Pumpkin Patch

Sunday morning we set off bright and early to head to Hill Ridge Farms for some pumpkin patch fun! Cal had a birthday party to go to at 12:30 (tis the season!) so we were thinking we would get there right at 9 when they opened and then leave in time to make it to the party. Well, it took us longer than we thought to make it there so we ended up just missing the party.  We were sad to miss, but really, you can't do it all! I am learning the fine art of over booking myself....!

ANYWAY-- it was a beautiful day and we had a lot of fun! There was a HUGE group of us out there.  I would say about 20 families we are friends with all went together, so that made it a ton of fun. 

When we arrived, I went to take a picture with my good camera only to find out it was dead... so pictures were taken with the phone instead! Oh well...

Right away, the boys ran into this maze.  Cal was like a crazed mouse running around (see him back by the yellow?) and Andy walked in, didn't know where to go, and started kicking the walls until I picked him up out of the thing- ha! Such a difference in personalities!

We made our way to the animals and Cal thought the turkeys were just fabulous! He kept pointing them all out to Andy.  

We upgraded our pass to be able to jump on the giant pillow.  We did this first thing when we got there before it got too crowded.  The boys LOVED this! They had so much fun running and jumping.  Later, they got on it again and Andy got popped (when someone else jumps on your down bounce to pop you up high) by a big kid and he went soaring-- scared me to death so we pulled them off. 

We headed over to the train ride after riding the giant slide.  The boys were excited for the train! And even more excited to have so many of their friends on the train too!

 

 I sat in a seat with both boys-- they wanted to sit together, but honestly, I don't trust Andy to not hurl himself from the train, so I sat with them-- it was kind of awesome though.  Andy had a hand on my leg the whole ride and Cal kept looking up at me and smiling.  I love these two....even when they are naughty (which has been a lot lately...).

After riding the train, we gathered to watch the "races." This was insanely cute-- they raced little potbelly baby pigs and then goats and then ducks! It was SO cute and a huge hit with the kids.  Lee, Andy's friend got his face painted and after the races, Andy was staring at Lee's face in shock of the paint:

 After playing more and seeing more fun stuff, we hopped on the wagon for the ride out to the pumpkin patch.  Right as we rolled in, the clouds were too and then, randomly, we got a huge shower as we were picking out our pumpkins!

Andy tried to pick up one and declared it too heavy and went back to eating his snow cone in the rain.  

Sally made this collage of our three boys (me, Sally and Susan) from 2011 to this year-- how neat is that that we've done this together and that these three were next to each other on the wagon both times? I just love this picture and their sweet faces.  This momma loves these three boys so so much! (also, I love how innocent they look in the first pic and how up to no good they look in the second...and they are all holding hands in the top one....omg, sweetness.)

 

Good friends, Good times!

We spent a ton of time this weekend with friends and it was just awesome.  I love when you have friends who have kids the same age as yours and you are able to really have fun all together.  Saturday night, we went over to our friend's house for a little cookout and play time.  It was SO much fun. 

The weather has been insanely fabulous so we ate dinner in the driveway:

And after dinner the kids enjoyed popsicles! Four other kids had already gone home at this point- that's a LOT of kids playing together!

Andy did great going on the potty there.... I could tell he was needing to poop, but he was only peeing... and putting out fires. 

Our family was having so much fun and were NOT ready to leave yet! So we stayed for bath time!

That's how you know you have really great friends-- when they take your kids in their tub and start scrubbing their heads like there's nothing odd....and then put your kids in their kids jammies! ha! 

We ended up getting home around 9:00 with some worn out kiddos (and parents!).  It was SUCH a fun night and I am forever grateful to have friends like this.  I love making memories!

 

Soccer!

Cal's soccer season is well under way and he is really loving it again this season. We switched teams this year because his coaches from last year had kids who aged out of the program.  He loves his new team and is really enjoying practice and games!

This video is from the game this past weekend.  Please ignore my voice :) I was excited! He is really starting to GET the game and the purpose of the game.  He does still feel the need to fall down after every kick, but that's the football in him, I guess.

 Picture day was last week and I think there were some good ones!

The Ducks! (a ton of the kids missed this practice, unfortunately)

 Silly faces for the Ducks:

My sweet boy:

And this last picture is from the game on Saturday.  Cal is a firm believer in starting off each time in the 3 pt stance.  He was showing the others how to do it...

Someone was teasing me on instagram about the above video for being a #crazysoccermom- hahaha! I really do feel like one! I mean, minus the crazy part... I do love getting to go and watch him play-- just because he loves it so much and loves being out there running around.  Plus it was the most beautiful day to be outside!




 

Chris's graduation

My big brother graduated from Kenan Flagler Business School this weekend. He has been working his rear off with his regular job, his family and three kids and business school-- he's pretty awesome and I am super proud of him. 

His graduation was at 11 on Saturday morning.  Cal had a soccer game starting at noon, so Eddie took Cal to the game, and I took Andy with me.  It was at the Dean Dome, which is just such a cool building. 

Andy and I sat in the last row so we could scoot out to the concourse if need be (and, let me just say: it need be.)

Lala came with us to the service... just me, Andy and lala!

Entertaining this one in the back row:

My friend Andrea's husband graduated too! I snapped a quick picture of him walking across the stage.  Go Matt!

Then I spotted my brother! WOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!

After Chris waked the stage, Andy was a little antsy...

This was too funny to me.  Andy was repeating every single name as it was read out loud.  He was adamant about doing this and it just cracked me up. 

After all the names were called, we went to the potty.  Andy got MAD when the automatic sink shut off and I wouldn't keep holding him up to restart it.  The terrible twos meltdown that followed was nothing short of UGLY.  So we made a quick exit (with him over my shoulder hitting, screaming and kicking) and left before the reception that followed the ceremony.  I was sad to not get pictures with the grad, but I didn't want to push Andy any further. 


We headed to the parking lot and then caught the end of Cal's game. 

Congratulations, Chris! (He doesn't read this blog... he will never know I gave him a shout out-- oh well!