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.

Getting ready for Halloween!

It's the weekend again! A lot has happened in one week and we are definitely ready for Halloween! As Dylan gets older, Halloween gets more fun. He is so excited about dressing up, pumpkins and all the decorations. My mom was in town and joined us at Tolmachoff Farms last Sunday to go pumpkin hunting. She squeezed in between the two car seats while Dylan read her a book on the way over. :)

The pumpkin patch was SOOO HOT! We were excited to participate in all of the fun activities, but found ourselves zipping through pretty fast because everyones' cheeks were getting pinker and pinker. Some day we'll do this in "normal" Fall weather.

Ava's driving, but she's not watching where she's going. :)

Dylan was given the job of picking out our pumpkins.

He lined up 5 large pumpkins in a row and said we all got one. :) Love the thought, but I'm not spending $50 on pumpkins this year. So...we got one big one and a couple smaller ones along with apple butter and canned apples to make cobbler. Yummy! Randy waited in the wagon.

Then we added the hot and tired kids to the wagon and headed home.

My mom stayed until Thursday. We spent the week shopping at some of our favorite places...Target, Michael's, Joann's and Old Navy. Of course we shopped the sales and I had coupons! :) Joann's was giving 70% off on all Halloween items. FUN! Of course I had buy a few items. I really don't have a lot of Halloween decorations, but now that Dylan has so much fun with holidays it will be more fun to decorate.

These were on the window by the front door, but one morning Dylan decided to redecorate. :)

We didn't carve the pumpkins until later in the week. He was more interested this year than last year. :)



Every night we need to go outside and turn on the jack-o-lanterns.

I should have taken the picture a couple of days ago. They are wilting in the 80-90 degree weather. Ooops.

What was Ava doing during all of this? She's a happy observer. :) We did have her try on the pumpkin headband though.

Today we were going to go to the kiddo Halloween party hosted my one of the families in our mom's group then to a hockey event in costume. Unfortunately, Dylan has croup. :( He was better today, but still sounded like a sea lion. Yesterday he was on the verge of tears most of the day because he just hurt. Today he was in better spirits. I do like his tone of voice while sick though...a whisper. :) I'm sure he'll be back to his energetic self by Monday. He has to be...he's been wearing his costume for three weeks now! We can't wait for Halloween!!

We Got to Party Last Night!

It was an early morning at 6:30am, but an easy morning. My mom came over at 8am with liquid energy and I had a wonderful breakfast!

My favorite...a breakfast burrito with onion and cheese. The best part is the avocado! I will add avocado to almost anything. :)

It's been a few days since I checked in. We've been a busy group. For starters, I know you are on pins and needles wondering if Maxim behaved after being released from jail. ;) Well, I wish I could say he's been cured, but unfortunately it is going to be a bit more challenging with this one. His first night out, Maxim did awesome. I was feeling good, but afraid to be too confident. The second night, Maxim went back to his old ways. The worst part about this is that I grazed it with my toe when I was putting Ava back to bed after a 4:30am feed. GROSS!!! He's now spending the nights back in the bathroom while we devise a new plan.

So...by Friday I had a return of the pooping cat, however, I felt like I was back to myself...the tired mom with two kids instead of the "feel like I'm about to die" mom with two kids. :)

On Friday night, Dylan's school had their first "Movie Night" out on the grass. They were showing Monster's Inc.

Now, the chances of Dylan actually sitting and watching the movie was pretty rare. :) We went anyway because it was a free family event that was only 2 min. away. Pretty good don't you think?! Dylan ended up playing with his friends on the playground supervised by Randy while Ava and I hung out on the blanket. It was fun. :)

Yesterday afternoon my mom drove out to visit us. :)

Randy and I were invited to a Halloween party about a month ago so I immediately called Mom to see if she wanted to visit. ;) Now that she is retired, she said she is always available for babysitting. Love it!  We had a free babysitter and the kiddos get to see their Grammy. Win Win!

Getting dressed up for the party was fun!

Dylan wanted to get in with the fun!

I haven't gotten decked out in a costume for awhile so I enjoyed breaking out the dark makeup and fake blood. I did have to go to Target (my favorite place) earlier in the day to buy booty shorts to go under my shirt/dress. It was short!! I think it would've been a bit breezy without the shorts. I even painted my nails, but they got all jacked up while they were drying.

Randy said that a serial killer doesn't have perfect nails. True statement, but I would've like to keep them for awhile.

Dylan's eyes got so big when he saw us! My mom kept him away until we were just about done. Ava wouldn't kiss me goodbye, but she regretted that decision later when she going to bed.

Our friends do such a great job with their Halloween parties. This is the 2nd year we've gone and it gets more and more fun. This year I got to drink because I wasn't preggo!

Ladies of the mom's group. Don't you love the preggo pumpkin belly?!

Randy's arm was twisted to play a little flip cup.

We were a great team back in VA, but haven't played since. Randy's skills came right back to him. :)

It was a fun night! So glad to have Mom babysitting because there wasn't any clockwatching. When we have a paid babysitter I'm usually checking my phone and the clock to make sure we don't stay out too late. When you begin the night knowing that it will cost at least $40-$50 for a sitter, it just changes the mood.

Now we're headed to Tolmachoff Farms for a pumpkin picking among many other fun activities! Have a great Sunday! Hopefully all you fantasy players have your rosters set! :)