Before Winter Invaded Fall

we played baseball outside!

in our PJ's

and picnics in our PJ's

fed the animals

watched the combines harvest

and played hide and seek!

kevin is the worst because he comes and stands by where you are hiding!!

fed Maggie apples and pumpkins

and we saw a Bald Eagle in the field...thats the closest ive ever been to one

and enjoyed beautiful sunsets!

The Cutest Story Time Ever

The weekend before last we were visiting for Grammy's birthday and all 3 boys listened to books read by Great grandma! Like, stood in line with book in hand and listened, no hitting or fighting.
It was the sweetest thing EVER!

Colorado Videos: rides and the road race

Dashtyns race

Chasen and Garins race

the slide

dancing in the streets

Apple Orchards & Pumpkin Farms

we went to lots of places this fall!

we went to Wilson's apple orchard 3 times, once as a family, once with the iowa city mom's blog group and once with friends! Its free and fun! the apple donuts and slushies are our favorite.

we tried to go to other apple orchards and the one we picked to check out was closed/shut down. but ive got 2 on the list for next year!

 

we went to 3 different pumpkin farms.

we did not go to the north liberty one or the bloomsbury farms. both charge a lot for their activities and I found 2 that had free activities, which i think is nice for kids who are younger plus i was more inclined to buy products/produce from the free places! 

I dont think bloomsbury farms is that over priced since they have the haunted hosues but my kids dont like those any way!

we went to Krouls pumpkin farm with our friends and it is free!!

the boys spent most of their time in the mud but they also had a hay maze, corn maze, little cars for them to ride and its decorated really cute!

we bought most of our pumpkins here and they are priced by size not weight..biggest pumpkin was $10!!

 

we all went as a family to Bass family farms it was also free and had a hay rack ride

a sling shot which was really fun...you shot golf balls at pumpkins on posts

2 jumpy houses

and a hay bale maze. we bought one pumpkin here and it was huge and they charge by pound and our pumpkin was $13.

they had free popcorn inside and free coffee...kurig coffee so you could pick your flavor!

 and I also bought some home made soap and barbecue sauce. they had all kids of sauces and dips out with pretzels to taste test!

My mom also took the boys to this farm and they spent 4 hours there!!

both of these pumpkin farms have CSA (community supported agriculture) groups and I think we will join one in the spring!

and on one of Chasen's half days we went to grinnell to Uncle Bill's Pumpkin farm with cousin Nile.

it did cost $7 admission but that included everything! jump pillow, tractor ride, they had tons of animals, a park, trikes to ride, corn bin, a maze, and Im sure other things Im forgetting!

we had a ton of fun!

Im sad that pumpkin farm and apple orchard season are over,but now I know exactly where Im headed next season!! :)

Palisades Park

Ive posted about this park before, but it's our favorite place to go!

we went with Ean a few sundays ago because it was actually warm, just a little misty that day

but an absolutely beautiful spot!

I love this picture of Chasen

the boys found a tee-pee someone built

its right along the river

2 weekends ago we went with my family after Chasen's birthday party

and I dont think we will go back until spring :(

Lily had fun climbing all the rocks.

the leaves were brown and gone, but it was still pretty

Family Birthday

this past weekend we had Chasen's family birthday party!

Nebraska had a by week so we just had hawkeye football to watch and it was a bad one :( 

Lily and Ara each adopted a kitten for the day and played with them in my bed!

alyssa set up a hair station in my bathroom earlier in the morning and fixed everyone's hair!!

my gandma's my mom and my aunt!

the kids also did their fair share of running around and wrestling and chasen tripped up the stairs and hit his shin and foot really hard!! had to take a break to ice it!

there was an afternoon dance party complete with flips

 

we paused the awful game and opened gifts!!

lots of legos, which was great because he only had one and really likes them and can follow the directions and put them together without help!

love  the sun glasses!

and he got lots of books annnd

HE CAN READ THEM!!

i haven't updated on the boys much lately but Chasen can read, he could sound out words before he went to kindergarten but now he can really make it all come together! It's still pretty slow going but he read an entire book at church on sunday!

look at that crew! We have an AWESOME family :)

and Im always so grateful to have them all here. all of chasen's grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, (the uncles couldn't come) great aunts and uncle, cousins and dog uncle, buster!

it's controlled chaos and we love it!

no crazy fancy cake this year..but they were chocolate filled cupcakes with gold frosting for the hawks! ... it didn't help :(

I had bought this for uncle jaxie to ware so the kids could play with him, but grandma took his place!

 such a cute bunch!

the grandmas!

without them Ean and I would never go anywhere alone!

we ate supper and then people started to leave

my mom and dad and alyssa took the kids swimming at the hotel

the rest of us watched football

and kevin got cozy with uncle Dave!

there was also a good 30 minutes worth of dance off's 

chasen was being shy

 

but not dash, he had alllll the moves!

 

the next morning we ate lunch and hiked at palisades park before everyone headed home :(

I still can't believe my baby is 6!!