Celebrating Fall

We've done a lot of things over the last couple months to celebrate the season.

In September we went out to Johnson Brothers Greenhouses nearby for a harvest event. They had cider and cookies and a free flower potting station for kids. 

When we arrived we realized we didn't have Desmond's shoes. We both assumed that they were in the car because he typically takes them off as we are going somewhere we've given up on putting them on until we arrive to our destination. So we just doubled up on the socks and carried him half the time, he didn't seem to even notice.

The boys loved digging in the dirt, picking out flowers and planting them. They especially loved watering them with the piggie watering can. The gal that helped them through it was great with kids. We browsed a bit and headed on our way to warm up. The boys were very proud to display their creations out front.

We get a LOT of leaves at our house, from the very beginning of fall and into the winter. The orange and yellow leaves are thanks to our giant maple tree out front. It dumped two times what you see covering our yard and driveway in the pics below. The boys really enjoyed playing in them, and thankfully Ben was able to get the majority off the yard before the rain made them soggy.

We have a lot of leaves in our backyard too from several small trees. Kai loves to help rake them up with Ben. There is another gigantic tree just waiting until we get all these leaves up to make it's contribution. 

There have been a handful of sunny afternoons, warm enough to head to the park. I love watching these two play together, such little buds. 

More recently we made a visit to one of the farms down the street from us to pick up pumpkins. Unfortunately the whole experience of riding the wagon out to the pumpkin patch and picking a pumpkin is too expensive for us. Thankfully our kids don't yet know what they are missing. They are totally thrilled walking up to the pumpkins on display at the store front and we are just as pleased to use free pumpkin vouchers we received from our mortgage advisor's office.

After getting pumpkins we stopped at a park on the way home and enjoyed a few more moments of sun. Then the boys colored them (we don't carve yet!) and set them out front for display. 

Last Wednesday we stopped at the other farm down the street for their last day before closing until spring. They have a play ground and goats, so the boys thoroughly enjoyed playing there. Thankfully it was nice and sunny, and not too cold.

For Halloween we didn't really have much planned for costumes, I couldn't get the boys to commit to anything so I didn't make or buy costumes. At the last minute I convinced Desmond to wear Kai's old Batman PJ's with the cape for his costume, and Malakai wore this awesome spider shirt that Grandma Debbie had made him. It was NOT a costume though, he was NOT spider man. Just Kai, in a spider shirt. He was very serious about that.

Ben and I didn't do costumes, but he did wear a Batman T-shirt to match Des, which rendered him the nickname, "Batdad" at the Harvest party that night. Our church puts together a HUGE harvest festival for the community out at Camp Harlow (which is a ministry that they run). There were tons of games to earn candy in several different buildings, plus a petting zoo with a lemur, bunnies, a wallaby, tortoise and snakes. Des feels the same as mama when it came to the snakes.

We are planning as long as we can to take our kids to the Harvest party and avoid the door-to-door trick or treating trend.

I'm so thankful we made the extra effort to get out and enjoy the fall weather before it turned into the rainy cold mess that it is here in the winter, which is surely just around the corner!