Lovin' the Outdoor Fall Decorations

Crazy that October is almost over and November will be here next week.  Are any of you as nuts as my sister and I?  We both like to decorate for Christmas as soon as possible...my sister's typically done on November 1st.  I probably won't accomplish that due to conferences next week.  That week is always so busy I don't have time to breathe!  I figured I better get these fall pictures on here before they are taken down and replaced with Christmas things!

Every fall I always put cornstalks on our light post out front.  For some reason this year, even zip-ties wouldn't stop these stalks from blowing around in every direction.  I also use this little rusted pumpkin.

I got these at a garage sale a few years ago.  They hold tea light candles and there are four of them that line our sidewalk up to our house.  With the rain they've rusted a bit over the years but I actually like how they look.  The kids love taking these on and off the hooks and they play "trick or treat" with them.

Ankeny craft show...here I come again...one and a half weeks away.  This cute Pumpkin Patch sign is one of many signs I've purchased there.  It's painted onto an old piece of wood..

Another picture like yesterday of our trees out front.  How gorgeous is that color?!

I like to change up the wreaths and door decoration each season.  Who knows where I picked this up...maybe Kohls a LONG time ago! 

More stalks and a pumpkin resting against an old creamer next to the garage.

Every year I go to Flowerama and buy a haystack. I think they're only 8 or 9 dollars but I love how cute they look.  We have tons of pumpkins...courtesy of Uncle Alan and Aunt Karen's personal pumpkin patch.  Aren't the green/white ones neat!

A glimpse of what our front porch looks like.  I LOVE orange mums and I buy them every year from our local grocery store "Larry's."  I filled on old metal tub with gourds and pumpkins, put pumpkins everywhere, and rested some broom corn on top of the bench.

Can't figure out how to rotate this but here is a close up picture of the metal container.

Love this bench...it's not really meant for actual sitting.  It needs a few minor repairs, but I love the look.  This was another find from Andy's grandparents house!

Right by our front door we have another creamer that I stuffed full with cornstalks from the garden.  As I've said before I love sweet corn, but also love to use the dried up stalks for decorating in the fall!

There you have it...our house outdoors in the fall.  Next to come...Christmas!

My Three Happy's
1) Watching Ava play school when we got home.  She got her dry-erase markers out and used the large dry-erase board easel.  First I had to pretend I was coming to school, put my backpack away, find my name to put on the wall, and then go to a station to start a craft activity.  Next was my "lesson."  Ava said, "Today we're going to think of words that have to do with Halloween."  She would write the words using inventive spelling as best as she could on the board.  At one point I couldn't think of anymore words and I said, "Could a leaf or haystack be things that have to do with Halloween?"  She replied with, "Now are those Halloween words or just fall words?"  Love it!

2) Isaiah beat Ava and I in Candyland twice.  I always play by the rules and NEVER win against either of them.  How can that be?

3) Andy's football team is playing their first Play Off game tonight.  It's over two hours away so we didn't even attempt to go.  I'm awaiting a text from Andy so I can hear the score!  Go Bombers!

What Can You Do With a Pile of Leaves?

The other day I took lots of pictures of the kids outside playing in the leaves.  What kid doesn't love a freshly raked pile of fall leaves?  Our backyard had some, but our front yard had tons!  As of now we've cleaned them all up...most of our trees out front have lost their leaves, but not our back trees.  We have one tree that's completely green and seems to loose it's leaves after the first snow.  That makes for a mess!  Most of the pictures are of Isaiah at first.  When we got home that day Ava fell asleep in the car and I carried her into the house and she continued to rest on the couch for a while. 

What can you do with a pile of leaves?

...your dog will use them to roll in,

...you can watch even more leaves fall into the pile from other trees

(I love how beautiful our trees get in the fall!),

...you can jump...ready, set, go,

...you can jump over and over again,

...you can look at all the different colors,

...you can help Dad by carrying them in big handfuls over to the fire pit,

...you can continue to fill the fire pit until it's full,

...you can pretend to light a fire like Daddy does,

...you can show your Mom how much you can hold at one time,

...you can crash through piles on the driveway,

...you can tell your sister how much fun it is so she can try jumping too,

...you can just sit there and smile because it's a gorgeous day and

the leaves are crunchy and feel cozy,

...you can make even bigger piles to run over,

...you can lay down and look at the sky or even make "leaf angels,"

...you can rake them up,

...you can stuff them in a toilet paper tube that was left over from when your house

was teepeed (is that even how you spell it?) from Homecoming,

...you can help your brother put his pile back together on the driveway,

...you can use your leaf-filled toilet paper roll as a pointer to show your Mommy a spider web,

...you can use what you found to make a collage,

...and you can glue, glue, glue.

...the possibilities are endless.

My Three Happy's:

1) My kids are amazing!  We have really been working with Isaiah on his alphabet letters.  Today I was doing a puzzle with him and I had him tell me the letters before he put the pieces in.  He knew 18 letters, needed prompting with 3, and the other 5 he wasn't sure on yet.  I'm so proud of my little guy and how hard he works.  He is starting to remind me so much of Ava!  At this age she was like a sponge and still is.  They both love to learn and it's fun to find creative ways to motivate them!  After Isaiah put his letters in the puzzle he said, "Mommy, let's count them all."  The desire to learn never stops!

2) Speaking of my amazing kids...last night Ava read two new books to me.  When I mean read, I mean that she points to the words that she reads and uses the pictures to help her with some of the words that are unfamiliar to her.  Many of the lines of text are repetitive and contain some of the words that she has been learning.  Last night she read Old Hat New Hat and Pete and P.J. Today she brought a story home called Scary Pumpkin.  It's similar to the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear.  Did she amaze us or what when she read that book?!  My babies are growing up to fast!

