Pumpkin Patch

The best part of living in Minnesota,

well,

at least a good part,

is that you can find some where close by

to be your own farmer.

When I say farmer,

I don't mean grow your own stuff,

but you get to go pick it

and pretend like you were able to actually grow something.

In the summer that means berries,

in fall it is apples and pumkins,

in the winter it will be Christmas trees.

Well,

the pumpkin patch here is a little different,

from OK at least.

We enjoyed a little country store

with fresh baked apple goodies.

Then there was the petting zoo,

you could do a tractor ride,

there was live music by some guy on a fiddle,

and a hay stack to climb up with slides to go down.

But.....

When you are done playing

you actually go out to a field to get your pumpkin!

What?!?!?!

You get the size and shape you want,

take it to the scales to weigh it,

pay your money

and voila,

you just "farmered" your own pumpkin.

Look at me Grow!

This is Miss L trying to pet a very territorial Rooster.

Yeah,

we stopped her before she got bit.

We sure are amazing parents. :)

Who wouldn't enjoy a nice wagon ride

to check out the animals

and pumpkins?

Apparently I needed to pull out the camera more

but I didn't.

It was a cold, wet, windy day

but we still had fun.

G loved pulling a wagon through mud,

while we decided which pumpkin was best.

L was just trying to stay upright

because her feet were caked in so much mud.

It was throwing her off balance.

The pumpkin is home

and now a jack o'lantern.

Aren't holidays just way more fun with kids?

29 weeks

I always have every intention

of taking these photos closer together.

But that requires me to be showered and ready

and The Man to be home to take the picture.

So, we finally made it to another Sunday morning

where one of us wasn't running off to a meeting.

Here it is,

my belly at 29 weeks.

Not much to look at to most people.

But I do a double take 

whenever I catch my reflection in a mirror.

Baby girl is growing great.

She moves ALL OF THE TIME

and I am pretty sure my innards are bruised,

in several places.

My other two

were much more calm and complacent.

I wonder what her personality is like?

The other day

GMan rested his foot on my belly,

I still don't know why,

but she started attacking his foot.

Pretty funny to me

and pretty amazing to him.

Either she wanted her space

or she wanted a high five.

I told him it was the high five,

and to leave his foot there

as long as he wanted.

We got quite the show out of her. :)

I will try and get another picture in sooner,

or wait longer,

 and see if we have a more drastic difference.

Chicago

Chicago,

quite possibly,

my happiest place on earth.

There is always something going on

and there is never a shortage of things to do.

As one final hurrah before the baby came,

The Man scheduled a quick weekend trip to Chi-town.

First, thanks to J and J for taking our kids.

It was a little slice of heaven,

and a little flashback to life before kids,

to not have to worry about

nap time,

feeding times,

bed times,

etc.

We crammed on as much of the city as we could in 1 day.

Naturally we skipped all museums,

because each could take one day by themselves.

Plus we wanted to cover as much city ground as possible.

We started walking down Michigan.

Not sure exactly what to cram in?

start there.

This is the Water Tower.

If I remember correctly this is where the great fire stopped.  

Leaving this as one of the oldest, original buildings.

We have been here dozens of times

but it is never open.

It's not big,

probably serves no function

but as a reminder of 

Mrs. O'Leary's cow.

On the day we were in town,

it was actually open,

and somebody had converted it into an art exhibit

for a limited time.

Here's our chance!

We can actually go in.

So go in we did.

And this is what we found.

The entire structure

completely full of red balloons

about 6 feet high.

And what does one do in over 5,000 balloons?

We play!

We run!

We accidentally pop a few.

Sorry!

Man do we love art.

Saw this statue

and it provided too many fun one liners

"Look, I'm clinging to hope"

"It's the only hope we could find in Chicago"

"Embrace hope!"

We entertained ourselves for a long time

with Hope.

 The skyline from the end of Navy Pier.

Oh, miss that skyline.

ps - It was a very cold day,

should have worn a real coat.

Mental note for next time.

Even though we were only there a little while,

we were able to meet some friends.

I miss these friends

(and you too Steve a Kerri,

sorry we couldn't get together)

This is K,

her and I moved into the ward

at the same time,

neither of us had kids,

and we pretty much lived across the street.

We got to become dear friends.

We had a fun life back then. :)

Thanks for the get together lady!

The is D,

K's hubby,

This is pretty much how him and The Man

behaved when they were together.

Oh the good times.

The trip was amazing.

Cold,

no sleep,

and left with some illness

but it was all worth it.

