FALL 2013

I thought fall was going to be a busy time for us but I had no idea it was going to be this busy!  A garage sale, bowling, pre-school, apple orchard, Grampy’s memorial, pumpkin patch, Halloween bon fire and trick or treating is just some of what we had to do this fall.  It was all crazy, busy and a lot of fun.

At the end of last school year Jame’s speech teacher told us that she was going to bring him back next year but he would graduate out of the class quickly.  We asked if we could leave him in and she told us no.  We started to look for something for him to do.  We finally decided on pre-school and bowling.  He was very excited on his first day of pre-school and Mom was a bit emotional watching Little Man walk into the school for his first day.  The pre-school has been wonderful for him and he is already writing his name.  We signed him up for everything thinking his speech would end soon but we are still waiting for the teacher to let us know when he is done.  On the days he is not in pre-school he has speech and one night a week he goes bowling.  All we can think is the teacher really likes him and doesn’t want to see him leave but its okay I still think it’s good for him. 

The bowling is only for forty five minutes and at first I wondered why so short but then I quickly realized that the attention span of a four year old is about that long.  They put the bumpers up for the kids and give them a ramp to roll the ball down.  Jame at first used the ramp but then moved to a side kind of throw, then sometimes back to the ramp.  We did the entire first session of bowling and then signed him up for another session.  He still likes it but we saw signs for indoor soccer around town and we gave him his choice of soccer or bowling and he said he wanted to try soccer.  I’m thinking he’s going to like the running better.

 

Uncle Bob and Aunt Dorothy are moving into Holland Home, this brought back a lot of memories for me since my Great Grandma or as we used to call her as kids Grandma with a mustache only because Great Grandpa had a mustache.  We needed to have a garage sale to help them with their move Mimi, Auntie Jea Jea and Mommy did a lot of work to get it all ready.  On the day of the sale Little Man and Hopey were there and Little Man started to sell popcorn and lemonade and did a pretty good job of it.  The sale went well and the kids were good with the long days away from home, I think a lot better than I did.

September was wrapping up and I needed some pictures for our calendar and we thought a trip to the apple orchard would be fun.   We went to County Line Orchard, the same place we go to in October for pumpkins the only day we had available to go was on a weekend and wow was the place busy.  We headed into their apple orchard to pick some apples and take some pictures.  The kids had a great time picking apples and climbing the trees.  Hope was happy walking up and down the line of trees picking up apples and occasionally taking a bite out of them. 

We lost Grampy last spring but waited until his favorite time of year to have his memorial service.  He did not want a usual memorial service and I think we did him proud.  We had a bonfire and served all his favorite foods.  We had to rush around and get all of our fall decorations out and the yard ready for a bonfire but we made it.  We encouraged people to bring things to add to the fire and Uncle Andy brought a softball that Grampy and Uncle Andy used to toss when they were waiting on the girls.  His intention was to throw the ball on the fire but after he told the story, Mimi suggested that he give the ball to Little Man, so he signed the ball and gave it to Little Man.  We had photos of Grampy all over and playing on the TV. Cousin Kevin read a post from Jynx about her dad and then we played a song that she had recorded earlier for him.  Everyone enjoyed the food, the fire and the company and I even noticed a game on at times.  I’m sure Grampy Rock would be proud.

We picked up Little Man from Pre-school and as he got in the van he turned and told his teacher that we were going to the pumpkin farm with Bailey!  He had been excited all day long.  We have been going to County Line Orchard with Bailey ever since Little Man was one and now Hope was making her second trip to the farm.  The first place we went at the orchard was to the animals, Hope got a big kick out of the goats and Little Man loved watching the pigs chase each other around the pen.  The kids loved the animal area running from animal to animal and then playing with the toy tractors and playing in the hay.  We then headed over to the pumpkin patch.  It’s always fun to watch the kids in the pumpkin patch running around all the pumpkins, even Little Hope was having fun running around.  We then gathered the kids and took some great photos including one of our family.  It was great to see the photo of us together after all these years; it was very special.  Little Man picked out his pumpkin and one for Hope then we boarded the tractors and headed back to the barn.  We had to take the other photos in the cornucopia and in the pumpkin house.  After we got home I got out the photo of Bailey and Little Man from the first year we were there.  I’m not sure any words are going to describe the pictures so I’ll just post them here.

