Butler's Orchard

I look forward to Fall so much and part of the season is going to the pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins.  I don't remember doing it as a child.  I remember my father bringing us to one of those lots off the side of the road to pick a pumpkin and that in itself was such a thrill for me!  I took my kids to Butler's Orchard a couple of years back and it was such a fun time for them, we just cannot NOT go every year.

This year, with all the chaos with schedules, I was beginning to worry that there wasn't going to be a trip out there, but everything worked out perfectly - God was good.  We didn't have to go on a weekend, when it's all so busy and crowded with lots of people, we went on a Friday and the weather was PERFECT!!  You'll notice the blue skies...

The pumpkin patch experience these days involve tons of activities other than just picking your pumpkin.  It's really an all day event!  We arrived early enough and were ready to get started!

It was so bright, Tommy asked for my sunglasses.  It was the last time I saw those glasses, by the way.  I never buy those expensive sunglasses because they always get lost or broken.  I do have to say that these are the pair that I've owned the longest, ever!  Now they are gone.  That's ok...I'm sporting these aviator glasses these days.

We decided to do our hayride to the pumpkin patch first, get our pumpkins, put them in the car and then enjoy all the activities.  But first, we grabbed our two free apples to enjoy on our ride.

Something about these apples!  So yummy.  They were crisp, juicy and fresh!  I don't think I can ever go back to those store-bought apples.  I always end up getting mushy ones and after eating one of those, I can't even entertain the thought of another apple. 

Even my kids ate and enjoyed them.

This was our ride to the pumpkin patch.

Bernadette enjoying the ride.

Anne was having fun with the hay.  We had hurricane Irene a month ago and it gave us a lot of rain.  They were saying that it effected the crops and that we wouldn't see as many pumpkins.  Hmph...don't know about that.  I didn't notice.  However, the one complaint I had about Butler's Orchard was that we didn't get to actually cut the pumpkin off the vine.  We also went on a weekday where they are usually entertaining kids coming on field trips.  This means small pumpkins already strategically placed all over the fields.  Come on the weekend and you will get bigger pumpkins on vines.  Anyway, for our purposes that day, it was just fine.

We got our pumpkins.  For some reason, Tommy likes to pick the strangest pumpkin out there.  It's not orange, it's not round, it's got marks all over it!  What is he thinking?  I keep telling him to go get another pumpkin.  We settled for a perfectly small green pumpkin this year (which has turned orange since).

We put the pumpkins into our car and headed off to the slides.  By the way, I invited one of the kids' friend from school also our neighbor to come with us - she's #22.  The slides are so much fun.  You grab a piece of burlap and slide down super fast!

When I see an open field, like the one behind them, I just want to run through it!  Look at that sky!!!  Love it.

After going down the slides a bazillion times we headed off to the hayloft where you could just go crazy.  Fun stuff!

Bernadette was so small, she could get lost in there.  It got really crowded in there with all the other kiddos.

 

We also did a corn maze, but not all the kids wanted to do it since we got lost in a really big one last year.  So it was just a few of us and we got through it in less than 10 minutes!  There were so many other cute activities that were all "farm" related and creative. 

We even got to feed some animals.

Heehaw....

We called it quits for the day but before going I had to go by the store they had where I bought my normal sized pumpkins for carving!  I loved going in their store - so many neat things. 

They had so many types of pumpkins, gourds and funky gourds.  If I could just pick this table up and put it in my front yard for a halloween decoration, I would.  I picked three big pumpkins which were acceptable by my standards and I bought some mums as well.  I love those!

I would like to say that my mums are still alive today.  Fully bloomed and lovely!  However, they are suffering in this freezing weather we are currently having.  But do I know if my mums will survive or not?  We'll just find out, won't we?

It was a good day.  See ya next year...

Who's Who?

It was haircut time again for the boys.  I usually cut Tommy's hair different just because his hair doesn't stick straight up when cut - it sits nicely at any length.  I buzz cut the other two boys.  This time, however Tommy wanted the same cut as his brothers.  That was fine with me.

