Jack-O-Lanterns!

Rylan "helping" with his plastic knife


Emery wanted a creepy spider on her pumpkin!

Lane made his with many different faces!

Nordic Ridge

We took the kids to Nordic Ridge last weekend for fun at the farm! They love the barn slide, seeing the animals, and of course, the McCain/Obama corn maze. It was a sunny Fall day and it was nice to be outside. It was only in the 30's the next day, so we were glad we went when we did!

Pictures from the pumpkin patch

Things that go BUMP in the night!

Last night we took Lane and Emery to the Forest History center for a class called, Things That Go "Bump" in the Night. They got to learn about the different animals and sounds that are in the woods at night. After that, they took us out into the dark woods and we did different activities. There were no flashlights, so that was a different experience! Emery kept making owl sounds randomly, so that was pretty funny. They had the kids pretend to be owls and mice and they had to "hunt" for food packages with their eyes closed and rely only on sounds. They had us do a blind walk, where we felt our way along a rope and when we came to a knot in the rope, we knew there was an obstacle we had to get over. They also had us do a courage walk, where the leader would make a sound at the other end and we would walk, one by one, down a stretch of the trail by ourselves. Emery wasn't too cool with that, so she and I went together. After that, we had to try to hide ourselves along the trail and a few people had to try to find us. I hadn't laid in the woods in the dark before! When it was over there was cookies, juice and a bonfire. That was a fun family time!

An Autumn day

Pumpkins in the cornfields
Gold among the brown
Leaves of rust and scarlet
Trembling slowly down
Birds that travel southward
Lovely time to play
Nothing is as pleasant
As an autumn day!

Gettin' jiggy with it!

Last night Lane invited all of us into his bedroom for a "dance". It is very rare that he allows his siblings into his bedroom, so they thought it was extra special. I don't go in there too often myself because it is usually such a disaster that I want to avoid an anxiety attack. But yesterday he spent the majority of the day getting it cleaned up, hanging Christmas lights, hooking up more speakers, and loading more songs onto his mp3 player. He made a flyer about the event and we were all invited into his room at 7pm sharp! He had all the Christmas lights on and music playing and Rylan was just mesmerized to be in big brother's bedroom. There was lots of dancing and laughing going on in there and Rylan went to bed pretty easily after all that dancing he did. He does this move that looks like a gallop and he just kept going back and forth in Lane's room. It was hilarious!! We call it The Bitty Shuffle! I have a few pictures I took of Lane dancing, but he would kill me if I put them on my blog. Ha Ha

Colors of Autumn

Fall is here! This is my favorite time of year and right now all the trees are so beautuful.


The only pretty things left in our garden


I took these next two pictures up the road from our house. The colors are so pretty on the way home!

Mom's loony!

The night before last, I was sitting in Rylan's room before bed, attempting to finish reading a book that I had started with him. He wondered over to his toys and that is when my stomach started growling. Rylan heard that and quick turned his head towards his window, his eyes lit up, and he pointed out his window and said, "It's a loon!" This is such a fun age. He cracks us up.

Soccer!

Emery started soccer the end of August and plays on her school's team through the GR Rec. Dept. They have a great team this year and she has a lot of fun at the practices with her friends. She was a bit passive during games at first, but now she is out there kicking and running with the ball and you can tell that she has more confidence. They only have one more game left, which is probably a good thing since it is starting to be pretty chilly out there for those morning games!

Future's so bright....

I gotta wear shades!

Modern Guilt

My mom came and stayed with our kids overnight on Tuesday so that Jake and I could head to the Cities to see Beck on his Modern Guilt tour! I have LOVED Beck's music since I was about 17 and I haven't been able to see him live since I went to Horde Fest many moons ago. It was a GREAT show and he played a lot of my fave "oldies" and a few off of his new album. It was so nice to have a little getaway with Jake. We don't do that very often, so I definitely savored every moment (even when we missed our turns and those few moments that I was about to make Jake pull over and let me take the wheel!) We went out for dinner and were able to have a conversation in peace, caught the concert, and then hung out with my sister and our friend, Bess, at our hotel afterwards. Then next morning, we were able to sleep in, sit in the hot tub and then go and get a coffee and browse the books at Barnes and Noble. As a full-time mom it is nice to get a break like that and to be able to go and do things I enjoy outside the mommy realm. THANKS, mom, for holding down the fort!!