Celebrating Nine

Riley has wanted to go fishing for his birthday for a number of years now and I'm happy to say, we finally made it happen.  The event turned into a guys' day out since we were able to orchestrate the outing on a day where they older boys were free from work.  John found some bank fishing at a lake not too far away.  The guys geared up and headed out.  The weather cooperated and though there was a cool breeze, the guys had a favorable climate.  They didn't return home until after dark, and sadly they returned empty handed--the fish were barely biting.  Still, the reports were favorable all around and Riley was happy to have gone, so it was a successful event. 

Jozsef isn't in the picture because he found a place a bit out of the way he could call his own

Sunset was stunning that night

That evening we had dinner, cake, and gifts and Riley was officially labeled a nine year old.  We are so happy to have had the last nine years of his creativity, smile, and love.  Here's to many more years dear boy!  Happy birthday!

Halloween

In all of my years, I cannot remember a Halloween that was rained out.  We've had threats of rain, a slight drizzle, rain that started after we ended our festivities, but we've not had a rained out Halloween--until this year.  Thankfully, our community is used to our fickle weather and is rather adaptable.  The city quickly rearranged locations for events rather than cancelling them--it was pretty impressive. 

Our Nerd

Our Flapper

Our Ninja

Our Snow Princess

The rain did not keep us from costume lunch day at one of our favorite restaurants, where kids in costume ate free.  Woo hoo! 

The festival we had planned to attend changed in location and subsequently in size, but we still attended and the kids still had fun playing games.  The most fun, however, was had at the open gym at a tumbling school.  The kids played in the foam pit, on the parallel bars, climbed the rope, did the Ninja course, balanced on the balance beam, and generally just had a blast.  It was good to see them test themselves and have fun at the same time.  Afterwards, we met up with the older boys who had worked the day, and we had dinner followed by a showing of Ghostbusters.  There was no trick or treating for us, but the kids got a lot of candy a the festival and they didn't feel like they missed out at all.  It was a good holiday. 

Pumpkin Farm

One of our most favorite field trips is to visit the pumpkin patch.  This year our weather was wonderful and even surprised us a bit with its warmth. 

We enjoyed playing at the farm, taking a hay ride, and taking our time choosing just the right pumpkins and gourds for decoration, carving, and baking. 

After we were satisfied with our pickings at the farm, we headed over to one of our favorite snack shops for a seasonal flavor before they closed up for the winter--the snow ball shack!  New Orleans style snow balls are the way to go!  Best flavor and taste that lasts to the final bite.  Yumm!  Ending our pumpkin picking with a snow ball is now a new tradition--what a wonderful way to usher in the cooler weather.  :-)

John is the master carver in our house and he leads the kids in pumpkin design and application.  The kids dream up a design, they find a picture that best represents what they want to achieve, and John helps them to make that a pumpkin reality.  They all did such a good job this year and had plenty of fun with the execution of their plans.  :-)

Sonja went for the Stargate symbol for home

Riley chose a spider and Hannah did a traditional face

Connor went for the planetary theme

Apple Festival

Fall is such a busy time of year.  It seems that every weekend there is some sort of fun activity happening.  SO many choices!  Which, I guess is a good thing, because the weather is far from dependable  and it's not uncommon for events to be cancelled or changed due to inclement weather.  Some of the things we really wanted to do this year were cancelled or rescheduled to times we could not longer attend.  Thankfully, Apple Festival was not one of them.  It the one festival that we've pretty much decided is a must in our fall line up.  We've attended in rain, and shine.  This year our attendance date was a beautiful day and we very much enjoyed touring the fair grounds viewing attractions and visiting vendor booths. 

We snacked on apple treats and pineapple drinks

These pineapple drinks are awesome!  They core the fruit of the pineapple out with a drill, then they blend the fruit with pina colada (non-alcoholic) and fill the pineapple back up. The drink is garnished and served.  It's wonderful cool drink and so filling! 

and just had a great time hanging out together.  Hannah took a pony ride

Hannah decided that riding the pony was more fun than riding the camel

Nikolas purchased a great scarf and I caught him patiently waiting for Hannah and sporting his new accessory.  Sharp lookin' guy! 

 and Jozsef found a wonderful pineapple sign (though I didn't get a photo of his metal work). 

We even  ventured into downtown where there were more vendors and cute small town shops to explore.  We walked a lot and finished out the day sufficiently spent and thankful for the crock pot dinner that awaited us..  :-)