A few random November things...

Claire and I were turkey-trotting last weekend!  We did the 1 miler together and froze our tail feathers off, but had a fun time :-)

What started out last weekend as a chance to just get the bins out, see what Christmas things we had, if the tree still worked, etc. turned into a full-on weekend of decorating (mostly because I couldn't find a certain something that I NEEDED to find by Dec 1 and also could NOT let the kids find!!)  Looking for him it had me going through every single bin of decorations, but I'm happy to report that *it* was finally found and my house got a jump-start on being decorated!!

The kids were beyond excited to see the Christmas things again.  (Fielder is wearing stockings as boots)

We also had 3 days last weekend to figure out a pilgrim costume for Claire to wear to school.  Luckily, Mimi to the rescue had a pattern and foam paper for a hat and collar.  She looked very cute!!  At school they had a feast and the families were invited to come hear the kids sing a song.  I was so proud of Claire - she not only shared her seat but her food and drink with her little brother that was not very happy to have to watch from the sidelines.  He tried to steal some food off his neighbor's plate and got some funny looks from the big kids, but Claire was a proud big sister and very kind to share!

Happy 3rd Birthday!!!

Fielder is 3!!!  He said he didn't want a birthday and didn't want to be 3....but once he realized he got presents and cake, I think he changed his tune.
First celebration was Saturday the 8th.  We had a really nice lunch at Popa and Abu's with balloons and everything!  (The balloons that won't die....3 weeks later and I finally tossed the last ones even though they probably could have made it another few days.)
Popa and Abu gave Fielder an awesome t-ball set.  He unwrapped an empty box because Popa had put it together in the garage.  When he saw the box was empty, he looked so confused!  Then they showed it to him and we all fun playing with it in the backyard.
Fielder's mood changed at lunch when he thought the whole plate of cookies was for him and I started handing them out to everyone.  He's going through a lovely "I won't share anything" stage...welcome to 3.  We had a great time, although we left with Fielder declaring that next time he WON'T share with Popa.

Sunday we had a birthday dinner with the Masons.  Something got into the kids that night and it was extra wild and crazy.  Lot of wrestling, screaming, running through the house.....how do families with way more kids do it?  My head was spinning by the end of the night, but it was fun and Fielder had a great time.

 On his actual birthday, Monday the 10th, we had sprinkle pancakes for breakfast and he opened his gift from Mommy and Daddy - something he can probably really use, a helmet.
And here they are playing with a fun present from Andy, Tara, and Samara - tape that you can stick on the carpet and build your own roads.  They both loved that!

 Happy birthday to my wild and crazy little man!  We love you Fielder!!

Halloween with cousins!

We had a great time on Halloween!  It was a work day for me and once I got home, we had a chilli and cornbread dinner with Mom, cousins Katie and Jenna, Uncle Matt, and Aunt Alison!  The kids were super excited to get out the door and start trick-or-treating.  I've decide no matter how organized and prepared I am (dinner made ahead in crockpot, costumes ready, etc.) Halloween night is going to be chaos!!

This year was fun with Claire - no store bought costume, she was in charge of coming up with whatever she wanted to be with her dress up clothes.  For a while she was going to be Elsa (surprise surprise), then she was going to be a fairy.....so she ended up as an "Elsa Fairy" or sometimes called "Ice princess."  I was happy she threw a little creative spin to the Elsa costume :-)

Here we are smiling....can we please go trick-or-treating NOW?!

You can imagine how nearly-impossible it was to get a picture of all 4 kids looking somewhat in the same direction and smiling.  

And they're off!

They all had so much fun and I was proud of Fielder for keeping up with the big girls - he figured out the more houses he went to, the more candy he'd get!  We did our whole neighborhood (which is only 2 streets really) and got tons of candy.  And our neighbors don't play around - GOOD candy!!  I think the stash is just about gone except for what Rob has "hidden" in his top dresser drawer which I've been stealing from.  Ha ha!  :-)

Mom taught Fielder a little Halloween song which he loved....nevermind the Christmas pj's, they were the only warm ones we had at the time...

Pumpkin Carving

The Wednesday before Halloween was a half day for Claire at school so we thought that would be the best pumpkin-carving day.  They couldn't wait any longer and also opened Halloween cards from Mimi and Papa (who were enjoying 11 days in the Dominican!!)  Thanks Mimi and Papa for the cards and piggybank money :-)

 Both kids were excited and supposedly going to help me....but one look (and sniff) at the pumpkin guts and they really wanted nothing to do with it.  They "assisted" while I did the work!  Claire designed her pumpkin and I cut it out.  I think they turned out pretty cute!

Party-Packed Day

Yikes, it's almost December, I guess I better catch up and finish my October and November posts!

Back to sometime late October....
We had a jam-packed, party-filled day that started with Trunk or Treat at the Y.  Claire at the last minute pulled together this witch costume and Fielder was a spider.  He was totally in shock over all the kids running around, the candy, etc.  He didn't know what to think of it all - and honestly, we kind of liked the slower-moving shell-shocked Fielder!  He wanted to eat every piece of candy he was given and probably would have been happy to stop after the first car.  Of course, he also got away from us for a minute, but we knew where to look for him - the cookie table.

Claire and Mallory

 No time to rest, we were on to the next activity which was Claire's dance class.  Rob took Fielder home and I took her inside the Y for class - I'm sure the girls were extra hyper after trunk-or-treating.  They also got to wear their costumes for class!

We ended the night with Claire's school's pumpkin lighting and book fair.  She was really excited to show me her class pumpkin.  They had little games to play and of course candy to eat!

Claire and her "boyfriend"!  She was so excited when he took his mask off and she realized who it was!

Chile's Orchard

Claire's been asking to go apple picking for 2 years, ever since we went the first time to Carters Mountain.  We decided to try something different (and hopefully less crowded) so we went to Chile's Orchard in Crozet, VA.  It is owned by the same family as Carters.  It was absolutely beautiful in Crozet.  We got there too early so we just kept driving around.  I loved all the farm houses and mountain views.  We had the place to ourselves at first, but it picked up quite a bit by the time we left.  Still way less crowded than Carters and you don't have to drive up a windy mountain road with traffic stopping!  They even had the same delicious apple cider donuts!  It's smaller and not the "Full Carter's Experience" but we'd definitely choose this one again.

The kids had so much fun and the apples are amazing.  No grocery store apple even compares.  We picked 30 pounds!  I could have gotten more, but Rob and I had overestimated how much we had so we stopped picking.

 Fielder just wanted to eat them!  Luckily he followed my rules of no eating or keeping the ones from the ground.

 The donuts weren't ready when we were done picking, but they were worth the wait!

It was a great family day!!  So far we've had baked apple oatmeal and apples every day for snacks - tomorrow I'm making apple pumpkin muffins and eventually I'll have to make an apple crumble.  YUM

Fall Festival in the rain

Our neighborhood did a great job with their Fall Festival and we had lots of fun, even in the rain!  

We weren't exactly dressed for the occasion, but they had free professional family portraits so we wanted to get one done.  It was a really cute set-up and will have to remember next year to dress a little nicer (and hopefully not need raincoats.)