Some Fall-ish Things

It's hard to believe we're approaching mid-October already (especially since it's felt like summer this week with temperatures inching towards 90 degrees). But, here we are, surrounded by lovely Fall leaves, pumpkins, and Halloween decorations. I'm excited for the Holiday season with an almost-three-year-old. Most days he asks me "Is it Halloween today?" Some days he asks me "Is it my birthday today?" and occasionally I even get "Is it Christmas today?"... I've been trying to explain days, weeks, and months to him, showing him calendars etc. but I guess it's a concept he just can't wrap his mind around yet. The funny thing is, he seems really into Halloween, and at first he was all about picking a costume (first it was astronaut, then pink star, then green dinosaur, pink dinosaur, skeleton...) Then all of a sudden, he informed me he would not be wearing a costume, would not be going trick or treating, and did not want any candy (???) He's apparently very opinionated (trying to put him in new and unfamiliar clothes is almost impossible) and also very stubborn, so we'll see how this Halloween thing plays out :)

In other news, one of our cars broke down beyond reasonable repair (it was old and wearing out anyway) so we've had to scramble around to find a replacement. The entire process has taken a couple of weeks (hopefully we'll be able to pick up our car today) but Owen and I have been home bound since Dave takes our functioning car to work. He's on an extra busy rotation this month (amazingly enough, today the OR is scheduled for surgeries until probably midnight, then he'll be expected back at the hospital 5am sharp the next morning... today is an especially bad day) but that has left Owen and I to our own devices. For the most part it hasn't been too bad, since we've also both been sick for most of the time, but it is taking it's toll. Both Owen and I seem to lose patience with each other a little quicker :) His favorite line (when I'm trying to tell him something he doesn't want to hear) is "don't talk about me" or "don't think about the words I'm saying". Makes me laugh, even though it is rather sassy. Hopefully we will finally be the proud owners of a 2003 Mazda protege by the end of the day though! Owen and I have big plans for when we have our freedom back!

Dave had Saturday off, so we got to spend some family time together away from our house (!!!) We went geocaching with some friends, then to a nearby dairy farm with lots of fun activities for kids, and, of course, a pumpkin patch. Also, they sell extremely delicious ice cream (and probably extremely delicious cheese, but we didn't try any that day)

Here is Owen sitting on an apparently real, giant pumpkin.

There was this little train made up of barrels on wheels, pulled by a golf cart. The very last "car" was made to look like this airplane. Of course Owen loved it, and cried when his turn was over.

Cool pumpkins and gourds. I especially liked these green goose-y looking ones.
Feeding goats. Owen very carefully fed them one little piece at a time. It took forever, but we got our moneys worth out of that dime, I guess.

I just liked how this little guy was lounging.

heading out to the patch. I thought it was cool that they provided wagons.

We had to cut ours off the vine, I kind of liked that better than the pre-cut thing.

Wagon ride back to the farm.