Weekend in Chicago

We took Columbus Day weekend and headed to Aunt Sandy's for some quality family time. 

We woke up to the Chicago Marathon right under us!

Aunt Sandy's confetti pancakes! They are a Chicago weekend standard!

 We surprised the kids with tickets to the broadway production of Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. We found an awesome Korean grill to eat at before hand. It will definitely be visited again!

I have never heard so many candy wrappers at a theatre before! The theme of the story had everyone thinking candy! 

Our poor little buddy didn't quite make it to the end, but came so close! I whispered to him "Grant, all the kids are gone, it's only Charlie left. He gets the entire factory!" He responded with "Mom, I'm sleeping!" 

We also took some time to go to the Museum of Science and Industry (MSI). It is our favorite and it is our 3rd time there in the last year and we still haven't made it to the top floor! The weather wasn't great, but we had such a good time. And because I forgot that somebody doesn't get Columbus Day off, we were on the road bright and early Monday morning!

A new passion

Elizabeth decided to try a few new things this fall. So swimming went to the back burner and she is trying piano lessons and horse back riding. The piano lessons took a little while to take, but now that she has learned ten notes and is reading music I think she is really enjoying it. However, the piano pales in comparison to her new found love of horses.

So many other friends to love at the stable...the donkey, the pony Daisy, the cats :)

Once again a sport I know nothing about. There is Western and English style riding. When I explained them to Elizabeth she choose Western style, much to my surprise. I can't get this girl to wear a plaid shirt! At any rate, barrels it is! In preparation for her first horse show (that never happened for her because it was post-poned to the weekend we were in Georgia - insert drama) she had to learn the barrel pattern and attempt to do them for a time. Unfortunately, the barrels were pretty rough on the poor Elizabeth's legs. In spite of it all, she can't get enough of the horses!

Fall school Pictures

Here we have K, 1st & 2nd! We have to make sure to have a new color collared shirt for next year! More hair and more teeth this year!

Now Elizabeth is a bit miffed that her hair wasn't fixed just right and the clasp of her necklace is hanging to the side. Especially when the photographer spent 10 minutes with a BOY in her class, fixing his hair just right and even handing him a comb. The injustice of it all! (This is why we only spend $10 on school pictures)

Homecoming

We didn't make it to the game, but of course we took in the parade!

Fall Soccer

Grant still loves soccer. He had another great season with Coach Young! A few action shots.

Pumpkins & Archery

The pumpkin patch at the farm is one of Ima's projects and each year it gets better and bigger!! No doubt this was the best harvest yet, but just wait until next year. I think she has even bigger plans! It is important to us that the kids are involved in the pumpkin patch and the work that comes with it. Unfortunately the pumpkins were so big that the kids couldn't lift them. So Ima and I were left with a lot of the heavy lifting and let's be honest, we all know my mom is stronger than me!! But check out our haul! 

We had the kids in the back of the pick up rolling the pumpkins to the back. I thought this was a pretty cush job until I had to get in and do it and appreciated their little bodies crawling around back there rolling the pumpkins!

And we wrapped up with a little archery practice. These are the moments that I step outside of my mind and think "is this really my family?" Yes, yes it is! Our survival skills are really getting good! I am still in charge of keeping everything organized :)

He has since upgraded his tripod - all thought you must appreciate the ingenuity 

Tomatoes and more tomatoes

There reaches a point in the gardening season where one takes the tree shears and hacks the tomato plants at the bottom - because I could not "put up" any more tomatoes!! For the first time I canned this year - tomato sauce mainly and a few salsas (because I got bored with the sauce). It takes so much time and seems never ending. However, the final product is amazing and I fear my family may become tomato sauce snobs. One night I made fresh pasta and we had garden sauce with it and we were all pretty much in a food coma. Now that I know the result is good and worth it, perhaps I will be more anxious about the bushels of tomatoes next year!