very lengthy practices 3x a week. During their practice Carie and I are able to get a good workout in, a bonus. Spencer and I also get some great time to hang out and shoot hoops together, something we really enjoy. Oh and then there's the swim meets that are one weekend (Saturday?) a month. I'm hoping we'll get these details soon!

Spencer starts swim lessons this weekend. He's SO excited because he gets to go up a level. We could have (should have?) taken the easy route and signed him up for the same place A&E are in swim team. But the swim team program is different than the swim lesson program and we REALLY like the place we've been taking lessons for years. The kids love it there and we love it there. So, we went back even though it will make things a little more challenging for the next 8 weeks.

This past weekend we were invited to a BBQ by some friends. It turned into a reunion of sorts. There were quite a few (same sex) families that we used to hang out with more frequently. We hang out with a few of those couples semi-regularly. But someone decided we should ALL get together more often, like we used to. So it looks like monthly events are in our future... we're hosting the next one. This would be optional, but it would be quite a bit of fun and it would be good for all of us.

We also just discovered that our girls are old enough to participate in the "Tween Scene" at our Church. Boy did that surprise us! Us? We have kids old enough? Why yes, yes we do! This group meets once a month for "fun, fellowship and mission projects". The first event (at camp) looks like tons of fun and totally something our kids would enjoy... which we fear will open us up to more events at this camp! But this will be a great family day! So I've added this recurring monthly event to my calendar. Gotta love how easy that is!

It's also (past) time to re-new our family membership to the Rose Theater (performing arts for children and families). Thankfully I'll get it submitted in time that we won't miss the first performance! But it's a GREAT family activity that our kids really enjoy. We'll get to go to 7 performance this season which is nearly 1 performance a month. So I've carefully selected our show dates and times and I'll hope for the best! (If you're keeping track, that's now 3 different events that each take up just 1 weekend day a month... in addition to swim stuff)

Tonight we'll sign up Spencer for early-bird basketball, which also means there's a 2nd round of basketball after that. He's SO looking forward to playing. That schedule is totally unknown. All I know is that we've got another 6 weeks before it starts... I think. Hopefully he'll go right from swimming lessons into basketball. It can be that easy, right?

Oh, and yes I almost forgot. The girls, Abby in particular, really want to join Girl Scouts. I've finally caved and sent an e-mail to the leader today to find out more details. I don't know how in the world we would do this, but I'm looking into it as promised.

Let's not forget that I continue to be the PTA President and I've got quite a few huge events planned for the academic year. It's really a rewarding position in that I get to plan and do things for our school. But it's a heck of a lot of work and far too many parents have no idea what we do for our students. I'm already feeling knee deep (heck, chest deep!) in this area and we're just getting started! There's just so many amazing ideas up in the air and so many things on my plate all at once. Once a few of those things get resolved I'll be good. I just need to make it through November! Thankfully I've got an amazing team of parents that will help pull it off. More events added to the calendar!

Oh and yes, Carie started a PT gig with our school district this academic year so our home schedule has shifted. It's all good, really really good! (Side note, unfortunately no- she's not making anymore $$ than she was before.) She has signed up for some classes through work. They are all really cool classes, they are all free to us, and they all provide credit towards what she does. She's really excited, as am I. Just one more thing added to the calendar.

But this weekend... THIS WEEKEND... we are taking a family trip to our favorite apple orchard. It better not rain! Oh and we'll also be watching college football, of course! And doing swim lessons, swim team & Church.

Labor Day Adventures

Labor Day weekend marks our last weekend of activity free-ness. That is... the final weekend before we begin running all over to get kids from point A to point B several times a week. Oddly though, it's a routine we are looking forward to.

While it was still busy (seriously though, when isn't it?), it was relaxing still the same.

