An Evening at Linder Farms

Yay!  It's finally that time of year for going to Linder Farms!  There are so many things to do and not enough time...or money..to do them all.  So we stuck to doing mostly the free with admission stuff.

We started with the straw bale maze.  The kids loved running through that one.

Here's the start of our journey in the small corn maze.  Nikki got nervous as soon as the entrance was out of sight.

The kids loved having their grandparents (my parents) there to share the fun! 

Now we are in the medium size maze.  Hmmm...which way do we go?

Jack looks a little worried that we might not find our way out.

But we did!  Thanks to the handy maps they hand out to you at the gate.  We would have been LOST without them!  Now that we made it to the end Nikki thought it was fun.  Several times she wanted to turn around and go back because she was scared.

Back to playing on the straw maze.

The kids discovered a little hole in the straw so we had each of them poke their heads through to get a picture.  If you're wondering why he has a blue mustache, we bleed blue in our family...BRONCO BLUE!...  Actually, it was his yummy blue Gatorade his friend gave him earlier that day.  He liked the stache' and didn't want me to wash it off.  So cute!

Nikki's turn.

Last but certainly not least, Jack!

Now off to the tractor tire playground where they had all kinds of tires to climb on.

Part of the playground was this hay stack.

Garrett climbed up to the top too...with a little help from mommy.

At the top of the haystack with my sweet girl.  I love that I was in so many pictures this time thanks to Laverne!

My little pumpkin!

I'm always hauling them around, lol!  And Farmer Tony up above to make sure no one falls off!

She fits just right in that tractor!

Garrett too!

Now for some fun in the corn box making corn angels!

Watch out, you might get some up your nose Jack!  Don't worry, it came out.  Such a funny picture though!

After the corn box we hopped on the hay ride and took a ride around the corn fields and pumpkin patch and back to the farm.  The kids got back in the corn box to play while my dad and I got in line to get some delicious melt in your mouth mini donuts.

I waited all year for these!!  So yummy!!!

Yep, they're mini all right.  They fit in her mouth!

Had to get a family picture on the hay stack.

Farmer Garrett

Farmer Nikki

Last but not least, the kids talked me into letting them go on the swing ride.  Last year, Jack wasn't sure he liked this ride.  This year he LOVED it!  As soon as the ride was done he said "I want to do it again Mom!".

It was a great evening to spend as a family and counted as our FHE for this week.  We were all so glad that my parents could join us for the fun!  We only wish that Daddy could have been there too!

FHE: Developing Your Talents

Our original plan for FHE (Family Home Evening) tonight was to go to the park.  Then it had changed to helping my brother Stillman to get corn stalks from our garden that they could use for decoration.  Well, we were rained out of either of those activities so I had to think of a last minute idea.  

Nikki kept asking if she could paint so I decided to use that as part of our FHE.  We sang the song "It's Autumn Time" from the Children's Songbook.  I asked each of the kids what talents they had or what they liked to do.  Then told the parable of the talents.  After that we decided to "develop" one of our talents, the talent of painting/art.  And since it's Autumn we tried to do some pictures to go a long with that theme.  We were running out of paint and some of them were dried out so we used what we had.

(I don't know why it turned sideways, that's not the way I took the picture and it's not the way it shows before I uploaded it.)  Garrett's picture is the brown one.  It's hard to see but he did try to paint a pumpkin on there to go with his abstract art.  Jack's is the red one and I helped him paint a couple of ghosts and a pumpkin...again to go with the abstract art.  Nikki's is the orange one on top that has the brown leaf.  And mine is the one on bottom with the 5 colorful pumpkins with the letters of each of our names, our pumpkin patch, hehe.  It was a fun activity for everyone and I'm glad we got rained out  :)

Nicole's first REAL hair cut

I finally took Nikki to get her first real hair cut.  Last year when I did it, it was only a trim.  This time I took her to a professional and we both LOVE it!

Before shots:

AFTER SHOTS:

I wanted you to see the difference in length of her hair before and after so I backed up on this shot.

  We cut off about 9 inches I think.  Some of the hair was long enough to donate but not really enough so we didn't.  Maybe next time.

Garrett's 5th birthday!

Last weekend we celebrated Garrett's 5th birthday!  I can't believe how old he's getting already.  We were going to have a party with just grandparents Friday night but Garrett got sick.  Luckily he was feeling good the next day so we squeezed it in between Nikki's soccer game in the morning and Garrett's soccer game in the afternoon and his friends' party in the late afternoon.  It was a very busy day!

This was the morning of his birthday (Thurs) and we had GIANT cinnamon rolls.  We even put a candle in it and let him blow it out.  Since the parties weren't until the weekend I wanted to do something special for him.  We also went swimming at the Rec Center w/Gpa Tony and had lots of fun!

And this is what he looked like Friday night.  My in laws still came over before they got the message that he was sick.  He had a frown the whole time but he still wanted to open the gift they brought.  A warm fuzzy blanket with a hood and mittens attached.  It's covered with sports things.  And 3 toy cars and some tootsie roll suckers.

Now to the party on Saturday around noon w/Gma Vernie, Gpa Tony, and Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Norton.  For his cake we decided to do an "Up" theme.  I printed out the house from the internet, cut it out, and glued it together.  Then just put ribbon from each cupcake to the house.  I think it turned out really good.

 

The big 5!

He got to pick out his own balloon this time and of course he picked Spiderman.  He loves Spiderman!

Gma Vernie made him a homemade fabric happy meal and all my kids love playing with it!  He also got a water bottle, $5, and a Mickey Mouse puzzle from his great grandparents.

Look at the smile on his face.  He totally loved that he got Zurg!!  Now he has Zurg to play with his Buzz and Woody and Rex toys.

He got lots of Spiderman things.  A costume, pajamas, a shirt, and some red pants to go with the shirt.  I've had a hard time keeping him out of his costume. 

And a new bike!  It's used but it looks really good still and my dad cleaned it up even better and painted a few spots for me, along with fixing the flat tires.  My dad is so awesome with all that he helps me with!

Jack was very zoned in to his cupcake.  He couldn't wait to eat it and I couldn't get him to look up at me for the picture but it turned out really cute anyway.

My little Spiderman showing off his Zurg toy.  And Nikki....lol...must be licking her lips or playing with her toothless grin.

Me and my little man.

There's his new Spiderman shirt.  On the back it says "Web Slinger".  And those are one pair of pants to go with it. 

And of course he had to have a Spiderman toy with a little jet ski, that unfortunately does not work.  Guess that's what you get when you buy things 2nd hand.  In fact, the only new thing I bought Garrett was the Zurg toy.  Everything else was from a thrift store or craigslist.  But most of it is in really good shape.  The clothes look almost new.  I love getting good deals!

And here's the friends' party.  We had neighborhood kids and cousins to help him celebrate Saturday around 4:30pm.

And once again he gets to blow out another candle.  He's had lots of practice with this birthday. 

So even though he got a little sick one night he still enjoyed his birthday and all of his presents!  It was a fun and busy weekend!