Wagner Farms & a Haunted House

My mom introduced us to the cutest local farm that sells pumpkins of all shapes, sizes, and colors, produce, homemade breads, jelly, honey, and so much more! They had the cutest old fashioned wagons to pull your pumpkins around in ... in my case, my two favorite pumpkins!

A sandbox with a digger tractor and shovels 3 times the size of Lyla. Didn't stop her!

And metal tractors to ride on. For the most part, the kids cared less about the pumpkins and did not want to leave the sandbox or share this tractor at first ...

Then they took turns and reminded each other they were SUPER close and ready for their next turn whenever the other was ready to get off and let them have one. ;)

Miss independent showed us all how it's done with this wagon full of pumpkins ...

The cutest smile in the world!!!

Couldn't leave out the nose picking one ...

We definitely paid more than the typical pumpkin patch but were grateful for an opportunity to give back to our local community of farmers. 

Later that day we built this fun haunted house kit from Costco! We love doing the gingerbread ones at Christmas so much and I was so excited to see a Halloween version! It came with the most fun accessories like gravestones to draw on and the traditional candy corns/pumpkins! She ate 90% of the candy before it even made it onto the house ... in fact, that was her contribution in total! haha

Liam preferred sucking on the end of the frosting tube! haha No, I did not take a single bite of this house after that. 

My creative boy loved doing this ...

Okay, I take it back ... apparently Lyla put one candy leaf on the roof! Way to share the candy love Lyla girl. ;)

We discovered half of a missing roof at the very beginning of decorating ... it was post car tantrum the day we bought the kit when I had to tell Liam we were saving it for the weekend and not building it that day. Good thing frosting fixes everything! Just made it that much spookier and built some character in the destroyer. haha

Their finished haunted house!

Faces covered in candy and frosting and so much fun!

Liam's First Soccer Season

If I were to sum up Liam's first soccer season into a few words it would be these ... entertaining and learning experience! There was never a dull moment during each game and more laughs than I can count. A few of those moments ... Liam lost his shoe in the middle of a game (it came completely off his foot!), the little girl on his team wore a full snow suit so she wouldn't get cold, the ball was often kicked in the wrong direction scoring a goal for the opposite team, on several occasions when he got tired from running Liam would wander around the field just chatting away with one of his teammates, tripping each other on accident because of clumsy unsteady feet, and so many more. haha I loved that it was only Saturday mornings for a 15 minute practice, 45 minute game, and 6 weeks long so it ended right as the weather started to get really cold but it was also about the time Liam was finally starting to get the hang of it and participate more. For that reason I wish it would have been just a couple weeks longer than it was. There is always next season, he'll be that much more ready! He was one of the older ones on his team of 3 & 4 year olds since his birthday is on October and they gave us the option to move him up to the 5 year old team but this turned out to be the perfect age group for his first time playing a team sport. His cute team ...

There ranged from 4 to 12 kids there on any given Saturday so sometimes he had to rotate in and out during the game (which was great because it gave his little legs a break from running) and other times he had to play every minute of the game in order to have enough players on the field.

Kicking a goal during practice!

Ya ya had the best seat in the place with constant snacks flowing ...

And a show to entertain her and keep her from running away or from running onto the field when she got really bored haha ...

I think this particular moment was Liam's favorite of the whole season ... when one of his coaches gave him his medal and pin. HE WAS BEAMING, it was the cutest thing to watch!

After staring at it for a minute he looked over at his dad with this look on his face ... 

He had special visitors (grandparents) there to support him a couple of the Saturdays and I know he loved that they came to watch him!

Besides the medal, he was also SO happy about this celebratory cupcake! Ya ya was pissed she didn't get one. haha

I'm so glad we started him with soccer. He really loves to punch and kick and pretend he is a super hero so we considered karate for a minute but chose a team sport over individual and that's where the learning experience came in! He learned to pass the ball to his teammates and practice sharing, he learned to encourage and support others with a cheer for the other team at the end of each game, he learned that sometimes we fall down or get hurt and we have to brush ourselves off and try again, and he learned that practice makes improvement. So many things he wouldn't necessarily experience from an individual sport. I'm excited to see what he'll pick next and proud of my little soccer star!  

Boo's & Boom's of September

Hi!!

I currently have 8 drafts of posts I want to share ... so many things and so little time! Lyla naps about 30% of the time now and when I do get down time, I usually spend it with Nic, getting lost on Pinterest with fun house projects swimming in my mind, or in the case of this month, making our Halloween costumes (which I can hardly wait to wear for the first time next weekend! I love a good family theme and I got everyone to agree on one this year!).

October is flying by which makes me so sad because these have been some of the best weeks of the year! I am thankful that our family is healthy and we can enjoy our favorite fall activities because September wasn't always the luckiest month for us this year. Ear infections, the flu for everyone all in one week, colds, etc. We stayed home a lot of the month and I never once pulled out my big camera, just my phone for a few pictures here and there.

One of my favorite bloggers used to do a post on the boo's (bad things that happen) & boom's (things to celebrate) in her family's life and our month of September fit perfectly into this theme so I wanted to give it a try ...

