Pumpkin Run, Wedding, & the Farm

D, A, and I headed up to the memorial battlefield park for the 5K pumpkin run. My loving hubby got me an mp3 player for my birthday to run with as D and I have been training up for our various 5ks. I let A use the mp3 player for the first 5 minutes or so, then just as she was slowing down, i let D wear it. He just totally took OFF and left us in the dust! To give him his due, he's been training with me pretty hard, and A hadn't trained for this at all - just begged to be in on it. Anyway, it took A and I a LONG while, but we finally made it. By the time we made it to the finish line, they weren't even calling out times anymore, but i think it was about 40 min. or so. D was waiting there for us, enjoying his exclusive time with the mp3 player before i snagged it back. He didn't pay attention to his time as he crossed, so i don't know how he did, but it was more than 30 minutes; as that's what the 3rd place elementary boy placed. We had a good time, and it was a lovely morning for a run.

In the afternoon, we got all gussied up and headed up to Winchester for a wedding of some extended, related by marriage, 2nd removed something-or-other cousin of my loving hubby. We dropped off the two little ones at Sister Orchard's: a lady in our ward who owns a little farm land. The older ones, we took with us, and they did allright, and were quite excited when they saw the church had a playground with it! I took them out to play after the ceremony when we were waiting around for the reception.

We let the kids all play out at the farm when we went to pick up the little ones. D had a WONDERFUL time with the little foal Sis. Orchard has. Apparently she's a little skittish, and normally doesn't come up to people voluntarily unless there is a food offering involved. Well, D went up to the fence, coo-ed a bit to the colt, and she stood there at the fence letting him pet her for a half hour or so. Anytime anyone else came up to the fence, she would skitter off, but if it was just D, she'd nuzzle and play with him. It was interesting,... and to tell you the truth, it was the most calm i'd seen D all day! (he's typically just FULL of energy - busting out at the seams.) We might have to go see her more often; it was a great visit.

Daddy all day and the Pumpkin Farm!!

So, My loving husband and I have been trying to figure out where we would fit in a visit to a pumpkin farm this year; it seems like every weekend was already accounted for. Well,... Lo and behold, hubby had to work a midnight shift for work today, so he went in at midnight, and got back at 6am or so. He did have to sleep away most of the morning to catch up on his shut-eye, but E and C got to spend some awesome quality time with him before the older ones got home. AND,... we got a lot of basic cleaning and laundry done in the house. (it's amazing what you can get done with the proper motivation!)

Anyway, we got enough done that we could justify heading off to the pumpkin farm up in Richmond right after D and A got home. We had the older two do their homework and reading in the van on the way up; they do so well keeping on task when they are forced to be stationary. And it makes the trip seem MUCH faster to them!


E and C fell asleep on the way up, so we let them sleep a little while the older kids and hubby and I checked out the entrance area with cute country items for sale - local honey, homemade preserves, salsa, apples, etc. We picked up some of their local raw honey, as we're fanatics for the more natural sweeteners.

Then we located their largest wagon, and tossed the little kids into it to help facilitate their waking up process. They LOVED the ride, and the older kids really enjoyed pulling them around, so it worked well for everyone! All of the kids loved the hay bale maze: D was the best at getting out of it illegally, A was the fastest getting through it without leaping any walls, and the two little ones just loved running through and scaring themselves silly when they ran into someone else.

When it came to choosing pumpkins, E and C wanted EVERY pumpkin they picked up! D & A were so choosy that we almost had to put them on a time-limit. C really liked the haybale ladybug; they had a sign saying 'no climbing',... and i was hard pressed to enforce that with her - she a quick little bugger when she wants to be!

There was no holding back, however, with the huge hay worm! The kids were all OVER it! It was a nice kid-friendly area where anything goes.

By the time our trip was over, the kids were red-faced, exhausted, and wiped-out. They'll sleep WELL tonight!

Ballet Time!

C really enjoys dressing in A's hand-me-downs from dance class. She's not old enough (or rather mature enough ;-) for me to put her in a class yet. But,... she loves to play on her own and dance around in her own little ballet slippers. We've got a kid's 'learn ballet' DVD, complete with barre and dance mat, and there's not a day that goes by without C begging me to get it out and set it up for her.

She is such a cute little girl, just brimming with energy! We're working on helping her learn to 'control' that energy, but I can see a LOT of similarity to D; so we may just end up teaching ourselves how to redirect that energy instead (which is what seems to work best for D.) Still, she brings a lot of light, laughter, and love into my days; and DEFINITELY keeps me hopping.

blisters & pictures...

So, on saturday My loving husband, brother, and myself got to do a killer 12-hour orienteering race in the Bernheim Forest, just south of Louisville. It was a BEAUTIFUL area, and a gorgeous day (albeit a little hot for our racing enjoyment.) We made an awesome start, with a lot of off-trail bushwacking into secluded locations. Dave got a good look at a huge deer that he'd disturbed where it had bedded down; it ran off too fast for Marke and I to get a look-see. But then a little further on in, we actually saw a black bear! Dave, being the front-man (by that time marke and I were flagging) saw it first, Marke caught the tail-end, and i only managed to catch the silhouette in between the distant trees. (It was loping fairly rapidly away from us.) Less than an hour later we ran into a park management guy who was helping out for a handicap-hunt they had set up. Poor park-use planning, but we had already come through the area and were on our way out. We found out later that they moved that checkpoint, and asked the other racers to avoid the area entirely.

