This is one of my favorite pictures ever and part of the reason I don't usually try too hard for a perfectly posed picture. I see real life happening here. My kids are... well, kids! They are silly and can be wild. But I love it and wouldn't have it any other way. I don't want to be parenting robot children. I love them with all their quirks and craziness. Sure, I crave the quiet and time to myself sometimes, but years from now when all is quiet and still I'll be craving the noise again. Writing these seasonal posts keeps the passage of time in the forefront of my mind and I really value the perspective. It keeps me grateful and joyful during even the chaotic days of strong disobedience. But hey they're learning to be better and I am too. Lets be like the trees and keep our roots but shed our dead leaves and start new each year, always continuing to grow. Yeah, I love fall. Even when it feels like things are falling apart if we look far enough ahead it's just what needs to happen in order to start something beautiful, fresh and new.
I let each of the kids pick out a pumpkin and I got one to try my hand at carving a pumpkin for the first time! I did ok. I'll have to try again with a bigger pumpkin another year. Jane did so well. She painted that face on her pumpkin with no direction from me. Atlas and Xan had fun. I helped Atlas by wiping off some paint to make a face on it. He was happy with it. And Xan, well, she's just always happy to be included. <3
We love the Little Hearts Pumpkin patch story time event each year! It's so close to our house and free. <3 This year we went in the church and listened to a quick story about pumpkins and then went to the activity area to play in the cornbox and do some coloring. The kids love the "spooky" maze. You can see Jane petting a crow statue and Xan hugging a rat. Haha! So many of our good home school friends were able to attend with us. The kids got to take home a tiny pumpkin too. It was such a good time.
It's Fall Festival time!! I packed in as many fall events as I felt like I could! The first one was at Good Shepard. The same place our favorite pumpkin patch is located. There were train rides, inflatables, a petting zoo and games. I wasn't aware that everything cost money... even the little games and nothing was cheap in my opinion. I guess it's seen as a church fundraiser so people don't mind. I did a little. Sorry, I'm used to free Fall Festivals. Anyway, We got to see our good friends, Lena and Whisper and the kids had lots of fun. So it was worth it. Don't know if I'll go back again though.
Fall Fest #2! My personal favorite! Trunk or Treat on the Trails. It's a fall fest shared by three churches closely connected by the greenbelt trails. I love it because it keeps the flow of people moving nicely. But it has gotten very popular!! We only seem to make it around to two of the churches every year because we wear out before we reach the third. Sam braved the crowds with us since my mom was out of town. It was a great fall festival as usual. Xan especially loved giving the horse a hug! She looks like she's imitating Bregman's "should have walked me" celebration sign in the group picture above.
Arbor Terrace, the same senior living center that we do our co-op at, has a yearly trick or treat event so their residents can enjoy seeing kids in their cute costumes. I think it's a wonderful event. We've been each year that I've known about it. This year it was conveniently on the same day as co-op. So we did our rounds for the trick or treating and headed up to our co-op room to have a dress like your book and share day. I grabbed library books to match the costumes we had. ;) Jane was Belle, Xan was Elsa and Atlas was a monster and I used Nibbles: The book monster as his book. It worked great!
Fast Fest #3! The last fall fest of the season. My mom and I decided we wanted to have the best house on the block on Halloween, not with decorations or spookiness or anything but the one with the best hospitality. So we thought setting up a mini fall festival in my parents front yard would be fun and spread joy! I thought about doing it at my house but we have like one or two kids walk down our street the whole night of Halloween. So my parents house was a better location. We set up games, candy and put on some music. It was great! We had a few friends stop by and a few neighbors. Still not too many, but we started and ended a little too early. We'll adjust next year. We also need a sign. A few people walked on by not realizing they didn't need an invitation to come play or just grab some candy. It was like the coldest day of the season so far. I remember thinking it might be too cold for a fishing game with water but it ended up being the most popular game. I'm sort of glad we ended early because once the sun went down it got even colder. We were ready to warm up inside. I enjoy the fun fall festivals each year but I'm always happy for it to be over and to see the scary decorations start disappearing and the Christmas lights start appearing. Because that means the best time of the year has begun!
Across the street from the Botanical Garden, Mercer also has a super fun playground! Being a great middle point between us we decided it was a perfect place to meet our good friends the McNairs on a beautiful fall day. I'd been to the Gardens but never the playground. The kids had a blast. They especially loved the dinosaur they could ride on. The best part was getting to see our friends of course!
Jane's sweet friend Cambrie invited Jane to her birthday party at a local park. Jane was so excited to go! They had unicorn cupcakes which Jane was thrilled about and a castle pinata that she put some great whacks on. She's got a pretty good swing! Atlas and Xan got to try too. So cute! They all had a great time running around the park with their friends. I'm so glad Jane has a couple of good girlfriends to grow up with. <3
Alllll the parks! I love the fall weather sooo much. We take every opportunity to go to parks when the weather is nice. We met up with my longest friend Mindy and her boys at a park we hadn't been to in a while. Her boys are close to Jane and Alexandria's age. Atlas sometimes gets lost in the shuffle. But he's starting to get old enough to run around with Liam and Jane. We always have a great time together. Mindy was just starting up a photography business and I took the opportunity to ask her if she would come take pictures of Flynn's birth. She said she would be so honored. I tried to offer to pay her but she wouldn't hear of it. She wanted it to be her gift to me especially since she was just getting started. She's the sweetest. I was so happy to have such a long time close friend to be able to take birth pictures for me. :)
It's the first Kinderstars meet of the season!! Jane was completing her bronze routines for this meet and she did so amazing! All purple ribbons which are the best you can get! So proud. She had such a great time. Look at that face when she completed her vault routine. She was so excited that she got it just right! It was a Frozen themed meet as well. She was thrilled to get her picture with Elsa. At this point I wasn't sure if I would make it to the next meet since it was only 2 days before Flynn's due date. I was glad we got such a great meet together just the two of us. We celebrated her success with a trip to Cici's. Look at that face, she really loves pizza. Me too, kid, Me too. ;)
You mean you've never pitched your first tent ever on your own when you were 36 weeks pregnant?? Yeah, me neither, until now. Haha! In the summer my dad was going to get rid of his old tent he hadn't used in years unless we wanted it. So I said, why not! Jane had been asking for a tent for a long time, but I told Jane I wasn't going to put the tent up until the weather was nice in the fall. Well, I didn't make the connection that I would be pretty durn pregnant by that time. I really didn't want to disappoint her so I made it work! I did it! It wasn't too bad actually. I took it easy for the next couple of days afterwards. ;) They love it!! They use it like a playhouse and play mommies and daddies in there all the time.
What is it about piles of leaves and kids that feels so magical? So much joy in those sweet faces! Around January my dad comes by and blows all the leaves into a huge pile for the kids to play in right before he throws them out. Well Jane couldn't wait. She saw some leaves on the ground in late November and asked if she could make a pile on her own. I warned her it wouldn't be as big as she was used to since not enough leaves had fallen yet. She said it was fine. She worked away and got a pile that she was pleased with. It was big enough for them to have a blast covering each other and running and jumping in. I love it when they have their own ideas and it works out how they imagined. These are the days I'll long for when they're all grown up. Happy Fall Y'all!
Matthew 6:31-34
“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
