Trick or Treat

We made it through yet another Halloween trick or treating. Yea!

Halloween is not my favorite holiday and I do the costume and trick/treating thing because my mother rarely ever let me do it.

I don't like gore, scary stuff or the naughtiness that can come with the holiday.

That being said, we had a pretty good time tonight.

The day started bitterly cold and after Sunday School, the kids and I went home since I knew we'd be gone all evening and I didn't have to sing in church.

After dinner, the kids played some on the computer w/JJ before he quick went to water the cows.

After that, he worked on IC's bean bag game since it's only 2 weeks until the whole birthday extravaganza.

At 4:30, we left to pick up pizza for supper and took it to my parent's to eat and so the kids could trick or treat there.

Then, after a quick stop at home to pick up the girls' crowns that I'd forgotten, we headed into town to procure some candy.

After a stop at the other grandma's, we parked by the church and hit the excellent neighborhood there.

We ended up going for almost an hour and a half total and it went well, other than Miss A kept tripping. I am not sure why, as she was wearing flat Sunday shoes, but after the 3rd incident in which we ended up picking up candy in the dark, we made sure she was holding JJ or my hand most of the time.

The most unusual thing the kids got was a package of hot cocoa mix and one of the better ones (according to mom and dad) was the house that gave each one a box of 24 crayons!

The kids' ziploc candy bags are now full, (lots of chocolate this year) and should last them to the summer, basically.

I can honestly say I am glad to be done for another year with that-now my focus will be on IC's birthday parties.

Art Day and Tank Work

I had plans to go to the craft fair thingy in town this morning, but decided I'd rather stay home, so I didn't go. After the kids did their chores, I let them watch a couple of cartoons so I could wash the kitchen windows (inside and out!).

After that, it was requested for watercolor painting, so I obliged a little reluctantly. The girls did pretty well, with one incidence of spilling water and luckily, it didn't go on IC's homework.

IC had a reader and a turkey to decorate this weekend for homework, plus he has an assignment for scouts that we haven't started on yet.

It took IC 1/2 of the morning and part of the afternoon to get his turkey done. He did take his time, however, so it took longer and it looks very nice. I was proud he didn't rush through it.

I even had to let him use some of my scrapping stuff for it, as the kids' glitter glue was pretty much all used up.

Of course, art with the kids means I go back and forth between kids and clean up takes awhile, but they had fun. I, on the other hand, was rather tired by the time they were done.

So, by the time they were done, E was up from her nap. I shooed the older 2 out and eventually got E to go out. After getting a couple of things finished in the house, I headed out to see what had happened to the kids.

And this is where I found them . . . . . .

We have an old OLD circle stone water tank for the cows when they are in the cattle lot and it's been breaking down for awhile. JJ thought he might be able to re-cover it in cement, but after some working on it, he decided that might not be the best thing. Apparently, it was built in 1911, with a recover work done on it in 1966. There's 2 small hand prints on the original cement-pretty interesting, really.

JJ purchased a large rectangle tank some years ago at an auction in the hopes of replacing this thing eventually. Well, that eventually is here, so today JJ was working on removing fence from around the tank so that the construction guy could use his jackhammer on it next week to break it up so we can haul the pieces out.

Anyway, the kids were out "helping" Daddy do this for awhile. It will definately be different without that old thing. I always had a fear that the kids would fall in it, although I don't always think about that as much anymore.

The kids got distracted from helping after awhile when Bouncing B showed in the yard. Which most likely, made it much easier for JJ to work!

By the time JJ had come in, he'd managed to break the thing in half, which should be interesting to see tomorrow.

After the old pieces are out and the other tank is in, then JJ will have to rebuild some fence and change things a little bit, but it will be good when it's all done, preferably before the thing is actually needed.

In the Dark

After the Scare on the Square, we went home to eat supper, as JJ had a FFA boosters meeting and the kids were fairly hungry.

