A Fall Walk at the Bog

Jackson Bog is nearby our house, we've only visited once (in the summer, a little too buggy.)  It was such a beautiful fall day we all needed to spend some time outside so we decided to go on a hike at the bog.

But don't forget a little spin on the UFO first!

Then off on a little hike.  The kids are getting better at going for longer and longer distances.  Today we hiked about an hour, although it was only like two miles.  We've come a long way from our fifteen minute spurts!

We checked out the bog, I never knew how many insect eating plants lived in Ohio!

Hi blue eyes!

Our little nature lover enjoys collecting treasures including the biggest leaf in the world (according to Ava) and a three pronged acorn.

Our fall family pic!

The Boxcar Children Dinner

We just finished the Boxcar Children, and everyone loved this story.  Saturday night we watched the movie, and Sunday we worked on making a fun tablescape.

The kids each picked a box out of the recycling bin and painted them red to make their own boxcar.  We also cut out black circles for the wheels.  This was a fun project and the kids really spent a long time painting.

On our table we drew a long train track and then we added details from the story to each boxcar.

Some of our details:  the brook with the swimming pool the kids built, the table cloth hemmed by Violet, a fire to cook on, the tree stump to step up into the boxcar and blueberry bushes.

We made boxcar stew and had bread with cherry dumplings for desert.  Carter was the only one brave enough to try cherry dumplings, which he liked.  Ava declared loudly that she doesn't like squishy fruit and of course they all hated the stew.  Well, at least the bread was a hit!

It was funny discussing the characters in the story.  I asked them "Which character do you think you are most like?"  Carter related to Henry, the oldest boy, Dawson decided he was Benny and Ava felt she was like Jessie because "she takes care of everyone especially baby Andrew."

Bobcat Bonfire

This weekend Carter had his Bobcat Bonfire, a ceremony to welcome him into being a cub scout.

After a potluck, we did the ceremony, in which a parent paints their face to look a little something like this.  Each color has a different symbolic meaning.

Then I pinned on his bobcat badge, upside down, to remind him to keep his cub scout promise to "help other people."  When he does a good turn, without being told, we can turn the badge and sew it on.

Carter was pretty excited to paint my face as well.  He stuck his finger in the paint can as far as he could and got a ton of paint!

Mommy and Carter boy with (some) matching face paint.

Welcome to Cub Scouts!

Five and half!

My little Avaroo is five and a half.  My precious sweet daughter, I just adore you and it has been such a privilege to get to watch you grow up. You have such a kind, tender loving little heart.

Loving on goats 

I love watching your sweet demeanor with animals and younger children.  

You are learning so much at school.  Reading with you has become the highlight of my evening.  You are reading Dick and Jane to me and then we will read something else together like Junie B. Jones or one of the American Girl Stories.  The previous owners of our home had American Girl catalogs delivered to our house.  I've always shied away from giving them to you because really, who has $100 to spend on a doll or $80 to spend on a tent for a doll!?!?! but your Dad gave it to you this time.  Luckily you seem to be really content with reading the books from the library together. 

You love art.  Painting, coloring, drawing on your easel, that's where I typically find you these days.

We are working on shoe tying.  You can do the first step and will hold the loop for me while I demonstrate the rest.

You also like to ride Carter's razor scooter.  It is a little bit of a challenge, balance-wise, but you are working on it.  I was hoping that bike riding without training wheels would click this summer, but you just don't want to do it.  Now that it's October, there is very little time left to practice!

Right now your chores are: keep your bedroom and toy room picked up, hang up your shirts and vacuum under the table after dinner.  Now you want to start a chore chart like Carter so you can earn extra money with extra chores.  Apparently you want a Minnie mouse costume?  I didn't even know you liked her?!?!

Whenever we visit Grandparents I can be sure the weekend will end with you sobbing when we leave.  After we leave you usually cheer up pretty fast, but it is sweet to know that you love and miss your grandparents.

Happy 5.5 Miss Avaroo.

How quickly the years pass

One of my favorite ways to reminisce............