At about that time, my feet were REALLY feeling it! Now,... i've done these 12hour races before, and have never had an issue with blisters,... but not THIS time! I think through a combination of not having trained enough (er,... or at ALL!), and having new shoes - i was just ill-fated. I put on some blister patches about 2/3rds of the way through, but by the time we finally got back in to the hash-house, i had blisters upon blisters. makes for a much more difficult recovery. Still, all-in-all, we had an awesome time! However, as per standard, we did forget some things - and this time, one of them was the camera. I would have loved to have gotten some pictures of the hills, forest, lakes, and landscape - it was just heaven!! I did hunt up some pics off the web; we had run into some photographers before the race, so i figured there had to be something out there!

Bunny suits & Darien's turn

It's been getting cooler, so we finally opened up the house, turned off the Central Air, and dragged out the bunny suits for when it gets chilly at night. Charity absolutely LOVES her bunny suits. We had 7 hand-me-downs in her size, so i had her pick 3 of them, and we took the rest to good will. The straight baby-pink is her favorite, if she had her druthers, she'd wear them all day long instead of just at night.


Every once in a while we'll let Darien and April use the digital camera; as long as they treat it nicely. This is a pic and video that Darien took last week. I'm keeping an eye out for a relatively inexpensive, and yet VERY sturdy digital camera for the kids - they really enjoy taking the pictures. They like taking video even more,... but judging by the goofing-off nature of their videos, i might wait on trying to find something with that feature.

family biking @ da park

So, our plan was to go camping this weekend as a family. Well,... that didn't quite happen. We were all packed up and ready to go, and i was running last minute errands with the kids before heading out to set up camp. That's when i started feeling twinges of what ended up being one of the most NASTY stomach virus' i've ever gotten. We headed home and i had Darien watch the kids while i started,.. err,... praying to the porcelain god. 3 hours later, I finally bailed out and called marke home from work because i was so bad off.

So, we didn't go camping, but we set up A and D in the backyard with a tent for the night, and had a little campfire to do smores and hotdogs on. Not quite what our original plan was, but fun nonetheless.

To make up for our lack of family camping, we packed all the bikes and bigwheels in the van this afternoon and did some family biking at the park instead. M & D took some playing cards and played a little 'War' in the shade while taking a break. D has REALLY gotten into playing cards lately,... but ya gotta watch him as he tends to slip cards into his pockets to use for later.


C played quite a bit on the playground; i've realized lately that i don't take these younger 2 kids to the park anywhere NEAR as often as i took the first 2. I've just gotten a lot more busy driving around to activities, lessons, and scouts in the afternoon and evening, so the morning trip to the park has gotten the shaft. I'll have to see if i can't resurrect it though, now that we're heading into fall,... or maybe switch it into a walk through our back woods, or a trip to toddler time at the library.


I had gone out and bought C a little big-wheel all to herself - she LOVED the princess pattern, and she and E raced each other all over the park paths. They were both pretty cut-throat in their competitiveness. Interesting to see in a 2 and 4 year old.



The leaves have started their changing, although with the weather, it's been a little less color and more just withering off the tree. It's been a drier autumn than normal. Still fun for pics though, and i actually managed to get one of the older 2 being somewhat nice to one another. (a nice change from the standard cats-n-dogs behavior ;-)



There's a little creek running by the bike path around the park. Most of it has dried up, but there was still enough there for the kids to play around and goof off with. Or to show-off with, in Darien's case.

PONY RIDE!

We got to go visit over at the Spark's family on thursday. Had an awesome cookout, and let the kids ride on their little pony. It's a stout little pony, and is currently pregnant, which makes her even more round than normal. The pony is Very good natured, and is wonderful around the kids. We had a rough time keeping the kids from approaching her from the back; they were SO excited!! But Brown Sugar (the pony) didn't bat an eyelash.



E and C just LOVED being able to ride Brown Sugar! They couldn't stay away from her even when it was time to eat (and they were RAVENOUS!)

Sister sparks had gone ALL out - got the kids zoopals plates and plasticware, and dora and diego cups. She even had a small pumpkin for each of them and halloween candy (caramels! YUM!!) She also had some garden fresh vegetables - cute little kid-sized tomatoes that she cut up for each of the (un-appreciative) kids. I still haven't been able to talk the kids into trying tomatoes - can't say as i blame them though; i'm still not all that fond of them myself unless they're the sweet little cherry tomatoes.

A enjoyed being out side and picking flowers from around their land. They had a gorgeous house and property; out on a one-lane road. Totally secluded, up on a hill overlooking the rolling forested landscape. If i lived out there, i don't think i'd ever go inside. they also had a neat porch swing that all the kids went nuts over - very relaxing,... although not at the speeds the kids liked to take it!