Our Fantastic Fall

Let me just start off by saying fall is my absolutely favorite season. I'm really not sure what it is. Maybe it is the fact we finally get a break after 100 degree weather and there is a crispness in the air, of course in Texas that sometimes isn't until the end of November. Or maybe it is becaue it brings back some fun childhood memories with the pumpkin patches, carving pumpkins, picnics, fall festivals and numerous other things you can find to do outdoors right now. Now that I think about it though, I don't really remember any of those things except the festivals and pumpkin carving. I think sometimes I try to plan so many fun things because both of my parents worked full time so it was hard to be able to do as much as we do with the kids.  Or it could be that the trees are such beautiful, vibrant colors it just makes you more hopeful about the days ahead.

I'm not sure what it is, but that being said we have been plenty busy the last two months, so much so that I really am not sure where to start or what to put in here. The funny thing is I always have to look at my photos to even remember what we did. That is one reason I am trying to put these things into a blog, so that I don't forget all the fun we had (or didn't have)!! Hahaha!! Anyway, because this blog is all about some of the stuff we've been doing the last two months, it is kind of long. I am working on blogging more often so the blogs aren't so long, but haven't figured out yet how to stop time.

We started off our fall with a week-long stay at my parents house, or "The Ranch" as we like to call it. We were house-sitting for them while they actually got to take a vacation to North Carolina. Anyway, it was a lot of fun getting to see our kids interact with the animals, which they do all the time with my parents we just don't get to see it ourselves that often.

 Jadon has become quite the expert at feeding the animals, which consist of two donkeys, two horses, one dog, and two cats. 

Jadon going to feed the donkeys.

I even got Kailey to let me pet one of their horses while I was holding her. She usually just shakes her head "no" over and over when I ask her. But this day she was fascinated while I petted their horse Jake and I actually convinced her to touch him and her brother Jadon even tried it out. He likes to feed them but he is usually too nervous to actually touch them.

It was a nice, relaxing week. We did manage to get homeschool in, but I guess it was relaxing because we weren't at home having to constantly clean and projects to do.

By October we were in the full swing of getting excited about Halloween, which is the main focus of our household in October. In the middle of the month we went to a festival in Arlington called After Dark in the Park. It is put on at River Legacy Center, a fantastic park with a nature center that hosts a lot of educational events we attend. This particular one had lots of fall festival type of activities and it was done at night, so that made it more unique.

One thing the boys got to do that we rarely do is face painting. The lines are either too long, or it is too expensive. So they were thrilled when one of the first things we got to do was the free facepainting, and there was no line!

Reece with his ghost.

 Kailey thought Daddy was funny taking photos while the boys got their face painted. 

The only snag we had of the night was that it started raining pretty heavy, but luckily it wasn't until close to the end of the evening and it only rained for a short while. Since we needed to rain so badly, we weren't complaining. 

After the rain stopped they learned a little about raking up leaves. This was good since they don't get the chance to rake up a big pile of tree because our tree is still too little.

Here is a photo of our little wet munchins. Actually, I guess Jadon was the only one wet.
  

Well onto other fun fall activities. We made our annual trek to the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch. I think we figured out it is our 7th year to go since we've been taking Jadon there since he was a baby. It is a little bit of a drive, but so worth it because they have bounce houses, mazes, all kinds of wooden playhouses that make for great photos and great fun for the kids, and of course a hayride. Oh and rows and rows of pumpkins. There is so much to do that we take a lunch and pretty much spend the whole day there.

I will post a few photos here, but we put a bunch on Facebook so if you want to see more photos you can look on there. 

Here we are enjoying the hayride.

Jadon pulls his little sister.

We all go sliding.

Picnic time.

This is my favorite photo of the kids.

After we got our pumpkins of course we had to have the annual pumpkin carving tradition. I think the boys are getting better at the messy part, especially Jadon. But Reece was able to do a lot more this year.

Ok maybe Jadon still gets a little grossed out by the insides looking at his expression in this picture. Hahaha!!

Kailey got in on the action. The funny thing is her and Reece were mostly dancing in their chairs in this photo.

And here is the finished product.

We also painted some of the smaller pumpkins we brought back from the pumpkin patch.

Even Kailey got into painting the pumpkins. At first she wasn't sure about it because she doesn't like to get paint on her, but when she figured out she could use the brushes and not get any on her she was all over it.

It was very colorful, but that is our Kailey.

Big brother made his pumpkin into a bat.

Somehow we forgot to take photos of the finished pumpkins. I guess we just got so busy having fun painting.

Another fun fall event we went to was the Fall Festival at the Ft. Worth Japanese gardens. It was really interesting because we learned a lot about the Japanese culture, and the kids had fun too.

  

Papaw and Kailey watch the boys learn what their name looks like written in Japanese.

Jadon learns what a Haiku is.

We even saw a Samurai sword demonstration.

  

Next the boys learned how to paint with a rubber fish. Sounds strange, but they turned out great.

The kids also got to feed the fish they had in the ponds all over the beautiful garden.

We managed to get a photo with Mamaw and Papaw before they left.

So I guess the next big adventure we had was actually Halloween night. We all decided to be pirates this year, so it was a lot of fun. We went to our church's trick-or-treating alternative called Shreek on the Creek for a bit, so Jeremy could volunteer at one of the booths for an hour. We invited Jadon's best friend Ethan to be part of our fun with us, and it worked good because he was also dressed as a pirate. The kids got to enjoy a few games, a few bounce houses and some good food...pizza and popcorn. But our time there was short because the boys still wanted to come home to trick-or-treat the old-fashioned way.



The pirates are ready for the festival.



Kailey looks confused on why Daddy looks like a pirate.

So after the festival it was time for trick-or-treating.

Kailey did good going up to most of the houses, until she started getting tired and it was time for her to go home with Mommy to help hand out candy.

 

 



Everyone is ready to call it a night.

After Halloween we started to get ready for our first camping trip as a family of five. But since this post is so long, I'll post that one in another post. So we've had a fun but busy fall, but we are now looking forward to the next season--Christmas! Tis the Season!!