Fieldtrip

Ava's first field trip was to the pumpkin patch. We either went on her day or Olivia's day and since Liv has done this before we gave the day to Ava.
Ava is sitting next to her very best friend. She actually now has her OWN very best friend. It is so cool and she is so stoked about it. The girl follows her everywhere saying, "Ava, wait..." And she has an awesome mom to boot. Gotta love it when your kids pick friends with good parents. Play dates are so much better. Here's Ava in the band making music. Another fave.
The corn maze that the girls just couldn't wait to run through.
Picking out a pumpkin with her buddy, Ava gave me a smile.
My pumpkin after I carved it. The girls liked gutting it and roasting the seeds. Although when it came time to actually eat the seeds Ava politely declined asking if there was pie. That's my girl.
Here's Ava's decorated pumpkin.

Train Museum

Last weekend we went to the train museum with our friends. This wasn't just any ordinary train museum though. This train took us straight to the pumpkin patch. It takes us where???

The girls with Nick on the way to the patch. They are beaming with excitement.

The stop.

Here we go...

A tractor for hay rides and a bunch of scarecrows started off the adventure.

And the best of all things- a giant two story hay maze that the kids can climb on, over, and into where there's ladders and slides.

Can you say GIANT? Or perhaps, "Dave, I think we are never leaving here."

The gang at the top finally held still for one picture.

When these nice people vacated the tractor we all hopped on and headed for a ride through the spooky forest.

The girls, Nick, Rachael, and Eric.

Ava got her spider painted on her face.

Liv went for the butterfly.

Dave's most favorite part of the whole day- launching pumpkins with his girls.

What a fun day. When you have had enough you hop right back on the train and it takes you back to the station.

We Now Call It The Pumpkin PATCH

Last year Olivia only referred to the pumpkin patch as a HATCH so it's cool that this year she's got it right. And just in time for her first field trip. FIELD TRIP- she's 3 years old. Man. When I was a kid I don't think I went on a field trip until at least first or second grade and then it was to the convalescent home down the street from my Catholic School. It was so fun to smell old people and urine. I'd say I almost forgot the smell but now I live with young people and urine so it's really all relative.

So since the kids are young parents can come on the field trip as well as little sisters. "Wahoo," exclaimed Ava in the truck on the way there. Followed by, "Can I have a donut daddy? P-l-e-a-s-e???"

So we got there and met with Olivia's teacher. Olivia was sooo excited to see her teacher. She stood by her and smiled so very proudly. Then we entered and went to the barn for some songs and festivities. Dave got in the mix and played the washboard while the leader played the guitar. Olivia stood up in front of everyone and asked to play the scary witch song. Her teacher prompted shouted out that she did not teach her that song.
Olivia then asked the leader another question, "maybe we could...something." This is the question that Olivia should be famous for. Whenever she wants something it starts with, "maybe we could....eat some cake, have some candy, go outside..."
Here's Olivia shakin' her buns to the tunes...

Ava got into the lineup and danced too.

Then we went outside and she danced in twirls with me.

And then Ava tried to kiss (why you ask???) a baby chick and got pecked.

This is the hayride to the pumpkin patch.

Olivia, her teacher, and the teacher's helper.

Ava's scouting out "The Big One."

Liv's getting her pic taken by her teacher for her teacher's web page.

The maze.

Ava's jump from one hay stack to another. She was practicing her jumps all day.

Never seen these two busy bees in my life.

Petting the livestock.

And we are finally ready to leave. Awesome. And then we went to the library...

The Great Pumpkin Hatch Olivia

All week we had been waiting for Saturday, Saturday, Saturday to go to the great pumpkin hatch. We would see the giant display at the grocery store advertising their ghostly ghosts, scary bats and loads of pumpkins big and small. Every single time Olivia would ask for a pumpkin hatch and I would tell her, "today's only Tuesday. We still have Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and then Saturday and we will go to the hatch."



Needless to say Olivia has now learned the days of the week in the process of waiting. I saw the opportunity and taught her all of our first and last names, how old she is, how old she will be in November, and Ava's age. It actually seems easier to teach her things in the context of doing something else like counting how many stairs we go down then just teaching her how to count.

Olivia thinks the numbers go 1,2,3,4, 4 1/4, 4 1/2...5. One day the girls were jumping on the couch and I asked them to get off and started counting. It was the funniest thing to hear Livy say 4 and a quarter. Ava has learned to count to 3 because I give them to the count of 5 before they get a time out. It's great that they pick up stuff so easily but now I really have to watch what I say because they ARE listening.

So back to the hatch...




Saturday rolled around and the girls woke up all giggly. We dressed them in their flashing Halloween shirts and jeans due to the weather being so incredibly windy. We hopped into the car and a few minutes later we arrived and hit the ground running...literally- covered in dirt and we haven't even gotten through the entrance gate. Once inside the girls ran around like crazy people. They went through the big corn maze, the small one, and the big kid one.







They checked out the animals in the barn area. Ava's favorite was the calf. She is really into cows lately. I think because she likes to moo. They ran through the tee pees and jumped on and off the hay bails. Mostly they played in the sand and dirt. Had I brought Olivia a shovel, it would have been the equivalent of taking her to the beach.







Our last stop was the hay ride to the pumpkin patch. We boarded the truck and held on tight. When we got to the patch the girls ran to the pumpkins and tried to pick up ones that were far to big for them. It was really cute. We searched and searched for just the right pumpkins and we were off to the truck again.




It was a fun and dirty morning. When we got home the girls went to play on their new swing/slide before they ate lunch. Our neighbor came down and helped Dave put on the finishing touches and the girls were very pleased.