There’s a storm headed our way. A monster storm that totally freaks me out. But we’re not going to talk about that today.
Today it was all about fun. We have family in town. It’s fall. So we took our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. And threw in a side trip to get the best apple cider in Pennsylvania (and some apple cider donuts).
Here are some highlights.
The fall colors around here are breathtaking right now. I love the contrast of the trees and the sky and the mountains.
Isabelle has a thing for gourds. We came home with 10 and she picked out at least half of them.
Here she is sizing up her pumpkin.
Not to be outdone, her brother picked his up.
Corban ended up with a 12-pounder. Isabelle’s weighed in at about 17.
Besides taking field trips, another fun thing about having family (and extra hands) around is all the projects you get to do.
We made eyeballs. (This is not quite how we did it, but it’s close if you want to duplicate.)
They’re surprisingly delicious, for eyeballs.
And since great-grandma sent along some new glue sticks, construction paper and markers, we had fun with craft time.
I give you Isabelle the Native American princess.
We ate at Chick-Fil-A. I like the food. My husband will soon be working there. But I don’t want this to be a habit we get into. Or maybe I do. Because today we tried the Chick-Fil-A sauce, and that stuff would be good on anything. Any. Thing.
Phil and I got a breakfast date on Friday, and I’ve had some writing inspiration. The kids got to take their “special guests” to story time.
And tomorrow, we’re sending the kids back with their grandparents while we brace ourselves for the storm. Under different circumstances, I’d welcome the reprieve. It will be less stressful preparing for and recovering from whatever Sandy might bring without the children here, but I don’t expect it to be a relaxing week.
So today we savor the fun. And batten down the hatches. (Anyone know what hatches are?) And thank God for family.
Our kids’ first tractor-pulled ride to the pumpkin patch to pick out their own pumpkins. Corban is a little concerned here because the tractor, which he couldn’t wait for, was a little noisier than he thought and the ride was bumpy. Isabelle is already plotting her strategy, I think. Pumpkin picking is serious business.
“Oh, it’s a baby one. I have to watch over it.” She found this pumpkin seconds after we got off the trailer. And we had to gently persuade her to pick out another, bigger, pumpkin. She’s turning into quite the little mommy. We also picked out a family of gourds to help her watch over this little one. We probably could have walked away from the pumpkin patch with $5 worth of tiny gourds, but Phil and I insisted on at least one big, orange pumpkin. Creative persuasion for the sake of tradition, if you will.
