Our 2015 Sweet Berry Farm Pumpkin Patch visit

Here is a picture of Luke, Drew and I (and Abbey in my belly) when we visited Sweet Berry Farm in October 2011.

 
We had been looking forward to our Homeschool Field Trip to Sweet Berry Farm for a while.  It was originally scheduled for October 23rd and we were on the wait list for the trip, as it was already full (there are a TON of homeschool moms in our local homeschooling group).  But, a deluge visited our area that weekend, which caused the trip to be rescheduled. The trip was rescheduled for Friday, 10/30.  Because of the new date, many of the moms who had rsvp'd for the 23rd weren't able to attend on 10/30.  This opened up some new spots for other families (like us).  We were excited to get to RSVP.  But, as the date got closer, we realized it may get canceled due to more rain forecast for that date.  Oh no!

I didn't want the kids to completely miss out on our trip to the Sweet Berry Farm pumpkin patch.  So, we canceled our RSVP for the homeschool group field trip and decided to go on Thursday, 10/29 instead.  A couple of other homeschool families did the same, therefore we coordinated to go at the same time.  I am so glad we did, as the field trip scheduled for Friday, 10/30, was cancelled due to rain.  (And we got so much rain that there was terrible flooding in our area).  Abbey still had a bad cough on Thursday.  But, the fever was gone and she felt well, so we went.  We were there for over 4 hours and had tons of fun!  And the best part was enjoying it with friends!  Here are just some photos of our fun there.

She was a little too short to stick her head through the cutouts.  She was on her tip-toes here.  :-)

Strawberry dude!

Silly face tractor driver.

The kids spent a TON of time with the goats.  They loved them.

I was surprised how interested Luke was in the goats. He is normally afraid of animals.

This is one of our friends, Colton.  He is adorable.  Lately, he likes to carry around this black purse with butterflies all over it.  What is he carrying in that purse, you may ask?  Why, dominoes, of course!

 

Some of Luke and Abbey's friends. 

I love this picture.  Luke's friend, Brayden, on the right, looks super cool.  Benjamin just said something funny and has Luke laughing hysterically.  The boys climbed all over this poor truck.

The kids bounced on the huge bouncy pillow forever!

Brayden must have propelled Luke even higher when he landed, because it looks like Luke is shooting up like a rocket.

The flower fields were beautiful.

I asked our friend, Matthew, to show me his flower. This is what I got.  Love it!

My friend, Melissa, and her two boys. 

My friend, Sarah, with one of her three boys.

Luke and Abbey's favorite part of the day was the hayride.  I didn't get any great pictures of it, because it was extremely bouncy and we were in and out of shade.  We had so much fun the whole day though.  It was a gorgeous day. The weather couldn't have been more perfect.  The drive was breathtaking.  We made fun memories with friends.  Happy Halloween!
   

Halloween Fun!

Recently, the kids and I were at Sprout's Farmer's Market grocery store in the check out line and they spotted some tiny pumpkins for sale.  They were $.99 a piece, which I thought wasn't a bad deal.  So, after the kids asked and gave me their adorable "please" faces, of course I said "yes."  Besides, it was just a few days until Halloween and we had done a total of zero Halloween themed activities.  We had purchased no pumpkins yet.  We had no decorations up.  It was so sad.  

They were so excited about their little pumpkins.  They decided they wanted to paint them, and asked repeatedly to do so as soon as we arrived home with the groceries.  I put the perishable groceries in the fridge and we immediately set up our painting station outdoors.  Abbey wasn't feeling well--she had fever and terrible coughing all night long the previous night and got no sleep at all (I know, because I didn't get any sleep either).  But, this activity really helped to take her mind off of being ill.   

As usual, Abbey's pumpkin was full of color.

Luke had a very specific plan for his little pumpkin.  Any ideas what he may be going for here?

That face slays me...

Any ideas what he is attempting? Snow man?   No.  Marshmallow?  No.

I love hearing their little conversations at the table.  So precious.

That face again!  Ha!

Although she added many colors, the pumpkin began looking like one solid color that was a combination of all of them. A good lesson in color science I guess.

Sweet Little Hands.

And this is one of Luke's concentration faces.

The finished product.  Can you tell what it is now? 

Happy Rainbow Pumpkin.

The kids discussed naming their pumpkins.  This picture was taken right after Abbey announced that her pumpkin was named, "Luke." 

And this is where Luke was telling her she couldn't name it Luke.  He was giving her some other suggestions.  I guess there can only be one "Luke" in our house.  :-)

More name suggestions by Luke.

Happy Rainbow pumpkin and Star Wars Stormtrooper pumpkin.  I helped Luke a bit with the face but it still looks as if it were drawn by a 6 year old.  Ha!

Family Time

Many of you know that my mother passed away on October 14, 2015 at 5:45pm.  I am working on a post to share later that goes into more detail.  It has been a tough year.  We were away from our home for a couple of weeks around mom's last days and got out of our routines.   So, since we have been back home, we have been trying to get back into routines, get our pantry and refrigerator re-stocked with our staple ingredients, start extracurricular activities back up, etc.  Having a full plate though has helped me a bit through the grieving process.

Along with the regular routines, we have decided that another important thing we want to make sure we fit into our "schedules" is family time.  As busy as we were recently, we have not had a lot of quality, laid back, family time.   Thankfully, we always have dinner together at the table as a family--so there's that.  But other than that, family time with all four of us has been pretty limited.  We had to be intentional about family time:  that meant instead of leaving to run errands, go workout, etc. after Drew got home from work, I needed to let the task lists go for a bit and just relax and enjoy time with my family.  One night recently, after we had some rain, we decided to take a walk down our street and let the kids splash in some puddles.  It is one of Abbey's favorite things to do--I think the rarity of rain here in Central Texas where we live contributes to her love of the puddles. 

Silly girl. She reminds us a lot of Luke being silly in this photo.

With all the rain we got, there wasn't much else we could do besides take a walk and jump in puddles outdoors that evening.  So, we brought the fun indoors with a game of "Uno."  The kids love this game.  Our kids like to win though.  I know...what kid doesn't, right?  But seriously, our kids are very...very competitive.  It was inevitable, really, that they turned out that way.  I mean, Drew and I are just a tad bit competitive.  Our kids' hands are still too small to hold all their cards, and Abbey still needs some help deciding which card is the best to play.  So, they lay their cards out in front of them so we can help.

Notice that Drew and I do not share which cards we have though....  :-)  There's that "competitive" thing again.

Daddy was the dealer.

Abbey got a great card!

But, it was the dealer's lucky night.  He won two times in a row.  The kids were not happy about that.  Of course, the competitive and "rule follower" side of him couldn't "let" either of the kids win either.  Here is where you see another side of our sweet kiddos.  The competitive...not happy about losing twice in a row...side. 
 

Luke was very disgusted that he lost again.  So, we agreed to play one more time.  We probably should have made it two.  Luke ended up winning.  This was the outcome....

And....it was time for bed. 

Ha!   Although there were tears, they will tell you they love to play.  It's just the losing part that is sad sometimes.  Winning or losing though, it was still some quality family time.  Memories that we will always cherish.  Abbey may not cherish the fact that this photo is on the internet someday though. (Although she giggles every time she sees it now).