Then, I decided to send them outside to play. It was a nice evening and the kids loved playing in the near-dark. The girls played in the garage with the light on, while I swept it out and IC wanted to keep playing outside even as it got pitch black outside, but I did finally make him go in.

The kids loved the lights we put in the carved pumpkins (I got them at Pamida during gymnastics) and I liked that they were much safer than candles. Especially with the wind that's been occuring around here lately-candles are pretty dangerous. So, we got some tea lights that are battery operated, and they work very well. So, we got to light our pumpkins at least for 1 night (last year we never did get around to lighting the jack-o-lanterns-whoops!).

2 Princesses and Darth Vader

At 4:30 yesterday was the annual Scare on the Square downtown, where the kids get to go to the local businesses to trick or treat. It was so nice yesterday, especially compared to the past few days. It was still windy, but not as bad. The kids had fun and Daddy got to come along, so it was a good time.

Halloween Party

I helped with IC's Halloween party at school yesterday. They started with a parade throughout the classes to see each others' costumes before we buckled down in our class for some games. The other 2 moms and I decided to split the class for the games. So, one group did Halloween BINGO while the other raced to shuck corn. When they were done with the corn, we split that group again and each little group got to wrap a member in toilet paper to make a mummy. The kids had a lot of fun.

Then, they were able to have a snack of a cookie and juice before it was time to go home. I had been a little worried because I inadvertantly gotten put in charge and I've never done it before, but it all came together well since the other moms had older kids and had done some of it before, although they both preferred to be the snack person rather than the game person. But it all worked out well and IC said he had a good time.

Pumpkin Carving

Since the afternoon before having gymnastics all evening was free, we decided to carve pumpkins.

The older 2 did pretty well. Miss A scooped out the insides of her and E's pumpkins, while IC carved part of one pumpkin and all of another. I actually invested in a pumpkin carving kit and the knives worked SO much better than a regular butcher knife and I felt a whole lot better about IC using one of those than the regular knife.

With the kit came some stencils and so, the kids each picked a stencil for their pumpkins, which I had to carve most of it, but they look nice. IC carved his 2nd pumpkin by himself and did a good job.

E bunny, during this time, took a nap and even though she woke up 1/2 way through the carving festivities, she chose to go back to sleep on the floor. I finally got her awake at picture time, though she didn't want to look at the camera or the pumpkin for that manner. She was still given a pumpkin, anyway.

We chose not to roast seeds this year. Last year, I tried it and no one liked what I made. I really wasn't in the mood to try a new recipe this year, so we elected to dump them, except for a few we saved so we could grow them next year (much cheaper than buying them at the pumpkin patch!).

Today, it's IC's Halloween party and Scare on the Square. And yes, it's windy today-since it's not raining, it's got to be cold and windy. Typical Halloween weekend!

Busy, Busy

It's been another busy couple of days with yesterday helping with Creations after school and today since IC got out of school early since our football team had a playoff game at 2, the older 2 and I carved pumpkins for Halloween before going to gymnastics.

In between all of that, I have been working on organizing some stuff in the store room, trying to put the curtains back up (yes, it's been 2 weeks and I still haven't gotten around to it very well) and some odd ball things that have been waiting for months to be done.

I'd better try to actually clean the house for the usual tomorrow or Saturday, but ick, who wants to do THAT.

Tomorrow will be IC's Halloween party at school. Since there was a short day today, Miss A did not have school, so her Halloween party was yesterday. At least, she came home with half as much candy and trinkets as last year (it was really ridiculous). Later in the afternoon, there's the "Scare on the Square" tomorrow, also, when the kids can trick or treat at the local businesses.

I am looking forward, actually to Halloween being over, it's actually one of my least favorite holidays.

It's Official!

After 6 1/2 years, IC can finally tie his shoes! I've tried to teach him several times, but between me being a lefty and him not really wanting to learn, it hasn't worked.

Thank goodness, one of the paras decided to teach several 1st graders how to tie.

You should have heard IC's excitement yesterday-he tied his shoes and doubled knotted them all by himself before going outside to play. He was so thrilled!

