Lego Land at the Arboretum

We stumbled upon a little treasure at the arboretum a couple weeks ago.....sculptures made completely of Legos! Our boys LOVE Legos and play with them for hours, so this was a real treat.

 

An excited Everett. It took a while for them to process that those were Legos.
 

 

Sweet Eleanor was thrilled as well.
 

 

 

Oh we love the arboretum in the Fall.
 

 

It's just a gorgeous place to run and explore.
 

This one was especially neat.
 

We spotted four little pumpkins-how fitting!
 

 

 

We had such a fun afternoon at the arboretum. We love it anyways, but add in Legos-perfect!

Pumpkin Patch

After our pumpkin party we headed to the pumpkin patch! We always pick a medium sized pumpkin each year for our front stoop.

 

 

Hampton thought this gourd was really funny. He called it a "banana pumpkin." I guess because it was kind of in the shape of a banana.
 

 

And they had fun playing in the hay!
 

And this pumpkin had fun eating the hay!
 

 

 

 

 

Annual family pumpkin picture!
 

Pumpkin Party

I love throwing fun parties for the children. It does not take much to make them happy, so they are always inexpensive.....but the memories are rich! The other day we decided to have a pumpkin party! We are very excited about Fall around here. 

 

We decorated our table with treats, books, and a few Fall crafts.
 

 

 

The treat bowls contained orange and black tortilla chips, pumpkin shaped cheese puffs, and chocolate covered pretzels. Yum!
 

One very excited boy.
 

And my girl, who oddly does not care for sweets.
 

We then decorated sugar cookies with orange frosting and black and orange sprinkles.
 

 

Then it was craft time! We made beaded pumpkin necklaces (thanks Aunt Jenny!).......
 

 

 

The finished product.
 

 

This little pumpkin enjoyed watching all the fun.
 

And we decorated bats.
 

And colored ornaments.

The children also watch The Great Pumpkin and we had pizza for dinner. It was then off to the pumpkin patch to pick our pumpkin!!!

Fall Morning

Today was a lovely Fall morning. The air was cool and crisp. The leaves are continuing to fall. It was great.
On the way to school this morning Everett asked me if I was sad and missed him when he was at school. I said I missed him and he replied, "You don't need to worry mommy. Kindergarten is fun!" This just made my heart so happy!
Later in the morning, Hampton and Eleanor watched "A Barney Christmas." We are already getting in the holiday spirit around here!

 

This little thing sure knows how to relax in her recliner. This is her chair.
 

And Thatcher took a nice morning snooze. I love watching him on the video monitor and seeing all the funny positions he gets himself into.
 

We then headed upstairs and made some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. We are loving all things pumpkin.
 

And I toted around this box of tissues all morning due to a nasty cold. Tis the season.
 

And Daddy took a break from studying to give a ride.
 

I then took all 3 outdoors for a walk around the neighborhood. Even though this is a double stroller, we make it into a triple by Hampton riding in the very front! After our stroll, Hampton and Eleanor had fun collecting leaves and then throwing them into the bird bath.
 

 

It was then time for lunch. Thatcher loves bananas!

After lunch it was time for warm bubble baths and Little Bear. Rest/nap time soon followed. It was such a wonderful Fall morning!

The Kindergarten Kid

We are so proud of Everett and how he has transitioned to school. I definitely did not imagine it would go this smoothly. These are the things I want to remember about our Everett.....

You have not once (yet) stated that you do not want to go to school. You are happy to go every single day.
You have only wonderful things to say about your teacher, Mrs.Sharpe. The other day you told me there was a boy in your class that has not been making good choices, but that you always do. In fact, you have gotten "green" every day of school so far, meaning good behavior. I am so proud of you!
You have homework at least 3-4x a week and you love to do it! You have your special Spiderman pencil you use and you usually work on it before dinner. You already take such pride in your work.
When I pick you up from school I know you don't want to be chatty, telling me every detail of your day.....so we decided you will tell me at least one thing. However, once you start talking about that "one thing" a whole lot of things come up. Like yesterday you told me, "do you know there are a lot of planets?" I love hearing about what you are learning at school!
You have a favorite friend that you talk about all the time named Grayson. You told me he is your best friend.
Your favorite "center" is housekeeping. Your teacher confirmed this.
You have started working on sight words, or "popcorn words."
Your handwriting continues to improve and your coloring is beautiful!
You come home from school a bit dirty, a bit tired, but I do believe very happy. I am so glad you are loving learning and playing with friends.

Oh Everett. The time has flown. I feel like it was just yesterday I was rocking you as an infant in our apartment in Louisville. I am so proud of you and can't believe that my baby is such a big boy! I nearly choke up as I drop you off in front of the school and watch you walk up the sidewalk with your dinosaur backpack. You have such confidence and I could not be more proud of the boy you are becoming.