I would go back and do it again

ANYTIME!

You like sugar, huh?

Is there sugar in syrup?

Yes...

Then YES!

Sidenote:

If  you have not seen the movie Elf

you must stop reading

and go watch this incredible piece of entertainment.

(Then my post will seem funnier to you.)

That is the scene that kept running through my head

as I discovered Miss L

licking the syrup off her plate.

This girl sure loves her 

sugar!

Once I got caught taking pictures

It just turned into a game.

Funny girl.

The American Past Time

GMan got to attend his first

Major League Baseball Game,

with his dad.

I thought they had seats

right on the 1st baseline

but the picture shows the 3rd baseline.

Maybe the picture is flipped. 

Either way they had a great time.

They got Twins beanies at the door,

they got a "giant" hot dog,

they walked around the stadium

and they watched "our team" hit the ball,

on the way out they got back packs

and G fell asleep in the car.

All in all it sounded like

an amazing Man Date.

This is the ticket that G carried around for days!

He kept telling me that if he got lost,

he needed to show an adult

to get back to dad.

Glad The Man drilled that into his head.

Even more glad he didn't get lost! :)

Best buddies

I love,

that my kids,

LOVE each other.

As a mom you want your kids to get along

but I don't have a secret book

or any idea how you do that

exactly.

So when my kids naturally gravitated toward each other

it made me the happiest mom in the world.

It makes my heart,

and some times my mouth,

sing when they go running down the stairs

or into the backyard to enjoy each others company.

I generally find them doing everything together.

Sometimes it's good things,

 like reading books,

and other times it's mischief ,

like emptying out the cabinets in my bathroom.

Either way,

I am just happy they enjoy doing it together.

These are giant calculators that they found.

G is using his as a camera

and L is using hers as a cell phone.

Do we live in a world of technology or what?

First Day of School

I love the first day of school!

I apparently am not that mom that cries

when her child walks into the class room.

Maybe with my last,

but those might just be tears of joy.

September 10th

(Happy Birthday Kendra)

could not come fast enough!

G has been asking me for school since we moved in February.

That's a long time.

We counted down to the days

and I don't know who was more happy,

him or I.

Well,

This is his sweet face that morning

when he was ready 30 minutes early.

This is Miss L,

she thinks she's happy too

until she realizes that her best friend is gone.

Her real happiness occurred when we picked G up.

We tried to stay busy while he was gone.

This is L helping me with dishes

And the cooking

All in all it was good.

We have gotten in a nice routine.

Miss L still misses her buddy when mom is doing chores

but it lets her and I have one on one time

three days a week

and G gets his mom time during nap time.

I love it when everything works out!

Labor Day

You know what's annoying?

When you prepare a post,

then save it,

because you need to get pictures off your phone.

Then you forget.

And that post has now been sitting,

unpublished,

for over a week.

Blast you pregnant brain!

Well, here it is.

Labor Day,

is not a holiday that we generally make plans for.

It never dawns on me to go on a trip,

or throw a party.

Instead we generally do something last minute

and enjoy the extra long weekend.

This year was no different for us,

then we got a phone call.

The Man's brother called

to see if we wanted to join them for a weekend

of hiking and rock climbing

and all around fun times.

Heck yeah we do!

Oh yeah,

Gman broke his sternum,

we probably shouldn't spend 

several days rock climbing and hiking

and doing all sorts of other shenanigans

that will break him more.

Bummer,

there goes all the fun.

THEN

I get a phone call from my friend C.

Unlike me,

she plans trips all of the time.

She has gone on at least one trip a month 

almost since we moved in.

We have kids the exact same age

(seriously, both her kids birthdays 

are two weeks before my two)

and she called to see if we wanted to go out of town with them.

Are you going rock climbing?

No.

Then, YES!

She had reserved a condo at a resort

a couple hours north of here.

Grand view lodge.

She didn't realize that the condo

had four bedrooms

and three bathrooms!

Which meant that they needed friends.

Woo hoo,

we love being (and having) friends!

It was a low key weekend

filled with swimming,

playing,

ice cream,

grilling,

going out,

and this giant statue of Paul Bunyon.

What could be better?

These are the girls.

They are quickly becoming best friends.

Again, yeah for friends!

On our drive home we stopped at this random,
in the middle of no where,
diner.
It had an indoor and outdoor playground,
a sand box,
these fun picture cut outs
and grass to run around in.
I wish every trip had a random diner!

 This is G (right) and his friend C (left).
Good buddies who like to play together.

Miss L, I just love that she can barely peek through