{week 42}

It's fall, y'all! We headed into Week 42 with a trip to the Pumpkin Patch with some friends. Nothing says fall like hot apple cider, photo ops with tractors, hay rides & choosing just the right pumpkin. Or two. Or four. The week was surprisingly calm and aside from a moustached stranger showing up for dinner one night, we just ambled through the week. Kalea had her 4 year old well child check on Wednesday. She grew 4 inches & gained 5 pounds in the past year - apparently twice as much as average! After three shots & a finger prick she was worn out, got a fever & had to stay home from school the next day. She never does well with the day after vaccinations & this time around was no different, but she recovered after 24 hours and is now taunting her sister with her upcoming well child check shots! We celebrated her wellness with homemade apple tart & caramel sauce. It tasted like fall to me & both recipes were ridiculously easy. You should try them. Really!

At the end of the week we headed down to see Gran in Macon & spent Saturday with her at The Rock Ranch, a 1,500 acre ranch located about an hour south of Atlanta. They host special events throughout the year & we enjoyed lots of their fall activities including hay rides, bounce houses, pumpkin chucking & fishing during their Family Fall Days. It was such a fun time that we'll definitely go back next year or before, during their Christmas celebrations! We ended the day with Cade's family birthday dinner. He was spoiled with Mickey Mouse cupcakes & great toys from his cousins, aunts & uncles.

Fall sure does keep us busy but we love it!

{lumpkins picking pumpkins}

Over the weekend some friends invited us to pick pumpkins with them at Berry Patch Farms. We hadn't gone to a real pumpkin patch since pumpkin-pa-looza in Salt Lake City so we were all in. This time Michael even got to go with us, so all the better. When we first arrived there was this (obvious photo opportunity) cute, vintage, red tractor to climb on & pretend to drive like a pumpkin farmer...

 ...while the girls also played on the wooden playset beside it (because OH MY GOSH! They NEVER get to play on a playground Mama! Like EVER!!!!) & we waited to catch up with our friends. I told them to make scary pumpkin faces. You see how that turned out.

After scary pumpkin faces, we wandered over to the next photo op, situated right beside the ice-cream booth. Clearly somebody was thinking when they set that up. I'm pretty sure I heard more than one person bribe their child(ren) to take a decent picture. Not that we were one of those people. At all. Also, it had to have been a mother who set it up to have the ice-cream AFTER the cute picture spot. Brilliant!

There was this really super cool spider web situated right above the photo area. It may have spelled Lumpkin. Or Charlotte.

Then it was off to the face painting booth.

They had short hayrides from the activities area over to the pumpkin patches. Michael & Cade had a race across the field. So ridiculously cute.

Each of the kids picked a tiny pumpkin & helped Daddy choose a big, family pumpkin to carve. 

Then we tried to take another cute picture. Because taking cute pictures at the end of an adventure is always prime cooperation time.

It was a super fun, fall day...can't wait to head back at Christmastime for tree choosing, hot chocolate drinking fun!

{week 41}

The week was a good one with the end of fall break (allowing time for most of the germs from week 40 to run their course), Michael travelling a few days for work, hand-in-hand neighborhood walks, donuts with dad at the elementary school, sky writing & remembering our house in Salt Lake six years ago waiting for the 1st Lumpkin Pumpkin to make an appearance!

{the training wheels are off}

The other weekend Cassidy decided to just GO for it & try riding her bike without training wheels. Michael was the brave soul who had the honor of running around behind a wobbly girl for the half hour or so that this lesson lasted. What a good daddy!

While I had the pleasure of chasing these two silly kids up & down the sidewalk. Aren't they too cute for words?

 

She ended up with a flat back tire somehow so the lesson came to a halt, but it was a good start. We're so proud of our almost six year old girl!!

{week 40}

It feels like a Monday to me. Today is the first day back from fall break for our schools &, while the break was nice, it certainly feels weird to already be mid-week! I guess Friday is just going to come sooner than I expect, which will be a pleasant surprise!

Last week I made up for week 39's lack of photos...

Cade seems to be the only one who regularly stays still enough to photograph lately, so this week is heavy on the the little one. The beginning of the week we excitingly took off Cassidy's training wheels & Michael gave her a first lesson...then she promptly got a flat tire & so now I need to go get a new tube. It was a good start though. We celebrated Cassidy being chosen to attend the first principal's character breakfast of the school year - each month one or two students are chosen from each class - for her excellence in friendship. We're so proud of our sweet kindergartener!

Cade & I had several outings while sisters were in school to the park, he "helped" me back the car out of the garage, the thrill of the century, and he got to ride in Kalea's car seat one day on the way through preschool carpool. Currently he's still happily rear-facing but that day he had it in his head that he had to be in sister's seat...and a non-screaming, harnessed child is safer than one trying to take his harness off, so he won. For that day anyhow. Thursday started fall break & we had a couple playdates & Cade helped Michael coach Kilometer Kids one night. We even had a wedding between bride Princess Ariel, played by Cassidy, and Prince Eric, the goofy groom, played by Kalea. She always gets cast as the prince. Poor second child.

