Fall at the Dallas Arboretum

Last Thursday some friends and I took our kids to the Dallas Arboretum. I've always gone in the spring before, so it was exciting to finally get to go in the fall. They have a gorgeous "Pumpkin Village" set up with lots of different castles and houses made of pumpkins. The weather was beautiful, the company was divine, and the scenery spectacular.

"Look at all these pumpkins!"

Climbing through a narrow door in Rapunzel's house.

All the kiddos (minus sweet Caroline who was in her stroller). Huston was cracking up because Wyatt was throwing his goldfish crackers in the fountain.

Huston loved the grandfather clocks in Cinderella's castle.

Peeking out the window of one of the pumpkin houses.

Cinderella's house.

My pumpkin pie.

Chillin' on some hay bales.

So cute!

Rocking the wild glasses and examining a weird pumpkin.

My Sunshines

This week:

Arden wore this outfit that was so adorable I wanted to die.

She has been talking up a storm. The other day she said " 'Mon. Follow me! I go find it!" when she was looking for something. I love how she says 'mon for Come on and 'mere for Come here.

There has been some serious sibling fighting this week. These two sure know how to get on each other's nerves in the silliest ways. For example, Arden will say "Boo" and Huston will say "I don't like her to say that!" which causes Arden to say "Boo boo boo boo boo boo boo" and Huston to whine and scream like the world's ending. Or, Huston will say "Cuckoo, cuckoo" and Arden will yell "Like that! Like that!" (which of course means she doesn't like that) causing Huston to say it over and over again and Arden to scream like the world's ending. This week has been a series of incidents just like the ones I just described. It is exhausting.

We've had some backyard playtime in the evenings. Huston and Arden like looking through our fence and making our neighbor's dogs bark. I'm sure they appreciate that.

Some quality Daddy time has been had. Saturday I went shopping with some friends and Daddy took them to the duck pond to feed the ducks grapes and to Chuy's for a special lunch. Huston misheard the word "geese" and called them "weest." He said, "You can just call them 'goose' or 'weest'." Then they got to have dinner at Cracker Barrel with Mimi and Grandpa and Granny and Papaw, too. They had so much fun that Huston was quite disappointed when I returned from shopping, and didn't even want me to come to dinner with them. Daddy read some great stories this week. The kids were waiting for him in the picture below (Arden's hair looks crazy because I just took it out of her pigtails). Two of their favorites were Mouse is Mad and Take Care, Good Knight, both random picks from the library. Arden likes to interrupt to point out random things which she'll say over and over until you acknowledge her, and Huston likes to interrupt to ask a bajillion questions. It can take awhile to make it through a story.

I bribed the kids with chips to get them to kiss each other for this picture.

I sang "You Are My Sunshine" to Huston and told him "You are my sunshine. Please don't take my sunshine away."

He told me, "But I'm just going to have to get my own house when I get big."

I said, "But I don't want you to."

And he responded, "Well, you can come visit me."

I told him, "But I'll miss you."

And he replied, "Well you can just come a lot of days. You can come Friday, Monday, Tuesday...But you might miss me. But that's a lot of days you can come. You can come ANY you want to my house when I get big."

I hope his wife agrees.

Nash Farm

Clarke and I took the kids out to a fun free event in Grapevine today, called Nash Farm. We met some friends out there and enjoyed the nice, fall-like weather. There was a little petting zoo and both Huston and Arden really liked petting all the animals. There were chickens, a bunny, sheep, goats, and a turkey. Huston liked the chickens the best.

There was also a pumpkin patch where the kids could pick out a pumpkin to take home.

They decorated them with washable markers which smeared all over the place as we were carrying them, but it was worth it because they were so cute while they were coloring.

I was so happy to get pictures of them with the pumpkins. Even though Arden's hair was driving me (and her) crazy because it was so windy. Her hair was flying in her face in almost every picture I took. Still, every year I wish I had pictures of them in a pumpkin patch, and this is the first year I've ever taken them. So even if they're not perfect, I'm still so happy about it.

Arden kept sitting in piles of dirt and rubbing her fingers in it. She loves dirt.

Huston and Wyatt had fun chasing each other and throwing hay at each other, until we put a stop to the hay throwing.

We went on a hayride right before we left, which was not that exciting, but was a nice way to end the morning.

I love fall!

What did you learn today?

I asked Huston what he learned when I picked him up from Wee Care after my Bible study.

He said, "Jesus can make our friends not sick. He has the power to make us better."

I love hearing God's truth coming out of his precious mouth.

Time is of the Essence

My initial plan for this Saturday was to spend some time cleaning and putting away toys and odds and ends.

Then I saw this quote on a blog this morning:

“Now is the time to get things done…wade in the water, sit in the sun, squish my toes in the mud by the door, explore the world of a boy just four.

Now is the time to study books, flowers, snails, how a cloud looks; to ponder “up,” where God sleeps nights, why mosquitoes take such big bites.

Later there’ll be time to sew and clean, paint the hall that soft new green, to make new drapes, refinish the floor – Later on…when he’s not just four.”

- Irene Foster

And so our morning took a different turn. We made a bigger mess and built some train tracks under the table.

It was so fun to be in his world for a little while.