Fall Fest

Why yes, we did go to another Fall Fest this past weekend.  What can I say, we love getting outside in this beautiful fall weather.  This Fall Fest was at Hoover, another state park not too far from Silver Springs.  It was an absolutely perfect day for it.  Sunny, not to hot, clear sky, perfect.  This fest was heavily focused on kids, which was great for us.  They had bounce houses and animals to look at.  They also really focused on local plants and animals.  

We didn't participate in all the activities.  Some of them Ben was too young for, and well, his favorite thing to do is just run around outside.  He did enjoy sitting and watching some Frisbee dogs in action!  Okay, that was my favorite part.  But Ben did sit and watch, so I count that as enjoying it.  Just being outside and having fun as a family was wonderful.

Ben got to help spread some milkweed seeds so more butterflies would have food to eat.  He loved watching the seeds go flying around in the breeze.

 We got to make a rainbow craft!  Ben really enjoyed picking out the colors to glue to his rainbow. I had to make sure he put most of the glue on the paper, not just all over the table. ;)

I don't remember seeing this giant xylophone any of the other times we have been at this park!  Ben adored it!  We rocked out there for a good chunk of time.  Ben had some duets with Daddy, but also enjoyed going solo.

So happy!!

 We had a lot of fun exploring the different huts around the campfire demonstration.  They were letting people practice making their own fires, so we kept Ben away from that.

It's always a good time for a hug.

I love this picture!

As with most of our outings, we ended the day with a little snack.  Going to free events means we can spend a couple of bucks on a treat!  This time- M&M cookies.  Yum!

I am so grateful we have beautiful state parks so close to our home, and that so many places have great free activities in the fall!  I just love watching Ben run around and explore his world.

-Kim

Corn Maze 2015

Last weekend we enjoyed our yearly fall tradition of going to the corn maze!!  This is actually the second year we have brought Ben to it.  He loved it and did a great job!  We planned to go through the maze, then grab the stroller, but we ended up  not needing it at all.  Ben was super in to everything and walked the whole time.

We did pretty much every activity that was there.  We checked out the pumpkins in the pumpkin patch first.  Ben enjoyed running around and trying to lift and touch every pumpkin he could.  We tried for some good pictures by the height sign, but Ben wasn't really having it.

No pictures please!

It was way more fun to play chase with Daddy.

He was pretty pumped when we showed him the letters on the sign though.  He found all the a's, the o, and the w.  Those are his favorite letters right now.

My little rock star

After playing in the pumpkins Ben wanted to explore the wheelbarrows.  It is really nice they have these to help people lift the heavy pumpkins.  Or children, whichever wants to go for a ride. :)

Ben needed a little help actually moving the wheelbarrow on his own.  Fortunately Daddy was there to offer a little assistance.

After we looked at pumpkins we headed into the maze.  In past years, Meo, Omi, Pat, and I have split into teams and raced through the maze.  They have several different parts you can go through.  This year Ben was walking though.  I tried to convince him he wanted to be on Meo and Omi's team, but Pat told me it was more important to be a good parent than try to win.  (I'm not really convinced ;) )So we went through one of the paths as a family.  It was still super fun.  Ben loved seeing all the corn, and running around the paths.  He was very excited every time we found a checkpoint, and ran up to touch it.  This year's theme was Little Red Riding Hood.  I am always so impressed at how these sorts of places put these mazes together.  Talk about having to plan and execute carefully!  Ben loved tromping around and having all four of us with him.

Every year we go to this farm they have added more and more to their activities.  They have been adding great big wooden play structures for the kids, and this year Ben could actually play on them!  He was a little nervous about going in to them at first, but with Daddy by his side everything is doable.  (Do you sense a theme that Daddy was very busy on this outing?  Ben loves Pat so much.)

He probably would have spent all day 'driving' this little tractor.  He drove Meo and Omi around in it.  We tried to show him some other play structures, but he kept coming back to this one!

The horses were out this year, along with a little jumping course for this kids to try.  Ben wasn't super in to that, but he enjoyed looking at the animals in the animal barn.  Sadly I was too busy checking out a lot of the animals to get many pictures.  I think the baby cows were the sweetest looking ones though.  They are so cute!