3) Ava's 5th (seriously her 5th already) birthday is coming up VERY soon.  This year sounds like a good year to start a "friend party" and then have a "family party" too.  She wants to go to The Playground in Ankeny (a jumping house, inflatable type place) for her friend party.  Tonight I've e-mailed some dates and am waiting to hear back.  After searching on Birthday Direct (best birthday website ever...if you've never looked at it...you need to!) she decided that Barbie was the theme she wanted this year.  So Barbie it is!

Back to the Orchard We Go

Long Lost Pictures Part II:

A few weeks ago my parents picked the kids up and took them back out to the apple orchard.  I had a meeting after school so I met them there as soon as I could.  Last year the orchard didn't offer hayrides during the week...but times have changed.  They now take you out to the actual apple orchard, pumpkin patch, and corn maze.  Ava and Isaiah loved showing Grandpa and Grandma all of the fun things they have here...we've been here so much lately it seems like our second home.

Getting ready for the hayride to the pumpkin patch

Ava's "perfect" pumpkin...picked by her!

This sign was just randomly placed in the patch and Isaiah insisted that I take his picture.  I love that he likes smiling for the camera now.

You can see Isaiah's find here too!

Away we go!

Grandpa, Ava, and Grandma...someone was not in the mood for a picture at this point.

The famous jumping pillow...made for kids and us grown-ups too!

Grandma and Ava soaring away

Isaiah teaching Grandpa how to jump high

The kids love laying on their bellies or sitting up while an adult bounces next to them.  They get a hoot out of this!

Isaiah loved being buried under the corn in the pool

Molly Moo always needs milking when you come to the orchard.

Ava and Grandpa watching the animals...by this point we had already gone through eight cups of food!

My the weather has gotten colder these past few days...today was a high of 48 degrees.  I'm not sure if we will be making it out to the apple orchard after school again this season; but the time spent there this fall was worth every penny!

My Three Happy's:
1) Yeah, I actually blogged this week.  I'm so overwhelmed lately with the number of pictures I have to post and the time I have to do it.  Slowly but surely, they WILL eventually be posted.  My associate who works in my room with me printed out this nice quote about Mom's and their kids.  It talks about Mom's who love their kids have dirty ovens, dishes piled up in the sinks, overflowing laundry baskets, toys scattered over the floor, etc.  I can't remember the exact words...I'll have to bring it home so I can refer to the real words.  It makes me feel like I'm not the only one with a house that looks like a tornado blew through it each day!
2) I don't know about you but when the nights get dark quicker and the weather turns chilly, cozy sheets and warm blankets make sleeping at night a dreamworld!   Some days I wish I could hibernate for a few extra hours!
3) The Halloween cards are ready for ordering tomorrow on Shutterfly.  Just wait till you meet Jack Sparrow and Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz (Andy's Mom Janet made Ava's costume and it's amazing!!!!)

Strike

Remember all those pictures that I've had on "my camera"...well luckily Jody's camera was able to read the memory card so I can now download them onto the blog.

Jody gets emails from Groupon...from what I understand this is a way to obtain things from various businesses at a fraction of the cost.  Perfect Games in Ames has a large bowling alley, an arcade, glow in the dark laser tag, and many options for a quick bite to eat.  I've never been there before.  Jody purchased a 3 hour package from Groupon and invited us all to join her.  The kids have only bowled on the Wii, so they were every excited to do the REAL thing.  Enjoy these pictures...

Ava getting ready to bowl

These balls were actually very light in weight so the kids could use them.  Isaiah was proud he could hold his all by himself!

Aunt Jody and her loves getting the score board ready

Nice job Boo!

Ava eying her throw...the lanes had automatic gutters that came up when Ava or Isaiah would bowl, so they were always able to feel successful and knock some pins down.

Ava was excited about how she threw the ball and ran back to Jody to watch the ball travel down the lane.

Jody...reliving those bowling days!

Check out that score board...pretty high tech if you ask me.

They even have bowling shoes for little kids.  Isaiah thought his were pretty cool.

After a round of bowling we took a break and visited the kids section of the arcade...there were maybe one or two other people walking around this area so it was very nice.  Ava playing in the bouncy house.

Isaiah playing a "Catch the Apples" game...with each game you play you earn tickets.

This was a very nice bouncy house...Ava liked it but Isaiah was more interested in playing the games.

"Spin the Wheel" with Sponge Bob

Jody and Ava doing a dinosaur grabbing game

Ava driving a car

This was a "create your own picture" game.  Ava came out with a girl picture and Isaiah made a tractor.

Ava coloring the picture

Time to shoot some hoops...I held him up for this so he could reach better.

Ava shooting her basketball

Three generations...Grandpa Richardson, Andy, and Isaiah.  Grandma Richardson was here too...she was probably chasing Ava around the different games.

The kids had a blast!  It was about 7:15 when we started heading home and Ava's first comment was, "When can we go back to Perfect Games?"  Thanks for the fun evening Jody!



My Three Happy's:

1) Going to the Ballard volleyball game tonight with the kids.  My have the rules changed since I played...what was it...14 years ago? 

2) Catching up on the blog...still lots more to upload and write about...but I have to get some school work done tonight.

3) No pop for 1 week!  I go through phases with this.  Ultimately I would like to "not" drink pop because I know it's not the best for me.  Diet Coke is my favorite...and I just LOVE the taste of it.  Rewarding myself every once in a while is okay.  But you know when you fell grouchy and tired around lunch time and you haven't had a pop...that's not good.  I don't notice the "tired" part anymore.  I just drink lots of water at school and keep working.  My class keeps me busy so there really is no time to think about it.

Hope you all have a terrific Friday!