Pumpkin Patch

In the tradition of the season, I took the kids to Mother Nature Farms on Wednesday.  We met friends there and had a great time.

 Trae, honey, I have my eye on you!

 The whole gang made this picture... only Oliver was trying to escape.

 We decorated pumpkins, did the hay maze, went on a hay ride, had a picnic, and checked out their pumpkins.

 

Every year I get a picture of the kids in front of the pumpkin... this year was no exception.

And a good fall picture of the all.

We had a great time and really enjoyed playing with friends.

Park?

Park day?  With the weather we received last week... absolutely!!!

This is what pure joy looks like:

 And while we are there, why not feed the ducks!

Monday was the first day of a week long "Fall Break".  We decided to make the best of it and met some friends at the Red Mountain park.  They played on the playground, fed the ducks, and then played games in the grass.  It was a really good way to start the week!

Dad's Day

I'm a stickler for the family calendar.  If it doesn't make it onto the calendar, then, in my mind, it really truly isn't important or exist.  Unfortunately, I have had this conversation with Brandon several times with his meetings or whatnot.  "I don't see it on the calendar!"  Well, to my surprise, when I turned the page on the calendar to October, there on October 6th, in all caps and rather large font was "DAD'S DAY" written over the entire box.  I had a good chuckle.  Brandon has been working so hard and so much lately, that he does deserve a "Dad's Day".  I asked him what he had planned... and it was this:

 

Dad and the girls went 4-wheeling for a few hours on Saturday.  It was a lot of fun for all of them. 



And the came home covered in dirt, just in time to watch conference.

Happy Dad's Day, Brandon!  We Love You!

Science Center

My beautiful cousin, Liz, is having a baby later this month, so we thought a trip to the Science Center would be nice to do now, before her new little man enters the family.  It was a really crazy day at the Science Center, but we still had a very enjoyable time.

 Ironically, we never made it off the first floor.  All the fun stuff the kids wanted to explore that say was on ground level.  The Lego's and the Water exhibits were the two favorites.

 Poor Oliver was so tired.  As I'm sure you can tell from this photo.

We had so much fun!  Thank you Liz, Morgan, and Ethan for coming and playing with us.  We can wait to meet the baby brother!

Guys Day

Saturday morning was "Guys Day" with Brandon, Grandpa Smithson, and Oliver!  They went to a truck show!  Apparently what happens at the truck show, stays at the truck show, because I didn't get many details, but I did get some pictures.

 Brandon said that Oliver loved this chair so much, he through a mini fit when they peeled him off of it.

I think it's good to be a boy!  They definitely had fun!

Poisened Apples

The Hale Theater is currently showing Snow White.  I knew that they were coming and got tickets for Melanie, Noelle, My mother and me way in advance.  This was Noelle's first theater experience and I was really looking forward to this play and surprising the girls (they had no idea).

The morning of Brandon took Oliver on a "guy's day" adventure with Grandpa Smithson (more on that later).  The girls told me that they wanted to do a "woman's day" (their words) and I asked what they wanted to do.  "Dress up like Princesses" they said.  How convenient, that was already part of my plan.  I did their hair all special and gave them both a Snow White dress.  Clever Melanie figured it out.  The excitement escalated.

I couldn't resist a little photo opportunity.

 When I bought the seats, I was the first one to pick any seats in the theater (for this showing).  I thought the front row would be fun because then Noelle could see.  What I didn't know was I picked the only row that was literally *on* the stage (off to the side, but flush).  All the other sections started up a level.  To say we were close to the action would be an understatement.  In fact, when frightened by the unknown Snow White, one of the dwarfs actually picked up Melanie, sat in her seat, and put her on his lap to "hide" from Snow White.  Let me tell you something about Melanie... having a strange man pick her up and put her on his lap without asking does not sit well with her.  She didn't cry, but she quickly climbed off his lap and on to my mom's (then hid her face).  The dwarf then tried to convince Noelle to hide him.  This also did not work as he had hoped, because she just leaned towards me.  He ended up trying to hide himself in the fetal position on the chair.  So yeah, we were really close to the action.  I'm thinking next time I'd like to be up a level.  I felt like I was going to have a toe stepped on if I weren't careful.

Here we are waiting for the play to begin.

 I think they did a wonderful job.  Of all the children's plays we have been to, this was definitely my favorite.  The evil queen was wickedly good.  There were two actresses that played her.  One played the queen as herself and the other played the queen as the young girl and the old hag (this queen transformed herself twice!)

 The picture of the girls with the royal couple didn't turn out the best, but I had to include it.  Snow White actually reminded me of the charactor from the Disney movie.  She did a great job.  And the prince was very charming!

 Here are the girls with two of the dwarfs.  The one holding Noelle's hand up to wave was the one that picked Melanie up during the show.  The dwarfs were very entertaining!

 After the show, we walked to Oreganos and met up with Papa Terry for lunch.  The girls were completely spoiled by grandpa! 

Seriously spoiled!  I mean... have you ever seen anyone enjoy dessert as much as this:

 Here's the whole group at lunch.

After lunch, I drove us home as fast as was legal and safe, because there was a little man there waiting for his mommy.  Noelle feel asleep in the car and was out.  It took a handsome prince to give her kisses to wake her up!  They spent the rest of the day (and most of the rest of the weekend) wearing their Snow White dresses.  They even watched the movie Snow White that night.  I think the day was a success!