Pumpkin Patch

We took the girlz to one of our most favorite local farms today for a hay ride to the pumpkin patch, a spin through the corn maze, and some quality time in the cotton bin. The girlz and I have been coming here for years -- it's a tradition at Big Girl School for the Preschool classes to take a Field Trip there, and I would always go with them.

Going with the school always meant two of us had already been (or were scheduled to go) to this farm, so we'd always choose a different farm for our "family" pumpkin patch trip. But we don't have a Preschooler this year, so this farm was the obvious choice for our family trip. I like this place because it's small, we know this farming family personally, and we know our kids are safe -- even if they're out of sight for a moment.

But my favorite part is that it's run by true country farmers - you load up whatever mums, pumpkins, and hay bales you want into your car and then go inside and tell them what you took. And they actually believe you.

I love that.

The man stuck in the hay bale wasn't visible from the road this year, and the girlz were afraid he was gone. But once we rounded the corner, we found him!

The corn box!

The girlz in the corn maze

On the hayride, waiting to head out to the field.

The brown barrel-shaped cow is pregnant!

Cotton!!!!!!

Pumpkins are far as the eye can see...

We got a Cinderella pumpkin covered in glitter for our kitchen island. LOVE.

On the way home, we stopped at a new little store in our village that just opened. They gave the girlz the cutest little stuffed animals, and we got a new fall garden flag to go with our mums and pumpkins.

Such a GREAT day!!

School Pictures

The proofs for school pictures came home the other day, and I'm pretty happy with them this year. Cassidy looks beautiful, as usual. Campbell looks normal - no weird faces or gestures.

I'll take it!

THAT Kind Of Tree

You know the one. That tree.

In every kind of group - everywhere - there's always one out of the bunch that goes against the grain. School groups, project teams, church committees, sports teams, groups of friends, colleagues at work - there's always that one that marches to the beat of their own drummer.

We actually have two of them that live in this house. They don't just march to beat of their own drummer - they march to their own ROYAL drummer. I think you know which two I'm speaking of.

Well now, our trees are following suit.

All the trees in our yard and in the surrounding area are still nice and green. Pretty summer trees.

But this little guy has boldly decided to color our green world with beautiful golds and reds.

It's good to be a little different.

24 Hour Getaway at the Secret Hideout

Lieutenant Sexy and I got to spend some time this weekend remembering what our lives were like before the girlz came along. Mama and Papa took the girlz and let us spend Saturday night at their Secret Hideout, so we got to go shopping by ourselves and eat 3 delicious meals -- All. By. Ourselves.

Granted, 75% of what we bought while we were there was for the girlz. And we couldn't help but smile as we watched a little boy squirm his way through breakfast with his family yesterday morning, thinking how much he reminded us of Campbell. As funny as it was, we were thankful it was finally someone else with the squirmy kids for once. It was a huge relief to not have to deal with that for just a little while.

I can't even remember the last time we got 24 glorious kid-free hours together.  I'm sure it must have been some time last winter or spring, but I honestly don't remember when it would have been or what we were doing - which made this getaway even sweeter. It was a long time coming!

On the ferry, enjoying the weather with the windows down and roof open because there weren't any little voices complaining about it being too windy. Yay!

Throwback Thursday!

One of my most favorite things is watching the girlz grow.  I remember staring at them as infants, memorizing the crinkle of their noses as they smiled and every fleck of color in their eyes. I wondered what they would look like as toddlers, preschoolers, and school-age children.

I now find myself wondering what they'll look like as tweens, teenagers, and young adults.

Raising these girls is a HARD and exhausting job. Third grade is very demanding and Cassidy's teacher takes "strict" to a whole new level. I don't understand the reasoning behind some of the classroom policies and the grading scale seems especially harsh for the 8 and 9 year-old crowd. It's going to be a long school year.

Campbell is in a rough patch, too - misbehaving both at home and in dance class. Mrs. H said she's a perfect angel in her classroom at school, so she clearly saves it all up for us. Typical.

