The Vance's

October came and it suddenly feels very fall around here. Crisp cold mornings, shorter days, pumpkin everything and chunky sweaters. I'm sort of loving it (except for those cold days because brrrrr!)

We went and visited a friend the other day while the big kids were at school and Simon got to play with her puppy. He's been obsessed with this dog since we first met her back in July and our visit did not disappoint. I loved having a few hours to catch up with one of my great friends and Simon and Sadie entertained each other playing fetch. Win win!

But, getting a puppy and toddler to both sit still at the same time for a picture? Almost impossible.

Speaking of cold mornings....we are loving the cuddly blanket season. Matt and I were determined to hold out as long as possible before turning on the heat because extra heating bills aren't fun to pay for! So we pulled out all the blankets and snuggled right in while reading books. The kids loved it! But, this past week I finally gave in. It was breakfast time and I'd had enough. Matt agreed and we are all a bit warmer although I'm still cuddling up to a big comfy blanket as I write this post.

Poor Simon. He's doing great at preschool but this is our usual post-preschool routine. He's zonked on the couch and I get about 40 minutes to clean the house and prep for dinner before waking this sleepy boy up to pick the kids up from school. It's a slow transition but hopefully he'll get used to it!

Even on cold mornings we've still enjoyed sunny afternoons. Can't complain about this beautiful evening in October - makes for a perfect soccer practice!

We had a free day on Friday and instead of tackling a long to do list of projects I left the house and took Simon to another pumpkin patch! It was a beautiful day and we both loved having some one-on-one time to wander around at his own pace. I just followed him wherever he wanted to go and we ended up staying over 3 hours! Plus, it was completely free for kids 2 and under - woohoo!

He absolutely loved playing in the corn pit. Running, falling, giggling..repeat.

And the jumping pad....so fun! He still keeps telling me how he jumped "SO high!" We ended up coming back to the pad twice so he could jump longer before going home.

The tractor ride was another favorite. His sweet little hand clung onto my leg the entire ride as he told me how scary it was but still had a big smile on his face as we rode around the big farm.

And then we attempted a little photo shoot with pumpkins before heading home. Except a busy toddler doesn't like to sit still so this was the best we could do. We ended up finding a baby pumpkin to take home, which was a huge highlight for him!

Planning to have all the fall dinners next week, bake some more pumpkin-y treats and probably visit yet another pumpkin patch. Love this season!

With all the transition of back to school and the end of the week fatigue we realized we desperately needed a fun, relaxing family day yesterday. We thought about doing some projects around the house but realized that would only lead to whining from all 5 of us. So, we headed outside for our first trip to the pumpkin patch this year! The weather was perfect - sunny but crisp air, no rain but cloudy skies. And we had a blast. Over 3.5 hours just running through the farm, getting lost in a corn maze, playing games and laughing together.

We tried a new farm, planning to save our other favorite for a few weekends from now, but this one did not disappoint. In fact, it might be our new favorite!

There were so many good photo ops set up throughout the farm I just couldn't help myself. Luckily the kids were good sports and knew to smile quickly before running off to the next area.

The friendly Seahawks witch stopped to say hello and give each of the kids Halloween pencils.

So many face in the hole pictures. They just never get old!

They had an apple blaster that would shoot apples out of this cannon and the kids could try and hit a target. So fun!

Pretty sure Matt "helped" Simon so he could really just launch the apple himself. No hiding that giddy smile on his face while he aimed the cannon around. Ha!

And then the corn maze. The kids really wanted to do one this year and we felt they were ready. We knew to bring patience because getting lost was inevitable and corn mazes always take 493559 times longer than you ever imagine. Carter was excited, Lucy was a little nervous and Matt was already ready to be done before taking one foot in that silly maze. Half way through we were feeling great! There were a few signs posted along the way that would show how much further we needed to go. 3/4 done and we only had a little stretch left and then?!? We took a wrong turn. And ended up going the complete wrong direction and retracing our steps without realizing it. After finding another sign everyone looked defeated. But....mom to the rescue! I pulled out some secret snacks in my purse and after munching on some apples we had the energy to reorient ourselves and made it out alive! Woohoo! No one cried, yelled, whined or gave up. A huge success in my opinion!

We moved on to the rest of the farm and there was SO much to do! A jumping pillow, basketball/football/baseball throw, barrel ride, candy cannon, playhouse, tire climb, tug of war, pumpkin bowling, sand pit, duck races, hamster wheels, hammering nails, bean bags and so much more. Seriously, this farm had it all!