Amazing October Weekend

I've got tons of pictures in this post, but we had such an awesome weekend. The weather was incredible, and we tried to spend lots of time outside. On Friday afternoon, Andy had soccer practice. Jack napped at home with Chris, while Emily came with me to watch Andy.
Here's Emily, keeping herself entertained with a leaf...

After soccer practice and a quick dinner, the boys and I went to Creepy Crawlies night at the Nature Preserve. It's a special Halloween night with decorations, crafts, illuminated hayride, Spooky Walk, and Spooky Storyteller. Emily and Chris watched the Brewers win at home. The boys had a blast, but Jack got pretty scared on the spooky walk. (teenagers hiding in the woods dressed in black, would jump out to surprise walkers) Andy was scared too, but in a good way - he's now saying it was his favorite part. Jack quickly was okay when we were done - especially when we talked about that it was all pretend and it was just bigger kids trying to surprise people. He keeps saying that next time we go, they won't be there - and that's okay by him! The hayride was lots of fun too, we even went on it twice. I didn't get many pictures but here are a couple...

Andy and his friend Ethan before the Storyteller started (she told a really funny, spooky story!)

Saturday was another beautiful day. In the morning we went to Andy's soccer game where he had lots of fun.

Emily was climbing up into her stroller all by herself... she's getting to be pretty good at climbing up on things!

Ethan and Andy at the end of the game. This may have been Andy's last game of the season, since we're out of town for a couple weekends at the end of October.

After the soccer game, we were only about 10 minutes away from Cuff's Farms where we go every year for their pumpkin patch and other activities. Ethan and his family (the Meylinks) were there too! (We kind of happened to have almost identical weekend plans!) That meant extra fun for the boys to get to play with Ethan and Tyler on the haybale maze and water pumps while we were there.

Jack LOVED the water pumps... he could have spent hours here I think.

Andy working doubly hard!

Andy on top of the haybale maze. He had fun climbing up them and jumping from one to another.

Jack was a little more tentative on the haybales at first, but he was really enjoying himself towards the end.

Emily even tried to climb up. Maybe next year Emmie!

Jack really enjoyed the haybale slide too.

Emily was curious about these painted haybales

After a fun wagon ride out to the pumpkin patch, we all picked out our own pumpkins (and mini-pumpkins, gourds, and corn) and then were ready to head back on the wagon. Our tractor driver took this picture - how is it that this quick picture is one of our better family pictures yet with everyone looking at the camera? You can see Jack's huge gourd that he was so proud of, he wouldn't let go of it.

Emmie and Daddy

Waiting for our tractor to go... the boys are looking a little worn out by this point. (And it was a hot day - almost 80 I think!)

Andy's silly face :)

We got back home on Saturday around noon and Emily took a great nap. While she was napping, we set up our big tent in our backyard. We hadn't camped all summer, and it was time to really take advantage of this weather! Jack was planning on camping too, but he decided against it as it got dark. Because I've never gotten to camp outside with Andy, it was my turn :) We had such a fun night. He chatted and read books for almost an hour before falling asleep. It was probably about 60 outside - really nice sleeping weather. We both slept great, and Jack was knocking on the tent door at 7:15 in the morning to wake us up!

Another beautiful day today, on Sunday! I didn't have my camera with us, but we all went for a 3 mile hike at Highcliff (well, Chris carried Emily in the backpack - she's still too little!) and we had so much fun. The boys played on the playground and the kids had snacks near the tower after we were done hiking. During the rest of the day, Chris and I both got out for runs, we took down the tent, had Subway for lunch, made Watermelon Sherbet popsicles (chocolate chips were the seeds with pink and green sherbet layered), baked banana muffins, cheered on a Brewers game on TV, watched football, finished Andy's homework, and cleaned a bit. Whew, what a busy weekend!!