Pumpkin Patch

Saturday we went to a local pumpkin patch at Bobrook Farms.  Not only was it the girls' first pumpkin patch but it was a first for Kevin and me as well.  We went early, as soon as it opened, because of the girls' nap schedule and I am so glad we did.  Most of the time there was only two other families there which made it nice because there was plenty of room for the girls to explore without getting overwhelmed by crowds.   Before we left, bus loads of kids started coming in from church groups and more families appeared so I'm glad we had a chance to have a more relaxed and quiet experience.

 

Look how big they are getting.  Two and a half feet tall!  T's shirt says, "Give me candy or owl scare you" and D's says, "I'm bootiful" with a ghost on it.  They make such adorable Halloween shirts these days. 

 

The girls had a good time wandering around the pumpkin patch.  They got pretty dirty too, which I would have expected if I had really thought about it.  I mean, it is a farm--not one of those lot pumpkin patches in the city where the pumpkins are trucked in and displayed.  I had to do a load of laundry yesterday for all of our clothes and spent the beginning of nap time wiping mud and straw off shoes and boots. 

The girls enjoy their pumpkins.  We picked out two small ones and brought them home.   T likes them but D absolutely loves them.  D gives them hugs and kisses and cries when she has to leave them.  She picks them up and carrying them around the playroom one at a time and sets them on the couch.  They are pretty heavy too, about 3 lbs; so she is getting quite a workout. 

They liked the big pumpkins too but we already had one at home from the farmer's market.  So we left all the big pumpkins at the pumpkin patch.  Ours is sitting out on the stairs in front of the house and the girls can see it from their playroom window.  They say bye to it as we back out the driveway when we head somewhere.  It is adorable. 

 

Momma with her little pumpkins and a nice big pumpkin. 

 

The drought this year killed the corn maze but there was still a sunflower maze.  It was beautiful.  The girls got to watch the honey bees collecting pollen.  It is their first time seeing a real live bee.  When we read about bees in their books, I always do the buzzing noise and then 'sting' them (tickle them).  So its nice for them to be able to associate it with something real, although they will be shocked the first time they are actually stung . . . it's not a fun tickle, that's for sure. 

 

 

Dadda and his girls surrounded by a field of sunflowers.

 

We also got to play in a corn pit and go on a hayride.  The girls were really unsteady in the corn pit, so they mostly just stood in place and picked up handfuls of corn and then eventually fell on their bottoms.  The hayride was a nice ride past the berry bushes that we picked blueberries from this May, and more pumpkins and fields and farm equipment and scarecrows.

 

We had a great morning at the pumpkin patch.  It'll be a lot of fun next year, when they can run around more. 

 

 

Fall Knitting Projects

I have been knitting when I can and have gotten a few projects done over the past few weeks.  The girls are slowly learning not to grab at Momma's yarn and needles so I can get some knitting done while I watch them which is helpful.  Some are gifts, others are for the girls and hopefully soon I'll get to knit something for me. 

 

 

I knitted three basic wash cloths out of cotton yarn for my cousin who just had a baby girl.  I got two and a half washcloths out of one ball of yarn.  I just loved the colors on it for a baby girl: Peaches and Cream Azalea.  I finished the incomplete washcloth with a yellow, green, white of the same brand of yarn.  Wrap them in each other like a rose petals and the odd color washcloth becomes a leaf.  A friend had knitted a few of them for my girls last year and they are great for bath time.

 

 

My nephew turns TWO the day after tomorrow.  Hard to believe it; he's such a big boy.  Since his birthday is in October, I wanted to knit him something he could use for Halloween.  I got the pattern from Jean Adel's book of Knitted Critters.  Some of them are so adorable.  But the sizing seems too small.  It is supposed to be for a three year old and yet it fits the girls just fine.  So I hope Holden will be able to get some use out of it before he gets too big. 

 

I did alter the mittens.  In the pattern the mittens have ears and a stripe which I thought looked silly.  Instead I knitted up a plain mitten and I glued felt paws on with a glue gun.  It turned out adorable.  We'll see if he'll actually wear them though.  You never know how much they will cooperate.

 

 

 

For my mother's birthday, I knitted her a scarf out of a lace weight mohair/ silk blend yarn.  It turned out beautiful and is such a nice deep purple color.  I love how this yarn looks but it is such a pain to work with.  Beautiful but so frustrating.  I have a couple more balls in a deep red that I want to knit up for me, but I need a break from it for awhile.





 

Colder days are here and my babies need protection from the chill.  So I set to work on these basic roll brim hats to keep their noggins warm.  I used Lion Brand's Amazing yarn which is really pretty with its changing colors. 

 



 

I ran out of the ball of yarn I was using called Pink Sand so I switched over to Vineyard to finish off the hat that Tess is modelling.  It looks a little odd but still nice so I'm leaving it.  

 

 

And then there are pumpkin and acorn squash seeds.  I did not knit them, or eat them while knitting since the oil would make a mess, but I did bake them and enjoy them so much. Thought I'd throw them in here.

 

Happy fall and happy crafting!

October is Here

Even with the slightly cooler days of September, it really doesn't feel like fall until October.   That's really when you start to notice that some trees are starting to change their leaves.  I can see one of our oak trees out the bedroom window and one branch has begun to change.  It makes me smile every time I glance out an see it. 

We have had some cooler days.  The girls and I have been wearing socks in the house during the mornings and evenings.  And I've started drinking tea in the mornings again.  I miss tea during the long hot summer months when it is too warm outside to enjoy it. 

October 1st is also when I allow myself to put up fall decorations, although I cheated this year.  I saw that the neighbors across the street had put up their decorations the last Saturday of September and since Kevin was home to keep an eye on the girls, I followed suit.

I'm excited to take the girls to their first pumpkin patch in a couple weeks.