Fall Festivities

We've been busy with lots of fun activities. Here's some pictures to catch you up-to-date. Mackenzie and Josiah at a pumpkin patch on Tuesday afternoon. We stopped by to pick out a couple "pie size pumpkins" for school projects.
And I had to snap a few pictures while we were there, of course. ;)

This morning, after settling the kids in their classrooms, I joined some friends and we off-loaded their truck bed full of pumpkins. Today was going to be pumpkin patch day for the kids, complete with hayrides! Due to rain, the pumpkin patch grew out of concrete this year. ;) The kids loved getting to pick out pumpkins. Thanks to our friends for donating the pumpkins. The hayride was rained out, but we all had fun anyways! You can see the trailer full of hay behind Proctor's truck. Would have been fun....sigh...but the concrete pumpkin patch was great!

Here's the Kindergarten side of the pumpkin patch.

My Little Man is in the middle of the back row with the gray shirt and red pants. Today was "dress up like a community hero" day; they enjoyed being out of dress code. Josiah was a firefighter.

Josiah with a few other boys picking out pumpkins.

Josiah and me at the concrete pumpkin patch. lol.

Here's his whole class with the pumpkins they chose. He's on the front row toward the right.

Mackenzie's class did not attend the pumpkin patch (it was just for the Kindergarten and 3rd grades as those are the grades that Proctor and Allison's kids are in), but they did enjoy painting pumpkins in their classroom today. I guess 2nd graders are more independent than Kindergartners as they did not need parents in the room to help today. So, I don't have any pictures of Mackenzie from today! I did get to eat lunch, one-on-one, with the kids today during their lunchtimes. That was fun. The above picture is of Josiah's class decorating pumpkins with stickers this afternoon.

Josiah and Tucker

Josiah decorating his pumpkin with stickers.

Josiah and me. I love getting to be involved in his classroom activities! I am thankful to "share" room mom responsibilities with Lexi's mom this year. Very nice, indeed!

Josiah with Mrs. Haluska

Candid pics of pumpkin decorating.

Cutie

Aly and Josiah

Last weekend, David and I worked together to create a "baby poster" for Josiah. The assignment was about baby names and pictures. Josiah was hilarious. He saw that his full name was on the poster. He quickly indicated that he did NOT want his middle name on the poster. We said it had to be on the poster because of the assignment. We tried to explain the importance of his "family name." When I told him about the four people in the family with that name, his quickly said, "I wish there was one less." Poor baby! He was very funny about it. Then, after presenting it at school, he came home excited. I asked him what his friends thought about his name. He said, "It's cool, Mom." Apparently his name went over quite well in the classroom! How funny.

The poster will be on display all year long in the classroom. He was so proud of his poster that he wants to hang it in his room at home. He has asked us to make another one for him to have here at home because he says he can't wait until the end of the school year to have one in his room. Cracks me up. Glad he liked it.

I wish I had pictures of Mackenzie's class from today, too. I enjoyed my lunch time with her. She enjoyed her day at school. She was dressed as a Bible character. Cutie! I am so thankful for the flexibility of my job. I am grateful to be able to work and still be present at school, too.

Pumpkin Patch

About a week ago, following our annual tradition, we headed out to the pumpkin patch with our friends. We all look forward to the day at Oakes Farms each year. My two little pumpkins! Aren't they cute?! :)
Mackenzie holding a little pumpkin in her hands.

Josiah holding a little pumpkin in his hands.

Mackenzie "holding" Josiah, lol. They do have fun together!

Josiah driving the tractor with Mackenzie riding along behind it. (Okay, they were just pretending. Not really driving it!)

This thing is really neat. It is like a balloon trampoline. David, Bill, and all four kids enjoyed jumping on it!

Zoomed in on the four kids.

Josiah, Mackenzie, Lauren, Allison
(Petting zoo in background.)

All four kids peering in at the animals in the petting zoo area.

These big culverts were tons of fun! You climb in and roll them from one end of the yard to the other. :)

Mackenzie on the tractor bike.

Josiah loved the culvert slides!

Allison, Josiah, Mackenzie, Lauren

Zoomed in on Allison, Josiah, Mackenzie, and Lauren.

The four of us.

Josiah, Mackenzie, Lauren, and Allison.

The four of us.

We took a hayride out to the field and enjoyed the pumpkins. Josiah on a pumpkin.

Mackenzie on a pumpkin.

All four kids in the pumpkin patch.

Sweet Friendship. Fun times. Gorgeous day.

Pumpkin Patch Pictures!

This post was a week in the making, but better late than never! :) I will warn you, there are a ton of pictures. Our out-of-state relatives will enjoy all these pictures...the rest of you, well, sorry! ;) We went to the pumpkin patch a week ago yesterday with the Mease's. We all had such a wonderful time! I was so excited about how the picture of all four of us turned out. Thanks, Cindy, for taking it for us!

My little pumpkin, Mackenzie, holding a little pumpkin.

My little pumpkin, Josiah, holding (moving, it's blurry) a little pumpkin.

My two babies together when we just arrived at the pumpkin patch and were waiting in line to enter.

Mackenzie on a pumpkin.

Josiah on a pumpkin.

Two little monkeys hanging from the tree!

Josiah peering through the haystacks.

Mackenzie peering through the haystacks.

Mackenzie with a tiny pumpkin cradled in her hands.

Josiah with a tiny pumpkin cradled in his hands.

A gigantic balloon jumpy thing. Held in place by tons of dirt covering the edges. SO much fun! Look at the above picture of Mackenzie jumping toward David, then look at the picture below.

She's flying!

Josiah, Lauren, Allison, Mackenzie, and David on the balloon trampoline.

Josiah, Mackenzie, and Allison.

Mackenzie, Josiah, Allison, David.

Mackenzie and David.

Josiah, Mackenzie, Lauren, and Allison.

Cindy and Josiah. Josiah had just come out of the slide and was running to do it again.

Josiah coming out of the slide again.

Mackenzie driving the pedal tractor/car thing.

Bill and Lauren, Mackenzie, and unknown boy driving the pedal tractors.

Josiah driving the pedal tractor.

David and Josiah with the corn maze in the background.

Mackenzie coming down the slide.

All four of us in front of a kiddie hay bale maze.

I love this one of the four of us! Thanks, Cindy. We were on the hayride on our way to the pumpkin field.

Here we are in the field of pumpkins. I could not decide which picture I liked best for the blog header, so I played around with a couple of them.

Mackenzie picking out a pumpkin since we had a coupon for two free pumpkins.

Josiah deciding which one to choose.

David carrying the two chosen pumpkins!

Josiah and Allison in the field with the hayride wagon in the background.

Back on the hayride towards the main area.

Josiah, Mackenzie, and David going through the corn maze. David led the way and we made it through all 1.8 miles of maze! (The longer side was over 2 miles and we decided we'd best do the shorter side with the kids.)

Back home with the pumpkins.

I love this one of Mackenzie.

Josiah wanted his face painted while at the pumpkin patch. He chose camo. Pretty funny, but cute pic with his pumpkin, too.