Family Farm Fall Fun

We spent an afternoon at Grandma and Grandpa's Hermann farm, something I have a feeling we are all going to be wanting to do more and more. We got to tour the new garage, which now has walls and a roof and a beautiful porch, and will soon have a garage, workshop, and little loft living space inside. There was zip-lining and tire-swinging aplenty, a BBQ dinner, wagon ride, campfire, s'mores, kickball, baseball, and general running amok. It was a beautiful afternoon!

Michael Jr helped Grandpa pull the tractor and wagon out so we could all load up for a wagon ride around the property.

Edie loved it.

Ok, we all had a really fun time.

Towards the end Grandpa let Gussie come up and help him steer back to our loading spot. The kid was in tractor heaven.

Then we got the fire ready for s'mores. I'm pretty sure only one ball and no children landed in the fire pit.

Baseball (with a rubber bat and ball) was a huge hit. I spent hours mediating the batting order.

I think Charlie loves running around at the farm almost as much as the kids.

When Edie asks you to push her on a swing, you settle in for the long haul.

She discovered she loves s'mores.

Gussie has known his stance on s'mores for a while.

Even Edie had to hit the baseball before we could leave. She was getting so angry and frustrated at missing it, and refusing to leave the farm until she got a hit, so eventually I had to go kneel down behind her and help her get a hit so we could start driving home.

We left right around dusk and saw a bunch of deer on our way home. The big kids were asking Edie what she wanted for her birthday to pass the time on the drive. At first she said she wanted a real pig that would live in our house and wouldn't be mean or dirty and would sit in her lap. I told her no real pigs. So she settled for a stuffed pig, but insisted it had to be brown and purple, and it had to have a yellow and pink car that was just its size to sit next her bed so the little stuffed pig could sleep next to her. And apparently she overheard some conversations about hunting recently, because then she said what she really wanted was for me to get her a real gun and a real deer so she could shoot the deer.

I think I'll be looking for a brown and purple stuffed pig.

All The Pumpkin Farms

We've been to three different pumpkin farms in the last few weeks and since I'm behind on blogging I'm just going to smash all the pictures into one post.

First we went to the farm with the apple cider donuts on Michael's day off. It's our favorite apple and pumpkin farm (for the donuts and many other reasons) but sadly we went pretty late this year and they were picked out of apples. But we still got our donuts and apple cider slushies and played with the animals and rode the tractor wagon and picked out a few pumpkins. It was a grey and cloudy day, but obviously not that cold since all the kids are wearing summer clothes. Also, I have no idea where Edie's shoes are; I'm sure I made her wear them.

We told her she could pick out a pumpkin as long as she could carry it back to the wagon.

Conversations on the hay wagon.

And we brought a big box of apple cider donuts home with us, of course.

As soon as we got home the kids opened the box of paints and found some googly eyes and went to work decorating their pumpkins. Michael needed one teal pumpkin for his table at the Trunk or Treat at church so Edie got that job. You can always count on Edie to take a job like pumpkin painting very seriously.

And she was very proud of her end result.

I don't have any pictures from the Trunk or Treat (spoiler alert: nor of the kids in their costumes or any from neighborhood trick-or-treating), but my St. Kateri, Cowboy, Horse, Chef, and Chef Duck, Ballerina Tiger, Ballerina Duck all had a really fun time.

Last week we met a bunch of friends at another farm for a multi-kid birthday celebration. We had never been to this one, known for its play land constructed largely of straw bales. Most of my pictures are of Edie because at places like this, the big kids scatter and my main job is to follow Edie around while she climbs, crawls, swings, jumps, slides, and zip-lines.

This is a happy face, I promise.

Catherine stopped in to play with us once in a while.

And all the kids were nearby while we waited for a tractor wagon ride. They spent their time leaping from the highest straw bale wall, obviously.

And then back to the zip lines as soon as the wagon ride was done.

I told them I'm glad they all had a good time, but the next time they want to spend the afternoon on zip lines and wagon rides, we should just go to Grandma and Grandpa's farm!

Dema and Grampy T are visiting this week so we went to one more apple/pumpkin farm with them, Aunt Mel, and Kali. It turned out to be the first of several really cold days, even having been 70 the day before, but we all survived and had a great time.

Gussie would like Grandpa Steve to build him a track at the farm stocked with similar pedal vehicles.

The pedals didn't work on Edie's, but she had a lot more fun with Catherine pushing her than she would have had on her own. I can still hear her belly-laughing the whole time.

Plus they had apples! Big, crisp, fresh Fuji apples that were worth the cold to pick a few bags.

Gussie is usually all jokes and giggles, but I caught a pensive moment in the apple orchard. Who wants to guess what he's thinking about?

Hi Kali! I tried for a while to get a picture of her and Michael Jr working together to find the perfect snacking apple but they did not cooperate at all.

But it's ok, most of them were not cooperating here either. Being cold brings out the worst in a few of us. Plus they had better things to do than stand in that orchard - more delicious apples!

I guess Grampy T was on the other side of the wagon on the ride back in. Hopefully we get a few nice days to play before they have to go home!

Video Break: I Am Happy

I really love taking pictures, but it's hard to catch all of Edie's personality without video. Everything here is her idea: the sunglasses, the microphone (I have no idea what it actually is), the song, wrapping her baby on her back, and taking a video of it, just to let you know she's happy.

(Lego) Adele in Concert

Just in case anyone is wondering, the Lego craze in our household continues on. Yes, they still want all of the Lego sets on their wish lists (and recently added more). Yes, they still spend a fair amount of free time in Lego Land (even in good weather). And yes, they have welcomed Edie into the Lego fold at a younger age than any of them.

This is one of Michael's recent builds, a bucket truck. He and Gussie have really focused on trucks from scratch (not following directions from a set) and have improved quite a bit.

 I think this is a house by Edie. Whatever it is, she is really happy with it.

There have been several versions of the Titanic this week (sorry about this terrible picture of Gussie - I think Edie took it). After Daddy suggested they add smokestacks like the real Titanic, the boys had to go back and look at pictures of the Titanic again, and agreed that it should in fact have smokestacks. They decided they didn't have the right pieces for smokestacks and instead put a Titanic set on someone's wish list.

The news of the week is that Adele came and gave a live concert in Lego Land: