A Visitor, a Date Night and a Pumpkin Patch

Hello! I was trying to decide which blog to write first; Thirty-One or this one. I decided I wanted to share all of our pumpkin patch photos first so this one won! :)

In the last week, we have had a visitor, had an overnight date night and visited the pumpkin patch. Love it! My mom came into town last Friday, Oct. 12th, for a lengthy visit. Originally she was going to come today, but after a discussion about how ridiculously high babysitting costs are out here, she flew in a week early to babysit the kids. Yay Grammy! Randy and I had decided to go to the Navy Ball for a much needed date night. With Grammy here though, we were able to turn it into an overnighter. Even better! Up until last weekend, we haven't done a date night since June when we were still living in Arizona!

My mom turned our night out into a special night for the kids too. They got pizza, dressed up and did dance party since we were doing the same...kind of. ;)

There were three other couples from Randy's office that also went to the Navy Ball so we all got together in our room for a little pre-party. With $10 drinks downstairs, we needed a pre-party. :) We all took couples pictures before heading down.

Here is one with Randy and I during dinner.

We had a great time! We were guessing about 1,000 people were there. Randy even saw a Commander he had back in his helo days in Virgina Beach. :)

My mom hung around with us all last week. I told Dylan that he had to wait until Randy turned on the shower in the morning before he could run down to Grammy's room. This means she got to sleep until about 7:15-7:30am. Dylan wouldn't even say good morning to us, but instead went straight downstairs. By the end of the week, Ava was doing the same thing. She would yelp at us to help her out of the crib, then took off downstairs. I thought it was funny and my mom loved it!

As many of you know, when mom and I get together there are two main activities; shopping and projects. We did both. Not only do we have crafty projects going, but also visited Old Navy and Carter's for the kids as well as Home Goods, World Market and Target for the house. Our house needs a little decorating. ;) I'll post the finished projects next week.

My mom was worried that we would get sick of her if she stayed too long. :) She says that no matter how much you love having someone around, there is a point where you just want them to go home. Sounds about right huh? LOL! Well, because of this concern, she took the train to NYC to meet a friend for a five day trip. She'll be back on Wednesday. Then...my dad shows up on Thursday. We are a busy group!

With Halloween creeping up on us so fast, we knew we needed to hit the pumpkin patch. At the perfect time, we were invited to join three other families (Randy's co-workers and their fams) to this great little farm for a great Fall pumpkin picking day. It was an hour away,

but so pretty!

This picture doesn't even do it justice!

We saw the goats, chickens and ducks, but this is the closest Dylan would get. He doesn't really like farm animals.

We brought the wagon and hiked up the hill to find our pumpkins.

Dylan spent the LONGEST time looking for his pumpkin! He said he was looking for the perfect "bestest" pumpkin. I swear we looked at every single one.

The stuffed frog that keeps appearing in the pictures is Freddy the Frog from Dylan's school. He got to bring Freddy home for a weekend full of adventures. :) Ava, on the other hand, played with the plants, dirt and baby pumpkins. She just enjoyed running around.

This is one of my favorites...

Once we all had our pumpkins, we loaded them in with the kiddos

and headed down to the vegetable area where we could pick whatever we wanted. Instead of hunting through all of the different crops, we went to dig for peanuts. Dylan found this more interesting because we were using a pitchfork and shovel. Yet again, Ava played in the dirt. :)

We then picked out some apples from the bins...

 and head to a grassy area for a picnic. It was great because two of the other families have kids the same age as us. Dylan did more playing/wrestling with each other. :)

All in all, a great day! So...now its almost Tuesday and a busy week starts all over again.

Brrr...Time to Shop!

It's getting cold here! My wonderful friends and family are still frying on the westcoast and we are entering into jacket weather. Today's high is projected at 51 degrees! Now that is the lowest we've seen out here since July, but I know some of you haven't put away your shorts and tank tops yet. :)

A couple weeks ago, I was going through the kids' clothes to get rid of everything that didn't fit. I then discovered that they had NOTHING to wear! Now, I don't say this lightly...they really had NO cold weather clothes. Here is a picture of part of the stash of giveaways!

Dylan had two pairs of pants that didn't go above his ankles yet because they were bought late in the season last year. Ava had zero that were long enough, but with girls and leggings...you can get away with it. That is when I started actually looking at all the sale emails I was getting from Carter's, OshKosh, Old Navy, etc. I was nervous the temperature would drop suddenly and my kids would freeze. So...I went shopping!

I love shopping online because I can do it while the kids are sleeping, which makes things so much easier!

The last week and a half has been fun because we saw Fed Ex and UPS a lot! :) I got a package from Carter's with some warm coats for Ava, one from my mom with kiddo pants...Thanks!, some Ugg type boots for Dylan...Thanks Oma!, a BIG bag from Old Navy, Randy got his textbooks (I'll share later) and I got a box from Thirty-One! So fun!! To make it even better, ALL of the clothes were on sale...jeans for $8! Here is Ava's Old Navy stash.

She has purple skinny jeans! Dylan did not allow me to take any pictures of his items, although, his favorite is a batman longsleeve tee with a cape! I can now responsible cloth my kiddos as the weather changes, although, I am far from finished. :)

I mentioned a Thirty-One box...

Then I opened it to find this...

The kiddos loved their gift from Nana! Ava is always carrying some type of purse around and Dylan is an "organizer" even if we don't always understand his system. ;)

I loved my hostess goodies too! Thanks to everyone who shopped at the party!

You can kind of see Ava's head at the bottom. She didn't want to sit still for the picture, she wanted to go grab everything and mess it up. :)

I have my first home party since moving on the 20th so I'm excited! The online party really helped me get some new stuff to show off at the party. I met with my hostess yesterday, without kids for both of us, to plan the party. She's excited, I'm excited...this should be a great kick off party in Alexandria!

As far as Randy's textbooks go, he is going back to school! Beginning in November, Randy will be a graduate student at American Military University getting his MBA in Human Resources. The classes are online and the degree will take three years...I think. Yay for Randy! He wanted his focus to be Finance, but since his job is HR and the Navy is paying the majority of his tuition...he is going HR. :)

We are and will continue to be a busy group! My mom comes into town on Friday then Randy and I get our first date night since moving on Saturday. We will be getting gussied up and going to the Navy Ball! So stay tuned because I will post pics!

Have a great long weekend!