The weekend got started a little early for us and I didn't waste much time getting starting on my mission. I was determined to (deep) clean at least a portion of our house. Thanks to Carie's hard work, our home is most often "clean" but there are just those rare tasks that often don't get attention or often go unnoticed. Well, I was starting to notice them and it was driving me nuts! What a great weekend to tackle such tasks. We could devote some of the weekend to cleaning and still have an extra day for fun! So I got a good start Friday afternoon/evening and then the plan was to continue our cleaning effort on Saturday morning. We didn't want to spend the entire day cleaning. But a good couple hours of solid elbow grease by all members of our family would certainly do wonders. Well, we (I) just kept going and going and going. One task lead into another. I'm sure Carie wasn't the least bit surprised! The kids were less than thrilled from the get go and a couple of them were less than helpful. But they enjoyed hanging out at home all the same. Abby was our most incredible helper, eager even! She had such a great attitude and she really made a difference in what we were able to accomplish. For all that, she earned some unexpected dough! That certainly drew some attention. :)

Saturday evening some friends came over to enjoy dinner and some good ol Husker football. This was a day we've all been looking forward to. It was great fun to watch the game with our friends and the kids had a blast hanging out and playing. Score for everyone!!!

After a late night, Sunday morning was pretty slow going. We were all up in time to make it to Church but opted to veg out instead. We did make it out for a yummy breakfast at Bruegger's. We're loving that the kids have become Bruegger's fans! That afternoon Ellie had a birthday party to go to so we opted to stick close to home, veg out, and have a stay at home day. The kids love stay at home days! That night Abby and I headed to a late showing of Nanny McPhee Returns. I figured it wasn't a school night and the girl is most often still awake at 10:30 anyways, so why not? She loved it! I think I just found my "movie buddy"!

We had big plans for Monday. All along we had planned on going to our favorite apple orchard. We would certainly pick apples, hopefully peaches, and possibly raspberries. Heck, we may have even made a trip out to the pumpkin patch! We would have certainly done the corn maze, visited the butterfly garden, and climbed the mounds of hay bales. I don't know why, but late Sunday afternoon I decided to check their hours and confirm that they were open only to find out that they are closed every Monday. Even more specifically, Labor Day Monday. Huge bummer! But I was oh so grateful that I checked before we made the long journey.

So we scrambled to come up with a plan B. Instead of risking our experience at a new orchard (after being so pumped up about visiting our favorite), we opted to make one last visit to the Lincoln Children's Zoo before they closed for the season. In the end this turned out to be an excellent choice as we discovered our favorite exhibit, the butterfly pavilion, would be closed after Labor Day. So we enjoyed a good long visit at the zoo and particularly enjoyed a good long visit in the butterfly pavilion.

After a full day at the zoo we headed back to Omaha just in time to hang out with some friends for a BBQ. Before we arrived I was tired and feeling ready to just head home after our long day. But I'm so glad we went! There were a lot more people there than we anticipated and we knew a lot more people than we anticipated. It was great fun for all of us! We got to sit back and chat with friends while the kids ran wild with their friends. I think at one point we counted 6 couples (2-mom families) and 12 kids ages 3ish - 9ish plus a couple other families that we didn't know.

As we were sitting outdoors enjoying each other's company we were also enjoying the cool front that had come through. While it was getting really dang chilly to be sitting outdoors without proper layers to keep warm, it was so nice to feel that fall weather come through. It was a good kinda cold! Though as soon as we got home we turned on our heated mattress pads! After getting Abby all set for her "star of the week" and getting the kids through their bedtime routine, we climbed into bed and enjoyed the heat! I just wish we could open up the house. Poor Ellie's allergies have gotten the better of her. So until the pollen levels ease up, we'll keep the house closed up in the hopes that it helps.

Garden... Gone

With the freeze on Sunday night and then again last night, the garden wasn't going to stand a chance.

So last night we dug in and ripped everything out, or at least everything we could see. It was getting pretty dark so it was really hard to know if we got it all. I do know there were quite a few tomatoes on the ground since we kept stepping on them. Yuck!

The leaves are really starting to fall as well. The thing is all the trees in our yard drop their leaves late. This is great and we are able to see the fall colors longer. That doesn't mean that we are exempt from raking leaves in your yard early on, it just means that we get to continue cleaning up our yard for a good long time. But thanks to the neighbor girl, we have extra leaves.

I watched her execute a portion of her "plan" and I couldn't believe it. At first glance one might think... "Oh, that is nice of her to rake up the neighbors leaves". But knowing her a bit more personally, that is not at all what first comes to mind. I don't know how long she was at it, but I came out to find her, with her trusty rake and a large plastic bag, raking up leaves along the neighbor’s fence line. The wind must have been blowing just right to deposit quite the pile of leaves in that one area. If it was snow and she was looking to build a massive snow fort, she would have hit the jackpot. Fortunately for her, leaves are much lighter!