I'm thankful we have pictures of happy times to get us through the tough spots. And through it all, I'm thankful for the opportunity to be an imperfect mother to these two perfectly imperfect blessings!

Sweet Sisters

Mermaids

I took Cassidy to a neighboring city this afternoon for a dance thing, and she was completely enthralled with the mermaids.

I love that little girl.

Party Time!

The girlz attended an end of summer birthday party this afternoon. It was so fun to celebrate with our friends!

County Fair 2013

Two of Cassidy's competition routines from last year were scheduled to perform at the county fair this weekend. But unlike in years past, the studio was scheduled for Friday instead of Saturday. That threw me off in more ways than one. Most importantly, I wasn't exactly sure how we were going to pull it off -- if we picked the girlz up from school and went straight to the fairgrounds, there would be no place to do hair and make-up (we need a sink and towels). If we let them ride home on the bus, we might end up arriving late if the traffic into the fairgrounds was already heavy.

We ended up letting them ride the bus home and rushing through snacks, hair, and make-up. We arrived at the fairground early, and had plenty of time to walk around and ride some rides before heading to the Family Stage.

Campbell had a great time!

They both loved the dragon roller coaster...

Eating dinner on bales of hay

This boat ride was born the same year as Mama, but you'd never know it. It honestly looks brand new! The one giveaway? There are guns mounted on the front of the some of the boats. Campbell was SO EXCITED to sit in a boat with a gun, and that prompted the operator to tell me about the ride. He said you would never see a ride like that today, and I suspect he's right. Fascinating!

Fun house

Almost time to leave - with a few new friends, of course!

We love the fair!

The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same

I didn't realize I barely posted anything last week until just now. Last week was a doozy - the second week of school, the first week of dance classes, the first week of swimming lessons, school pictures, school fundraiser, and a sick Cassidy in the midst of it all.

We knew kindergarten and third grade were going to bring a big change in our house, and they have certainly delivered. Campbell brings home homework every night and gets real grades now. Cassidy is learning at a faster pace and brings home a minimum of one hour of homework every night. The expectations of school are noticeably ramping up for both of them.

To prepare for this, I made every effort to keep the weekdays as clear as possible - we gave up soccer this fall and scheduled both girlz for swimming lessons on Saturdays. But then on Friday afternoon, I got a call telling me Campbell's class had been moved to Monday nights.

Even with the focus on scaling back and making a diligent effort to leave plenty of room for the increased demands of kindergarten and third grade, somehow the inevitable scheduling issues have put us right back where we were. 

FAIL.

One bright spot of the week was this sunset. Coming home from dance the other night, we got stuck on the bridge. Cassidy and I got an unobstructed view as sun dipped below the horizon. It was gorgeous!

The weekend was a blur, but I did get this cute picture of the girlz at Skinny Dip. These girlz LOOOOOOVE their frozen yogurt!

And now we buckle down for another week. So much has changed from last year to this year, and yet it's all exatly the same!

Labor Day Weekend

We had a great Labor Day weekend! We tried our best to stay true to the spirit of the holiday and keep the running around to a minimum.

We were marginally successful.

Our local toy store had scheduled a Cra-Z-Loom bracelet-making activity on Saturday morning, so we made sure it was on our list of things to do this weekend. I suspected it would be right up Cassidy's alley, and I was right -- she loved it so much, we ended up buying a bracelet-making kit to bring home with us. She's been busy ever since, making bracelets for everyone she knows.

Time and money well spent.

Sunday morning was spent at church. I had a meeting most of the afternoon, so Lieutenant Sexy took the girlz to see Planes. They LOVED it!

Today was reserved for the last swim of the summer at the Shark Pool. We stayed most of the day, and the girlz were so sad when it came time to leave. We've signed them up for swimming lessons at the Y this Fall, but the indoor pool at the Y just isn't the same as a summer day at the Shark Pool.

The Shark Pool is their happy place!

And now it's time to start prepping for another school week. Dance classes start this week, which will add another level of complexity to our lives. I have my fingers crossed that our smooth first week at school was an accurate indicator of the year ahead!