Apples, Mazes, and Pumpkins....Sounds Like Fall!

For awhile now we've been trying to get together with some of our friends who we haven't seen in awhile and a few weeks ago us mamas nailed down a date.  Then this past week we were tossing ideas back and forth and Rachel suggested we check out this farm near us.  It had a variety of activities and we figured we'd just see what was going on once we got there.

It was supposed to be in the 60s so we all showed up without jackets and it turned out to be so cold!  The wind was blowing and it was very cloudy and we all were shivering!  We decided to pick some apples and then do a corn maze.  The girls and I have never been apple picking and they really enjoyed it!  We wandered up and down a few rows picking red and green apples.  I think we ended up with Gala, Golden Delicious (which were more green than gold), and some Red Delicious apples.  The girls loved trying to pull the apples off the tree and we had a hard time grabbing the apple to check before they picked it.  They especially liked the apples way up high because Daddy had to lift them up to get them.

 

Noelle in orange, Natalie in white.

After apples we walked back to the car and stuck the apples inside.  Then we went over to wait for the hayride down to the corn maze.  The tractors were running a little slow and it was so cold!  We did get to see the pumpkin cannon fire a few times and we watched some cows mosey down to the pasture from milking.  The kids just enjoyed running around and getting dirty :)

The tractor finally came and we took a short ride to the corn maze.  This farm had two mazes.  One was one acre and one was nine acres!  We opted for the one acre one and it turned out to be pretty short.  I think we were only in there about 15 minutes but the kids seemed to enjoy it.

After the corn maze we checked out some pumpkins in the nearby patch as we waited for the tractor to come back.  Once we made it back to the car we all headed to the Greene Turtle for lunch.  We were starving!  After that the girls went home for naps and I hit up the grocery store and made sure to get ingredients for Ben's favorite, apple crisp!

The rest of the weekend was just stuff around the house like cleaning out the garage, selling our oven finally, cleaning, and working on Halloween costumes.  It was nice to stay home and just relax.  Happy October!

Beginning of the Year

Guys...there is NOTHING like beginning-of-the-school-year-exhaustion that we teachers experience.  Seriously.  The first week back is full of running around, not eating lunch till 3pm, helping lost students find their teacher when they don't know who their teacher is, convincing kids to come in from the playground, and buses dismissing late because kids keep getting on the wrong ones.  Then to come home and work on all the stuff you didn't get to during the day so that you have an actual class list for next day's fire drill or popsicle sticks with lunch numbers ready, or making sure you know how to teach the new lessons.  It's tiring!  I think I had over 10,000 steps every day BEFORE I got in the car to go home!

I think it's going to be an interesting year...I have a good class and they're just so darn cute at 6 yrs old!  The challenge for me this year is taking a room and materials that I have enough for and know how to work for 24 students and making it work for 26 students, possibly more if we get more new ones.  It's a lot of kids!  And my organizational mind is in overdrive trying to make my room work for that many.  It's going to be interesting and take a lot of trial and error.  Good news is that 6yr olds are fairly flexible when it comes to changing things up!

I don't have too many pics from the week but here are a few from last weekend and the first week back.  Ben & I had a wedding to go to the Saturday of Labor Day and since it was a few hours away we just got a hotel room for the night so we didn't have to worry about driving back so late.  The wedding was for college friends.  The groom, Nate, lived on Ben's floor freshman year and the bride, Lindsay, was a freshman in their dorm their sophomore year.  They started dating and TEN YEARS LATER he proposed...Lindsay is one patient woman!  There were several jokes during the ceremony about how we've waited a long, long, long time for this day lol!

 

Ben's roommate all 4 years of college, Matt, was the officiant for the wedding.

 

Finally husband and wife!

 

That dress....all the heart eyes!

 

 

Pictures during the cocktail hour.

 

The wedding was supposed to take place outside at that little gazebo but remnants of Hurricane Harvey forced the wedding to take place inside.  There was a break in the rain during the cocktail hour so we could go out for pictures.

 

It was fun seeing college friends that we haven't seen in awhile, some in several years!

 

I've been playing with my Silhouette Cameo some more and decided to try glass etching.  It's pretty simple.  You use the vinyl to make a stencil, put the stencil on the glass, plop on some etching cream and then wash it off.  I thought it turned out kinda cool!

 

After the A I decided to try our family business' logo.  Not too bad!  I have one more side to try so I'm deciding on another design to do.  I've also been working on birthday shirts for a friend at daycare...can't show them yet!

 

September and cooler weather means all the pumpkin!  I made some GF pumpkin bread that didn't last very long.

 

And some random pictures...we tried a new park out last weekend and we were watching Daddy fly his drone :)

 

Natalie loves to swing!

 

The girls almost always "read" to themselves after we put them to bed and almost every night I have to put their books away for them.  How sweet!

 

Reading with Daddy, accessories on point.

 

And that's all I have from the past week!  

 

 

August Pics!

I like to try to round up all the random pictures I take each month...you know, the ones that don't quite get their own blog post but I still want to remember.  So here are the random August ones!

 

I did a Cards For A Cause fundraiser through Usborne Books & More for one of my friends but since she was due with her 3rd baby any day, I sent the cards to my house.  Look at all those boxes!

 

Went to Family Day at Daddy's work and ate popsicles and chips!

 

Finally, my lap all to myself!

 

Noelle wearing a little jacket that was mine when I was a baby!

 

Another silhouette project, this time for my mother-in-law's birthday!

 

Noelle's ready for a rainy day at daycare!

 

In August we FINALLY got our playset up!  The girls love playing on it!

 

Noelle was upset Riley ate a cracker that I gave to Riley.

 

We went to a downtown festival in our town and they had giant draft horses!  Tom and Jerry were beautiful and gentle giants.

 

Ready for their first day back to daycare!

 

Seeing the playset for the first time!

 

Just adorable!

 

Noelle woke up for her first day back to daycare and was ready to go!  Natalie was not and was quite grumpy.

 

Natalie's ready for the rain.

 

During nursery at church, I noticed Natalie carrying these two Little People figurines around.  I asked her what she had and she said, "Look mama, Natalie and Noelle!"  She played with them the entire time!

 

Heading to the street festival!

 

Natalie was not ready for her first day back at daycare picture.

 

Cooking french fries

So there you have it!  We did a lot in August trying to enjoy the last bit of summer!  Now we're ready for all the fall activities!