So I go on about my business. I don't have much time before it gets dark and I've got more than enough to do. I start to mow my lawn, sucking up leaves as I go when I notice that perhaps I suddenly have more leaves, piles of leaves, in my yard than I did just moments ago. Then I notice the neighbor girl with an empty bag. I look around to the side yard and I notice that perhaps she made a few trips. To say I was furious is an understatement.

Now, it isn't like she went to the middle of my yard and just dumped piles of leaves. I doubt she meant to intentionally create more work for me, work that I was in the process of doing. And really, I don't at all mind the notion of playing with leaves. But it just seemed so disrespectful and thoughtless at the time. Instead of intending (?) to dump the leaves in their little 3' strip of green space that connects to our yard she could have easily collected the leaves in their much larger green space on the other side of their double wide driveway. Oh, but then she might have been seen by her parents. And really, with the wind they would have likely ended up my way sooner than later.

As we are wrapping things up her parents come outside and meet up with another adult who appears to be visiting. The dad notices that there is an abundance of leaves and makes a comment. The visitor said something. I heard it all and couldn't help but chime in to let them know that the leaves came from up the street courtesy of their daughter. Oh, and what is left is only a small portion. I couldn't believe it, but it was all received very well. They totally called her on it and they (not her!) totally apologized. The thing is, she is quite often doing something crazy and she’s totally a bad influence on our kids. And yeah, they called her on it and they said that she would have to clean it up after school the next day. But she didn't have to take ownership of her actions. And then her parents mowed so who knows if she actually had to clean it up or if they cleaned it up for her.

I really wish we could get along with this family. It would make life a bit nicer.

Annual Pumpkin Carving

Last night we tackled the pumpkins. At least that is how it felt going into it. Several of us are under the weather and we all seemed to be tired. Moods were reflective of such analysis! I suggested that waiting a night may be an option to consider and I was quickly and unanimously overruled by the little people. Maybe it was just me who was feeling less than stellar? :)

Carie and I made a quick pact that neither of us would be photographed during this event. I mostly held up to my agreement. Given that she has full authority to delete the one (cute) photo, I'll just leave it at that.

It turned out to be a great night and I'm so glad that we went through with it! I think carving pumpkins really brings out a person’s personality. And to no surprise, Abby thoroughly enjoyed digging in and cleaning out the guts. She has no qualms about the sliminess of the job and offered to clean out the guts of all the pumpkins. Ellie was willing to clean out the seeds so long as they weren't attached to a bunch of slime, and utensils were absolutely required. Spencer was more involved in the whole process this year but didn't much care for the slime either.

As tradition goes, they all designed the look of their own pumpkins. I love how the girls draw out their design on paper and then walk through their design with us. Carie then copied their designs from paper to pumpkin. After their seal of approval, we began carving. This year both Abby & Ellie participated in the carving of their own pumpkin. They thought they were hot stuff! I carved Spencer’s pumpkin with him on my lap giving me directions on what shape to carve where. Thank goodness I got it right the first time! He was easily entertained by putting the pieces back together.

After carving we like to take the pumpkins outside for a photo op, but this year it was way too cold and windy to even consider this option. The anticipated temp this morning at 8am was supposed to be 28 with a wind chill of 15. Time for winter coats, hats, and gloves! We kept the pumpkins inside with the hopes of them lasting until Friday!

And... Yeah, gotta love the outfits and accessories.

Exhausted

I've been quiet for a reason. It feels like we've been going NON-stop.

We have visitors! I had planned on writing about the plans for their visit or the countdown that we all were doing. But the days leading up to their arrival were at least as busy as the days that they have been here. There hasn't been any time for anything but the basics!

And... Let's just say that their travel plans changed frequently along the way. In part due to the excitement, across the board, for their arrival.

Grandpa & Yia Yia are here! Today makes day number 10 and we've got a couple more days to enjoy before their departure. I suspect it will be incredibly hard to say goodbye.

Yia Yia mentioned something about us being happy for them to leave and for our life to get back to normal. I replied that we won't be happy to see them go and normal is all relative. We might not be quite as tired. But there is no guarantee with that! This is just a crazy time of year with a lot going on. I think they'll be more than ready to return to their quiet life!

It has been a really great visit, for everyone I think. The kids have thoroughly enjoyed having them around and spending great time with them. In the first few days of their visit Spencer would wake up and announce with excitement that Grandpa & Yia Yia were still here. Like... hey, they didn't go anywhere overnight!