After seeing the animals we went to the little kid area.  They have big bins of corn, wheat, and oats for the kids to dig around in.  Ben adored it.  It makes me want to pull out the bin of noodles for him again, but as I am still finding noodles from the tantrum that caused us to halt that activity we will have to see.  Outside though?  No mess, no problem!

You can't go to the corn maze without getting a tasty snack.  They have all sorts of delicious looking fruits, vegetables, jams, and preserves for sale.  So what do we get?  Yep, donuts.  :)  Pumpkin and apple flavored and they are both soooo good.  Ben really enjoyed getting to eat a special treat.

After we got through all the activities and our snack, it was time to head home.  Ben was awesome the whole time.  He really did a pretty good job of using his listening ears, which is hard to do with so much going on!  I was really impressed that he walked the whole time too.  The whole place isn't that big, but we were walking for a couple of hours, and he has tiny legs!  Understandably he passed out in his car seat before we had even pulled out of the parking lot.  Poor kid was so tired Pat had to carry him into the house and up to nap time.  It was totally worth it though, we all had so much fun.  We'll have to see what next year brings with our new family of five!

I of course had to get a cheesy cute picture with some little pumpkins for our little pumpkins on the way.

A big thank you to Meo and Omi for coming with us!  I love this fall tradition and always have so much fun when we go.  You can read about last year's corn maze adventure here: Corn Maze 2014.  It's very different having a mobile kid this time!  But it was just more fun to see how much Ben loved everything.

-Kim

BFBN: Tips for Outings With Your Kids- Guest Post

It's BFBN day!  Today I have a guest post from Carrie at Wiley Adventures.  She is talking about running errands with her kids.  I know this seems like not a big deal.  But I remember the first couple of times going out with Ben seemed like an event.  Now I need to start thinking about getting out and about with three kids.  I know in time it will become second nature,  just like getting stuff done with Ben.  But that will take time and I am happy to get all the tips I can!

I'm posting over at Faithfully Infertile.  I am loving the cooler fall weather, and came up with a list of some of the lazy reasons I love fall.  :)  Be sure to check out all the BFBN blogs for some great posts!

-Kim

Tips for Outings With Your Kids

After each of my babies have been born, I have had to re-learn systems that work well with running errands with my babies in tow. Be it grocery shopping, or other various errands, outings WITHOUT your kids is like a vacation. Outings WITH your kids is, well, NOT a vacation.

Here are some tips I’ve gathered along the way:

- Make a plan

Before you leave your house, think through your errands ahead of time. Plan the best time of day to go (if possible) for your daily schedule. Think through possible deterrents or problems and try to decide how you will handle them.

- Make Lists

Having a grocery list significantly helps my shopping experience. If you are running multiple errands, make a list of each store and what you need from each. Bring a pen with you to cross off your lists.

- Set realistic expectations

Honestly evaluate yourself and know your sanity limitations. Don’t expect to conquer the whole world in a shopping trip. Set your priorities on your list to match what you know you are capable of doing and save the other things for a time when you can go without kids. 

- Communicate

Once your kids are old enough (which is probably sooner than you think), talk to them about what you expect from them. Remind them how you expect them to act, and make suggestions for how they can help you make this a successful trip.

-Involve them

Grocery shopping? Assign a kid to cross items off your list for you. Talk to them about what you plan on making that week for dinner as you gather ingredients. Have them practice counting items in the basket or even practice reading the boxes in your cart.  

Hopefully these tips will help you as your embark on your outings with your kids!

Carrie is Kyle’s wife, mom to Laura Kate (7), Shepherd (4), Fischer (3), Archer (9 Months), and blogs regularly at www.wileyadventures.com    

Gender reveal!

Yesterday we got to find out the genders of our little twins!  We are going to have two little girls.  We are very excited.  I fully admit this is the combo that scared Pat and me the most.  Two teenage girls at once?  Two girls going through puberty at the same time?  Two weddings?  But despite any worries, we are very happy.  We had always hoped to have a boy and a girl, and now we will have that plus one!

