The Bradford Pear leaves have fallen and the day for leaf pickup is quickly approaching so it is time for Leaf Day! Emily was disappointed that she had to go to school and miss out on jumping time. Julia was disappointed that she was under the weather and her friends couldn’t come and help. But despite the runny nose Julia was a big help to Mama while the leaves were raked.

Daddy ran by the house while Julia was playing in the pile and got some lunchtime hugs!

Running and jumping into the pile is fun! She was very intent to try to build the pile back up before jumping back in. Julia declared that it was Jump Day!

When Emily got off the bus after school she ran into the yard, dropped her backpack on the way, and jumped into the pile. There was plenty of jumping time left before the sun went down.

We had lots of grins all day long!

Julia’s other favorite game of the day was to walk up the mountain. She would walk into the pile while pretending that she was hiking up and over the mountain. Mama called her Bilbo Baggins because it seemed somewhat appropriate that a little person was taking such a big adventure over the mountain. That and we are reading the book together and she would know the reference.

We enjoyed a pleasant fall day together with our friends at the pumpkin patch. The day was fantastic. The kids enjoyed playing and being together. For all the fun things to do at the pumpkin patch the kids seemed to enjoy a big green grassy field just as much as any of the the rest of it. This Mama loved being with both her girls and playing, it seemed just right. We enjoyed their slides, animals, climbing hill, corn maze, bouncing pillow, rolling pipe, lunch, riding a wagon, picking pumpkins, and a bit more sliding.

The girls posing for a photo in front of a real pumpkin that was over 1000 lbs. Wow!

The girls worked together to get the very large pipe to move along the track. Natalie was along for the ride and had a blast sliding along. The big girls enjoyed jumping together on the huge bouncing pillow.

The kids were playing in the field and they decided to dance a little. Julia was thrilled to get to dance with a boy. Aiden was a great sport about it.

I can’t imagine a better shirt for Natalie. She shared a lot of smiles with me. Aiden was so excited to get to drive the bike-car. He was awesome at it.

The Mama’s got into the sliding action! Julia would race around to get to slide over and over again.

The kids could have raced each other down the slide, but for the most part they went the second they got to the slide. This time they were close to the same start time. Everyone seems to have their own way to go down.

Thea was a good sport for the day. There isn’t so much for a crawler to do at the pumpkin patch. She soaked up the sun and gave away smiles. In the corn maze we had to find posts with animal prints to make rubbing of. Eventually and with the help of each other we found them all!

Seven kids standing on a pillow, one started to bounce and . . . grins spilled out!

The height photo is the best grins the girls gave me together in one photo. Julia wanted to find a pumpkin that she could pick up. She had to look a long time because they were all pretty big. All six of the bigger kids in the corn maze all spread out. They were really good to stick together this year.

Good friends hanging out by Emily’s pumpkin choice.

Maeve shared smiles too. Natalie found herself a chicken to watch. She was so intent while watching. I wonder what she was thinking?

The last laugh of the day. We tried one more photo of the kids together before leaving and got 4 kids to laugh at the same time. A great finish to a great day.

Our annual fall trip to the pumpkin patch had to be moved once so that we could have a beautiful warm fall day. We enjoyed the sunshine, friends, maze, tractor ride, pumpkin picking, goat feeding, and a picnic. We love this playdate!

There were no photos of all of the kids looking at the camera so I picked one with no one looking at it. Why fight kid-nature.

Aiden enjoying the gravel.

Maeve and Lincoln being sweet together.

Elena having fun among the cornstalks.

Emily bringing in her pumpkin. I wonder if she gets that tongue thing from her Mama?

Emily collected flowers from everywhere we went at the pumpkin patch and made herself a flower bouquet. I think she was pretending that she was a bride and that was her wedding bouquet.

An excited Julia!

Julia kept picking flowers and smelling them and then offering it to Mama to smell too.

Julia was proud of her pumpkin.

Kenzie and Heather picking out a pumpkin together.

Maeve feeding the goat.

Natalie found a rock in the pumpkin patch. She was headed over to meet the goats.

Baby Rose hanging out in the sunshine.

A Cowgirl and her trusty Cow.

Our friend, Sarah, invited us to join her neighborhood & church Harvest Party they have every fall. She has two children just a couple of months younger than both of Emily and Julia. We dressed up in our Halloween costumes for the party. Some years we have had costume issues when we went to put them on, but not this year. They loved them and loved being in them.

At the party there was a scavenger hunt, pumpkin decorating, yummy food, a story, and a pumpkin seed spitting contest. The girls enjoyed running around with the other kids finding the baskets of treats. Emily stuck pretty close to Grace the whole time and Julia wanted to be with Mama. Therefore, Mama saw a lot of Julia and not much of Emily.

Emily had a very serious face and wind blown hair.

We got to practice the word “lollypop” a lot, because it seemed to be Julia’s favorite candy in her basket.

When it was time to decorate the pumpkins they were very serious and content to stick their stickers on the pumpkin. It was fun to watch the serious work. There is so much to learn about kids and how they approach tasks.

The lollypop stick kind of reminded Mama of the toothpick or strand to hay a cowboy might chew on while on the range.

It was surprising that so many kids would sit for a story and be quiet, but they did.

The pumpkin seed spitting contest was funny. Julia didn’t want to try until the third spit. Emily gave it her best try, but she had some bad bounces that brought her seed back to her.

The only sad faces I saw were at the end when it was time to go home with our tummies full of lunch and sweets. We had so much fun in the warm sunshine playing with others. Mama even met some new mamas. Fall is so much fun with nice weather and fun activities.

Julia “moo-ed” for Mama. If you asked her what her costume was she would tell you, “Moo-Cow”. She was very happy to moo anytime you asked her what a cow says. She didn’t keep the cow hat on much, but loved the costume so much she didn’t even take it off for nap when she got home.

We visited the Museum of Appalachia for their annual homecoming. It has been years since Mama has visited the Museum and it was a great day to visit. The weather was another wonderful fall day here in East Tennessee.

We met our friends and explored. We enjoyed the tractor corner, visiting the knitting machine, listening to some of the music, eating curled potato fries, checking out vendor booths, finding old cabins to explore, and enjoying the sunshine. The girls enjoyed playing with Elena, Maeve, and Lincoln. The girls started to wind down as we got close to naptime and we headed home.

Emily helped “Fancy Nancy” run her knitting machine. They were making hats, but it looked like a really long sock. Both girls enjoyed turning the machine crank.

Our normally shy Julia would have stood there all day turning the crank if we hadn’t moved on.

Emily liked the tiny pumpkin.

One really happy Lincoln enjoying his ride.

She looks pretty comfortable up there.

Friends just hanging out and taking in the sights.

A beautiful Fall morning took us to the Knoxville Botanical Gardens for a playdate. It was perfect. The kids had fun exploring and running around with each other. It is tough to get great photos of moving kids, but I got a few. We are looking forward to the next fun Fall playdate.

Hey, look we got all seven kids to look the same direction at the same time . . . kinda.

As a reward we asked them to make silly faces. It seemed to be a hit for the over-two crowd.

A great and hard-to-photograph genuine Emily smile.

Sweet Elena

Grins from the sun-kissed Julia.

An almost smile from McKenzie.

A pixie smile from the pixie Maeve.