The timing of their visit was great... for us and for them. Abby & Ellie had a few days off from school where they got to spend their days doing exciting things. We had some great family time together and then they got to go explore with Grandpa and Yia Yia. It also turned out to be a great time for Grandpa & Yia Yia to be able to connect with their friends through events that just happened to be taking place during their visit.

Some of the things we've done over their visit...
- Regular school and pre-school routines.
- Hosted "Family Day" over the past 2 Saturday's
- Watched some fantastic football
- Book reading!
- Card playing... Grandpa & Yia Yia have taught the girls how to play some new - more grown up - card games!
- The adults have also gotten in a lot of games of Hearts. So far I'm still smokin' them! :)
- Grandpa & Yia Yia had lunch with Abby & Ellie at school. They also hung around for recess and got to witness the craziness. Grandpa made a comment about it being "safer at the prison" (where he works) and another older boy overheard his comment. The look on his face was priceless. Too bad we have no idea who the boy was.
- Visited the Children's Zoo on the last day of their season
- Visited Morrill Hall
- Went to the pumpkin patch at our favorite family orchard. We are intentionally skipping the big pumpkin patch this year!
- Grandpa & Yia Yia took the girls on an adventure and went to the drive thru zoo, out to lunch, and who knows what else
- Parent Teacher Conferences for Carie and I... wowza!
- Carie and I helped clean out the PTA storage facility as we prepare for Spooktacular
- Carie and I cleaned out our own storage facility - wow!
- Date night
- Visited the big Zoo
- Hosted some friends of the family
- Family pictures... 8 adults, 4 kids
- Thanksgiving Dinner (as far as Ellie is concerned)
- Birthday celebrations
- Science Experiment involving erupting pop bottles
- Soccer game... Parents vs. Kids
- Soccer party... talk about crazy!
- Numerous craft projects involving new, awesome, and never ending supplies thanks to Yia Yia!
- Bread making... yum!
- Tomato canning

- And various other things that I’m sure I’ve omitted... oh yeah, like PTA conference dinner, craigslist selling, cookie making, baking & decorating. Oh man did we find the best ever sugar cookie recipe!

Fabulous Family Weekend

Mixing some spontaneity with a partially planned weekend = a crazy busy and fabulously fun family weekend.

Friday night after dinner I was talking with a friend of ours when it hit me... hey, why don't we meet at the park? And so we did. Except, we didn't take into consideration just how early the sun is setting these days. But they did get to play for a bit. The kids were so cute and there were some wonderful photo ops... but not only did we not have our camera but it was way too dark. After the park we decided to continue the play date back at their house where we all had an incredible time but stayed entirely too late.

Saturday morning met us with swimming lessons. I'm so thankful that we selected a mid-morning slot! Abby & Ellie have really enjoyed taking swimming lessons at the High School. Last week they learned the "dolphin dive" and this week they learned how to dive standing up. And... they are in the 11' - 12' area of the pool! It has been so fun to watch their lessons. This week Ellie did fantastic on her diving... shocked the socks off us, her softball coach (whose daughter is in their class), and apparently her swimming teacher. Her teacher asked the other 3 girls if they saw Ellie's dive and then asked Ellie to demonstrate it again to her peers. It was definitely one of those proud mom moments!

Saturday afternoon while the boy napped, the girls had a play date at our house, and we worked on some house projects. Basically, the continuation of previous efforts to get things trimmed up and cleaned up outdoors. It seems like it is taking us weeks to get this stuff done, but a little at a time things are really shaping up. It is nice to be able to visually see the benefits of our efforts. We then ended up having a fantastic... political... conversation with Malien's mom when she came to came to pick her up. That was quite refreshing!

As soon as Abby & Ellie's friend had left we loaded up in the van and headed out to Mahoney State Park or (Ma)"honey SteaK Park" as Spencer called it... repeatedly. We couldn't hardly correct him he was so dang cute. We met up with some friends (same as Friday night) at the indoor activity center. It had been far too long since we have been there and we need to make sure we make this a frequent stop over this coming winter. The kids had such a blast running and playing with their best buds. We have totally reached a stage where we can say... "Do not go past this area without Mommy or Momma knowing!" And totally trust that they do. They were able to run, climb, slide, and just have fun. We were able to sit back, enjoy watching them be kids, and have a great time talking with our adult friends. We closed the place down before heading home for the ever so needed showers, a good snack, and off to bed.

