Out of the Mouths of Babes--October

10/2--Caroline was just being her cute little silly self and I was giggling.  She said, "I funny to you, Mom."

Yes, you are.

10/2--I was blowing my hair dry, which is a rare occurrence.  Caroline came walking into the bathroom and said, "You look amazing."

 Thanks, sweetheart.

So do you.

10/5--Brandon's deep thought for the day:  When we say "they", who are we talking about?  Like "they" added preservatives to my food?  Who are "they"?

They say that building Bionicles leads to increased dexterity.

10/6--While eating tortilla chips with her lunch, Care Bear got one that was curled up on the edges.  She said, "It's like a potato chip dancing."

 Dancing hair

10/11--I smelled a smell coming from Caroline's way.  A dirty-diaperish smell.  I asked her, "Are you stinky?"  She said, "No.  It's an alien."

 Already testing conspiracy theories.

10/19--Whit was in bed tonight and I slipped into her room to put some laundry away.  She was staring at her lamp and asked, "Mom, how does electricity work?"  Whoa--how much time do you have, sweetheart?

"How does corn grow?

How did I get this cute?"

10/21--We had ice cream cones for dessert after dinner tonight.  Brandon did this with his:

and said, "Look!  I'm a narwhal!"

10/23--I came downstairs in my fancy dress and high heels for a special date night tonight (more to come on that in a post later) and Brandon told me, "You look like a princess.  And you look really tall."  How super sweet is that? 

 Charmer.

10/24--Whit was wearing a dress that tied in the back, but by the end of church, her ties had come undone and were just hanging at her side.  She told Drew, "I wish I could duct tape this tie to my bum so I could chase my own tail."

10/24--We sat down for a chili dinner tonight.  Caroline called it her, "spicy cereal."

10/28--At the science center, Whitney was putting on a puppet show for us with a pterodactyl and a triceratops.  The dialogue was about how one was a walking dinosaur and one could fly.  The triceratops said, "We have diversity!  That means we are different."  

 Welcome to Diversity Theater where we value our differences.

Reluctant Soccer Mom

Andrew and I were vocal about our disappointment that Brandon chose to play soccer over baseball this year.  Not that we have anything against soccer, we just both LOVED playing little league every summer growing up.  And we felt like a little piece of our lives was missing this year.  (Although B. did get to play ONE game as a sub for our friend who had several players gone.  Yippee!)

Anyway, we were pleasantly surprised at how fun it was to watch him play soccer this year.  I fully embraced my soccer mom title.

He was on the Ninjas.  They struggled.  Their record was 0-6-2.  Ouch.  Brandon hung in there, though.  I was afraid he would get frustrated and want to quit when they kept losing.  But after his final game this week, he said, "I am SO playing baseball next year.  Or maybe football."  If we're in Texas, he HAS to play football, right?

Some pics from the season:

Warming up.

That's a look of determination.

Cool action shot at practice.

He's #5.  He was always willing to sacrifice his body.

And here a couple of video clip highlights.

This first one is just about two minutes.

It has special effects and music.

And snowboarding graphics.

(My video editing software took over!)

This next one is about four minutes.

Whitney's singing is the only background music.
I apologize for the number of times that I shout,
"Good job, B!"
Apparently I need to come up with a new cheer.

We're proud of you, B-train and will support you in whatever sport you choose to play next year.  Really.

Fall fun: Pumpkin Patch

We took our (somewhat) annual trip to Mr. B's pumpkin patch in Graham yesterday.  Caroline was having one of those days.  She cried over every little thing in the morning.  I wondered if it was a good idea to put off her nap....but we went for it anyway.  (She was perfect at the patch and then whiny/crying for the drive home until she finally gave in to the fatigue....five minutes before we got home.)

The kids with vampire Winnie

And sitting on the hay bales.

And posing as scarecrows.

Get outta here, crows!

Then we got to pet a bunch of animals.

Sweet pea, the goat

Our favorite was Freckles the cow.

We had our own personal hayride.

Which dropped us off at yet another maze.

This one was not nearly as tricky as the corn maze.

The kids actually liked it.

The maze led us to the Bubble Forest,

which led straight to the pumpkin patch.