We are very excited to see Ben grow into his new role as a big brother.  We are talking to him about how he will have two little sisters, but honestly I don't feel he has fully gotten this whole sibling thing.  I think he is just too young to really grasp what is going to happen.  And that is okay.  He'll adjust when the babies come.  Yes, it will probably be hard and confusing at first.  But we will be there with him every step of the way and work to find our new balance as a family of five.

Ben's learning about sisters. :)

So far everything with the girls is looking great.  Everyone is healthy and growing as they should be.  I feel so blessed to be adding to our family.  Thank you to everyone for all the love and support.  It is so wonderful to know so many people are excited to meet and know our sweet girls.  They have a few more months to hang out and grow, but I am very excited to meet them myself.

-Kim

Baby nicknames

A lot of people I know give their babies nicknames while they are in the womb.  I think this makes sense.  It's nice to have a name to call them, as opposed to just "it" or "the baby."  Pat and I like to find out the gender of our babies, but we keep the names we pick a secret until the baby is born.  There is a simple reason for this- we don't want other people's input on it.  I know, that sounds mean.  I don't intend for it to.  We talk about names with other people, and toss around ideas.  But I have found that when you are just discussing potential names, people feel free to bring up their negative opinions.  Yes, everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion, but when it comes to naming my child only two opinions really matter to me- Pat's and mine.  Having a nickname for the baby gives us all something to call him or her until birth and the actual name is decided upon.

When we were expecting Ben Pat came up with his nickname.  One day early in the pregnancy, I flopped down on the couch on my belly.  Pat, in a silly mood, spouted off in an Irish accent "Don't squish the wee baby Seamus!"  Pat found this to be hilarious, and so did others.  I was not as amused at first, but whatever.  The nickname stuck, and Ben was referred to as Seamus.  Obviously we did not go with that for his real name, but it made us laugh throughout the pregnancy.

This time around the twins are nicknamed Thor and Hulk.  We don't know the genders yet, so the fact these are male names has no bearing on anything.  It just kind of happened that way.  They each had their own way of coming into use.

Thor is a short story.  When we were picking names for Ben we of course tossed out some silly ones.  I thought Thor made for a strong name for a boy.  Of course it had to be pronounced properly, a resounding "Thoooor."  When we first found out we were expecting again, I grabbed the chance to pick our nickname and announced we would have our Thor.  Not a very exciting tale, but I like it for a nickname.

Hulk came about a little differently, and has an additional back story.  I have heard that sometimes women just 'know' they are pregnant, no test needed.  Some sort of sign, a craving, a feeling, a dream, hints to them that they may be expecting.  With Ben this didn't happen.  I eagerly awaited the time to test and really had no idea what it would say.  Actually, I thought it would be negative.  Happily it wasn't.  This time around, I had a big sign that maybe I was indeed expecting again.

Sadly this isn't a cute pregnancy thing.  There are less than adorable and fun side effects of being pregnant that most people don't talk about.  For me, one less than stellar thing that happened while expecting Ben was, well, rage.  It isn't as bad as it sounds though.  There were about two occasions where I just saw red, was furious and had to leave the situation.  Before anyone worries that I will go nuts on them before the twins were born, they were both directed at Pat.  Everyone else is safe. :) (Sorry, Pat!)  What makes it funny, well, funny after the fact, is that it has always been about something stupid.  Seriously, I'd go off for ridiculous reasons.  I know one time was over which water glass belonged to whom.  Another was because Pat didn't like a name I did.  I have never experienced this kind of useless, literally see red, have to walk away kind of anger any other time.  Luckily it passed in a few minutes and Pat and I can laugh about it.

That being explained, let's go back to right before we found out we were expecting again.  One evening, Pat and I were hanging out and discussing groceries.  He was teasing me about cottage cheese.  I know, a stupid thing.  I went off on him.  Like seriously, angry, swearing, completely over reacting to this.  I stormed up the stairs and went to bed.  A little while later I had the though 'I wonder if...'  The next morning, sure enough, tested positive.