Sunday morning we had planned on skipping Church in favor of checking out the new Acorn Acres area at Fontennelle Forest. It opened to the public on Sunday and they were having a large celebration with tons of activities and it was all FREE. One of the soccer moms works there and we were lucky enough to find out all about it. So that morning we met up with some other friends (who we convinced to skip Church with us!) to have a great morning of playing in nature. They were only open from 8-5 and we wanted to get there before it got crazy busy. We also had the treat of ridding on Ollie the Trollie from a nearby (overflow) parking area to the entrance. The kids thought that was pretty special!

After about 3 hours of playing, going on trails, making acorn necklaces, painting, tagging butterflies, making rain sticks, leaf prints, petting snakes, turtles and salamanders, it was time to leave and get some lunch. Not knowing really what to expect, we couldn't have planned it any better.

After lunch it was time to head home for the boy to take a nap. The girls' were also ready to veg out a bit. Carie and I would have loved to veg out as well, but we pushed on. We got some power cleaning done in a short amount of time before some visitors stopped over. Come dinner time we decided that ordering out was in our best interest. The rest of the evening was vegging out, chatting with neighbors, and playing outside in the nice cool breeze.

Apple Picking

We managed to get a trip in to the apple orchard before the rain cut loose... again.

Carie and I knocked out a fair amount of yard work while Spencer was napping. He laid down for a nap a little on the early side hoping that if the weather would hold out we'd go to the apple orchard after his nap. The weather was quite questionable! We started wrapping up our yard work when we felt drops coming from the sky. But then suddenly it cleared off and we saw some sun. We thought we'd go for it and see what happened. I'm glad we did!

We've been working on our transition routines and it showed. We managed to relatively spontaneously decide to make the trip to the orchard and within 20 minutes we were all ready to go and on the road. That included getting Abby & Ellie home from a neighbor's house!

As we were buckling up Spencer was curious as to where we were going.

Carie: We are going somewhere exciting!
Spencer: Are we going to Bounce U?
Carie: Nope, it is more exciting than Bounce U.
Spencer: Are we going to the Pizza Bachine?
Carie: Nope, it is more exciting than the Pizza Machine.
Spencer: The Geotrax Pizza Bachine?

We didn't know there was such a thing!

We arrived, they were open, and the weather was perfect. It didn't take long to pick 40lbs of apples! The kids also had a great time in the butterfly garden and corn maze.

We then went into Lincoln to get some dinner. That turned out to be a really good experience for everyone. Then we headed home and promptly got the kids to bed.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

We are experiencing the first snow of the season.

Monday:
73 & Sunny... record setting temps, by 1 whole degree.

Tuesday:
43 & Drizzly

Wednesday:
Snowing by 9am
Still snowing at 1pm with accumulation
Windy & Cold
I'm afraid to look at the temps!

We pulled the girls winter coats out for this morning. Unfortunately we found out this morning that one of the zippers didn't work. Thank goodness last years coat semi-fits while I try to resolve the zipper issue today.

Last Fall Day - 2007

While fall will officially continue, we are headed into a cold spell that spells winter to me.

Today we experienced record setting (warm) temps and it seemed like the perfect day to take the afternoon off!

After lunch we headed to the park. I've wanted to snap some photos of the kids this fall and my time was running out! I was totally on borrowed time! We left home with clean clothes and by the time we arrived to the park Spencer had unidentifiable stains all over his shirt. But we found a beautiful park, the kids played and had a great time, and I got some photos. They didn't turn out quite like I had hoped, but oh well. The subject was challenging, the lighting was brutal, and the person behind the camera still doesn't really know what she's doing!

We then went home for naps, I did some yard work, and the girls arrived home from school. The girls got snacks and vegged out for a bit (a small bit) then the girls and I went to the same park to play and hopefully get some good photos of them. Surely they would be cooperative, right? The results were dismal! The subjects were way challenging, the lighting was even more brutal, and the person behind the camera still doesn't really know what she's doing!

I guess we'll see if I have anything to use for the project I had in mind.

So... here are a couple pics of the girls and tons of pics of The Boy. Most of the pics are totally un-posed, which is what I had in mind. With Spencer it was just (ha!) a matter of playing in the chosen area. The tree photo looks completely posed, I guess he just felt like hugging a tree! The girls however... totally posed... totally not thrilled... totally not fun.

