Pumpkin Patch 2017

We had such a fun time at the pumpkin patch this year.  It was painfully hot for Thomas' first trip.  The big boys tried the zip line for the first time and were hooked.  Gabriel went on it over and over.  Bennett liked it, but took a while to embrace it.   

We finally took the hayride/tractor ride around the farm.  Every year the line is just too long.  This year, we sucked it up and smushed on to the back for the wagon to see all the vegetables.

Clearly, the sweat was getting to Thomas, he grew a pencil thin mustache(sang a little Jimmy Buffet there).

Once our playing was over it was time to pick our pumpkins.  Scott came up with the rule, if you can't carry it, it stays behind.  Theiss Farm has some HUGE pumpkins to pick from.  And that rule came in handy a few times with Gabriel's picking.

But Muscles, AKA Gabriel, was a champ bringing Thomas' pumpkin to the wagon.  The boys had so much fun.

Ode to dads

Dad’s get a bad reputation as being the carefree, sometime clueless parent.  They are the ones you wrestle with, let you eat ice cream for dinner and allow you to stay up way past bedtime.  At least that is how Hollywood tends to portray them.  They are never looked at to be able to hold their own with their own children.

Last week I had to head down to Texas suddenly, Scott took a week off work to hang with the boys to keep routines going.  I’m going to have to toot his horn because he was super Dad. He planned meals and stuck to them. He did major home improvement projects, painting a room and removing cabinets and hanging shelving.  He took the boys places, besides school.  He did all of that plus, got Thomas to eat more foods, start taking bottles, and the biggest of all, sleeping through the night.

I came home after a stressful week to a house that was clean, organized, full of groceries, and improved.  What more could a mom want?

Halloween crafting

Besides the usual pumpkin carving, I decided that the boys should also paint some pumpkins for decoration. My hopes were that they wouldn't play with my holiday decor.  And it actually worked.  We did have fun as well. A few rocks that had been collected were painted as well.  The boys had hunted long and hard for the perfect rocks to paint.

Making the new house ours

Step 1 in doing so, paint!  We have been talking about painting our family room and kitchen since we moved it.  We have chocolate brown couch, with brown rug and brown chair.  And the room was painted chcoclate brown.  It needed to be lightened up, big time.  We narrowed down our paint choices to 3, Mega Greige, Anew Gray and Agreeable Gray, all Sherwin Williams.  The middle of the road Anew Gray won!

We spent the week before paint day tapping and getting supplies.  I found a little handy square brush that took the stress out of the cutting.  Scott was able to paint all trim areas super fast and not get it on the ceiling or door frames.  

One long 12 hours on a Saturday and we have a brand new kitchen and family room.  Of course now, the playroom, painted an amazing peach color, is driving me crazy...it's moved up the honey do list rather fast.

Honey Do

Since we moved into our new house we've come up with a decent list of things we'd like to change.  Some are easy fixes, painting, others are more intense, building built-ins.  We figured a perfect time for us to get some things finished would be while I was in Texas with the boys.

We came up with a Honey Do list for Scott to work out that wouldn't be difficult for one person.  On the list was:

- Build headboard
- white wash fireplace
- move refrigerator from garage to basement
- clean carpets
- organize garage

Scott rocked this headboard was completed before we left, in one afternoon, with a strained back.  It looks awesome and I love it!  Once we left, he was able to rent a carpet cleaner, move all furniture out of 4 rooms and clean the carpet in a day.  That was one of those things that really needed to be done.  They look so much better since

Thankfully, Scott hired movers to help move the refrigerator from the garage to the basement.  And when we returned from Texas we finished organizing the garage. Our goal was to have 2 cars fit in our 2 car garage.  Misson Accomplished.

Tons of Trucks

We attended Ton of Trucks, held by the Ballwin Parks and Recreation at the Target next to where we get haircuts.  We tried to go last year, however it was insanely crowded and we couldn't even get a parking spot.  This year the location and space was so much better.

The boys enjoyed seeing the trucks and loved the idea of getting inside them, but waiting was not ideal.  Here was a bunch of police trucks, scoopers, fire truck and ambulance.

Family Hike

We woke up one beautiful Sunday morning and wanted to get outside.  The boys really enjoyed our hikes in the fall and we wanted to continue the love.  We loaded them up and headed to Castlewood State Park.  There are so many trails, some easy and some that lead to amazing views.  We opted for easy.  

The boys did great on the entire hike.  We think we walked just under 2 miles.  Thomas didn't fuss at all in the baby bjorn, I ended up carrying Bennett the entire way back and Gabriel was a rock star walking the whole way.  

We did see a small snake and a few turtles on this adventure.  Once our weekends get a little less crazy, this might be a more regular family outing.

Opening Day

Happy Opening Day!  The unofficial holiday in St. Louis was great this year.  The first game of the season against the cubs and we won!  

Icy weekend

The weatherman said the ice is coming, school was cancelled and Scott worked from home.  Before the storm started I managed to get to the gym and then the grocery store.  This was the first time I had  gone grocery shopping before a storm, there was a decent amount of bread and eggs, but slim pickings in the cinnamon roll department.  I think I took the last one.

The ice arrived sooner than expected, around 10am.

They expected it to be an epic storm, it wasn't horrible.  We didn't leave the house on Friday and swim lessons were cancelled on Saturday.  By Sunday we were ready to get out.

To kill time at home we watched movies and Scott did yoga and some cross fit with the boys.  That actually helped burn needed energy.  We've been lucky to escape anything major, although the boys really want some snow.  Maybe boys, maybe.