Fall Fun!

Happy harvest, everyone!
We're all enjoying ourselves over here. We were invited to my niece's Grammy's house for a pumpkin party last weekend and had such a great time! We got to spend the night out on the farm where they have an assortment of rescued critters, lots of land to play and run and awesome gardens. Here's Lana helping the kiddos pet Phillis the Hen:

Above is Sneakers and below are the hens:
We brought our own pumpkins to carve, but we didn't need to, as there were so many that had grown right there on the farm. There were long tables set up with all manner of carving instruments, cider on the tap and a fire going. It was a pot-luck and there was soooo much yummy food!

There were tubs of warm water at the end of the tables to rinse slimy hands and towels to dry them - a great idea! Here are some of our creations:

Below is Solomon's Bumkin Pumpkin

and above is Malachi's Arachnaphobe Pumkin:

Mommy did a bat and moon

and Uncle Shawn did this spooky guy :



and our collective work for the evening:

It was so peacefull and pretty and in the morning Solomon and Malachi helped gather eggs for a french toast breakfast. I adore their hen hut! Saturday we have a party at our church but it's early in the afternoon which frees up the evening to settle in with a hot cup of coco.

Oh, and the boys and I made these fall leaves to bring to share. They're made out of basic pie dough and painted them with food coloring and egg. They were very pretty - too bad I left them sitting on the counter. D'oh.

More random updates...

The month is going waaaay too fast! Micah's fully entrenched in Nursing School now and working full-time as well. It's busy, and we squeeze in every moment we can with him.
We got the Zephan's full DHS file/medical records and were shocked at the extent we didn't know. Keeping in mind we DID know about the various cocaine, alcohol, pot, anti-psychotic overdoses during the pregnancy and also the severe beating she endured while carrying my son. I am IN AWE of God's protective hand over this child. I will also try harder to remember that the strong will I sometimes battle is the same strong will that refused to give up in-utero. He's my miracle.

Malachi impressed us all by earning his yellow belt!! He did great and it was so cool to watch him, the littlest in his class, work his ninja. He's got his Daddy's talent. And he's adorable.
As it's been getting cooler outside, I've been finding him and Furgus cuddled up. Those creatures are kindred spirits!

As the weather changes, we're also finding other creatures cuddled up in different (and slightly stupider) places:

We've also had a mass infiltration of Blue Birds. They're SO big and beautiful! And really noisy. The boys love to shred the heels of bread and scatter them out in the back yard. The wait is always worth it when the birds visit :)

Pumpkin Patch 2009

Here it is, Fall again, and the weather was beautiful for our annual trip to Bauman Farms. The last 4 years have been rainy, so we found ourselves over-dressed and having to strip off layers. This seemed like a milestone year for me for several reasons; Solomon & Malachi took their buddies and a flash light and conquered the Dark Maze. And when they say dark, they mean DARK. Hay bales make up a HUGE maze which is then enclosed, letting in no light. Most folks take 45 minutes to get through it. My eldests and their buds emerged on the other side, all smiles. Way to go, bigs! Also, this year Zephan wasn't in a sling or a front-pack. I had 4 walkers (runners?) to keep eyes on, but we're falling into a system and my littles are learning to stay close by. This is a good thing!
Zephan really liked the train ride and the apple cider donuts, but all the activity and people (120 from our homeschool group alone) sent him into several over-stimulation meltdowns/panic attacks. I ended up toting him a lot and making several trips back to the van to sit quietly with him for a few minutes at a time, which settled him fairly quickly. Then he was ready to go again. All in all, a very good day was had!
This was the cider room. A big ol' machine presses the apples until the juices flow and they put the fresh cider right on the shelves from there. It's SO good. Right, Malachi?
Then on to the animals. This place has everything cute and cuddly. And I managed to get pictures on this leg of the trip as Zephan was willing to get down and interact with the critters!





I wanted to covertly stash a bunch of these critters in the van, but you know how Micah is about illegal farm animals/more poop in the yard. Kill joy.
And then, of course, we had the huge castle built of hay bales, ginormous swings, obstacle courses and treats aplenty. Tomorrow they're going to lift a 500 pound pumpkin up into the air with a helicopter and drop it on a car. All proceeds donated for watching this event is going to The Make a Wish Foundation.
Cool, cool place.