Fall in Love

I have to admit...I love the summer sun. I get a little sad when it disappears and hibernates for several months beginning in the fall up here in the pacific northwest. But then I am reminded every year when the leaves start to turn color and the fog rolls in every morning, how much I love this season too. We have never taken the kids to a pumpkin patch before. Why, you ask? Who knows. But I was struck with the impulse to go while laying in bed last night, figuring we'd have a ton of fun, and we sure did!

If you've never been I think you'd be quite surprised, just as we were, at all you can do at a pumpkin patch. Here are just a few examples...

1) Search for the biggest, funniest looking pumpkin

2) Enjoy watching all the farm animals. Sam loved hearing the roosters "cock-a-doodle-doo" and the turkeys "gobble gobble"

3) Bake a cake in the playhouse (Grace found this much more entertaining while Samuel endlessly ran around watching the animals)

4) Turn into a pumpkin

 5) Play with the spiders crawling through the pumpkin patch

 6) Race ducks along a stream from a water pump

 

7) Splash in puddles

8) Measure how tall you are

 

9) Practice your targeting skills using the pumpkin slingshot

 10) Eat caramel apples

11) Work your muscles lifting pumpkins

We didn't actually buy a pumpkin on our visit to the pumpkin patch. I know, sacrilege.  We bought one a couple weeks ago, and lets be honest, carving one pumpkin in the presence of 2 toddlers is about as much as anyone can handle. That is on our list of activities for next week. I did love hanging out in the presence of all those delightful pumpkins, but what I fell head over heels for was the splendor on my kids faces. It's days like these that remind me how blessed we are to have such beautiful kiddos and family.

HAPPY FALL TO ALL

The Annual Photo Shoot

Many families have a tradition of taking photos at the same spot every year for their Christmas cards.  We don't do that, we like our annual mailings to change from year to year.  We do, if by accident, continue our annual family photo journalism series at the Dahlia Garden at Point Defiance Park with a late summer/early fall photo shoot.

Sarah will be putting many of the latest photos on a blog post shortly, I'm certain.  Until then, I wanted to show the progress of time; one photo from each of the three years we have been doing this.  Enjoy.

Mix and Match

Grace is really into picking what she wears these days, even changing into several different outfits in a 12 hour period. Her ability to match needs a little work, or maybe just my ability to 'let it ride.' Anything I seem to pick out elicits a less than desirable response. I have to remind myself that it's about her being independent and wanting to express herself and what she likes. This can sure be a beautiful age...just hard for her control freak mother to get used to!

Visit Extended Family; Get Paid

The government should be waking from its 16 day shut down tomorrow, but even during the shut down, some things still had to get done. I snagged a trip which took me through Whiteman AFB, (twice!) and was lucky enough to see my cousin Kevin (who is stationed there now), and his wife and kids. The last time I saw them was in January when we ran the Disney Marathon. I gave them a quick tour of the C-17 and performed feats of strength. It was great getting to see some more Templins and show them a little piece of my world.

Snail Tale

As the autumn rains have come in force over the past couple of weeks, Sarah has been cleaning/preparing the planting beds for winter - meaning mostly pruning.  The evidence of snails in the garden has been uber obvious all summer, but I didn't actually see any until Sarah brought one inside a few nights ago from one of her pruning rounds.  The kids were completely entranced by the slow, yet noticeable movements of the creature.  Sam says "ooooooh," and "woooooooow" a lot these days, but especially so at the snail, as seen in the photo above.  

Did you know that Malocology refers to the branch of zoology that deals with mollusks?

After being surprisingly calm about having a snail in her hand, Grace just about lost it, believing the snail had "pooped" on her - see photo on right.  

The whole family getting in on the exhilarating action...