Bishops Pumpkin Farm

We woke up bright and early and headed to Wheatland for the morning. This is by far our favorite pumpkin patch and farm in the area, totally worth the drive. It's been a couple of seasons since we've been and they have improved the ground tremendously. Here's our day in pictures....

Ty was ready to go, smiley and laughing, Cody was not smiling for the camera. Don't know why, must be a 4 yo thing!

There's a smile!
Ty thought these were really funny!
Yes, black eye. Some show of brotherly love!
After arriving, we bought our tickets for the train and headed over to the animal area. Ty was really timid about the animals, most of them are 4+ times his size, so I get it. A big improvement from last year was Cody wanting to pet and be around the animals.
Ty was not so sure, hated the big goats and would run the other direction.
Feeding the goats, 1 piece between his fingers. Then he would turn his head and run!
After the animals we headed over to the wooden play structure to climb around a bit.


Then it was time to ride the train, one of our favorites about this place. It went around the monster pumpkins, saw more livestock and a bunch of old farm tools.

Classic pumpkin pictures....
So serious...

To make him smile we asked, "Do you have a girlfriend? Is it Jenna?" This is the look he gave me!
There's lots to do, so we headed over to the barn slide and the tower slides. They had a good time, getting rid of some energy!


From there it was time to watch the pig races. They put on a cute show and the boys thought it was funny.

After a quick trip back to the van for some snacks, it was time for the hay ride to the pumpkin patch. We were getting pretty tired at this point, so we had our serious faces on again.

Searching out the perfect pumpkin...

Oh, the faces of Cody...

Asked him to smile at me with his pumpkins....
So we headed for home after this, right as it was really starting to get busy! G-ma S. came along for the trip and treated us to lunch on the way home. We had a lovely napping afternoon, almost 3 hours of sleeping!

After dinner we put our faces on our pumpkins.

Puppy for Tyler...

The pig and kitty for Cody....
Complete with Mama Bear. Keith is thinking he's going to carve his, so we'll have to wait and see what becomes of the big one in the back.

Great day, can't wait to go again!

Clifford....

One of the fun things that has carried over from preschool last year is getting to take Clifford home from school for a few days, almost a week. They rotate through the names in alphabetical order, so I knew it was coming, and was so happy when it was finally his turn! Cody has been asking me for weeks when it would be his turn, and was ecstatic to take him home on Mon.

In Clifford's bag are about 8 books, a ball for Clifford and a DVD of the Clifford shows from PBS. So we've been going through the episodes over the last few mornings, I think there are 8 on the dang thing! We read the books throughout the day and the boys love dragging him around.

On our way to the pumpkin patch....

"My picture too, MeMe!" Tyler with his water monster.
Class mascot at the class field trip.
Getting the mail, cruising in the hot rod.
Playing with our Clifford.

Tomorrow we take him back to school, with all his stuff. It's been a fun week, and we'll get to have him again, I think.

Zittle's Pumpkin Farm

Every year I'm amazed that there is yet another pumpkin patch we haven't been to, or even heard about. But with a new teacher, you get new things!

This year we traveled down the hill to Folsom and landed at Zittle's Pumpkin Farm. It's a small little place with a nice selection of pre-picked pumpkins, a few farm animals, tractors, hay ride and a small store. We had a nice tour guide that told us lots of useless information about pumpkins and their species, and she almost captivated the 4-5 year old audience.

Cody and his pals waiting for the tour to begin.

Still waiting, but he's with his girlfriend, so all is well.
The walked all around the farm, visiting the pigs, going under flower tunnels and through the corn. Then saw a funny demonstration from Farmer Angus (seriously?), on how to take the kernels off a cob of corn, then grind them down for chicken feed. Then he showed us his donkey, goats and cows while we waited for the hayride.
After two loops around the farm, (This hay ride is Awesome! It's been forever since we did that, Cody told me along the way.) we stopped at the small pumpkin shed to pick our prize.
"I'm hot and you want a picture of the dang pumpkin?"