Never A Boring Day

Sandbox play-had to capture the moment-they are fewer now since IC doesn't play much in the sandbox anymore.

Bead fun!

E counting her "rings," Miss A organizing (she gets that from me), and IC telling Daddy he wanted to do another bead animal.

The days rarely are boring around here, so yesterday evening was a busy time as I took Miss A to dance at 6:20, then IC to scouts at 6:30. Big advantage-they are down the block from each other, so we can walk on nice days.

Yesterday, though, it decided to start raining right before we left for dance and continued until after we went home and we still got less than a 1/4"!

The boys earned their Bobcat badge yesterday, despite the fact that we had to share the Lions club with another scout group at the same time. Apparently, we were supposed to go outside to work on gathering stuff for a nature scrapbook, but the rain pretty much nixed that. So, we managed to have group anyway and get the next homework assignment.

Today, I finished fixing IC's costume for Halloween-nothing like leaving it to a few days before! I've logged some serious time on the sewing machine the past 2 days, as I worked on IC's patches for his scout shirt yesterday. Plus, I did a little stabilizing on the girls' costumes for a couple of small things.

This afternoon, E and I headed to town to a funeral of my cousin's aunt, whom I known as long as I can remember. She'd had ovarian cancer and was only 53. The funeral was short-1/2 hour long and felt kinda impersonal, in my opinion. Anyway, E did great-she slept for Grandpa K before the funeral and took 20 minutes after she awoke to really wake up and it was nearly over by then.

Anyway, we made it home to greet the older 2 off the bus and I finally got everyone outside after 4 pm. I rode bike w/IC while Daddy took the girls on a tractor ride and then all 3 kids actually played really nice together in the sandbox.

Of course, that didn't last long before Miss A was in for the night and soon after, the other 2 were also.

After showers and supper, the kids got out the beads we'd gotten from Aunt E after her boys had outgrown them and IC put together a little flag while I separated some beads of different colors, Miss A separated out some wooden beads with letters on them, and E played with several key rings that came with the bead box, used to make the different bead things more able to hang on stuff.

E bunny, at 2 yrs old, amazed JJ and I tonight. She started counting her rings and got all the way up to 12-on her own! Goodness-she's been listening to the big kids again! It was cute. She did count after that, up to 15 (skipping 13 and 14) and 29 (skipping the rest of the numbers in between).

Miss A today decided she wants to wear makeup. What? Where did that come from? She, of course, found this play makeup in Dollar General today and wanted to get it-um, no, you are not old enough. Of course, THEN she was asking when she'd be old enough- 6? 7? Ugh.

She (Miss A) also asked me today when we were going to get flower seeds for her garden. Um, well, it's nearly winter, we need to wait for spring. And where's this garden at? "Right beside yours." What kind of flowers do you want? "Well, I'd have to look at them to see which pretty colors I like." Ok, interesting. I might be making Miss A a flower space of her own next year, I guess.

See, never a boring, dull day around here!

Scout Camping

Here are some pictures from JJ and IC at scout camp. Both came home with homemade whistles and smelling like campfire smoke, but they had a good time. And it didn't rain-a big bonus with JJ!

Sunday's Fun

Tonight, we are all together as JJ and IC are home from camping over the weekend for Cub Scouts.

They left yesterday at 2 pm and were home today by 12 am and appeared to have a good time, despite me forgetting to send flashlights with them (but I remembered everything else!)

Anyway, IC came home with stories about what all they did, and some excitement, so it's all good. Of course, now there's an increase in laundry to tackle tomorrow in between our other activities, but I did get the cooler and some of the littler stuff cleaned up.

While the boys were gone, the girls and I were lucky, as Grandma and Grandpa K came over with pizza for supper. WhooHoo, I didn't have to cook!

It was another struggle to get the girls ready for Sunday School this morning, but we made it out the door in time. I wish there was a pill for getting them to get moving in the morning. I have a feeling I will struggle a lot in the future to get them to ready for school on time.

