Pumpkin Patch

I know it is January, but I am trying to catch up on the blog and I know some grandmothers that would probably enjoy seeing some of these pictures that I never got posted. Back in October we took the kids to a pumpkin patch - well actually that is putting it lightly. It is more like a pumpkin amusement park as one of my friends called it. I actually used to take my pre-k kids there on field trips, so that was neat being able to take my own kids there. They have added a lot since the last time I had been. The weather was really nice, so that is why Maddie and Davis are in shorts in October. Kallie actually got a little sunburned on her face from this trip. Whoops! Yes, I just admitted this on the internet. Anyway, here are some pictures from our fun day!

Th sign as you come in. Davis fell asleep on the way there, so he is still waking up.


Playing with some stuff in the general store. Didn't get anything. The cost of admission was enough.

Matt and Davis on the hayride.

Maddie styling in her sunglasses on the hayride.

I carried Kallie around in the Snugli. Can't remember what Davis did to his head. Fell and hit it somehow before we went.

Looking for our pumpkins (everyone got to pick one out - it was included in our admission).

Photo shoot in the pumpking patch.

It was bright, so we gave them their shades. Kallie was a little over a month at the time.

Davis was tired of looking up at the sun - should have had them face another way I guess. Oh well.

Matt, Maddie and Davis in the haywagon before we headed back from picking out our pumpkin. You get to take a hay ride to the pumpkin patch and then back to the main part of the "farm".

This is a "hay jump". There were bales of hay and then just piles of hay in this building that you could jump on or jump off of the bales.

Really long slide. You slid down on burlap sacks. This was the kids' favorite thing by far! They went down many times.

Can you tell Davis had fun?

Maddie even got to go down by herself. I got a video of it, but you can't really see anything, you just hear her laughing. I'll post it later if I can find it.

We couldn't pass up riding the train. We rode on the caboose here since Pullen Park's train doesn't really have a caboose.

Kallie on her first train ride.

This is one of my favorite pictures. Yes - they are sticking their heads out of the train while it is moving.

This is a corn box. There is a ton of corn in this little gazebo type building with shovels, and buckets and all kinds of toys to use to play in it. Davis was a little hesitant at first, but you can tell he warmed up to it. He had a hard time walking around in it at first.

Maddie loved scooping the corn and dumping it in the bucket. She seemed more comfortable with this than she sometimes is with sand.

Matt went in and covered the kids in corn. Here is Maddie being buried. She doesn't mind it a bit!

Davis's turn!

And of course Daddy had to have a turn! Davis throwing the corn to cover up Daddy.

Maddie preferred the bucket.

A shot of the whole farm from the top of the slide.

Posing in front of a wagon of decorations. They really do love each other!

We had a fun filled day at the pumpkin patch! Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

How do you eat an ice cream cone?

We took the kids to the mall a couple of weeks ago to get their pictures taken and had lunch at Chickfila. Maddie traded in the toy for ice cream and there was a special treat - the lady gave her sprinkles on her ice cream!! I wish you could have seen her face when she turned around to tell me. She was so excited!! Thought you would enjoy seeing some pictures of the kids eating the ice cream - I had fun taking the pictures. The funny thing is Maddie loves the ice cream and Davis loves the cone :)

Baby Kallie is Dedicated to the Lord

On September 27th we had Kallie dedicated at Providence during the 11 o'clock service. Grandma Ruth, Grandpa Russ, Gaga and Apple (Matt's mom and stepdad), Mimi and Poppa (Amy's mom and dad), and Great Uncle Russ (Matt's uncle) and his wife Eileen were able to come! After the service we went to lunch at Golden Corral.
As you can see there were a lot of babies dedicated - and even more at the 9:30 service. If you look closely you can see Kevin holding the microphone up to Matt where he is telling everyone our names and Kallie's. Kallie was also given a Children's First Bible. We use the one Davis was given last year to do family devotions every morning at breakfast.

Pictures in the sanctuary after the service. Notice the matching dresses - so fun!

Gaga with her 3 grandchildren.

Maddie and Davis enjoyed singing into the microphone stands. Do you think they are pretending to be Troy and Gabriella?

Kallie with Great Uncle Russ and Great Aunt Eileen - so glad you guys stayed for the dedication!

Everyone enjoying lunch - silly Maddie!

