Leaves Abound From All Around

The 3rd week of October saw us going to two birthday parties (on the same day) and raking leaves (for many many days).

The first party was for a little girl who used to be a neighbor of ours. Luckily it wasn't just a birthday party, but a costume party and Logan ran into a favorite buddy of his there. His buddy wasn't there initially and it took us some time to become brave enough to play with anyone so I don't have many photos from this party.

Logan rode his bike, on this beautiful fall day, to the next party.

Logan and the birthday boy!

The family spent a lot of time moving lots of rock and wood out of the main part of the yard for this party. Of course the kids found the rock and wood and decided it was the perfect place to play.

We managed to do another Fall craft.

Dad and Logan took a hike and discovered some heavy duty machines.

Logan braved the dentist. He absolutely hates lights in an office setting, hence the glasses. In fact they bother him so much that we had him seen by an ophthalmologist to make sure nothing was wrong.

I made some Halloween buddies for our windows. Once again a Pinterest discovery.

Frik enjoyed a few moments of peace and quiet back in October. Fast forward to this past week where she has been sick. We are hoping it isn't the end for her. She has seemed to recover pretty well with the help of fluids, but it is still hard to get her to eat a lot We will be starting kidney medication and also giving her medication to help her appetite. I am so grateful that we have a vet who comes to our house rather than having to load up Frik for a trip to the vet. In any case I am hoping for the best. The fact that she recovered at all is a good sign.

Now let's turn our attention to the leaves. Man oh man did we have leaves. We had neighbors, friends and strangers asking to take our leaves. Logan and I spent the first day of raking having a great time with our leaves. We started out by turning our shop vac into a blower. We didn't forget to protect our ears. Once we had the driveway cleared we raked a good sized leaf pile and the jumping ensued. We did this forever. Rake, run, jump... rake, run, jump... rake, run, jump. It sure made for one happy boy.

This was the first run and I love how Logan had his tongue out the whole time!

He did learn that it is best to jump into leaves with his tongue inside his mouth.

Notice here how he kept getting further and further back for his running approach.

Here he is coming to toss those leaves on me.

One last activity for the week, we went to his school one night for a pumpkin decorating and pizza party. Poor little guy was tired and cold, but he enjoyed putting glitter on yet another pumpkin.

The next morning was some awesome fog! Really reminded me of our year back East.

3/4 of October done! I feel November around the corner.

Fall Delight

For Columbus Day we ventured back to McCall's Pumpkin Patch, and this time the weather cooperated. Again the bounce pads were a huge hit and he loved some of the slides that he wouldn't go on last year. It did take him some time to warm up to jumping on the bounce pad, but once he got going he didn't stop until...

... He and another boy bounced right into each other. The other boy was bigger and hit Logan in the head with his knee. It was time to stop, and the medical crew checked Logan out just to make sure he didn't have a concussion.

All was good, so off we went to see what other activities we could enjoy. This slide he did over and over and over again.

Still a bit too short for these, but next year he will be able to ride them easily.

Managed to catch the pumpkin launcher.

This was new for us. Not sure if they were there in previous years. Kyle had to keep trying to figure out the best spot to hit it and why. 

I love feeding the animals and I get the feeling they love it too.

We have a bean bag toss at home, but you always love what isn't yours. We played with these for a long time.

Who doesn't love duck races? Especially when they give you candy just for playing.

They have many sand boxes to play in too. We were the only ones in this huge one with the digger.

Finally off to the pumpkin patch.

Making him earn that pumpkin.

This little boy was just a little happy when we stopped on the way home and grabbed an ice cream. Mom was slightly upset since she lost her sun glasses at the patch. Oh well, at least we had a really good time.

Back to work on the house. Time to paint Logan's room.

Then there was an elementary carnival. It wasn't as good as the previous school carnival we went too in the spring. Just way too crowded. Kyle and Logan couldn't handle it (it was almost too crowded for me too) so we went out side and found some friends. We spent a long time outside playing. Kyle then decided to walk home and I took Logan back in to give the carnival one more shot.

Here is fall creeping into the leaves. Lucky to have such beautiful trees around us.

"P" is for Pumpkin Patch

I just love October. It has the best weather of the year. Everything is made with pumpkin. Even the trees put on a show. Definitely my favorite month.

Having said that, I am sad that I am just now posting about October. Life sure is super busy. So as always, here are a bunch of photos from the first 1/4 of October. I hope they can add depth to the little text I will write.

Every October I like to venture to the pumpkin patches near me. This was the first October that saw us up in Los Alamos so we had to venture down south for the patches. The first planned patch was supposed to be the McCall Pumpkin Patch near Moriarty. Logan and I drove down to stay with Grandma Chris and Grandpa Keith the night before. In the morning we (including Grandma and Uncle Lee) drove out to the patch. However when we got there it was raining so we turned around and headed towards Albuquerque and drove to Corrales for Wagner Farms (the prettiest of the patches). Luckily we hit the weather perfectly. Had just enough time to do the patch and head for lunch before it started to rain. 

Enjoying some time at Grandpa Keith's house.

Looking for the flags planted throughout the corn maze.

Leading the way.

Now to choose a pumpkin.

This was the first year they had an area to do crafts.

We decided to stay another night down South so that the silliness could continue.

Here are just a few shots of daily life in Los Alamos.

Kyle is passing the torch at the local pizza place.

Logan has decided he can do what some of his friends like to do.

It is October so time to get out the decorations. Logan LOVED this. It seemed like Christmas opening all of my Halloween bins and getting everything out. He wasn't so good at helping me put everything around the house though. The place was a wreck after we went through all the bins.

Well, he did decorate Frak.

She didn't seem to mind much though.

We also had to do some crafts.

This is where to be when the weather is this good. Couldn't ask for a better back yard.

This year we attempted to glitter up some pumpkins since he saw some in the stores.

We also visited our local patch that was a fundraiser for the high school choir.

There you go. 1/4 of October done.