After the pumpkin hunt, we headed over to ___ Howard Memorial Park for a snack and to run out more energy. The park was super nice, with a new shade structure for tables, two play grounds, lots of grass, trails, and a basketball court. We stayed for quite a while then had to go get Ty from G-ma's.

The first field trip of the year was a huge success! Another breath of fresh air, and can't wait to do more with Teacher Debbie!

Ok, figured something out....

So I have set up another blog, easiest thing I could think to do.
Go here, but you'll have to be added to this list of people allowed.

I'll email invites to some people I know that read, but if you would like to come see what else I'm working on, email me at andrea6089 @ hotmail dot com (put it together, . for dot)

Sorry to Mom, Dad, Tim, Dana, and any other family that's found this, you can't open until Christmas!

Christmas Projects have begun....

I've started working through the massive project piles on the spare bed in the office. Very productive today, I did all the machine sewing on 3 and will finish their hand sewing tonight making 3 gifts finished. (Hopefully I can figure out how to do password posts to show off these as well.) I also finished Tyler's robe. Hopefully I'll be able to apply some lessons learned when I do Cody's, but it turned out cute.

Puppy Dogs of course...

So, that was my day, along with sweeping and mopping the wood and kitchen floors. Yay me! Luckily Cody & Ty had a new video to watch to keep them occupied this morning, gotta love the TV babysitter!

A Birthday Present for the books....

Cody has his first birthday party for the school year on Sun, we are going to a new indoor mini-golf place, and I'm super excited! With money being non-existent right now I had to get creative with a gift idea. I thumbed through my Cricut books and decided to try my hand at making a felt story board and characters to go with it. I think it turned out pretty well, homey in a few ways, but neat all the same.

Box and board...

The Cowboy set...
The Knight set...
The Caveman set...
I love my Cricut cutter, it makes cards and gifts a snap. A plain piece of grey paper is cut into the shape of a castle, then using colored pencils and chalk it is turned into this....

Being an Oct. birthday, they played up the Halloween aspect, so here's the card that's going in. I've been looking for a reason to use these!

I'm happy with the way things turned out. He's a super imaginative kid so hopefully he'll like this, being able to create his own thing. Plus it only cost me $1.75 for the box and $0.50 for the felt on the board, can't beat a $2.25 gift!

Oh where has my little dog gone.....

Yay me! I've finished the boy's Halloween costumes. I nice check off the to-do list. Here's our Trick-or-Treat preview.....


Ty's is a one piece (not a dress, just big!) and Cody's is a sweatshirt/pants set. Cody's was an easier project by a long shot. On his I only had to alter the hood slightly to make it tighter to his head, then hand sew on the ears, tail and spots (felt to keep the edges from fraying). The collar is sewn on to the back on one end, then wraps around and secures with velcro.

Ty's costume use to be a woman's hooded shirt. So there was altering of the sleeves, making the hood smaller, cutting the bottom into legs and sewing velcro to close them into pants. Then the same hand sewing and collar as Cody's

They love them and were excited to try them on this morning, YAY! They are now nicely hung in my sewing closet so as to keep them nice until the big day.


Better get back to the craft table, it's screaming at me!

Takes a lot of talent....

to go back to the office, determined to keep going on projects, then spend almost 2 hours on the computer instead.
This always happens to me! I say, "Just check your email so you can get it off the brain, then you can keep moving along." But it always turns into something else. Something catches my eye, my brain engages and off it goes! Of course I could spend an hour alone going down my blog list from my favorites, that's it's own great time waster!
This mornings tangent was Christmas lists. The boy's list had been started, but needed to be split in two for both sides of the family and filled in a little. Then there are the list for Keith and I, these take some time because most the things we want as adults are in the hundreds of dollars range. They ask for them every year, and I understand because it's nice to give something to someone that they actually want!

So there it is, my tangent for the morning. Hopefully nap time will be more productive!

An Apple Hill attempt....