4 generations

3 generations

Our family of 5. Maddie did pretty good holding Kallie - probably made the grandmothers a little nervous :)

AWANA

Maddie is in the Cubbie program of AWANA at our church this year and she loves it! Matt is over the AWANA program, so she has heard about AWANAs for the past year and was very excited when she was able to go. It is a great program where the kids hear Bible stories, sing songs and work on bible verse memorization. The second week was Parent's week so I was able to stay and see what Maddie gets to do each week. Mom kept Kallie and Davis went to Son Station (child care at the church). The kids go into their class and have an opening activity - the week I was in there they decorated a popsicle stick with their name on it with stickers and crayons. They then move to another room where they say the pledge of allegiance and the AWANA pledge, sing songs, and listen to a Bible story. After storytime they go to Game Time. The picture below is of Maddie doing a game at game time - they had a crawling race. Maddie did not seem to realize they were racing as she was not going very fast and was kind of weaving back and forth instead of going in a straight line.

After Game Time they went back to their room and went individually to their teachers to tell them the verse that they had learned for the week. Then the teachers presented the kids their Cubbie vest and Cubbie book that they will work on for the year. Here is Maddie getting her vest and book from Ms. Cheryl.

With her vest on and holding her Cubbie book! I did not realize how proud she was of the vest until we got home when....

she asked if she could sleep in her Cubbie vest. She is not asleep in the picture above yet, but she did sleep in it and wore it over her clothes for the next 3 days - to the mall, the grocery store, around the house... She was very proud and I was excited for her and excited that she is liking Cubbies so much. She asks every day when she is going to AWANA! I will tell you more about the program throughout the year as I learn more myself. The main thing is they learn a new verse each week and about every other week will be earning patches to go on their vest.

First NC State Game

After Safety Day we met our friends, Mike and Melissa from Granite Falls (Dudley) for lunch at Jason's Deli and then they came back to our place. They were in town for the NCSU v. Garner Webb football game and came by to meet Kallie and hang out with Maddie and Davis and us for a little while. We rode with them to the football game and Kallie went to her first NC State football game at 9 days old!! Mimi and Poppa watched Maddie and Davis. I did not get any pictures of Melissa and Mike with Maddie and Davis before they went down for their nap, but I did get a couple of them with Kallie.

Melissa holding Kallie.
Mommy and Kallie ready for the game - notice Kallie's block "S" on her little outfit and matching socks! Maddie got this outfit as a gift when she was born, but she wasn't able to wear it to a game since she was born in December.

Mike and Melissa with Kallie in the parking lot of Carter Finnley before we went into the stadium.

Mommy and Kallie in our seats. Kallie slept through most of the game. We even had some man take our picture on his phone because he thought she was the youngest baby that had ever been to a game. It was a good game - we won by a lot (can't remember the score).

Safety Day

On Saturday, September 19th we took the kids to Safety Day at Leesville High School. Mimi and Poppa came along as well! There were all kinds of safety vehicles, booths, and demonstrations as well as games and inflatables. It was all free as well as popcorn, hot dogs, snow cones, and drinks. Maddie and Davis were not very interested in the vehicles, but enjoyed the inflatables as well as a puppet show, a couple of games, and Maddie even got her face painted. There was a State game that day, so we all had on our red. Here are a few pictures of our outing.

Petting the fire dog - of course Davis always finds the dogs!

Coming down the inflatable slide. They both were able to climb up and slide down several times all by themselves.

Jumping in the bouncy castle - an action shot!

Closest either one of them got to the safety vehicles and if you look closely Davis does not look too thrilled about it. Poppa had put him on the back of the truck so that he could put his shoes on after one of the inflatables and we snapped a quick picture.

Mimi and Poppa with Baby Kallie in the stroller. She slept through Safety Day. Mimi and Poppa enjoyed picking up a few free things like boxes to pack for Operation Christmas Child. There was a Chickfila tent that was doing a drawing for a pop-up cooler and several coupons and Mimi won!

Davis playing a game where he threw a ball and knocked down some cans that were stacked. Of course he loved it since he was encouraged to throw a ball and knock something down!

Family in red minus Kallie. She had on some State gear as well, but we did not get a picture of all 5 of us! Enjoying a snack of water and popcorn.

The puppet show put on by a church plant that meets in Leesville High school.

Maddie getting her face painted by one of the volunteers from the church plant. We were impressed by how many volunteers there were from the church plant.

Posing on a four wheeler