October 2007

October 2008

October 2009

October 2010

October 2011

October 2012

Look at them holding hands!

October 2014

I just realized we have no pumpkin pictures from last year!  We went to a farm in Sidney last year, but there were no pumpkin pictures!  Oh Well.

A day at the Farm

On Monday the kids had a day off from school so we went to a nearby pumpkin farm.  There was so much to do, we were there for over five hours!

Pumpkin Mini Golf!  I was surprised the kids were so dedicated to actually playing the game.  They went to every hole and worked on getting the little pumpkin in the hole.

The Discovery barn is always a favorite.

Ava really enjoys animals, and for whatever reason she has always really liked goats.  She was able to go in the goat pen and hug and love on them.

peddle cars!  Ava got to enjoy a pony ride during this time.

They had a blast in the corn maze.  We spent an hour walking around the maze and finding all the clues.  The adults were exhausted after this excursion, but afterward the kids found neighbor friends on the playground, got a second wind and ran their little hearts off!

Whew.  What a day.  Dawson was so excited to go on the hay ride because it was pulled by a John Deere.  Carter loved running through the hay ride with friends while we all know Ava loved petting the baby goats and playing with all the animals.

At the farm the kids had a blast with the duck races.  There was a hollowed out pipe and they used a pump to race the ducks down the pipes.  They decided to duplicate this at home, so everyone put on bathing suits and got out old car race tracks and jumped in the bath tub for some duck races!

I love adventure days with my kiddos!

Our Fall Camp Out

We have been really wanting to do a camp out this fall, but between FFF, Gymnastics, visiting family, football and birthday parties it has been difficult to find a free weekend.  Then I realized that there was no FFF this weekend, and Ava and Carter had a four day weekend so we could easily go camping Saturday after their morning activities.

Um guys, that's a lot of lovies for one night.

The camp out didn't start off on the right foot.  Everyone was loaded up, everything packed up.....and the van wouldn't start.  We had chosen a campground very close to our house and instead of disappointing the kids we decided to pack up what we could into the jeep and make two trips.  It was only 8 minutes away, so we could realistically make it work in the jeep.

We arrived, unloaded kids and half of the gear.  Mike stayed and put up the tent with the kids while I ran back to the house and got the rest.

While not ideal, it worked and the kids were very happy.  How could you not be?  Look at this beautiful view!  By the way, Mike and I both decided that Canadian Geese are nocturnal.

Carter unloaded his backpack of "gear" and immediately pulled out a book to read.  Nothing better than a fire and a good book!

We took a couple of little hikes and checked out the dock at the campsite.  Very pretty this time of the year!

Dawson was really not sold on the idea of camping, he asked many times to go home.  But he LOVED the fact that I packed pepperoni.  Free range camping parenting kicked in and he made himself some delicacies: sunbutter and pepperoni sandwich, a pepperoni smore (graham cracker and pepperoni) and a hot dog wrapped in pepperoni.  Not too suprising that he had stomach troubles today, huh?

Enjoying

She looks like an adult crossing her legs and drinking (water) out of her coffee cup.

Crazy boy!

The kids were in charge of cooking their dinner.

And Dawson's creation:  the pepperoni hot dog

It always amazes me how comfortable Mike can be in chilly weather.  He has on a short sleeve shirt, vest, shorts and boots.

While I was wearing a headband to keep my ears warm, a scarf, long sleeve thermal, sweatshirt, winter coat and gloves.

My favorite memory of this camp out hands down:  telling not so scary stories around the campfire with the kids.  Ava wanted to tell scary stories, but Carter insisted they couldn't be scary and absolutely no stories about vampires or zombies.  Mike started telling the story of "Memmet" who lived in Lego Town.  Basically he told the story of the Lego Movie while barely changing the names of the characters.  Eventually Dawson got irritated and wanted to tell a scary story, which ended with Carter scooting very close and holding my hand.  I love my sweet little boy with his incredibly imagination and distaste for scary things.  I understand Carter, I don't like scary stories either.

After a very chilly night, we packed up and came home to warm up.  A fun weekend filled with fun family time!