Another pumpkin patch and Fall Festival

Last weekend our old neighborhood had it's fall festival. They had some fun bounce houses,
and a petting zoo!

My kids loved seeing all the animals.

Our cousins Drew and Josh were there - they live in the neighborhood and invited us to come with them.

It took them a while but they finally got brave enough to finally touch the animals.

The following day we had our playgroup at yet another pumpkin patch.

Elizabeth was in school so she couldn't come - but Ben had a great time.

Our friend made all the shirts!

Here's most of our group - we've been doing this playgroup since Elizabeth was 4 months old so we've known most of these kids since they were babies.

The stair-step cousins - Josh is 4, Ben is 3, Zach is 2.

And it was finally our last pumpkin patch! (Thank goodness - we had 5 pumpkins to carve!)

5 kids ages 3 and under

These pictures aren't terribly interesting but I wanted to document my day of 5 kids ages 3 and under :) On Thursdays I babysit my SIL Victoria's kids, Amelia and Zach who are 1 and 2. Jessica and Ryan were closing on their house that day and needed someone to watch their kiddos, so I told them we could. Jackson is 1 and Cooper is 3. And of course I had Ben who is also 3. So needless to say it was crazy at my house until about 1. Then Ryan and Jessica were finished, we had nap time, and it all calmed down! :)

We played outside at 8 am when the grass was still wet with dew.



By the time the kids were ready to come in they were all kind of fussing that they were dirty (sand and grass all over) and Amelia is going through a clingy stage so if I even touched Jackson she would scream and hang onto me.

In the midst of cleaning all the legs so we could go inside Ben was running around playing soccer in the yard when I saw him fall down. He runs over to me and says he stepped in Jake's poop! So I took off his shoes but I didn't notice anything on them.

(a little sunny I guess!)

I kept smelling something gross (you know!) when I then realized I had some on my hand!!! (AHH!)
I didn't know how it got there until I looked at Ben and saw that he didn't step in it, he fell down in it! It was all over his shorts!!

At this point Jackson is naked and I'm trying to clean him, and Amelia is still hanging all over me screaming, but I'm trying not to touch anything since I'm disgusting!

Needless to say we all finally make it inside and I glanced at the clock to realize it's only 8:45!!! I was thinking it was at least 10! The rest of the morning we stayed inside and had a much calmer day. :)

Do you like all the different hats? I raided our collection and just put hats wherever they fit.

It ended up being a very fun, but exhausting day!
Yesterday Ben and I were at Home Depot and we were sitting in the parking lot when Ben got all excited because he saw the tractors!! I couldn't figure out what he was so excited about - we see them a lot and he never really cared too much. He kept saying something about them being real. I kept telling him, yes, they're real. You can use them to cut your grass. He then said why is the black one not real? I told him that was real, too. He said, No it's not, it doesn't have a face!

So by real he meant alive! I thought that was so funny! No wonder he wanted to buy one so badly! I think maybe we've seen Cars a few too many times :)

Elizabeth's First Kindergarten Field Trip

On Wednesday Elizabeth had her very first Kindergarten field trip! I was able to go with, thanks to my mom taking Ben to Jessica's house in the morning so he could go with them to zoo school. Jessica was then nice enough to keep him all day for me. Thanks mom and Jessica!

Elizabeth's class went to a petting zoo/pumpkin patch place. It was a lot of fun but way too hot for the end of October.

Each of us parents were given a group of kids to keep track of. I don't know if it's the teacher or the parent in me but I'm really very nervous during field trips! There was way too much space and the kids would start to wander, and I would start to worry. I was watching the other groups and the moms were all letting the kids wander wherever....it was stressing me out! But they all made it back to school so I guess it all worked out in the end.

Here is the group me and Emma's mom were in charge of. We're waiting in line for the hay ride.

We started the day on the hay ride. It was a little dusty, but fun.
Here's the one picture of me and Elizabeth on the field trip. I took it when we were on the hay ride.

Then the kids got to go to a variety of cages to pet the animals. Here they are with the chickens. They were told they could pick them up! I felt very sorry for those chickens!

Here's the duck cage. Again - the ducks were not too happy with all the kids chasing them around. You could tell they wanted out!!

We were also able to feed the sheep. I was only able to snap this one picture because I was too busy trying to watch our kids. It was crazy here with kids wandering EVERYWHERE!!

We met this horse named Fella that the kids got to pet and feed some hay. This was a favorite among our group.

Eating lunch,

taking pictures,

picking out pumpkins,

and playing on the playground were the last things we did.

It was a very fun field trip that I was so happy I was able to go on. I loved it and the kids had a blast!

Planetarium

My friend, Joanne, invited us to go to the Planetarium with them last weekend. It was a Sesame Street show so the kids loved it. It kept them very entertained.
The show was pretty short so we had time to explore the museum afterwards. The kids enjoyed riding the horses that was attached to this computer game.

We got some pictures in front of the cow - who doesn't want their picture in front of a dead cow?! :) Joanne and I were laughing because right after this there was a display of all different types of barbed wire, then it moved on to spurs, then to a ton of different brands hanging from the ceiling. Elizabeth wanted to know what all these things were and it was like a cow torture chamber!!

Moving on...

We tried out the hula hoops,

and then tried the momentum spinner.

Elizabeth was helping Jane see herself in the giant kaleidoscope.

I never knew Joanne had such a fantastic hidden talent! ;)

The kids made all sorts of creations that they put in the wind tunnel to see if they would fly. Jane's was flying high! (I missed it in the picture)

The kids then took turns sitting in the dino footprint.

Elizabeth had to sit in the ABC chair on her way out. We all had a great time, thanks for inviting us Joanne!