Over the weekend germs invaded the house &, much to my dismay, four out of five were down for the count by Sunday morning. It ended up being a relaxing weekend, full of a little too much movie & TV time but everyone seems to be on the mend now.

{week 39}

The week got away from me and, although it wasn't well documented photographically, we had a great week: Michael finished up his camping trip, Cassidy had Kilometer Kids, we attended Science & Math night at Cassidy's elementary school, Michael & I finally hung some better frames in the living room, Cassidy was chosen to attend the first "Character Breakfast" of the school year (a breakfast with the principal) and went on her very first field trip. Then on Saturday, we hosted a house full of 3 & 4 year olds for Kalea's Jake & the Neverland Pirates party, climbed some trees & watched the Georgia game with our good friends.

{happy 4th birthday, captain kalea}

Happy 4th Birthday to our sweet Kalea Lynn!

We started the day with some gifts from us, Grandma & Grandpa. She was tickled to get a bunch of Jake & the Neverland Pirates accessories & outfit, among a couple books & clothing. Cassidy, of course, had to help!

Then it was on to soccer practice while Mommy set up for the Jake & the Neverland Pirates Party.

Once friends arrived, it was a flurry of pirate & princess dress-up, making pirate bandanas, pizza, pirate booty & making spy glasses for the treasure hunt. Which was a bit of a crazy mess, but what party isn't, right?

We ended with singing Happy Birthday, loaded the kids up on sugary frosting & sent most of them home! :) It was a beautiful & fun day celebrating our sweet girl. It's so hard to believe that she's grown up so much into the kind, thoughtful, silly & loving big girl that she is today. 

{week 38}

She never tires of getting tickled. It's been like that since she was little & I love it.

Aside from the crazy giggles we kept ourselves occupied this week with: a visit to see Sidney (cousin who is now attending KSU), texting pictures to Daddy while he was on a business trip, good Target scores & the beginning of Christmas shopping (this was pure accident, I'm usually NOT organized enough to begin early at all!!!), more texts to Daddy while he camped in North Georgia over the weekend, sister-brother bonding on the slides, giggling girl, Cassidy showing off her reading skills, Cade INSISTING on wearing a barrette one afternoon just like his sisters, movie night on the floor while Daddy camped, the realization that Cade just might be growing out of the crib & picture day at preschool with NEW BOOTS!

{week 37}

Despite the temperatures reaching the 90s this week, the air is beginning to feel a little like fall. Mornings at the bus stop require a sweater & we've been able to open the windows at night. And all the stores have begun advertising pumpkin flavored yumminess. So.hard.to.resist. 

This week was pretty low key. We've been outside a lot with the nice weather - and discovering a lot of really cool spider webs & different kinds of spiders. Cade is quickly closing in on 2 years old & has begun to assert his independence & share his opinions. Lovely, right? Especially when I phrase it that way. Cassidy earned an "Outstanding" certificate for her classroom behavior chart mid-week, a really big deal. She started back up with Kilometer Kids on Tuesdays & Thursdays where Michael volunteered to be a coach this session. Kalea started Little Stars, the U4 soccer team, on Saturday morning. Both girls are doing really well and seem to be a little more comfortable with their respective programs/practices this year. 

We snuck a {maybe last} swim in on Friday night & had the pool to ourselves for a hour or so. All three kids have come so far swimming this summer. Cassidy is swimming on her own in both the shallow & the deep end. She is still really tentative in the deep end but will at least jump off the side or the board & swim to the ladder. Kalea has no interest in swimming without her puddle jumper, but in the last couple weeks finally started jumping, assisted, off the side of the pool. Other than that she'll just putter around the whole pool playing & swimming. Cade is pretty fearless - with the puddle jumper on all.the.time. He'll jump off the side or the board, go underwater briefly, climb in the pool on his own (sliding on his belly) & loves being spun around or laying on his back to kick. We're really lucky to have access to such a great pool in our neighborhood.

Saturday Michael & I went out for a birthday lunch w/o kids, thanks to a friend who stayed with the kids for a couple hours. Then Saturday night we loaded up the strollers & cooler to head to a showing of Brave at the outdoor movie night at Swift Cantrell Park. We ate a picnic dinner, heard a story teller, got to see some neat camping supplies & meet Princess Merida before the movie started. And of course there were glow sticks to end the family night out. 

{backyard campout}

It's nearly the end of summer and we still haven't gone camping. In all honesty the thought of my three kids sleeping in a tent together seems both terrifying & hilarious. And reeks of "little to no sleep for mommy" quite a bit. So we compromised recently and set up a "tent" (a.k.a. sunshade we bought for the beach), dragged out the water table, some bubbles, snacks, lawn chairs & the little pool. Then we got down to the business of relaxing.

After all that hard work and some dinner, it was time for the obligatory s'mores. They didn't enjoy them at all.

Maybe next year we'll move up a step & sleep in the backyard...