Sat was our first family field trip for the school year, up to Apple Hill for pumpkins, animals, apple donuts, and general fun on the farm. The forecast for the day said some early morning showers and then it would let up. When we left the house it was almost dry, but we could see the clouds and realized we were driving right for them. Sure enough, the higher up the mountain we went, the wetter we got.
Our first stop, as always for Apple Hill, was to Rainbow Orchards for fresh apple donuts. They are beyond fabulous and melt in your mouth. There was a steady drizzle when we arrived, but we went into the barn to wait and see what they had.

"What's dat, MeMe?" (Ty's new nickname for me)
"Ohh, Cold!"
We went back to the van to eat our donuts and the rain turned to pouring. Having arrived a little early, we rode it out for a little while, but it didn't let up much. Determined to get our participation hours for the drive up, we headed over to Plubell's to sign in with Ty's teacher Cathy. It was still nice and wet when we arrived, but we hopped out of the van long enough to say hi, check out the farm animals and get soaked.

Back to the car and down the mountain in some attempt to salvage the day. The boys didn't seam to mind that we couldn't stay.

So instead of heading back to the ol' homestead, we headed down to Old Sac instead. For Ty's birthday, G-ma & Pa S. gave him (and Cody) Caboose club memberships for the Train museum. This gives them and 1 adult free entry to the museum for the year, so with two kids and two passes we were set to go, free of charge.

Once we hit the valley the rain stopped, this is what it was like in Old Sac...

We love the train museum. They never get tired of seeing the gigantic trains, exploring in and out. Here is a my plea for a new camera, takes awful pictures inside, but they are still cute!

We always have to make time to hang out at the train tables upstairs. The museum is great about having lots of different engines and cars out to play with so there's not a lot of fight for them to get a set.
It ended up being a good day. We walked around downtown for a bit, had pizza for lunch, and the boys were ready for naps when we headed home.

On the crafty side of life...

Only 2 more spots to sew onto Cody's costume and it's done, then I can get to the hand sewing on Ty's. I also sat down and worked out 5 scrapbook pages today. Yay me!

Then I organized my Xmas crafty gifts and became overwhelmed with what I've laid out for myself. Some are going to go quickly once I get the fabric cut, others are probably going to tax my brain and may get scratched all together. But if I can stick to it, I will only need to buy gifts for 2 people other than the boys. Wish me luck, I'm gonna need it!

Love from the UPS guy....

Yep, he loves me. He brought me this bundle of goodness today. Malibu Monkeys Fat Quarter pack, soon to be turned into floor pillows for the boys for Xmas. YAY, I've been excited about this one!

Another side project today included a house warming gift for a realtor friend of ours. She's trying to help me turn my crafty into cash. This is what was put together today for a client that has taken custody of her 3 yo granddaughter, she's practical and will be doing some updating to the new house. We'll see if I hit the mark or not, probably won't make much on this first attempt, but it's a start. Need to find better sources for containers and fillers.
Dog costumes were started last night as well. Cody's now has ears and a tail, and the spots sewn onto the legs. Ty's costume has taken more altering, turning a ladies hoodie shirt into a one-piece outfit. So that part is done, it just needs the ears, tail, spots and collar.

Go Crafty one, Go!

Christmas is coming......

Okay, so there's like 82ish days until the holiday arrives, but that's not a lot of time when you've decided to get crafty!
So I've been feverishly buy up fabric and supplies to get my projects going, and am proud to say that while watching the tube last night I sat and cut out some pieces that should get sewn today! IF I can be a good little crafter and get them done, it's 4 projects off my list. Yay me, it's a start.

In other funnies....
Go here to read about stupid laws on the books in AZ, totally non-relative to any of our real lives, but funny all the same.

Then there was making dinner last night....
The boys like to get their little chairs and stand next to me while I cook, asking questions, sneaking in a stir here and there. We were making a boxed Macaroni Grill Pesto Pasta last night.
First we put the noodles to boil, Cody says "Mmmm, I like noodles!" Cool, maybe he'll eat dinner tonight.
Then we chunk the chicken and saute it in a little butter, "Mmmm, chicken" from the peanut gallery.
Then I add the milk and spices. "What's that?" he asks. "Yummy seasons," I say back. "Hmmm, it smells good!?!" he replies. Okay so we are still in track.
Then we add the cream sauce, "What's that?" he asks worriedly. "Cheese" I respond. "Hmm" he says back, not so sure. I'm not sure what it is either, just a creamy base.
Then we are to add the sun dried tomatoes. "What is that?" he says like a 13 yo girl.
"Italian, dried, chopped pepperoni," I lie back to him.
"Oh, I love pepperoni!" he says.
So yes, the shameless lies were applied to dinner last night in hope that they might actually try something new. They each had a bite and walked away. I'm guessing pesto sauce is not there thing, but Keith and I LOVE this new meal. So back to the drawing board for the boys.