As I said before, I immediately labeled the baby as Thor.  Pat argued we should go with the Hulk since the baby made me, well, rage-y.  We went back and forth a bit and basically dropped it.  I mean, it wasn't really important.  It came back up the evening we found out we were having twins.  Pat turned to me and told me we were both right- we had a Thor and a Hulk.

So now our twins are referred to as Hulk and Thor.  We find out the genders very soon, but we'll stick to Hulk and Thor until they are born.

Hulk and Thor.  At least until they are born and we have real pictures. :)

-Kim

Boxes

We tend to save boxes for awhile in our house.  Sometimes we set them aside and forget about them, and sometimes I think the box will be a good one to ship things to others.  More often than not, it is because of this:

Put out a box, catch a cat.  It makes her so happy the boxes usually end up sitting out until I just can't take it anymore and finally recycle them.  Of course by then a new one will take its place.

We always have a ton of boxes at the office.  We get deliveries reasonably often.  Ben likes stacking the boxes, and putting things in them.  Much like at home we tend to just hold on to them until someone can't take it anymore.  A few hang out for a while as toy boxes.  The other day I looked over and found this:

With friends, in the box

What?  It's comfy.

Once again Ben proves that toddlers and cats aren't all that different.  I think these boxes will stick around a little longer. :)

-Kim

Hunting and Fishing Days

It is finally approaching fall like weather, which I adore.  I hate being too hot, so I tend to stick to the indoors in the summer.  Now that it is cooling off I am on the look out for outdoor activities for us to do with Ben!  This weekend we got lucky and happened to hear about Hunting and Fishing Days at the state park near us.  Neither Pat nor I had ever been to it before, but it was free admission.  Outdoor event and free?  Yeah, that's all it takes to get our attention.

We were so happy we went!  We had a ton of fun!  Right when we headed in the actual event we saw a giant fish tank full of different lake fish.  Ben went right for it.  Whenever we are at Meijers or a pet store we always have to stop and look at the fish.  He seemed to really enjoy how big these guys were!  There was a demonstration of dogs who were jumping into the lake to retrieve things.  Ben really liked watching the dogs jump into the lake, although we didn't get to see very much of it sadly.  

Most of what we did beyond watching the fish and the dogs was walk around and look at everything that was set up.  They had an historic campground to walk through.  Pat and I liked that, but Ben isn't quite old enough to appreciate that kind of thing yet. ;)  We watched people fish and canoe on the lake.  We did find a quiet place to stop and throw some rocks into the pond, Ben's favorite activity.  Before we left we stopped for a treat- snow cones!  It was Ben's first time having a snow cone.  He loved it.  We weren't sure, as he doesn't always like really cold stuff.  (Seriously, we have to melt his ice cream a bit.)  We shouldn't have worried though.  Because what is the best part of eating a snow cone?  That's right, using a straw to suck out all the sugar water as it melts.  So that is pretty much what Ben did.  I know, not the healthiest thing in the world to let him do.  But really of all the treat options there, snow cones were probably the best option.  The three of us shared two of them.  This way Ben didn't have to wait while we melted down ice, and Pat and I got to take turns eating ourselves.  I'm not sure how that will work when we have three kids...  At least for now it works well.

Overall it was a really pleasant little outing!  The event had a shooting range and falconry demonstration you could get to by bus, but we opted not to do that this year.  We didn't think it would hold Ben's attention, and the idea of a two year old who likes to make a break for it by a shooting range sounded like a bad one.  There were several activities geared right at kids, and I think Ben will really enjoy them when he is a bit older.  Right now he was content to be outside with Mommy and Daddy and watch all the people.  Oh, and eat a snow cone. :)

Excited about the fish!

It was pretty cool to see them up close

Watching the dogs swim

Sweet view of my boys

Checking out the animals- no fear!

We had to throw some rocks

Ben had no interest in pictures with Mommy

Love at first taste

It's so good!

I think this is an event we will try to attend in the future as well.  Hopefully by next year we'll feel comfortable taking the twins on this outing, but at least it will be fun times for Ben and Pat together.  It was a win all around!

-Kim