Our big green machine!

I finally broke down and mowed our yard.  I came in totally tired from it and feeling like I didn't want to do a single thing except take a shower and go to bed!  And then I saw this:

Clearly I was not the only one who had to take a bath that night!!

On a side note...it turns out the kids (and the dog) are much more likely to play outside if the grass isn't up to their knees!  Who knew? ;)

Another Field Trip

We had a family field trip with Caelin's co-op school to a local farm/pumpkin patch.  It was a lot of fun and great that we could take the whole family!  The kids had a blast and I got to visit with some of the other moms, it was nice to visit and talk curriculum!

We got there and Caelin quickly found some friends:

And Connor quickly joined in:

We took our hayride:

Then walked around trying to find the perfect pumpkin.  Well most of us walked, some of us caught a ride:

The kids were happy with their selections:

A hayride back, which was much less crowded:

We played on the big haypile:

Then it was time for a snack:

They examined a daddy long legs:

And then it was time to see some animals and head home.  We all enjoyed our day!

Halloween Bunco

Just felt like sharing :)  A friend came up with the idea, and I thought it was really cute!  And worked out well!

S'mores!

The weather has been nice enough lately that I decided we really should get in one more night of s'mores while we can.  The kids like it...actually the kids like the idea and process more then they like s'mores.  They don't usually even want the marshmallows cooked! But whatever...its memories, right?

Manicure

No, not for me of course!  For Cheyanne! :)  They told me they normally do nail grinding every 2-4 weeks.  So I thought it would totally be worth it to take her in once a month and get it done.  Its actually not that expensive.  Well.  Of course, Cheyanne needs it every 2 weeks.  At least.  And that seems a bit excessive.  Especially now that we aren't going in once a week for puppy classes, so I have to make a special trip each time.  So I'm contemplating buying a grinder and doing it myself...but I just don't know.  After all, I don't have a special table, or crazy short leash with holder thing, or an assistant to stand there and distract/grab her.

First field trip!

Connor had his first field trip this week. We went to a nearby farm with his preschool class, he loved it!

Class picture..

We went to a tent where a nice lady ready us Spookly The Square Pumpkin.  Clearly all the kids were super excited and interested...

Then it was off to sit inside a silo and watch a quick movie the farm had made that talked about...farming stuff...

After that we got to pet some of the animals.  Goats, chickens, bunnies, etc...they did love that!  But I was in the back and didn't get any pictures.  Then it was our turn for a hayride

to the pumpkin patch to pick a pumpkin right off the vine!

We finished up by doing farm chores:
"milking a cow"

mucking a stall with a safety pitch fork

Collecting eggs

Cleaning eggs

Putting eggs in the carton to be sold or to eatten

And finishing up by loading little bales of hay onto a toy tractor and trailer and driving them to this thing, which is a model of the real machine that carries hay up to the top of the barn (this was on the movie we watched, and I spent the whole time thinking 'i bet daddy and uncle dan wish we had one of those!).

A ride on a tire horse, and it was time to go home!  

 

Good Trip!

 

Broken Dishwasher :(

I was watching TV, and after turning the volume up really high so I could hear, it finally occurred to me...the dishwasher normally isn't this loud...I can usually very easily hear the TV if its running.  So I called Simon and we both agreed that it was really loud.  He wanted to take it apart himself and try to see what was wrong with it.  So in the meantime...I had to do dishes by hand.  NOT FUN!!

The saddest thing is, I really had to stop and stare at the sink for several minutes and try to remember how to do it!  Normally I only wash things that can't go in the dishwasher, so just stand there with the water on and use a sponge to wash it and then rinse it.  Having to actually fill up the sink, well that meant finding the little stopper thing!  And thinking about organizing all those dishes to make it efficient.  Blech.  Luckily my 7 year old still thinks its fun to do dishes!

After all that, Simon couldn't figure out what was wrong with it.  But it was still loud.  And I decided I was going to keep using it even if it was really loud, b/c I can't handle doing them by hand until a repair person comes.  And lo and behold, after a few loads, it sounds normal again. So let's hope we dodged that bullet.  Its only around 3 years old, and we even had it professionally installed ;)