Fall Festivities

October has been one big pumpkin patch experience. Evie has gone to so many pumpkin patches this year I think she’ll turn into a gourd.

Our area has dozens of fall festivities and "pumpkin extravaganzas" to choose from; this is such a wonderful, fun time of year here in the Pacific Northwest. 

After all, we have to capture the perfect family pumpkin portrait, right?!?

Sadly, probably our best one

It's hard to believe that two years ago I was at this same pumpkin patch, still with all four kids, but things looked very different. 

A lot easier to capture the perfect shot when three of them are 20 weeks...

This year it was extra special to visit the pumpkin spots because my mom was in town for 10 days to join us. 

                                                               We did a variety of activities and enjoyed the gorgeous fall weather.  

Hayride to find the perfect pumpkin

Climbing on park monuments

Grandma love

Grandma and her munchkins

We ventured to several pumpkin patches...

One pumpkin patch was quite interesting and different. It was called the "Wild Side Farm."
 In addition to the piles of pumpkins, there were also Lions and Tigers and Bears...and kangaroos! 

This little "ma and pa farm" is someplace I've read and heard about for the past few years, but I never actually saw it for myself. This year however, I was determined to get there. Located about 20 min from our house down some country road, there was a barely noticeable hand painted wooden sign that read "Wild Side."  We entered the gravel drive and we were greeted by a fenced in area of mules, goats and zebras. 

Yes zebras. 

After we parked and got out of the car, the kids got excited by the cage of kangaroos. 

Farther into the hay stacks and pumpkin vines were cages of panthers, tigers, lions and a grizzly bear. 

The boys were pretty oblivious to the predators that surrounded them.  Evie was a little unsure about the turkey that was freely declaring it's territory around the cages. 
What was a bit unsettling to me though was the lion who was pacing the cage, stalking my sweet little boys. I watched him as he literally licked his chops and lunged at them through the bars. 

The whole experience was very surreal. The couple who owns the place explained that they have a special permit which allows them to take in and care for exotic animals who are illegal kept in Oregon. 
Hmm...so that means there are people who actually think lions from Africa are good house cats?!! 

There is much to ponder on this subject so I'll just stop here and focus on another close wild animal encounter. Ducks. 

The boys love ducks. They quack like ducks, point to ducks and say "duck." SO, One beautiful afternoon we took the kids to George Rogers park by the Willamette River and they fed the ducks. 
This duck feeding experience was pretty intense. Swarms and swarms of ducks started waddling and flapping towards us. 

Evie was very uncomfortable by her decreased personal space. 

James was just plain terrified. 

Caleb ate the duck bread. 

And Levi thought it was the best thing ever.  

So really, the point of this post is just to post some picture of what the family has been up to this fall.

First Starbucks fall drink EVER!

Collecting chestnuts
Collecting chestnuts. Yes, the kind that roast on an open fire. They actually have pretty intense spikes! Ouch! 

Caleb in the tube

Both look a little uncertain

Letting them run wild at New Seasons. Watch out!

My girl and me on a perfect fall day. 

Roaming the beach

Just hanging out

Lunch with Grandma before boarding her flight back to Chicago

The Tualatin Fall festival

carving the pumpkin

...and painting it too.

Evie's trip to dentist to get her teeth cleaned. 

Evie's preschool class trip to Ryser's pumpkin patch

Levi joined in the fun too....

Evie's cute little preschool class.

Meow. Happy Halloween!

Pieces of me

There are pieces of me all over the house...  Or there are pieces from me missing all over the house…..small objects scattered about, evidence that some curious little people  have gotten into my things. They somehow manage to weasel their way into my little nooks and drawers and proudly carry away plunder. There are random parts and objects all over the place. Scattered...hidden...found only when I'm not looking for them. 

Yes, I do get frustrated when I finally settle down to paint my finger nails after a long day and find that my favorite color is missing from my cabinet. I know it is in the house somewhere;  it will turn up perhaps months from now. 
Then there are my red, high heeled shoes that really exist for nothing except for the joy Evie gets in stealing them and wearing them around the house. The most recent thing to go missing was a glass, vintage door knob from a bedroom drawer. After two weeks it turned up  under my bed while I was searching for my lost nail polish…

Yes, my house can be characterized as being in pieces, pieces of life scattered all around. Pieces of me. 

Speaking of pieces of me, our little Evie is thriving at preschool. 

Ready for show and tell with Curious George

The amount of artwork she brings home sometimes is a little overwhelming. 

I’ve hung a rope in my family room to display it all (thank you Pintrest) but even then we still sometimes run out of room. 

She's really into drawing rainbows and sunshine. She asked me one time the order of colors of a rainbow, and now she draws them constantly.  

One day when I picked her up from school the teacher said she’d been working on a special picture.  It was a picture of our family. Her attention to detail was remarkable. I had green eyes; John had a beard. She even drew the three brothers in the stroller. And she included herself, dressed up beautifully in a rainbow dress and shoes. 

I framed this and hung it on the wall.
The reflection from the glass makes it hard to see, but the brothers are between her and me. 

No one taught her how to draw people; she just picked it up. It’s remarkable to see her view of the world; her ability to make sense of everything and put it on to paper seems to evolve naturally and its fascinating to watch. I'm glad her view of the world includes lots of rainbows and sunshine.

I told John it would be funny if she ended up getting into art. There is music talent, athletic talent and brains all mixed up in the Patton-Mrumlinski DNA...art really isn't something on our radar. 

I've been trying to expose her to a variety of activities lately. I've taken her to friend's soccer games. We went to a play. I've played classical music and had her  attend dance performances. I've tried to cultivate an appreciation for literature. 

However, she seems to really like being creative through coloring, creating and drawing. She could teach me a lot. I draw people the same way I drew them in 3rd grade. 

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And finally, in other big news, Caleb got his first haircut. It was time…way past time. 

His curly red locks seemed to have a mind of their own and they needed desperately to be tamed. 
 Caleb can get very emotional and the success of an outing or an activity is really based upon his mood. The morning I decided to get his haircut was a morning when he was a bit on the dramatic side. He’s obsessed with Elmo right now, and he delights in wearing his Elmo pajamas. When he has an emotional day, parting from them only escalates things. So, this being one of those days, I allowed him to wear his Elmo pajama pants to the hair place. 

Ready to tame the mane.

This place caters to kids; it's definitely a little much, but they get to sit in a car of their choice, watch a movie and hold a special toy. Caleb didn’t really know what to make of the whole experience, but he seemed content to have his locks fall to the ground. 

I did save a piece of his red hair. Another piece of something to add to the pieces of our life. 

Lookin good with his new do