Since the guys were home all afternoon, JJ decided to tackle project #1 of 3 I'd like to have done before IC's birthday party. It took both of us most of the afternoon to fix the girls' bunk beds so that we could stack them again, but tonight they are stacked and waiting for the girls to sleep in.

The kids after that, got to check the cows with Daddy while Mommy put the mattresses and bedsheets back in order and tried to get the toys a little organized in the room.

I like it when we are all at home together-it seems that we don't get to just sit and watch a little of those silly kids' shows on TV together much anymore.

1990 State Football Champs

So, last night the kids and JJ and I got to get out and away for an evening.

We only went to town, but still, it was out and about.

We were invited to a hamburger feed (which turned out to be hotdogs and pork sandwiches instead) at the high school cafeteria.

This was to honor the 20 yr mark of the 1990 Class C-1 Football Championship team. And yes, JJ was a junior on the team at the time.

So, after supper, we watched the first half of our home team kids play and were doing well at half time with a score of 20-0.

At halftime, the 1990 team members were called out one by one onto the field. It was a really nice thing, I thought.

After half-time, the girls started to get bored, so JJ and I took them home. He then went back to the end of the game and to a after game gathering for the 1990 team members at the Lions Club.

I stayed home and put the kids to bed.

JJ was home by 10:30, and I think had a pretty nice time.

Art and Computers

Well, today I accomplished nothing at home.

This, in itself, is not a new concept. Although, pre-children, I used to do great at getting projects, goals accomplished.

But, alas, the 3rd child has rendered me completely unfruitful some days. More than I'd like, actually.

It seems that I accomplish very little in the mornings before Miss A goes to school. So, I do try to get motivated while E takes a nap after dinner.

I didn't get too much done today, as my mom came in the afternoon, so that she could watch the girls while I helped in Creations. M restarted Creations after a year off. Creations is an after-school, once a week, art program since our elementary does not have an art teacher or classes. It's all volunteer and there's limited space available (20 kids is the limit).

Today, there were 12, with 1 who didn't come. It went pretty well and was pretty quick.

After that, IC and I dropped off the popcorn sales forms and money at the Lions club for scouts before heading home.

Mom made supper and JJ came in the house in time that I didn't have to drag the kids to choir practice.

Tonight, after I got home from choir, I realized my virus protection on my laptop was missing. I tried to install the upgrade last night, but apparently, messed something up (not surprising, really).

So, now I am trying to re-install the software.

Ugh. Maybe, I will accomplish something tomorrow that's actually productive.

Hopefully. Ah well, if I don't, there's always the next day!

School Picture!

IC's First Grade Picture.

Parent/Teacher Conference

Exhausted, I am. (I've been reading a Star Wars book, so I am currently channeling Yoda speak).

It's been quite a day that actually started last night. JJ was sick through the night and since the bathroom is right beside our bedroom, I pretty much heard him every time he was in there.

So, I was awake often during the night, and then, the dog decided for reasons unknown, to freak out between 4-5:30 am. I let her out, as she was barking (she is allowed only in the basement, not the whole house), only for her to come back 20 minutes later and want back in. Then, soon after, she was pacing the basement stairs, upset about something. I told her to go lay down or I'd revoke her staying-in-the-basement priviledges. And yes, she did go finally settle down for awhile.

Since my alarm goes off at 6, I was awake and decided to clean the toilet and sink before the kids got up, then it was starting laundry, and making pancakes for the kids for breakfast (not a normal thing, but we ran out of them last week, so I made a double batch this morning, hopefully, that will last a little bit longer).

After dropping IC at school, it was home to do more little house tasks, play with the girls, get dinner on, get Miss A off to school. JJ, by the way, felt much better and was up and moving around by 9 am, and out of the house soon afterward.

I put E in the car at 2:30 ish (still half asleep from her nap) to run an errand before school got out. Then, it was pick up the older 2 and head to the immunization clinic for the girls' flu mist vaccinations. Of course, they were running late, and 40 minutes later, we finally headed to the high school for parent-teacher conference w/IC's teacher.

