More pics from Pumpkin Patch with Aunt Nessie

Big Willie and Miss M feeding a giraffe.  The giraffe was all up in our business. His tongue is long and aggressive - he knows there's food!

Witch's Brew

 Cater.

 She loved the pony rides - it might have something to do with her thinking she is a horse.

 Look at his face - pure joy to ride a camel.

 Cater.

 Such a good little girl.

 Miss M picking pumpkins although I don't recall taking any home!

Random Fun

I went to take a shower one afternoon and the girls were playing upstairs. I came downstairs and found Big Will naked and napping on the floor.  It's not uncommon that he runs around naked.  It was more shocking to find him asleep than naked.  

Silly fun.

Big Craig came to visit. It was so nice that he came to visit. I miss that guy.  We ran errands. The kids drove him insane. He would try to turn up the radio to drowned out the noise but they just got louder. You can't outsmart their loudness. I have tried.  We shoved them in a Home Depot cart and drove around as fast as possible.

Craig came to visit bc it was the boy's annual football weekend. They went to the Iowa/Northwestern game.  My friend Jill went to the game with some of her friends thus leaving Jill's husband, Steve, and I with all 5 kids. There was a Halloween thing going on in town so we loaded the kids up and were one big happy blended family! Well - we left Cater at home with the babysitter!!!

Our two Elsa's. They got to meet Elsa as she was one of the stops on the Halloween tour. They weren't sure what to think. I wasn't either as Elsa was a little weird looking.

We did our parental duties and then dropped the rest of the kids off at the house and went to lunch! The babysitter willingly accepted all 5 kids although my youngest 2 slept the entire time we were gone.  I asked the waitress to take our picture. I told her we were going to send the picture to Steve's wife. The waitress freaked out a little and asked if his wife knew we were together.  Well she does now! Of course she knew. 

Andrew had signed up for a 10k in town. The past two years Annessa, Andrew, Jill and other friends have run the race with Steve and I being the support crew. This year Andrew was entertaining his family and a hangover. I ran in his place. ran home, took a shower, got dressed, ran back to the church and spoke at church on behalf of the nursery school. The need to get to the church on time was helpful in getting my legs to turn over faster! I ran a PR and it's not even under my own name so I can't use it to get into a faster corral at my next race in November.  

Jill and I with Frank Lloyd Wright.  After all it is FLW's race so it's only appropriate he showed up. 

Big Will's First Haircut

I had scheduled the kids hair cuts the day before school pictures. Nothing says prepared like a 4pm appointment the day before picture day.  Big Will had decided to take a nap on this particular day and so I had to wake him up. We are all aware that waking Big Will is like waking a hibernating bear...terrifying.  He was a bit of a pistol and not at all distracted by the tv shows on the wall or the cute little cars to drive.  

Cater wanted to be in the action but unfortunately she doesn't have enough hair to cut. It was helpful to have her contained for awhile. 

Miss M loves to get her hair cut.

Big Will playing in the car before his turn.  Playing in the car was way more fun. 

It's hard to tell if this is a before or after picture but it's the before picture. His hair was so crazy in the back.  There were wisps flying around everywhere in the back. It was cute but he needed shaped up.

The monkeys before their school picture day. They were adorable. I can't wait to get the school pictures and see how things actually turned out.

His mouth is so big. His happiness is infectious.

Pumpkin Patch #2

We headed to our tried and true pumpkin patch with Aunt Nessie on Columbus Day (or whatever was the last bank holiday).  

Miss M couldn't get enough of feeding the animals. She would have went through 10 cups of carrots if we'd have bought them for her. 

Cater just screeched at all the animals - whether happy or scared.

All the kids head in the holes. Miss M the Monkey - Big Will the Giraffe - Cater the Tiger - and Nessie the Zebra.

Me and Nessie - Cater is loose in the bottom corner of the picture - Miss M is our photographer. We have no idea where Big Will was during the picture. We found him though.

Trying to stay together in all the crowds.

Big Will loved the pumpkin smashing, pumpkin throwing, burping mechanical dinosaur. Miss M has always been scared of it but she dealt with it this year.

He was unsure about feeding the animals. He wanted to but the aggressive animals were more than he could handle. He's feeding a pony in the picture below.

We had to do pony rides. She was so happy.

He smiles like Uncle Craig. He was happy too.

Big Will was set on riding the camel. I didn't know if they would let him ride without an adult. They put him on and Miss M got on the back and they enjoyed their trot around the camel path.

We had a break for a snack.

We played in the corn box. The corn box was much smaller and much much much more crowded than the other pumpkin patch's corn box.