Pumpkin Patch Tour - 2007

With all the rain we had this year, our pumpkin patch excursions were shortened to one big day. And a big day it was! Well, unless you count our trip to the apple orchard as a dual pumpkin patch trip. I don't think this is a typical "pumpkin patch". Sure, they grow pumpkins. But there is so much to do outside of the pumpkin fields. To me, it is more like one gigantic fall festival.

The girls' and I spent many many hours (8, I think) roaming the pumpkin patch and still didn't get to most of the available activities. Mommy & Spencer started the morning with us and then went home after lunch for a nap. They came back after Spencer's nap to finish out the day with us and, well they also needed to pick us up. In years past we've gotten "season passes" and would spend several days enjoying the pumpkin patch. It just wasn't in the cards this year. I think I'm the only one who’s bummed about that! It was quite muddy the day we did go, I can't imagine how muddy it was any of the days prior.

One of the first things we did once we arrived was the much anticipated pony rides. Of course this is an additional expense, but the kids know about them and very much look forward to it. So we took care of that first and foremost. We also checked out Bunnyville and rode the big trikes round and round the cool path. Some of the afternoon highlights included playing on their newest attraction (a cross between a bounce house and a trampoline), playing on slides & tractors in the kids play area, feeding the animals, sliding on the gigantic slide, watching pig races, riding the hay-rack to the pumpkin fields, and playing paint ball for our very first time.

The paintball thing... shocked me. I could tell by Carie’s reaction on the phone that it shocked her as well! We don't care for guns. We don't have guns in our house, play or real. I have no intentions on changing my opinions or policies on guns anytime soon. I don't care if other people use guns... for recreation... in a safe environment... in a safe way. I just never thought it would be us! But the girls saw the paintball guns and oddly enough knew exactly what they were. It was kinda scary, actually. They didn't inquire about them. They seemed to know enough about them to ask if they could give paintball a try. From a distance it appeared to be setup safely so we went and checked it out. I was impressed! So I purchased a medium size bag of paintballs for the girls to share. Again, the girls shocked me! They each counted out their portion of the paintballs, loaded them into the hopper, got their goggles all situated, and began shooting. It was like they knew exactly what to do. Each taking a turn, they picked up the gun and held it like they were pro's. Well, pro's for a 5yo who's never held a gun before. I had a hard time following their shots, but they seemed to be aiming and hitting various objects. They seemed pleased with their results and that was good enough for me. They blew through that first bag of paintballs in no time, so I decided we'd get one more bag. Once the second bag was gone, we moved on. They thought it was way cool.

By the end of the day we were all exhausted and ready to go home!

Awesome All Around

It has been an awesome weekend and there's still time to enjoy it.

Saturday...

We had been thinking about heading to an apple orchard last weekend but then ended up getting a chance to go to the football game. So, the apple orchard was on our agenda for this weekend. Saturday morning we didn't have to be at a soccer game as it was our bye week, hooray! Well, I missed going to soccer but I didn't miss being there at 8:30! So we took our time getting ready and headed down the road. I had come across information for an orchard that looked interesting and promising. However, we had found one person who had been and couldn't recall it being all that awesome. But, it had also been years since they had been there. Hesitantly, we forged ahead.

The drive there was incredible and filled with memories. We took the back roads that we used to always take when going to Carie's folk’s old house. The girls' semi-remembered the drive and had asked to drive by Grandpa and Yia Yia's old house, so we did. A lot of good memories on those back roads! Then we headed down the county road to the apple orchard and found it without much difficulty. We made it and boy was everyone in the back of the van thrilled!

We hopped out and made our way to the barn to see what the farm had to offer. It was a "working farm" and it was a lot of fun. So much fun that I've already set reminders for us, with the links, so we can make sure we head out there for other activities next year. They had a kid’s area that had a fun corn maze, a cool and beautiful butterfly garden, and a gourd tunnel/cave. We then checked out the raspberry bushes before heading to the apples. Next year we hope to make it for strawberry season!

They had a great variety of apples to choose from. While they were fairly picked over, as expected, there were still more than enough for us to choose from. We didn't even see any red delicious apples! I'm sure red delicious apples serve their purpose in this world, but I personally prefer to avoid them. The kids enjoyed tromping through the orchard and picking the apples, especially the apples way up high that required the use of the apple picker stick thingy. After filling a few sacks with a fair amount of apples, we headed back to the barn.