Little Man’s pre-school not only had a field trip to the zoo this year but also to a pumpkin patch a different one than we usually go to.  The entire family was able to make this trip and all the kids met at the Pumpkin patch.  They loaded us on hayrides for the trip out to the pumpkin patch; the kids all had great fun sitting and playing in the hay.  When the tractor stopped in the pumpkin patch we all got down and picked out our pumpkins.  After we picked out our pumpkins and headed back the kids still had a great time running around the farm, feeding and petting the animals’ and taking a ride on the barrel train.  Even though we have one at home they still like to ride the barrel trains when were out and of course, I like to see how they built theirs.  We had a great time at the pumpkin patch but the weather started to get rainy and cold and cut our time.

We decided for our annual Halloween party to extend the haunted trail around our house.  The new bounce house works nicely on the side of the house but it prevents the barrel train from going around the house.  The tractor made pretty easy work of completing the trail and some junk mulch finished the extension.  After the party we measured the loop around the house to be a ¼ mile trail.  The bon fire was fun as always and driving the barrel train down the haunted trail at night was great fun.  I hope the kids had fun with the train and the bounce house but just in case we had the piñata and a scavenger hunt for the kids.  I’m still in shock how fast the kids got done with the scavenger hunt.  The food as always was plentiful and way too much of it although I did my best to try all of it.

Early in October I asked Little Man what he wanted to be for Halloween and he wasn’t sure but we looked at Wal-mart and he did pick out a pirate costume.  I had learned from last year that we should wait to see because he will change his mind several times.  The costume did change a few times from a pirate to an explorer, to a police officer and a zebra.  Zebra seemed to be the one he asked for most, we think it was from his field trip to the zoo.  I looked for a decent zebra costume but had no luck either the costume was cheaply made or way to expensive.  I told Little Man one night that we would go and look at costumes and when he found one he liked that is what he would be for Halloween.  We first stopped at Once upon a Child and no luck for Little Man but we did find three options for Hope a blue fuzzy monster, a ladybug and a peanut.  We asked Little Man what he thought his sister should be and he went with the peanut.  We tried the costume on Hope and as soon as it was on she began to laugh and run around the store. You can’t argue with that, so Hope was a peanut.  Next we headed to a Halloween store for Little Man and no luck on a zebra but he did find a police man costume we were excited that we had a costume but unfortunately it was not in his size.  We then headed back to Wal-mart again and that’s where we found the kid riding a dinosaur costume but Little Man wanted binoculars.  We added a hat and binoculars and Little Man became an explorer riding a dinosaur.  The dinosaur costume was missing one thing and that was legs on the side so I went into the old clothes and found a pair of pants and some shoes to hang on each side to look like his legs.  Auntie Jea Jea attached the legs for him and we were ready for the big day.

Halloween was looking more like the Halloweens I remember as a kid, cold and rainy.  We loaded up peanut and the dinosaur explorer in the van and headed out.  We stopped at Grandma Rosie and Grandpa Jim’s house, Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Rick’s and then to Baley’s Grandpa’s house.  With all of that done we then headed out to Baley’s house for trick or treating.  Weather was a problem this year and some areas cancelled until the next night.  We were lucky and there was a nice break in the rain just in time for trick or treating.  Little Man started off saying one of my favorites and one of mom’s least favorite sayings.  “Trick or Treat smell my feet…” and that’s where he would leave it the whole thing goes Trick or Treat smell my feet give me something good to eat if you don’t I don’t care I’ll pull down your underwear.  He did really well on saying Thank You to people after getting the candy.  Hope did fairly well but not really grasping the concept of getting the candy we took her up to some of the houses but skipped some.  We brought her little car she got on her birthday to push her around in and she was busy climbing in and out of it.  The kids got quite a load of candy that is still sitting at the house calling my name.

Thanksgiving is fast approaching so fall is not over yet but as you can tell fall has become a fun and busy time of year and a lot of fun.  As we hit the stores for the after Halloween sales I couldn’t help but wonder what costumes the kids will be wearing next year.  The clock has struck midnight on Halloween 2013 and the Christmas ads have begun but Halloween 2013 left us with some great memories.