Pumpkin Patch

One thing I miss about living in Mesa was the fun pumpkin patch we went to every year for Halloween. But Gridley did not disappoint! We found one that had the cutest little train, some bounce houses/slides, petting zoo where the kids got to pick up fallen apples and feed to the animals, a little playground, and a picnic area for lunch. The kids had just as much fun as they always do and I was very impressed with it! Plus, all the money we spent goes to a foundation for sick children and their families. I love knowing that some of my money will go to help someone else, it's a win-win! We got a few cute pics, but I didn't think to take a pic of the entire train, just the caboose that the kids were in. But it was pretty neat!

New Photos

I finally got around to finishing the photo shoot for Rylee and took Gracie out last night to get hers done. I love living on a farm because there are so many fun places and old junk to use for photos! Rylee was quite creative with hers. She wanted to be sure to have some silly ones, you'll know her creations when you see them. I was pretty impressed with her ability to look around her and see what she wanted to use for her shoot! That's the creative genes in her (inherited probably by her aunt Taryn, not so much myself). You can view photos HERE

One of My FAVORITE Things

Rylee has 3 or 4 books that she is assigned to read everyday for homework, taking up at least 20 minutes. She loves to read to her siblings and they love to listen. Gracie will usually sit the entire time, but seeing the camera was too much to resist and she had to do something to impress (usually copying one or both siblings). But you get the idea! Rylee is a really good reader and we are so proud of how much and how fast she is learning at school. Her teacher tells me how much her previous school prepared her for reading and writing and is impressed with her handwriting and creative talents (although she has had to have her crayons taken away because her creativeness was distracting her from her school work). So now we try to make more of an effort to enrich her creative abilities a little more at home. I noticed today that as she was doing her math homework she was singing a song. I thought for sure she couldn't possibly be getting her additions right when she's singing a song about the names of the months. But after checking both sheets, she got every one correct! I guess she's more of a multi-taker than I thought! Keep it up, Rylee!

Our first October Craft

What do you get when you take $3 to the dollar store, purchase a pack of foam stickers and two plastic bowls?

New Halloween popcorn/chips/candy bowls!!!

Dress up and a Dance Party

When Justin was a kid, his mom had a dance studio in thier house and I often hear about thier memories of the kids spending hours in there during the day playing dress up, coming up with skits, dancing, skating, whatever. It was those memories that created the few pics I've seen of my husband in a tu-tu!

So, since today seems to be pretty low key with most everyone working at the ranch during the season, we pulled all the dress up clothes into the big front room, found some fun music, and had a dress up-dance party! Cole wasn't interested in getting his picture taken or being in the video so it mostly the girls who participated.

Shrine Circus

My mother-in-law and I decided last minute to take the kids to the Shrine Circus this last thursday. It was pretty fun and entertaining, although warm outside. We, of course, got to have cotton candy and snow cones and Grandma treated the kids to a pony ride. Gracie couldn't stop smiling at what she calls the "he-ha's"!!! It was so fun to watch their little faces. I think they had a little too much fun with the cotton candy.

Beware. . .

. . . the following posts are completely out of order, but I was in a hurry to get this done.

My favorite boy

Cole and I recently did a little photo shoot around the farm. He had some good ideas of his own that we were able to incorporate! You can see the rest HERE. I tried to get Cole into head start this year but we were too late so we're stuck on a waiting list. In the meantime we are working on his letters, numbers, shapes, colors, etc. at home and going to start martial arts next week! He's excited to take what he calls "ninja-turtle" lessons. I think he'll really enjoy it and it will give him an opportunity to make some little friends his age.

Rylee's 1st day of School

Rylee started the first grade a few weeks ago. I can't believe how big she is (I know, all mom's say that). But she looks so grown up. She loves her teacher and so far she tells me that she has made six new friends (I guess she's keeping count). She loves being able to have lunch at school and sit with her friends and all the extra recesses she gets since she's there for so long now. She has also started dance as well. She is taking jazz, ballet, and tap (thanks to a grandma who owns the dance studio in town). So far she loves it all and is excited to have her grandma as one of her teachers. Recital will certainly be busy for her this year with three performances!

Fun in Montana

While we were visiting my parents in Montana, my dad gave the kids a tour of his work lab and they loved it. My dad's a dental technician and they thought all the teeth were so cool. My dad and one of his employees helped the kids make in-prints of their hands in some of the modeling clay along with the fun eye-glasses and rubber-glove balloons. They even got some teeth souvenirs that you can see Cole sporting below.

We also visited my Aunt Shannon who gave me a few zucchinis to take home. One of them didn't make it when I let Gracie hold it in the car. This is what was left of it.