 
However, when I'm running around crazy every where and trying to locate a certain son of mine, they all look the same from behind.  Hmph...

Can you tell?

When I'm out with my kids, especially with all five of them, I get all kinds of comments.  I'm sure you mother's out there with large families know exactly what I'm talking about.  One of the comments I get most often is how much my boys look alike.  They often think they are twins or triplets.  Their faces look similar, now so do the back of their heads.

Just the Three of Us

Now that my three oldest are in school, that leaves me with two at home.  The dynamics at home have changed once again!  It's been so nice to spend more time with each of my youngest kids.  It definitely feels more manageable, however things still feel busier.  Hm...

My little guy, Eddie has oral apraxia and needs to receive speech therapy twice a week at two different places.  During the Summer, I dragged all five kids with me to his sessions and either went to the park, ran some errands or hung around and kept busy.  Now that school has started I'm left with just Bernadette to hang out with. 

This particular day, after dropping Eddie off, I decided to walk to our neighborhood convenience store. 

I think it's more than a convenience store, it's a Market.  Anyway, it's a bunch of houses and BOOM, there's a Marketplace!  It's located right across from the school so it does pretty well with regular customers!  I decided to walk over there and grab some ice cream and share it with Bernadette. 

I love Good Humor Chocolate Eclair bars, YUMMY!!  She liked it too.  Then I thought we'd take a walk and hangout at the park next to the school.

I let her do the walking and I just followed her.

She eventually got tired from all the walking

I told her it was time to get Eddie.

Yeh!  That sounded good to her.

We went to the park together for a while until it was time to go home and have some lunch.  The morning flew by once again.

Peek-a-boo!

Trains

It has been a year since I've been blogging!  It's been great doing this - it's fun for me.  It's also nice to have a place to put my pictures with memories attached to them.  Otherwise, I think the pictures would remain on my hard drive.  Anyway, I just placed all my pictures from my blog onto a Shutterfly photo book so I have a hard copy.  Yeh!

I also thought I would change up the look of my blog since it is a new year.  It's nothing spectacular, but I had to put another Autumn theme to it since it is my favorite season of the year.  Today happens to be the first official day of Autumn, however if you look outside it doesn't look it yet.  So when those gorgeous colors emerge, the smell of the air changes and the sweater weather actually arrives, I'll get all excited, do a happy dance and perhaps shoot some photos!

In the meantime, I'll share with you my boys' passion for trains!

Don't you see it?  It's all over their faces!  Love it!  I never thought Thomas the Train could do it, but he started their fascination with trains, however I'm sure the passion would have come somehow with or without Thomas.  It seems all little boys are born with it.  Right now we are in the Disney's Chuggington phase.  We've got all sorts of train tracks (plastic and wood), die cast trains, wooden trains, train books, etc... So, when we heard there was a train display nearby, we came running!  Look at the excitement in their eyes!  What little boy doesn't like trains?

As soon as we got home, the kids wanted the Lionel Train set their Lolo and Lola got for them set up.

I wonder how long they would have stayed if I left them there? 

I love the steam coming out of the trains!

They had a great set up!  A large set up.  I thought the little towns the trains went through were pretty impressive as well.  Now, if you go into my basement, you'll see the kids' version of this huge set up.  It's not pretty.  I don't go down there anymore.

It was eventually time to go.  My kids were in a silly mood afterwards.  They started to make funny faces.

Whoot, Whoot....

Annual Testing

It was that time of year again.  These pictures were taken in August, but I am now just getting to them.  Coach tests his players before they officially start practicing for the upcoming football season.  He thought it would be good to test our family too and see where we stand annually.  I think we have a few years recorded so far and it was neat to see how the kids are growing athletically.

Look at his form!

They did some hanging.

He makes it look easy.

Some sit-ups.

Some jumping.

Some stretching.