B O O ' S    O F   S E P T E M B E R

I've heard great things about the supplement tumeric and am willing to give anything a try for my headaches at this point but I bought the powder version from Costco because it was cheaper thinking I could just mix it into green smoothies and not only does it have an incredibly strong taste but it dies anything it touches STRAIGHT ORANGE! I was worried about our teeth so I had plans to return it to Costco. The day I attempted the return line was out the door and I absolutely wasn't waiting in it with 2 children so I bought the capsule kind and brought it back home to return another day. As I was carrying in the groceries, Lyla came along and knocked the pile of groceries over and a box of applesauce crushed the container on my kitchen floor. It died my floor, my door, my walls, my baseboards, my hands. There were tears, lots of scrubbing, painting of the wall, door, and trim, and a container that never got returned ...

The sickness I mentioned above combined with no sleep and trips to and from preschool made for ROUGH car rides. I got the genius idea of bringing along her blankie and melted over these sweet and silly faces she gave me ...

But most of the time it was screaming or this (only to get home and have her not transfer well resulting in a 10 minute nap for the day) ...

Then Liam got sick too and fell asleep in the car with her, poor babies. I sat in my parked car in the garage for 30 minutes to give me them some rest after a loooooong day.

One of a couple trips to the doctor for the month ... this one was for her 2 year wellness visit and we were back the next week for her 3rd ear infection this year ...

Man she's cute!!!

Kids are so hard to get to slow down, even when they are sick, but I did soak in extra snuggle time when they would get tired enough and give in ...

Then there was the week of the family flu ... I have no pictures from that week but I'll never forget it and I'm sure it won't be the last time I experience it either. Liam started throwing up Tuesday night at 9 pm and it happened every 10 to 30 minutes all the way until 4:30 am the next morning. I felt so awful for him, it was so sad to see him so sick. Lyla got it the very next morning. I had it by Thursday night and Nic got it Friday. It's so hard to take care of kids while being sick yourself but we survived and am so thankful to be saying goodbye to that part of September and back to school season!

B O O M ' S    O F    S E P T E M B E R

A little girl at church has a birthday the week before Lyla's and had a tragic event happen in her family so they wanted to make it extra special. They filled the nursery with streamers, balloons, and cupcakes, and Lyla came out beaming as if she were the birthday girl!

Seeing her joy as we set up her baby doll party ...

Being silly with my little momma! haha

Giving her one of her favorite things on her birthday ... a ride down the drive way in daddy's "beep beep"!

Feeling well enough to visit the park and enjoy the last little bit of nice weather ...

Taking her baby and puppy for a walk!

Knockin' 'em back!

Decorating for Halloween a little early with the kids ...

Having a piano in my home ...

Hanging family pictures on our walls ...

Lyla's pony tail ... will by my favorite FOREVER!!!

This cutie and his love for his glow-in-the-dark ghost sweatshirt ...

Having 2 toy rooms at home to play in together and to store everything ... HEAVEN!

Giggling at each other with silly Instagram filters on our faces ...

Bath time!

Firsts

When their little lives are filled with so many firsts, I feel honored as their mom to be a part of it all. It's like seeing the world for the first time all over again. It just one of the best things!

Like when Liam had his first play date with the kids in his new preschool class. As I mentioned in his back to school post, his preschool is on a farm. Surrounded by the most gorgeous cornfields and one of the biggest backyard gardens I've ever seen. Liam adores playing out there ...

Lyla's first time talking to Siri. haha I about died from laughing so hard! She figured out how the button worked to get her to talk back and then she'd just start jabbering away and Siri would follow with, "I'm sorry, I couldn't quite hear that." She'd cut her off mid sentence and launch back in with another series of "bewbewbewdadadas". haha

Liam's first sport and first time on a team ... we signed up for soccer season! He's loving it! It's fun, sometimes painful, and always entertaining to watch! We've loved the program we signed him up with so far ... he plays all of his games at the park closest to us and it's only Saturday mornings for an hour. 15 minutes of practice and a 45 minute game. I'm slowly figure out the soccer mom life. How much to encourage and push him vs. how much to recognize there is a lot of potentially hurt feelings and dandelion picking throughout. I'll always be his biggest cheerleader though! Proud of your bravery and perseverance number 2!

First cavity ... wah wah wah. I took both kids in to see a new dentist last week and found out Liam has his first cavity on a molar that he'll keep until he is 11 or 12. Which means I had to schedule him to get his first filling next week. Crossing all of my fingers and toes it goes well because .......... dang it, not a fun thing to experience as an adult let alone a child. Also freaking out that the child who is so great about being diligent with brushing morning and night has a cavity when the other one (shall not be named) refuses to let us stick a toothbrush in her mouth for more than 2 seconds. The hygienist gave a great recommendation though to let her try brushing and flossing our teeth while we do hers and it is working a little better so far. She still gets to be the one who announces "DONE!" whenever she wants. ;)

My favorite first of all ... I painted Lyla's nails for the first time on her birthday weekend!! She held still for .2 seconds ... exactly how long I expected her to, so most of them ended up smudged. But seeing the look on her face and hearing her say "pwity" over and over again was the best! The sweetest little pink fingers and toes I've ever seen!