Lake House

My family and I were fortunate enough to be invited to a friend's lake house this weekend, and we had the most wonderfully relaxing time!  We spent all day on the lake exploring all different modes of water transportation (kayak, paddle boat, tubes, floaties, jet ski), we collected snails, explored shores, observed nature and just plain had fun.  It was an ideal, inexpensive family vacation.  We were joined by 3 other families and my brother who is home from Italy for the summer, which made the whole experience that much more fun!  Enjoy some pictures below :)

Pumpkin Patch

 

Halloween is probably the one holiday that I spend the least time preparing for.  I love carved pumpkins but don't like the work.  I like crafting, but for some reason making costumes isn't my cup of tea.  And I don't typically decorate the house because I don't want to scare the kids, and most Halloween decorations are a little scary!  I've been really busy this month preparing for the benefit walk/run we're putting together in our neighborhood, and in typical fashion I have spent almost no time prepping for Saturday.  However, today we got in the spirit!

This morning I took the kids to the local orchard/pumpkin patch.  I dressed them in matching outfits and planned to get some good shots of them (I can't miss the chance, you know!?).

We first looked through the old barn turned market and picked out some decorations for the house.  Eli checked out the antique cider press and was thoroughly intrigued by all the gears.

After choosing some mini pumpkins, dried corn, and a few treats (hot apple cider and home made apple dumplings... mmmm) we headed outside.

  They don't run the tractors to the field to pick your own pumpkin during the week, so instead we settled for checking out the large array of pumpkins they had outside the barn.  The kids had a blast walking through the "maze" of pumpkins and sitting on the "roller-coaster" of rocks.

 

We took home our prizes and spent some time painting them with washable paints.  I'll have to be sure to keep these on the porch in case there's rain before Saturday!  

We still had a little time before Eli had to hop on the bus, so we fashioned a large spider web out of white acryllic yarn and a spider to climb on it from black trash bags.  The kids think our spider looks a lot like a black octopus, but I don't think he's so bad :)

Morning with Mommy

The other day I found myself with an entire 3 hours with just my 5 year old.  His sister was in preschool and his cousin was at home sick.  As tempting as it was to fill that time with all the things I can't do when I have a 3 kids running around, I decided instead to spend that time just focusing on this little boy who is growing up way too quick.  After grocery shopping and picking out a special picnic lunch we headed to the local town park.  We played on the playground and had an impromptu photo shoot guided by Eli.

Next headed out on some trails and found a large field full of wildflowers with some paths mowed through.  The day was hot but beautifully sunny.  We walked around in the "labyrinth" (as Eli called it) for a good long time and I introduced Eli to how to take pictures with my camera (he took the one of me).  Eli wanted to take a picture of every flower we saw. 

 

I am so glad I took the chance to spend some time with my guy - this time is fleeting.... he's at a crossroads in life and is off and running to become a man right before my eyes.

 

 

Looming

The view as the storm came in yesterday. It was intense!