Sand in the Sand box, OV Sale day....

We had a very busy week, on top of all our preschool fun. Most of it was spent getting ready for the OV Community sale. So we cleaned the garage, filled the shed, and priced more stuff!

The boys were excited because we had sand left over from leveling the shed, meaning they finally have a legit sand box!

Mom told me to dig, so here is my digging pose...
Cody's favorite backyard swing...
Ty getting stuck in his swing....

The sale went well, some bigger items are now out of our possession as well as a few toys and books. Clothes were not the hot item, so I still have 2 1/2 bins that will be stored until the next JBF sale rolls around. There are 3 big boxes and a couple of random pieces that will head off to Goodwill this week as well. We were good though, only coming home with one new treasure.

Who could resist it for $3? The boys zeroed in on it as soon as they were out of the van!

So it was a success all in all, and Christmas is back on the calendar!

Preschool with guidance....

Mon night we had our first parent's meeting for the new preschool year. Being a parent participation school, we help to plan the curriculum, getting to choose art and science projects, help plan field trips and other things for the class. It was a great meeting!

It's so nice to be in a class with a teacher that has a direction she is taking us, then won't let us get off the path. There were no 45 min, random tangents like last year, throwing the meeting into a tailspin. She kept it to about 2 hours, no dinner to fuss with, just meeting and learning about the year.

Refreshing!

We had our 1st official sick day!

Yay, not even a month into school and we've already called in for a sick day. Seriously, can we just go a month without anyone puking, mouth hurting, or noses running?!?!

Poor Cody is miserable, can't breath, has been rubbing his face at night, so the rash is back. Then he's just out of energy, so he's moping around, getting in trouble for taking an hour to clean up the blocks in the toy room. Then he napped for 3 hours, agh!

Ty didn't sleep last night because he's stuffed up as well. So about every 45min - an hour he would cry and wake up for a few minutes before passing out again. So in turn, he's crabby today, has sat with me on the couch for most the day, until about 2:30 when he Finally past out and I could lay him down.

It's 4:00pm, I'm still in my PJ's, and ready for bed.


On a more fun note....
I've spent the last couple of days devoured in my crafty books, finding new projects for Christmas gifts and goodie bags, gifts for the kids and things I would love to make for our house. Now I just need to find someone to front my crafting addiction and life would be good! Maybe I should get a part time job at JoAnn's, bet the discount would come in handy.

Curious.....

I'm just curious as to who is actually reading this thing!

So if you are stopping in to see what's up, leave a quick "Hi" on the comments of this post. Even if you don't know me, found this through an image search, aren't friends any more, my bestest buddy or my mom, let me know you're here!

Is it fall yet?

We were out running errands this morning and I'll I could do was sweat. Back and forth to the car, sweating, in the stores, sweating, on the way home, sweating, you get the picture!

Then while I was relaxing on the couch, reading book #3 of the Twilight series (Awesome!), Ty came to me in only a diaper.

Me: Where are you clothes?
Him: I don't know?
Me: Did you take them off?
Him: YES!

Then he hands me a new shirt to put on him. Okay, I'll play.

He runs away and comes back with his new robot sweatshirt: "Dis too" he says
Me: You'll be hot.
Him: Dis too!

Okay, so we'll keep him inside. He runs away and comes back with pants "Dis too, mommy!"

Fine, so he's picked out a new outfit for the evening, totally proud of himself.
Then I realize how dang cute pants and sweatshirts can be on a 2yo, and I'm wishing for fall again!