Pumpkin Patch!

Today the kidlets and I met my Dad at a pumpkin patch on a farm not to far from where we both live.

(wait, "today"?!?! Is she actually posting pictures from an event that happened the very same day!? She hardly ever even blogs anymore, how could this be?!)

I know.

But you see we spent over 3 hours on a farm this afternoon running, playing and laughing. It was awesome.

And bonus? Our babies were in bed by 6:15pm tonight. It was awesome.

Dave and I had taken them to a free pumpkin festival at a local park this past weekend (forgot the camera) and they had a blast at the petting zoo and playing, but by the time we'd arrived, all the pumpkins were gone =(, so we told them we'd get pumpkins another time.

All the places around here get SO crowded on the weekends, so I found a free weekday afternoon and invited my Dad to join us =)

Little Pumpkin Patch Cuties...

See this silly face Luke is making?? Get used to it. It's his new pose pretty much any time my camera comes out...

Enjoying apple cider donuts with GrandDad...

The first thing we did was ride the "cow train". The twins LOVED this!

Then we went and visited the baby chicks...

GrandDad helping Abbey peer in on the baby calf...

The bouncy house was Luke's absolute favorite thing there. Or anywhere, really. He jumped and jumped and jumped and jumped...

And then we went and played on some tractors...

And then Luke went back to the bouncy house and jumped some more...

My Dad, me, and my babies =)

We tried out the little tunnel slide for a bit...

Explored more tractors...

Pet some goats...

...and eventually found ourselves at the Big Slide. Luke and Abbey were both a little nervous at first, so I said I'd go down with them. One time was all it took! As soon as their little bodies slid to a stop at the end of the slide, they were begging "Again! Again!!" 

And over three hours later, it was time to pick out pumpkins and head home. I told Abbey and Luke they could pick out whatever pumpkins they wanted. It cracked me up when they both picked tiny little tabletop pumpkins =).

I LOVE this time of year!

Five

1. Have I told you all how much our family loves having Zoo and OMSI memberships?  We've were given both as birthday presents this year, and they are literally the gifts that keep on giving. It's so nice to be able to pack up and head somewhere fun for FREE whenever we want. Last week we went to the zoo with some of our favorite twin friends...=)

2. If you've read any number of posts here in the last 3 years, you know I'm not one to brag on my parenting. Like, ever. Most the time I'm ranting about how I'm failing in one way or another. But. I made a pretty brilliant decision recently. Right before the twins started preschool, I purchased a set of art clips for their room. There are 10 clips, so they each get 5. Every school morning, we come home and they each get to decide which pieces of their art they'd like to hang, and in turn, which ones they'd like to take down to make room. It's worked perfectly as a way to display their awesome art projects proudly, without every single square inch of wallspace in our 990sq ft house becoming completely overtaken by preschool artwork. I save about 1/2 of what they choose to take down in a Memory Box...because I'm a sucker for anything my kiddos make. And a bit of a hoarder.
Speaking of preschool, Abbey and Luke both LOVE it. They have so much fun, and are so happy on the two mornings of week we have school! They get ready super quickly and want to get in the van and go!

And also, look what our 3.5 year old daughter can do...

3. My husband, who is truly one of the best writers I know, has started a blog. And it's good, ya'll. Check it out.






4. Luke and Abbey decided they want to be Jake and Izzy from Disney Jr's Jake and the Neverland Pirates for Halloween this year. It's so cute to see them be really excited about the Holidays this year! 3.5 is a fun age for celebrations. I'm super duper excited for Christmas this year! 
They even helped me decorate...=)

5.  And lastly, for documentation purposes, here are pics of Luke and Abbey's current favorite actitives: family movie night cuddle time, and helping Momma bake...

 

'Night all!

Sunriver!

As I mentioned before, we have some wonderful friends who generously rent us their vacation home at a stunningly low rate, allowing our little family to take longer and nicer vacations than we would ever be able to afford on our own.

I try and make vacations a priority, and have our family get away together at least two times a year. Even when money is really tight, it's usually figured out in the budget somewhere. I feel like that little time away together is so important for us. If you've been around here for awhile, you know my mantra is close families don't just happen. You have to be intentional about it.
Vacations are my favorite way to do that =).
I feel like honestly, it's a gift to my family...getting Vacation Momma. She is so much fun. I mean, Regular Momma tries to squeeze in fun pretty often in our day to day lives, but Vacation Momma is always a blast.
She's so relaxed.
And she's so much sillier.
=)

While we generally keep to our schedule on vacations, it's so much easier to be lenient about, well...everything! For instance, one of our vacation traditions is to get donuts for breakfast at least one morning we're away.
Don't feel like consuming an ounce of protein for breakfast? Just two donuts? Yeah...okay.
Wanna stay up a little later tonight?? I think that's a great idea!
Family Movie Night every night we're away? Of course!

Even though Time Outs, struggles, and disappoints still occur, they are few and far between on vacation.
Because the only thing vying for our attention is playing together.

And I feel like that pulls us all in tightly together, so that we're okay when we come back home if the schedules and frustrations of day to day stretch us out a bit.


So in 2013, both our family vacations took place at The Adventure House =)


We just love it there. Sunriver was tons of fun in the Winter, but even more fun in the Summer! We had a blast riding bikes, swimming, eating dinner on the porch, going for walks and watching the wild life.


We got to stay 4 nights and 5 days!!



We left after I got home from work on Friday, and got there late Friday night. To Dave and I's surprise, the twins did not fall asleep on our way over! It was just shy of 11pm when we pulled up to the house, and the kids were looney.

We got them quickly settled and then Dave and I unpacked and settled in ourselves.

Our first morning there we loaded up and headed out on a bike ride. One of my favorite things about Sunriver is the endless, beautiful bike trails.  Abbey and Luke were so excited to go exploring!

 We stopped and played at this cute little park outside the Aquatic center for a bit...

My sweet Abigail and I...

Our crazy adorable boy...

So big!!!

My three loves...=)

We biked around a bit more, then headed back to the house for lunch and Quiet Time.
That afternoon we put on our swimsuits and sunscreen and biked down to play at the Aquatic Center...

The SHARC area had this super cool beachy area, and Abbey could have lived there. She had so much fun here. I just pulled a chair in there and soaked up some sun while watching her play...

Momma was here...



Luke came to see what Ab's was up to, and ended up spending a good hour in here playing with her...

 

 We swam and swam and played and swam some more, and hours later, we were all ready to head back...

We biked home, enjoyed dinner and family movie night together =).

The next day we had a leisurely morning at the house and then headed down to the SHARC center again.

Ab's was all about the sand again.



Later we biked to get pizza for dinner...

...and then biked over for ice cream at Goody's...

We biked all over that evening, just enjoying the beautiful scenery...

The next morning the kids and I were getting ready to go for a walk, and walked outside the house to see this...

I was so stunned it was so close to us! I even had Dory with us (on leash) and the dear still seemed unfazed.

Luke took this picture of us...

That evening we went to a local park and played...

And then back to the house to relax in the "hot pool", as the kids call it =).

The next morning we got up and headed to the SHARC center to play. It was our last day in Sunriver, but since we were staying at a friends house, we didn't have a rigid check out time, so we were able to really enjoy the full day of vacation =)

Early afternoon we decided to bike back the house and finish packing and cleaning to leave. We were so sad our vacation had to end, but so grateful for the fun we got to have!