And some heavy lifting...not.

Some of us just tried to stay cute and cool under the sun.

I did a lot better this year in most of the tests, but some I did worse.  I wasn't smiling during most of my tests, but all my kids seem to have smiles on their faces.  

Finicky Eaters

I love to eat.  I like to try new things.  I like to cook.  Food excites me.  So when it comes to feeding my children, you would think it would be something exciting or fun to do.  WRONG.

It all starts pretty well when they are babies.  They eat their baby food rather well and then they seem to transition into table foods rather well since it's so much tastier than that bland mushy stuff.  They'll put almost anything in their mouths and then once they get used to that it goes downhill from there. 

To be able to feed all my five kids is such a chore and a stress in my life.  I am disappointed that most of my kids are rather finicky.  Can they be my kids?  I love to eat, why don't they?  I've always dreamed of cooking these beautiful meals for my kids and seeing their eyes widen in anticipation as they see a home cooked meal served before them.  My heart breaks every time they decide they don't want to have any or rather eat chicken nuggets instead.

A was probably the worst out of them all.  She ate french fries and graham crackers for most of her early years, but like many said, their taste buds change with age and they will eat more things as they get older.  Yes, it's true!  Now she will eat salads, burgers, meats and pastas.  Yeh!  This trend is also holding true with A's siblings as well, HOWEVER each child has their own picky palette and in the 8 years of cooking food for my kids, I've fallen into a horrible habit of cooking to one's preferences.  "Ok kids, what will you guys eat tonight?  What do you want?"  I end up walking to the kitchen and making 3 to 5 different things.  Oh...it's not that I'm making 5 different elaborate home cooked meals, but I will go out of my way and make something they will eat.  I'm ashamed to admit it.

I've heard it before - they won't starve, make one meal and if they don't eat, they don't eat.  They will eventually eat.  Why can't I do that?  I have gotten so fed up sometimes that I just get all worked up and yell as if I'm laying down the law, "This is what's for dinner, take it or don't, I don't care!"  But I walk away and I stare at them frowning at the meal in front of them and desperately want them to eat so they grow big and strong.  That gets me and the bad habits of making something else for them creep back.

I have small kids!  They are all hanging on the bottom of the growth chart.  Coach is 5'6 and I'm 5'5 - we make small kids, I get that.  But when I see other kids eat so well it drives me crazy. 

Not only do I want to transition to just one big meal a night for my kids I would also like to add the element of a balanced meal to the mix.  Oh boy, that's even more challenging.  I have five kids who like a variety of foods, but not all the same.  I have to face the fact that no one is going to like everything on the table.  Can I resist the temptation of making a little something for the kid that doesn't like what's on the menu? 

I also have other small obstacles too.  During football season, we don't always eat with Daddy because of his odd hours.  I end up cooking two meals sometimes - one catered to kids and then one for the adults.  I get discouraged making a bunch of food no one will eat.  There are a handful of dinners that I make that the whole family will eat, but that gets old. 

I will try to keep focused on my goal of one dinner a night for everyone, making it balanced/healthy and broader for all eaters and trying new things to expand their finicky palettes.  This is my desire.  Wish me luck!

First Day of Kindergarten

After years of watching his older siblings go to school, P gets to put on his uniform and join them in the morning ritual of getting ready for school! 

He wasn't nervous or scared. 

He looked older in his uniform, they are just clothes!

Wow, I've got three in school!

What's nice is that they really love each other.  They get so excited when they see each other at school.  They always like hanging out with each other at home.  I hope they stay like that.

A's teacher is the same third grade teacher Coach had as an 8 year old, so we reunited them this morning.  I think it's pretty neat!

While shuttling my kids around today, I had a window of time where I had P all to myself.  That's rare for me to be out and about with just one child!  Wow, it's really wonderful.  I was able to give him my full attention and just enjoy all of him.  We had a great lunch together before we picked everyone else up.  Thank you God for that time.

So far, this year is starting out well!