Pumpkin Patch

My posts are out of order, but I wanted to get all the birthday related ones done first. Anyway, we decided to visit the pumpkin patch Monday evening. We hadn't gotten our pumpkins this year and the kids were getting antsy about it. We opted for a closer option this year and just went to one about 10 minutes from our house. It wasn't as neat as the big one we usually go to, but that one is 40 minutes away and we didn't feel like making Collin ride in the car that long since he has to so often for preschool runs. In the end, we were very happy we stayed close b/c the kids were not in very good moods. We still managed to have some fun, though.

Anna was a quick pumpkin picker and happily chose this pumpkin.

We chose this little pumpkin for Collin, but sadly someone stole it from our front yard a few days later. :(

Benjamin took forever to choose his pumpkin and was super picky! Eventually, he excitedly chose this one.

We let him work the shears with Daddy.

Big pumpkin for a big guy!

Then we went through their corn maze. Collin fussed the whole time we were at the pumpkin patch. Anna started fussing when we started the maze ("I just want my apples!" - we promised apples after the pumpkin picking was complete) and then Benjamin started whining half way through the maze and Dave and I were lucky enough to get to carry all three kids!

We filled our wagon with our finds and headed to the market to get the girl her apple!

I had packed a picnic, but there weren't any good places to eat where we got the pumpkins. Since we were 10 minutes in the direction of Brown County, we decided to head up there again and enjoy a picnic surrounded by the beauty of fall.

Dave said this looked like I was doing a shoot for an Oreo ad. Mmmmm, Halloween Oreos!!

We set up the tri-pod and tried for some family pictures. It ended up working perfectly!! The kids loved the excitement of getting posed in time before the flashing light on the camera went off and then ran giddily up the hill to check out the picture each time! We picked one where Collin is smiling too for our Christmas card picture, but here's a sneak peek of the great photo op!

I thought this was a neat shot of them playing on the hill.

This was his last day before turning one!

This is a terrible picture of both of us, but I had to post it to document how sweetly Collin gives hugs!

October 12th, 2010

We had a fun day celebrating Collin's first birthday on Tuesday. Dave was at work and Benjamin at preschool, so the littles and I had fun with the birthday balloons!

We have to keep the balloons up like this b/c our cat likes to eat ribbon and that's neither safe for her nor pleasant for me when I have to clean up her body rejecting the ribbon (like I had to do minutes before Collin's party).

We also have to keep the balloon weights away from the curious one year old, who likes to pull off little pieces of it. "I'm gonna get it!"

"Haha, I got one Momma!"

Anna loves the balloons too.

She also loves my camera and is always asking to take a picture of me. I figure it's only fair to oblige. ;)

We've also had a lot of fun playing with all of Collin's new toys this week.

We picked up Daddy when he was finished with work for the day and headed to a yummy Italian restaurant to celebrate our pasta lover's special day. The kids devoured all the food and of course loved the bread!

While we were here we remembered that we also ate there the night before Collin's birth. Dave said Collin probably recognized the food. :) He definitely loved everything! Especially the birthday ice cream they brought him!

"This!" (he says this a lot!)

All three kids enjoyed plenty of birthday ice cream!

Mmmmmmm!

I put Collin's rocking chair in the car so that we could stop somewhere pretty and get pictures of him in it.

Unfortunately, we only did it for a few minutes b/c mosquitoes started attacking! So we headed back home for more birthday fun....starting with opening his present from us and some cards he received in the mail.

Looking back at his siblings, who were told to stay a safe distance away so that Collin had a chance of opening his present!

I think he likes it!

They do too!

Hello? :)

Then it was time for birthday cake 2.0.

He was much happier this time and willing to eat the cake.

He still wanted me to do the work for him though and either feed him or cut up pieces for him.

It was a full, but fun day! :)

Then it was time for his new monkey jammies from Grandma Frankie.

Work it, Collin.

What you see in the background is only a bit of the toy mess that has taken over our living room with all the fun new (and old) toys to play with!

It was a special day (for all of us) and we celebrated our new one year old to the fullest! I'll leave you with some cute new Collin words. He's learned the words Anna and banana in the same week! He calls Anna "Nana" and bananas (one of his favorite foods) "banas". So fun to watch him develop into this sweet little boy!