More Fall Farm Fun

This weekend the weather was beautiful, sunny with a little chill of fall in the air.  It was perfect weather to head out on another fall adventure.  So, we headed down to Charlotte to check out a great fall farm with Gram and Gramps.  After a night of sleeping in until 9:30 (it was wonderful) we woke up, took our time around the house in the morning and then headed out to the farm that afternoon.  How relaxing!

The farm had everything toddlers could ask for.  We started off playing in the hay bales, then slid down the slide and played in the toddler playground.  Then, we climbed around in the treehouse and fort.  Next, it was time for a little snack followed by a visit to the goats and chickens.  Finally, we found the hayride and the corn maze.  We finished it off with a homemade ice cream sandwich and a walk-thru on an antique train car.

While Evan was a little wary of getting on the hayride at the beginning, but he says that it was his favorite part.  He was also a bit afraid of getting lost in the corn maze, but fortunately we were all able to find our way out with out having to call 911!  Benny's farm favorites were definitely the bin of corn kernels in the play area and the little pygmy goat that said hi to him in the animal area.

The boys were certainly worn out when the day was done.  Looking forward to more fall fun.  Hope the boys can take it!

(Evan smiles from the playground.)

 (Ben meets a goat.)

 (Gram, Gramps, and Ben get lost in the corn maze.)

 (Ben finds some pumpkins.)

 (Evan also finds some pumpkins.)

 (Yum! Ice cream sandwich)

(I don't think Gram is interested in Ben's snack.)

(Our little family at the farm)

Festival of Legos

 

I've never seen Ian so excited about going to a kids' event as I did this weekend.  He was almost giddy as we drove to the Raleigh Convention Center.  What, might you ask, made Ian so excited about this outing?  We were headed to Lego Fest!

Ian spent countless hours playing with Legos when he was younger, and I think the Lego gene is hereditary.  Up until recently, Evan hasn't been that interested in Legos, but for the past couple of months he has been sitting on the living room floor constantly building "rockets" and "towers" out of his Legos.  Ben has even joined in the fun and shown more of an affinity for building than Evan ever did at that age.  I think I'm going to have a little Lego family

So, heading to Lego Fest was the perfect outing.  It's a traveling show that comes to several cities a year and fills their convention center with Legos.  There's huge pits of them for children to just sit and build with, sculptures of all kinds built out of Legos, ramps where you could build cars and race them down, contests for older kids, and all sorts of other Lego fun.

Our boys certainly had the most fun in the Duplo pit, where there were thousands of the bigger Legos for younger children to build with.  We built train tracks and towers and even hats.  Evan went into his incredibly serious mode that he gets into when he's really in awe of something and just sat and stared at the Legos for a while before starting to build.  Ben on the other hand, just wandered out into the middle of the pit and started chewing on the nearest Lego animal.  Awesome.

We spent several hours admiring all of the Lego-ness that we could find.  Everyone had a fabulous time, and Benny didn't eat a single little Lego piece, or at least I didn't see him eat one!  Looks like the big bins of Legos will be brought up from Charlotte to our house this weekend.  I think there are years of stepping on Lego pieces every time I walk around the house in my future!

 (Evan, Ben, Woody Buzz, and I)

 (Evan builds a masterpiece.)

 (Really Ben?  Eeeeew!)

 (Ridiculous picture of me in a Lego hat.)

 (My children were eaten by a shark!)

(Lego USA)

(Notice there are no pictures of Ian because he was too busy taking pictures of all the Lego fun himself.)

Iron Chef

We have always loved to cook and eat.  Well, Ian loves to cook and I love to eat, so it works out perfectly.  When we were Seattle we would get together with our friends Bob and Liz and have a fun foodie night in.  One couple would buy a secret ingredient, and then someone from the other couple would have to cook it for dinner, Iron Chef style.  I think one night Ian had to cook lamb, and I know we gave our friend Bob broccoli romanesco one night.  The food was great and it was a lot of fun.

We moved back to North Carolina and fortunately, Bob and Liz moved back as well.  So, it was definitely time for more Iron Chef battles.  This time, Liz and I did the planning and Bob and Ian did all the cooking.  We also brought in our friends Patrick, Carrie, and Vince to help with the judging.  This time it was Battle Waffle!  They had to prepare an appetizer, entree, and dessert all featuring waffles in as close to an hour as they could.

Ian and Bob had fun slaving away in the kitchen and they definitely made some Iron Chef-worthy food.  For appetizers we had corn and pepper waffles with bacon-bean dip and waffles with apple relish.  For entrees we had a potato and pepper waffle and waffles with sausage gravy.  Then, to top it all off, for dessert we had a cinnamon waffle with caramel sauce and a chocolate waffle.  Needless to say, we were full! 