Well, it's sort of a patch.

There are a bunch of pumpkins.

In a field.

And you get to "pick" one.

Just not off the vine.

I love pumpkins.  Especially large gatherings of them.  They scream of fall.  Except it felt more like early summer.  I am so happy that the weather has been warm so far this fall.  I'd be completely satisfied if it would stay like this forever--a little nippy in the mornings, comfortable during the day, with no need for A/C or heater.  Fabulous.

Chasing Waterfalls

With Andrew's new job, he's in a different division of Avery.  Which has a slightly different holiday schedule.  And on the Friday before Columbus Day, he realized that he had a three-day weekend.  Woo hoo!  Unexpected vacation day!

Unfortunately, I was scheduled to get my teeth cleaned.  (One of my favorite days of the year!)  And the big kids didn't have the day off from school.  So Andrew watched Care Bear while my hygienist worked on my lovely smile and then we drove up to Hanging Rock State Park.  We didn't have a whole lot of time since we had to beat the bus home.  But lucky for us, they have some short little hiking trails there.

Care Bear posing at the Rock Garden

We set the timer to get some pics of the three of us.

Oops.  Guess I need to set it for a few seconds longer.

But Caroline's smile is so cute!

And by the time I get in the shot, she's no longer looking.

Oh, well.  At least we have proof that all three of us were there.

After an easy two-tenths-of-a-mile hike,

we made it to the waterfalls!

I love waterfalls.

Even measly little ones like this.

So relaxing.

Caroline danced for us before we headed back to the van.

We caught a glimpse of fall on our way home.

Great little daycation.

Fall fun: Corn Maze

The temperature still felt like summer, but we wanted to get started on our fall traditions, so we headed down to Kersey Valley to try out their corn maze.  I was also tempted to try out their zip line course, but with the fear of heights that runs in our family, I couldn't talk anyone into joining me.

Brandon and Whit bounced on the giant jumping pillow.

I love how Whit looks as straight as an arrow in this pic.

Who jumps like that?

After seeing how tall we are this fall,

(Andrew's still 6'6")

we were ready to take on the maze.

Our challenge:

To make our way through this!

I loved how they had it set up.

We were Farm Scene Investigators (FSI) and had to figure
out who killed the farmer.   We had a little guidebook with 7 suspects,
7 possible weapons, and 7 locations.  Hidden in the maze were six stations
that eliminated suspects, weapons, and places one by one.

We were off!

It took us a long time to find the first station

and figure out what we were doing.

I think I had more fun than the kids.

They kept saying, "I'm tired of walking.  I'm thirsty.  Are we done yet?"

But we hung in there and solved the crime.

Yes.

Outside of the maze, they had this little fossil dig.

The kids had more fun with this than the maze.

Andrew's NYC trip

One of the perks of Andrew's new job?  He gets to travel to some cool places.

Like New York City!

The Avery office there is on Times Square.  How cool is that?  I sent the camera up with him.  Here are some of sights.  I asked him to be my guest blogger.  I SO miss his blogging.  He respectfully declined.  Dang.

Empire State Building

Times Square...I think

Broadway

Whitney was SO excited to see the McDonalds!

People and advertisements as far as the eye can see.

He faced his fear of heights and rode to the top of the Empire State Building.

What a view from the top.

And he even went shopping on Fifth Avenue 

and brought me home this super cute sweater and necklace.

Now the big question is, how am I going to scheme a way to tag along on his next business trip to the Big Apple?

Ocean wildlife

When we were down at the beach, the fish were crazy.  They were jumping right out of the water.

And Andrew and Brandon had front row seats for the action.  Watch:

When he felt that he'd been up close and personal with the fish for long enough, Drew asked if I wanted a turn.  I jokingly told him, "No way.  Why do you think those fish are jumping OUT of the water?  Predator.  Underneath."  I refused to go in for a while. 

When we were back in the comfort of our hotel room, I was scrolling through some of the still photos I took while he was out there and look what we found:

Do you see that dark spot in the background?

Zoomed in:

When I first saw it, my heart skipped a beat.

Were we swimming out there with sharks????

But I think it was a dolphin.

What do you think?

This was the next photo in the series.

A sea monster?

We may never know.