Then it was time to hop on the hayrack and head to the pumpkin field. I don't think I've ever been to a pumpkin patch in September! But we were there and couldn't pass up a hayrack ride and tromping through the pumpkin patch. It was still early enough that we were able to see pumpkins in all stages of their life cycle. Practically all the pumpkins were still on the vine instead of just sitting in the field. We were amazed at the size of some of the pumpkins! Then a few rows over we found butternut and acorn squash. The kids each picked their own small pumpkin and we selected a couple squash. A quick ride on the hayrack took us back up to the barn where the kids selected caramel apples and we picked up some apple cider. It was a surprisingly inexpensive trip! We left with 13lbs of apples, 3 pumpkins, 2 squash, 3 caramel apples, a gallon of fresh cider, and a couple hours of great family fun for the low low cost of $26. It felt great to support this working farm.

Then it was time to find some lunch. It was well past lunch time by now, but thankfully we all had a great snack on our way to the apple orchard. We drove into Lincoln, stopped for some lunch, and then headed home to get the boy his nap. For him telling us "I'm sleepy" on the way to the orchard, he did awesome!

He was certainly ready for nap when we got home and he slept a solid 3 hours. Carie decided to join him and also napped for a good 3 hours. The girls and I hung out. They did some art projects. They played. They played some computer games. They joyfully helped me clean the family room. We cleaned out their dollhouse and had fun putting it all back together. Carie and Spencer finally re-appeared and it was time to make some dinner. Carie had a great suggestion to make pancakes and we certainly enjoyed them.

We even got a great football game into the evening before calling it a night. We should have turned it off and gone to bed much sooner, but it was one of those close games that could have gone either way... and shouldn't have. The ranked team was favored by 3 td's, and well they were lucky to sneak by with a win of just a field goal. So we of course had to watch until the very end.

What an awesome Saturday!

The Joys Of The Season

Saturday morning started out with a chilly 38 degrees. I can attest to it being unbelievably cold since we were at the girls' soccer game at 8:30 that morning. We totally should have had more layers on us but it seems easy to forget just how cold 38 really is. It has been so long! The high was supposed to be 62. I'm not positive it ever made it! I do recall it making it to 57 though.

After soccer we returned home and the kids were treated to hot chocolate with marshmallows! We then putzed around the house the rest of the morning and totally vegged out the entire afternoon and evening. The chili turned out fantastic, if I do say so myself. Thanks to Betsie for making and sharing those divine cinnamon rolls. We also made, at the last minute, a pot of corn chowder from a recipe Carie has wanted to try. It turned out good and Carie really enjoyed it. It was incredible comfort food on an incredibly chilly and relaxing day. It was great to hang out with the kids. It was great to give them time to just relax and be. I love how they are able to play so well together... and thoroughly enjoy it. They also really enjoyed having everyone at our house.

Sunday was another relaxing day. The temps were warmer and the kids enjoyed playing outside. That afternoon they decided that choir would be great. Well, at first Abby didn’t think she wanted to go but it wasn't long before she changed her mind. Spencer ended up going as well and it sounds like he had a great time once he warmed up. There are a lot of great motions to the current song and it fits him just perfect. I'll be surprised though if he opts to stand with the group and sing during service. Time will tell.

Today we are back to a balmy 90 degrees.

November?

Is it really November? It sure feels like summer all over again.

The weather around here has been incredible this week. Early in the week it started out incredibly nice and kept getting better. By today it was supposed to be nearly 80 degrees. I almost considered suggesting that we send the girls to preschool in shorts, but it was still on the chilly side in the morning.

Today after preschool I took the girls to their dentist appointment. On our way home we had a great conversation about the weather. They were incredibly curious about this mystery weather. They wanted to know if it was still fall. They also wanted to know if they could go swimming! Even though the weather is trying to trick us, yes it is still fall and no we may not go swimming. Though, I know it would be fun! I reminded them that the outdoor (public) swimming pools were closed. Ellie informed me that our (inflatable) backyard swimming pool was also closed. Then we listed off all the other fun things they could do outside for the entire day.

Yes, it is still fall. Yes, winter is on the way. But for now, soak up all the sunshine and fresh air you can!