Mrs. F had good things to say about IC, had no concerns at all. He's completely academically in the right place, even a little ahead of some of the class, especially in math (he did NOT get that from me!). So, that meeting went very well.

Back home to regroup, eat supper and then it was heading to dance for Miss A.

Now, I'm the last to wait to get into the shower. I hope there's still hot water left!

Not Inspired

Today, I am uninspired for a post. I haven't gotten any more layouts done, we didn't do anything too exciting today, and I really don't have much profoundness in me.

We had Great Day of Singing at church, which is when all the choirs sing and basically, there's no sermon. It was good, as usual, but nothing spectacular happened.

Our football team lost to Texas yesterday, THAT'S definately not worth talking about.

This afternoon was a little Wii for IC, a little fishing for Daddy and the girls, cutting down the sunflowers that didn't turn out really great this year, the kids playing football w/Daddy and a four wheeler ride for the kids (w/Daddy).

I did get the mudroom nearly back together, as I want to get a new set of hinges for the cabinet doors yet, but everything else has it's place, though I think I want to add a little more to the wall space to finish it. My legs are stiff and sore - Wow! I figured my back and arm would hurt, but they barely twinge.

This week is parent-teacher conference, flu shots for the girls, dance and gymnastics, choir practice, and the kids have Friday off from school.

I also have to finish 2 posterboards for church, finalize plans for IC's party, get together w/a couple of other moms to plan the 1st grader's Halloween party, and I'd like to wash the windows before I put the clean curtains back up.

Well, I can dream about getting everything done that I want to, right?

The Story of Puce

This is my mudroom before today. A pale blue boring color. We live in my hubby's grandmother's 100 year old house. So, when we remodeled 10 years ago, (when we were first married), this room was nearly twice this size. Now, it's the size of a postage stamp, BUT we can put our refridgerator into the kitchen, instead of the mudroom, as it was before. Confused yet?

Our kitchen used to be the size of a postage stamp, with a bathroom built right off it, beside the kitchen sink. So, when we remodeled, we expanded the kitchen into the bathroom area, moving the bathroom to part of the old parlor (yep, the office used to be the parlor area) and moved the original mudroom wall to make room for the refridgerator, kitchen sink, cabinets, etc.

Back in the day of Grandma J, the story goes that she was very thrifty aka:cheap, and rather than buy new paint for her bathroom, she mixed together paint cans to make enough paint for her bathroom, and a wall in her parlor (Grandma was ahead of her time, she had an ACCENT wall in her parlor, as the rest of the walls in there were wallpapered). It turned out a sick color of green, that she named "puce". I'm guessing that was a nicer term than the name "puke". And yes, it was that ugly.

So, anyway, when we remodeled, ripping out the old plaster and putting in insulation and drywall, I didn't want ANY wallpaper or puce colored paint. For the whole downstairs, for some reason, I went REALLY blah. Like pastel yellow, pastel pink, pastel blue, cream. Ugh. Talk about boring. The mud room I colored blue (probably because it was left over from the boring blue office).

After 10 years, I can't stand my lack of color in my house. The kids' and our bedrooms have more color in them-I finally, somewhere along the way, got my brain out of neutral. So, I decided I'd do the mudroom first. It's small, the walls have never matched the rug, it does NOT have 9 ft. tall ceilings, so it's a good place to start.

I picked an olive green, sent the kids to mom's today and proceeded to paint. 30 minutes before JJ came in for his first look this am, I realized this color is an variant of puce. Not on purpose!!!

Of course, what does JJ say when he comes in? Yep, it reminded him of the old bathroom! He likes it (he would, anything attached to the old ways makes him happy). At first, I was unsure if I did, given that it's pretty close to the old color, but I like it, despite the similarities to puce.

What do you think? At least, there's color in the room. When I first told JJ I was going to re-paint the room, he was like, "the walls are painted a color?" Yeah, it was bad, I admit.