The battle was close, but in the end, Bob barely squeezed out a win.  Now, our appetites are whetted for more competition.  There have been mutterings of Liz versus Katy in battle Ramen noodles coming up.  Who knows, we'll have to wait and see!

 (Ian and Bob begin to cook.)

 (waffles...)

 (waffles...)

(...and more waffles!)

Fun at the Farm

What's says fall more than anything else?  Going to a farm, of course.  So, last week, we started off the week with our first farm trip of the season.  We headed over to Green Acres Farm with our friends the Hopkins family, and it was our lucky day.  The farm was actually closed, but they had a playgroup visiting so they let us in with the playgroup.  That meant that we had the whole farm basically to ourselves, so we took full advantage of it.

We took a hayride around the farm to look at the lake and the cows.  Then, we climbed up in a half dozen huge tractors and pretended to drive for as long as we wanted (which is a LONG time for toddlers).  Then, Benny headed to the sand pile while the older boys dove into the bouncy house.  This was a bouncy house specifically built for the little guys, so it was open on top for us to see in.  Evan and his friend Nathaniel had the best time diving back and forth through the inflatable tunnels and into the walls giggling the whole time.  They also had a corn maze, but I really didn't relish the idea of losing both boys in a corn maze, so we stayed out of there!

On our way out, the playgroup received little coloring books and pumpkins as a treat, so luckily for us, one came home with us too.  Evan loved the pumpkin and we happily decorated it and set it on the porch for all to see.  What a great way to start the fall!

 (Mama and her boys on the hayride)

 (Nathaniel, Evan, and Ben smile in the sun.)

 (Small Evan and a big tractor)

(Ben driving-Everyone should be very worried!)

An Actual Picture

So, I was cleaning up lunch a few days ago, and Evan was drawing on the chalkboard.  Up until this point, his pictures really haven't resembled much other than some squiggles with the occasional circle.  However, I turned around this time, and right before my eyes was a picture of a rocket that Evan had drawn!  I was amazed.  I guess he had been drawing at preschool.  What a big boy!  Take a look at the work of art in progress...

Bravery

As we have alluded to in previous posts, Benny is quite the brave little boy.  In fact, I think he has a tendency to go for things with a little bit too much gusto at times.  On Sunday morning I went running and Ian stayed home with the boys.  When I got home, the boys were all out in the driveway.  Ben was wearing a bicycle helmet.  Apparently, he had gotten on his little toy giraffe in the garage when he got outside, made it about a foot outside of the garage, and tripped headfirst over the garden hose.  After the first big goose egg, Ian decided it was just easier to put the helmet on just in case.  I think it was probably a good idea.  Maybe he should wear it at all times!

We went to the playground one morning last week as we do almost every day.  Ben immediately headed up to the top of the tallest slide and headed down.  He also found every big puddle and jumped into them with no hesitation.  As his Great-Grandma Rose recently told me, he just has a lot of curiosity.  That's for sure!  Benny is curious about everything and is ready to explore it all right now!

 (mud puddles!)

(no fear!)

Evan's First Soccer Game

Last week our first soccer game was rained out, so we had to wait until this weekend for our first debut on the soccer field, and it was a double header.  We had a game on Saturday and one on Sunday.

It was quite an experience to watch three year old soccer, but I'm very proud of Evan, our little soccer star.  At first, he didn't want to get out on the field and he just wanted to cling to mom or dad, just like most of his other team mates, but after a while he got our there and at least stood on the field.  Before the end of the first game he actually ran after the ball and kicked it a couple of times, and when he finished and said he had a good time.  I definitely consider that a successful soccer game. 

While I don't think the white team (the Clouds) are all soccer stars yet, they are getting there.  I think they're one of the younger teams in the under 4 division.  There's a few kids on the team that run up to the ball and kick and fight for it to go into the goal, there's a few that run around in a herd behind the ball and never actually touch it, there's another contingent that's content just to be on the field usually as far away from the ball as possible. Some watch from the sidelines, and others won't get off their parents lap.  There's room for everyone on this team, HA! 

Evan is learning how to be on a team and I feel that as the season progresses he'll get more comfortable getting in there and maybe even scoring a goal.  I can't wait to see what the rest of the season brings.

 (The team huddles before the game starts.)

 (Evan watches as the game starts from the other side of the field.)

 (A little grass picking-just like his mom used to do)

 (The boys have a great time as the game continues on in the background without them.)

 (Evan actually gets in on the action.  Look at that soccer star!)

(Benny and his harem play while the game is played.)