Aunt Nessie and Miss M with Cookie Monster.

Big Will thinks he has to put his entire body out of the cut out rather than just his head.  Miss M and Big Will and Aunt Nessie riding on their princess carriage.

We did some experiments from the book I bought before Nessie headed home. We put eggs in water with various other materials to try and get them to float.  Miss M loves an experiment which reminds me we have no vinegar in the house...still.

Keeping busy

Grandma D came to visit. We kept busy...

Painting pumpkins

Making homemade cinnamon rolls

Delivering sweet treats to teachers (Big Will wouldn't take a picture with his teachers - on the bottom).  Big Will's teacher laughed and remembered when Miss M wouldn't take a picture the day she came for a home visit 3 years ago and now she's all smiles.

I bought another Halloween costume for Cater. I had originally bought her a penguin costume from ye ol' Costco but it was too small so I returned it. Miss M was devastated that her baby wasn't a penguin so when I saw someone selling a costume for $5 I had to buy it. She looks happy in her costume - totally.

I wanted to do an "experiment" that I had seen somewhere - it was an epic failure and those nasty pumpkins are decomposing on our front porch. It's disgusting.  The kids had fun and didn't want to give up even after I told them it would not work.

Big Will's nap strike.

He had fallen asleep while I was running errands with him and Miss M. He zonked out about 1/4 of a mile from Costco.  I wasn't impressed so I unbuckled him and laid him in the Costco cart and he slept the rest of the way through Costco. He should be thankful that Costco has large carts.

He (not me) is working on potty training.

While we were eating pizza and a hot dog (our usual shared meal) we had to pack up and rush to the bathroom. Look at these cuties walking back to the table in their Hawkeye clothes. It almost looks like they are friends.  They are only friends on Miss M's terms. Big Will wants nothing more than for her to be his friend all the time.

Pumpkin Patch 2015 part 1

What's more fun than hitting up the pumpkin patch after school with all your friends??? Not much!!! Alicia and Helen and I decided we needed to get the kids together to play and instead of destroying our houses we took them to the pumpkin patch.  My little two should nap. One naps better than the other.  Neither napped.  There was too much action.  

We had been to this pumpkin patch last year and it was a nightmare. I hated it. I never wanted to return. We returned. On a weekday.  It was great.  There were no lines for anything and there wasn't the overwhelming fear that I was going to lose a kid.

The pig races weren't really a hit. The announcers were too slow in moving the program along and the kids got bored and didn't find their pig jokes humorous.

So the kids moved on to riding rides.  Mary, Kathryn, Big Will and Miss M riding the honey pots. Miss M told me the honey pots were her favorite ride.  You can see Helen's excited face in the right corner. She was a life saver helping me with the kids.  There's a perk to having a friend tag along who has older kids who can do most things on their own.

Mary, Kathryn, and Miss M riding the frog. Miss M didn't love it.

Big Willie rode with the boys and Helen.  I was worried he would get upset with the speed and up and down movement but it didn't phase him.  This is good information as we gear up for Disney in March!

She reluctantly hung out with me and watched all the big kids.

Riding the train.

Big Will said he wanted to ride this frog hopper ride. It shoots up in the air and then comes back down when you're least expecting. It continues to do this for a minute or so. The kids had no idea what was in store for them.

Big Will LOVED it. He rode it twice in a row before we made him get off b/c he probably would have done it all day.  He and Mary joyfully screamed a lot. Miss M and Kathryn held on for dear life.

Miss M was in love with the pink potties.

The boys wanted nothing more than to ride the big slide.  Big Will and Miss M weren't tall enough to ride alone which meant that I had to ride with them. I couldn't ride with both of them at the same time so I hauled up the stairs and rode the slide twice with each kid. Helen kept Cater and tried to get her to sleep.  The first time down the slide it was actually anther terrifying. Helen was able to capture the terror. 

There was a corn box. No joke. The corn box was the hit of the entire day.  We managed to keep 8 kids, yes all 8 kids, in the corn box for 45 minutes.  After 45 minutes we decided we needed to move on and pick out our pumpkins and start heading home.  The kids didn't ask to get out, they didn't ask to go to the bathroom, they didn't ask for a snack. It was amazing. It was probably most amazing they didn't ask for a snack.  

They made corn angels. 

Filled whatever Tupperware and bags we had on hand.

Surprisingly she didn't try to eat any corn.

She stayed stationary for the longest time before she realized she could move.

Look at all those hooligans.

One of our two big pumpkins.

We will be hitting up another pumpkin patch with Aunt Nessie next week!