I did have to paint the sink cabinet. 10 years ago, JJ started making me a new cabinet, because the old one doesn't fit this sink and it is not in the greatest shape.

Well, he hasn't gotten that done yet, so I painted over, you guessed it, the old puce color. I will be putting new hinges and handles on the doors, at least trying to dress it up a little more.

The only thing left now is to put the cabinet doors, light switch covers, and the hooks back on the wall. That way we can cover up the wall with our winter coats!

Scouts

Thursday nite was IC's pack meeting. We had to run to York and take Miss A to gymnastics and then run home to town to take IC to his meeting.

They handed out patches and pins and the boys in the tiger den finally got their patches to put on their shirts so people know which pack they are from. Now, I've got some sewing to do!

The End of a Season

Well, yesterday, we FINALLY finished harvest. We'd have been done sooner this week if the auger hadn't broken down and the store in town would have had it on the shelf.

But, the piece came yesterday and we got done. Phew-another season under our belt.

Now, to work on things that got neglected during harvest.

Well, at least, JJ is supposed to be doing that. After he gets the fence made and the cows moved from the pasture to the cornstalks, I might FINALLY get him to fix some things around the house.

Like, they need to be done within the next 3 weeks.

One of the girls' bunk beds split in the one board that holds the bed together, so he sanded and I stained and varathaned one to replace it. It's been in the garage for a good month, ready to go. As soon as he fixes that, we are putting the girls' beds back into stack-mode to make more room in their bedroom.

Then, there's the bean bag game that IC has requested for his birthday party. JJ's going to make the hole thingy to throw the bean bags in.

Lastly, there's my office shelf.

Of course, there's a million things that have been waiting to be done around here for almost 10 years, but we can't expect miracles, can we?

Quotes from Little Tykes

"En sm piggy poop, Ewww, dat's gross!" E bunny has some interesting sentences, for sure.

"Ya wanna push my buttons?" Says Miss A to E bunny.

E replies,"Ya, sure!" (Luckily, they were referring to a play phone!)

Paint Plans

It's been a busy day at home with house cleaning and now I am prepping the mud room for it's new coat of paint I'm going to be slapping on it on Saturday.

I can't wait!

No, I'm not kidding. I am really looking forward to painting the mudroom a nice olive-type green over the pastel blue I painted on it 10 years ago (WHAT was I thinking?!).

I also plan to cover some nasty-looking dings in the office and kitchen wall-(mainly from kids whacking the wall with something).

By the way, the office is the same pastel blue, but painting that room will be a VERY large undertaking (lots of stuff to move, most of it very heavy, and I have no idea what color I want in that room).

At least, though, I will modernize the tiny mud room-it's definately a start in improving my tiny house appearance.

Leaf Fun

It's pretty self-explanitory what the kids did today after homework and Bouncing B left. They'd been begging to rake leaves for a week, so today, we did.

IC's always been a big helper with the rake. Today, after the pile fun, he decided to make a fort out of leaves. He made a really nice "C" shape. It was near perfect.

Sunshine, Again

Wouldn't you just know it? Not 10 minutes after it rained, it quit and the sun came out! We have a crazy state, the weather is so unpredictable. I do see another gray cloud coming, but it might miss us totally or not-it will be fun to see. Never a dull moment on the farm!

The Cat Whisperer

I have dubbed Miss A as our cat whisperer. She LOVES our cats in the barn and there's only 5 that she can catch (and 2 she can't, yet). It's usually necessary to go out there once a day, at least. She is a definate lover of most animals (even yucky ones). She does get that from me, by the way. I definately remember playing in the barn on our place with the cats.

Why We Didn't Get Pumpkins At the Patch

Remember this little plant WAY back in May? Miss A brought it home from TYKE. It was too big for the milk carton it was in, and JJ was sure it was not going to live.

And then he had to eat his words as it kept getting bigger and bigger . . . .

