Apple Orchard and Pumpkin Patches!

Grandpa and Grandpa are back from their trip. They brought the boys t-shirts from New Zealand so the boys all wore them to school on Monday.

It's safe to say after this weekend I've had my fill of apple orchards and pumpkin patches.

I was so excited for Tuesday to come. I think I was even a tad more excited then Spencer. It was his first field trip and I got to tag a long as a chaperone. I looked forward to spending the day with Spencer and watching him interact with his teacher and friends.

We rode the school bus.

Nicco sat in our seat also. Three to a seat! It's a good thing they are little.

We took a hay ride to see the apples.

They tour guide taught the kids all about how apples grow.

It was time to pick.

This is Madden, he also lives on our street.

They showed us how they pick apples and put them in their magic bags and fill up crates for bagging and selling.

Spencer's class...

We headed back to the school for a picnic lunch in their classroom.

I wondered how Spencer would do when I said goodbye. I thought he would be excited to stay with his friends and ride the bus home. Nope he was tearful saying goodbye and asked me to stay longer. 

 After spending the day with all those kindergarteners, a few mom's and myself went for drink and lunch.

Grandma Nancy came to visit us this weekend! The boys were excited for her to come and stay at our house. She was waiting for Spencer when he got off the bus.

We went for a walk on the Pier...

The boys went Ninja Turtle hunting, yelling for them down the drains

and played a few video games before dinner.

The next day Grandma Nancy, Ryan and the boys took on the Mall Of America. They had lunch and rode on some rides and even played some games.

 This was as close as they wanted to get to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

They played a game where you throw ping pong balls into floating plastic dishes that are moving all around. Nolan made two in the dishes, Spencer and Easton didn't make any. The big boys weren't happy!

Spencer will still throw a fit every time I go to work out. He cries and begs to go with or for me to stay home. He doesn't understand yet that I need these 30 minutes but some day when he is a dad he will understand. So I told him he could come a long if he rode his bike. He can finally make it the 3 mile loop that I will run around our house.

There have been some serious kid vs dad football games going on in our culdesac. Spencer wanted Ryan to kick him the ball one morning when they were waiting at the bus stop!

Nolan is still working on potty training. We haven't started training him yet, more just getting him warmed up to the idea.

Spencer and Easton both have color charts at school for behavior. I like that I have something quick to refer to so I know how their day was. We decided at home to give them a check mark for every day they are on green or above. If they earn 10 checks we will go bowling. Sadly, Spencer's got erased after he was on red one day so he is starting over. I'm not really sure why he was on red and his teacher was out sick that day and the rest of the week so I'm not sure I will ever know. So far Easton has 4 checks and Spencer has 3!

Sunday was a beautiful day. I had planned on taking the kids to the pumpkin patch and my sister had the same plans for her kids. We started our morning out with a wagon ride.

Finley wasn't interested in the wagon or getting his picture taken!

Great views!

They actually do like each other some of the time!

By true definition of a mamma's boy! Love my little Easton!

Hadley is by far my favorite little niece. I also think I'm her favorite Auntie!

The kids burned energy in the bounce houses.

Rode on the pretend tractor...

Played pumpkin basketball...

We vote this should be Grandma's new profile picture.

We walked through the spooky trail. Spencer kept saying "This isn't spooky! This isn't scary!" So I took pure joy when I jumped/yelled/grabbed him and scared him.

Auntie kept warning all the kids how scary this wooden tunnel was. She told them it makes lots of scary sounds...

The big boys weren't as scared...

But poor Nolan was terrified!

They had a petting zoo

Grandma and Hadley liked the little dachshund.

They had hay mounds to climb around...

The kids went fishing for wooden fish...

Nolan trying to reel in a big one....or he was fighting with Hadley over the pole.

We did a corn maze...

This is how Nolan feels about having his picture taken these days.

We did bounce horse races...

Shot corn and apples out of little launchers.

Spencer was the lucky one picked to load the next pumpkin in the pumpkin launch.

Everyone had to see how tall they were...

After the pumpkin patch I got a great idea of taking the boys to an apple orchard. The Packer game wasn't over yet and the day was too nice to go home, so off we went.

We walked around picking a few apples. Each boy got to pick 5.

We also sat and had a taste. I thought it would be cute to get a picture of the 3 boys eating apples. Nope not such a cute idea.... See not all of my pictures of the kids turn out!

They love these little cut outs for their heads.

We ran into our neighbors....

Here's your challenge. There are 3 boys in this picture that belong to me can you find them? This just about gave me a heart attack trying to keep track of them so that's when I decided it was time to go home for dinner and baths.

Fall is in the Air!

My camera battery died this week and I never really got around to charging it. I'm not lacking in pictures but there mostly the ones we took from our phones. Next week we have a busy week and I'm sure to have a lot of pictures to post.

I love this time of year. It makes me want to start baking. We made pumpkin bars this week.

In the mornings I wake up Spencer. My heart stopped for a minute when I walked in his room Monday morning and I didn't see him. He's back under his bed.

This is what he looks like when I get him dressed. I'm sure most people reading this are thinking I should be teaching him to get up and get himself dressed but honestly we only have a limited amount of time in the mornings and if it saves us from having an argument I will continue to dress him. I'm sure he won't let me do this when he's 10, so it works for now.

I took Easton and Nolan to Teddy Bear park with some friends this week.

We stopped at the candy store after lunch for a treat.

Easton LOVES hockey and will take any chance he can get to wear his equipment.

I also took the boys to story time at the library this week.

We stayed after for a bit to play with the puzzles and look at books.

Easton will make an obstacle course out of anything. While I folded laundry he ran back and forth about 20 times jumping over these things.

I took them to the gym that evening for toddler time. I turned to help Spencer do something and when I turned back around I found these two up to no good.

Easton got to play with a bath crayon. Needless to say Ryan was scrubbing the tub after bath time.

Nolan and Jake playing in a pot together.

Ryan took the boys to a football game Friday night. I told Easton he should dress warm and cute. I love his "new to him" coordinating outfit we bought at a friend's thrift sale.

Easton had skating lessons on Saturday. Spencer's soccer was canceled so he got to tag along to watch him skate.

Later Ryan took the older boys to Hobbs in Eau Claire to watch the Badger hockey team play.

What was supposed to be a fun evening for just Ryan and Spencer started out with a bang. As Ryan was turning left to go down a street in downtown St. Paul, he got hit by a girl coming straight down the road. The good news everyone was ok. Spencer was in the car but he sits on the other side. There was minor damage done to both cars.

I think they were still able to enjoy the game. Spencer was excited they were giving out orange hunting hats.

My Uncle Howie passed away last week unexpected. We gathered the family together on Sunday for lunch and to offer support to each other. Franny was in charge of the kids and she makes a great baby sitter!

 

Spencer was great with the Aunts. He sat and listened to them as they told him stories about when they were little.

Nolan played dress up in Grandma's halloween costumes.

The down side of letting your kids play with your phone..

Your apps get all mixed up and some even get deleted.