Apple Orchard

Last Friday, Grandma, Aunt Sarah, the boys and I headed over to McQueen's apple orchard to pick apples and get some yummy doughnuts. The boys had fun throwing apples while the girls picked apples and put them in the bag. I will say that unlike the blueberry picking, there was no issue with consumption while on the job with apple picking. After filling our bag we headed inside to sample some doughnuts. There were some distractions thanks to Nick that made me not think to take any pictures of the yummy snack, but trust me, they were pretty tasty!

So Cuddley!

This time with Aunt Sarah

So Cute

I just love brotherly snuggles!

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Two Saturdays ago, when Grandma came to visit, was also her birthday. The boys picked out a cake and cards for her when she got to our house. It was a little late, but we all got to enjoy some yummy cake to celebrate!

Fish Feeding at Granite City

After running some errands two weeks ago, we went to Granite City brewery for lunch/dinner. The boys were pretty good during dinner, so we let them feed the fish afterwards. Unfortunately the water is very dirty so it is hard to see the fish, but there were definitely a lot of them and when that food hit the water, they swarmed!  

A Beautiful Sunrise

One morning a few weeks ago, there was a beautiful sunrise as we were leaving the house. Ben requested pictures of it. He talked about it the whole way to school and how it was changing as we got closer to school (the sun was higher in the sky). 

Front Yard Play - Engineer Style

The boys, engineering their wagon/tricycle mobile command center. Ben had a wagon, a tricycle and two bungee cords. He devised a system to hook the wagon to the tricycle and pull the wagon. I didn't get a picture/video of it, but when one of the other kids was having trouble peddling the trike to pull the wagon so Ben went over to have a look-see. He first observed and corrected the wagon wheels. He straightened them so they they were in the correct forward motion position. He then adjust the bungee's a bit so they were level between the trike and wagon. He then told Nick to move to the back seat, further away from the trike because he couldn't pull him if he were in the front seat. He then hopped on the trike and away he want, no problem, pulling his brother in the wagon. I was very impressed by the wheel assessment/straightening and the weight distribution logic.  

Two forces of equal and opposite magnitude...can't end well. 

First Football Game

We took the boys to the UT home opener football game. It was their first live-action football game. I got us seats 3 rows up from the field in hopes it would hold their attention better. We started off with a few tailgates, including the UT Alumni pavilion for hot dogs and then catching up with Cameryn and a big gang. 

We stayed for the first half. The boys did great. they were slightly more interested in Rocky and Rocksy the mascots, but they did watch the football game. Nick sat in my lap and Ben stayed close to Adam. I took Nick down to the wall at the field for a bit so he could see from a different angle and give Rocky the Rocket a high five. Ben was pretty upset when we left before the game was over, but they were so tired, they were asleep before we left the parking lot!

Nick got a little toy football at the Alumni pavilion and he was not seen without it the rest of the evening. He was throwing it to people and running with it. He could not be separated from his football!

Go Rockets!

An Evening By the Fire

A beautiful fall evening by the fire. Nick displayed some of this amazing acrobatics in this attempt to get into the gravity chair while in a recline position. 

Obviously, we are all sitting in the chairs wrong and Nick is doing it right. 

Don't ask questions when someday you see my children sans eyebrows. 

Some Morning Play Time

A little morning play time including an elaborate fort/bridge/car launcher thing. 

A view of the toy room. Do you see any carpet?? Yeah, neither did I until I spent 4 hours cleaning.