Well, here we are! There's 10 reasons why we didn't purchase any pumpkins from the pumpkin patch on Saturday. 10! All from ONE little pumpkin seed planted too early in preschool!

Could it Be?

I have to laugh. I haven't heard this in over a month, at least.

I just heard . . . thunder. Yep. It sprinkled for all of a minute or 2 this morning and then the sun played peek-a-boo for awhile.

Until 5 minutes ago-when it just came up and rained. Rained! We haven't had rain for ever and it even thundered and had a few pieces of hail (that I can do without, by the way).

JJ is out trying to pick the corn test plot, since the guy who was supposed to come on Wednesday came today because he'd gotten rained out at the place he was supposed to be today.

With only 2 days left, it's almost crazy to see rain, but we needed it so bad. And, I believe, JJ's going to get rained out of the field today. Ah well. God's got a sense of humor, for sure.

Church Singing and A Birthday Party

Miss A did a great job singing and doing actions.

Our family picture for IC's school project.

Today we started at church with Miss A's cherub choir singing 3 songs. It's always very cute to watch.

Then, we headed to my SIL's to celebrate my nephew's 16th birthday-WOW-
I've known him since he was 5. He's growing up fast. So, we had a good dinner and dessert-um-dirt cake. My niece and BIL were unfashionably late, but they came and the kids played. I did not let Miss A go out to their pickup and play with the niece's puppy, though. I just wasn't going to deal with that today and I didn't think it was appropriate.

But the kids played some games, IC played with the boys' legos and my SIL got to get rid of a few things by giving them to the kids, so all benefited from today.

The kids, for some reason, were fairly naughty during the trip to their house and home again. I am figuring it was weather-related, as there's a slight chance of rain tonight. Even though we are 1-2 days away from being done with harvest, a little rain would be ok-it's really, really dry out there.

Pumpkin Patch Fun

Playin' in the corn.

Riding the big trikes-Miss A did really well, she was speeding around the track at a pretty good pace.

The big slide on the hill, you're supposed to use gunny sacks, but my kids didn't-ah well, they still slid well anyway.

The smaller zip line.

Miss A flew on the zip line-then she didn't want to do it again!

The train ride. E got to go twice-once w/Miss A and once w/IC.

IC helping E put. And then, he left her in his dust and didn't help anymore.

Miss A fared well-she did it her own way, by mostly pushing the ball around instead of actually putting much, but she had a good time and that's what counted.

Miss A loved the pony ride.

E liked it too, IC walked beside her just in case. He is NOT a pony person.

Walking through the Wizard of Oz.

Miss A in the corn maze.

Today was a big day. Of course, my sinus' decided to be a pain in the rear, so I suffered with a headache, half sore throat and earache (that's a first!) all day. So, I made sure to keep up on my Advil.

Which I needed, as I took the kids to the pumpkin patch in St. Libory today. It was fun for the kids and we got there just as they opened at 10 and were able to skedaddle out by 12:15, before the crowd got unbearable. There was a giant inflatable pumpkin to jump on, a wooden fort and boat to climb on and slide down, a big hill slide to go down, zip lines to try, corn maze to go through, the girls rode the ponys and they all played (well, E did for about 2 holes) pumpkin minature golf, checked out the goats and the chickens, rode the tractor-driven train, walked through the wizard of oz in the greenhouse (not scary, thank goodness!) and had hot dog for dinner.

After that, we went back into Grand Island and stopped at Walmart (as I didn't get to on Thursday after gymnastics). Then we headed to Hastings to get a replacement slide for IC's neckerchief for scouts, since he already lost his first one. I realized when we got to town that I'd forgotten a couple things at Walmart, so we stopped there at the one in Hastings before heading to get the slide.

Then, it was home to discover the gas tank was out on the farm, drop sandwiches with JJ and my FIL before heading to town to get gas.

Home to play a little outside before going in for the night.

Tomorrow, after Miss A sings in her cherub choir, we'll head to Adams to my nephew's belated birthday party. Hopefully, my sinus' won't get any worse for that.