Fall parties

This fall, Kailyn’s school had a fall costume party (they don’t celebrate Halloween). Kailyn was so very excited about the party, as she is every year. Her new found love for Narnia and of course the name Lucy inspired her to be none other than Lucy herself from Narnia. She had a wonderful time, playing games and eating loads of sweets!

Not only does Kailyn have her fall costume party, but also the All Saint’s Party we attend every year. At this party all the children and some adults dress up as christian men and women. This year in line with the whole Narnia obbesssion, she convinced her cousins to go as Peter and Edmund and her friend Carrie as Susan. Even little Gidieon was involved…he was the great and majestic Aslan! For days leading up to it, this is all they talked about.

This year, Tony and I were in charge of setting up the party. We had a wonderful team help us and despite a few set backs proceeded to get it up and running on time! When the party finally came the kids had a blast! When they first arrived, they announced who they were on a microphone and then proceeded to decorate their goody bags with tons of sticker, markers and crayons. They also each got a glow bracelet, which when dark looked really neat to see all the kids running around with them. After that , we headed to games and candy hunting! Amid all the fun, we still were able to jump on the moonwalk and eat plenty of the cotton candy and popcorn! Toward the end, we decided to jump on the hayride, cotton candy in hand. We ended up riding four times in a row! It was such a wonderful time! We asked Kailyn if she had fun at the party and her classic response was, “Of course! I got a lot of candy and stickers! Can we do it again?” Since then on numerous occasions, she will pull out some sticker a bag and set up her own party…games and all!

Pumpkin fun

A few years back, we visited a pumpkin patch with my sister and her family in Virginia. Last year we found a wonderful pumpkin patch about 40 minutes from where we live. Now, I know that seems a bit long to drive just to get some pumpkins and play some corny games, but it is really an amazing place. Last year is was just Tony, Kailyn and myself and we had a blast, as we do anytime we are together. Since my sister and her husband just moved home last summer, we invited them to come along. As usual Kailyn was ecstatic her cousins would be coming too! Needless to say we had a blast! We rode the infamous cow train numerous times and by I mean “we” I mean all the parents too! Yes, this ride intended for the younger ones was also braved by a few parents who squeezed and stuffed themselves inside. We all know now why it is a children’s ride. We also spent time on this enourmous pillow thing. At one point Caleb flew about four feet in the air…it was really awesome!!!! They also had this big field of flowers and an area with a tall slide, toys and a corn box. In between the crazy jumping, cow train riding, animal feeding, corn playing we managed to squeeze in a relaxing hayride and a not so relaxing race though the corn maze. Now, let me preface this by saying a few years back when we were first introduced to the idea of a pumpkin patch (by my sister and her family), we also raced through this massive corn maze. A race doesn’t sound too bad right? No, not if it’s all the adults and it’s fair! This race however wasn’t fair. It would be girls against boys…basically Mike and Tony vs Sarah and myself. If you haven’t figured out by now that we are all VERY competitive you must not really know us! So, the teams weren’t exactly fair because we ended up with the little ones and the boys eventually shot off into the corn alone and childless. So my sister and I were left carrying and literally dragging the little ones though something that was supposed to be fun but ended up stressful and hot! Long story short we lost. So, in light of our less than wonderful first corn maze, we decided this year we would go through together and maybe try and enjoy it. But alas, we all have very short attention spans and soon were chucking rotten corn throughout the maze at each other, hiding and scarying the mess out of one antother and running through to see who could finish first. I guess corn mazes just aren’t any fun unless you are running through them! We finally decided to get out pumpkins and head home…the kids were ready to leave! But no, we need to have a photo opt at the pumpkin patch! After tons of picture, tears and a few smiles we ended up calling it quits. Needless to say, we had a wonderful time and left with countless memories and pumpkins anxious to be carved!