His and Hers Fall Fun

Well, this season of fun, fall festivities has turned out to be a little less "family fun" and a little more "date with Mommy" than I anticipated.  But they both have had a turn to do something festive, so I guess that's what really matters.

A few weeks ago some friends and I took our little two-year-old girls to Zoo Boo.  The three of them were born within 7 weeks of each other and have been in the same class at church their whole lives (and the mommies were friends long before they were born), so it was a very fun group.  But the morning did tug at my heart strings a bit, because I didn't get to take Sam.  I took his for the first time when he was two, with one of his life-long buddies, a tradition we repeated three years in a row.  But this year they're both in school 5 days a week.  And ALL the mommies were in agreement that Zoo Boo isn't quite enough fun to justify the Saturday crowds.  I did my best to side-step Sam's questions about our plans for the day, and I'm proud that I DID NOT lie about anything.  But really, he is handling like the champ the fact that Annabelle and I lead a life while he is at school.  He doesn't complain when we do fun things, which I think is a sign that he enjoys his time at school. 

Anywho...  Annabelle and I did have a lovely morning with friends.  She gets the concept of Trick-or-Treating and thinks any and all animals are cute, regardless of how gross they actually are.  "Awww!"  And unlike her brother, who at that age was still putting one swipe of crayon on a sheet of paper and declaring it "all done," this girl had to be pried away from the "paint a tiny pumpkin" station. 

We had some "family homework" sent home from the elementary school...decorate a pumpkin to look like a character from a book you've read from the school library.  Two things: 1. I'm not really going to let my 2 year old help with this "family homework" and 2. My options are SO LIMITED when my 5 year old has literally only checked out Star Wars books so far from the school library.  But, I think the few hours that Mommy, Daddy and Sam put into our R2D2 pumpkin produced excellent results. 

This past weekend was supposed to be a full day of family fun, but when Annabelle woke up with dried vomit all over her bed, our plans changed a bit (poor girl, she'd never thrown up before and didn't know what had happened.  It happened once more shortly after she woke up and she told us "my mouth spilled").  Family Fun Outing to the Horse Farm/Pumpkin Patch turned into a Mommy/Sam date.  Again, my heart was sad because I know Annabelle would have loved all of the animals.  Sam thought it was ok, but next year he'll probably have more fun at the over-commercialized Dewberry Farm.  Ugh, I miss this Midwest in October!

This picture is from the "haunted trail."  He was all smiles until some woman in a funny breathing mask wouldn't get the clue that he was too scared and she needed to back off.  I turned my crying child around and left the way we came in.  Fortunately we were able to trade in Annabelle's groupon-purchased admission prices for a few large pumpkins - which I lugged by myself back to the car.  My arms were shaking when we got there - guess I need to do some weight training.

That night I stayed home with the by-then-probably-fine-but-still-in-the-24-hour-window "sick" child while Sam and Chris headed to a Halloween party.  I consoled the left out girl with the promise of a Princess Movie and Toenail Polish, and a dinner of toast and apple sauce.  She accepted.

NOW we did make it to ONE fall event as a family: The Neighborhood Fall Festival.  We took a hay ride, played on the playground, ate some cookies, chatted/ran wild with friends and Annabelle received her requested Rainbow Butterfly.  Which was a smeared mess by the time bath time rolled around that night.  Here's hoping we can all make it out together on Friday night, too!