Pumpkinville

Over my mom's fall break we went to Pumpkinville at the Myriad Garden. I'm pretty comfortable getting out with both of the kids by myself most of the time, but any time someone else can come along its always great! I thought it might be freezing, but it was a great fall day!

The entrance to the children's garden was decorated with tons of pumpkins. It was gorgeous! But I'm also a sucker for pumpkins in all kinds of shapes, colors, and varieties!

                                                                                    Singing "life's a funny dreeeeaMM!"                                                                                                               (her version of row your boat)

Inside the garden there were tons more pumpkins, fall decorations, and things for the kids to play on.

Isabella and my mom painted pumpkins together.

A massive owl sculpture

And my sweet, happy baby pumpkin 

We had a really fun time together!

Weekend scenes

Early morning tea party.
And there's been about 5 more since. Her favorite part seems to be spooning out the "shoo-gur".

Splashy baths


Kick and play time

Little people princesses and trains...some of her current favorites

Michael built a fire pit in the backyard. We broke it in with roasted marshmallows and s'mores.

 Strawberry s'more for her- regular for me.

Strangely, as messy as she likes to get with some things, she did not like how messy the smore was. First she wanted her hair back, and then wouldn't finish it because it was too sticky.

Imparting his love of fire to her.

Blurry Benjamin.
He laughs out loud watching her sometimes. I wish I knew what he was thinking. :)

She wanted to paint her pumpkin from the pumpkin patch as soon as she woke up from her nap. At first she said she just wanted to paint it orange, but then decided on making a "rainbow pumpkin".

I love the weekends, and wish they could last longer. I guess that's what keeps them special and something to anticipate. 

Orr Family Farm

Friday Michael was off work for Fall break so we went to the Orr farm. I woke up with my throat so sore it hurt to swallow water let alone any food. But I really wanted to go while Michael was off work, so we went anyway.

I was thinking it  would be better to go on a week day than the weekend, but there were several schools there for field trips, so non- school time might have been better. But we got there right as most of them started to have lunch so we didn't have to wait in line too long for anything.

The boys on the hayride.
I thought Benjamin would fall asleep on the ride down, but he did not. So he was super sleepy.

Picking out her pumpkin.
She said this was her favorite part of the day.

I caption this one- "Hold me close Benny. The zombies are comin'".  Really its just super bright and she's squinting.  (And the Walking Dead has been playing A LOT at our house recently. I can't watch it! Too scary and gory for me!)

Waiting in line  for the train.
Which broke down while we were on it. Luckily it happened close to the jumping pillows where we were headed next and not on the back of the farm!

Last year she was afraid of the animals in petting zoos, so feeding them is a whole new development!

She also rode the mini tractors, bounced on the jumping pillows, and on our way out she rode the carousel. But we were back to sitting on a bench because she said she was too scared to ride one of the horses.  We had a really fun time! We left and picked up chickfila and came home to nap.

Thursday

We walked to the neighborhood park for a picnic today. I was practicing shooting with my lens wide open. It was middle of the day, full sun overhead, and we ate our picnic in a shady spot with some light coming through. So neither was the best lighting situation.

Photo bombed by sister, who didn't want to be in a picture until I started taking some of Benjamin.

The park backs up to a field and barn that has horses. Sometimes we can see them and sometimes they are in a different area and we can't. Today the horses were out and a couple donkeys. She's always excited to see them! She climbs up the fence to get a better look.

Then she wanted to take some pictures of the horses with my camera. So I showed her how to hold the camera and take a picture and she thought that was pretty cool. 20 blurry horse pictures later, we headed back home. :)

Baby Giraffe

We went to the zoo last week while our friends were here and got to see the baby giraffe!! I was so happy to see it before it gets too cold and they don't come outside as much! He was just 9 days old the day we were there.