Leaves Falling, Time Flying

Is it me or did Fall just fly right by without even stopping to say Hi, how are you?

Maybe its because the day after Halloween, the grocery store was playing Christmas music, every retail store was decorated in green and red, Santa Clause was already at the Mall asking kids what they want for Christmas, and I'm drinking from a red Starbucks cup already.  Seriously, what happen to a little known holiday called Thanksgiving?  Fall and Thanksgiving are my favorite - absolute favorite and because I am already surrounded by everything Christmas, I'm having heart palpitations just thinking of everything associated with that holiday - Christmas!  Maybe its just me, but the Christmas thing needs to hold off until AFTER Turkey day!  Time is flying that's for sure - I chalk it up to our fantastic schedule we currently live - and because of the lack of time we totally didn't make it to the pumpkin patch before Halloween.  So we had no pumpkins to carve this year, but it actually turned out to be a blessing.  We weren't even home to light up our pumpkins on Halloween night, if we had had some, and the pumpkin patches, after Halloween, are EMPTY!  You can actually enjoy the entire farm and not have to wait in one line or fight crowds!  It was pretty great.  This year we switched it up and went to Anderson Farms in Erie...

 It was a beautiful day at the Farm and we got to do so much fun stuff.  We raced around in pedal carts...

 Ashtyn did really well - faster then I could go!

 Eli couldn't get the hang of it, so he jumped into Matt's cart...

 Ashtyn fell in love with the baby goats.  She literally stayed there half the time and just petted them...She is such a farm girl at heart.

 Eli rode the train...

 ...and then we took a ride on a "Redneck Roller Coaster"  Basically its a farmer on a tractor pulling you in a wagon, as fast as a tractor can go over bumps!  Matt and I had back aches for a week...

Good way to see the farm though...

 The kids took a couple more rides in the barrel train...

 Then hopped on some ponies...

 Then we took a wagon ride around the farm and through the pumpkin patch...

It was beautiful!

 Then we ran around the corn mazes...that was the best part!

 Eli loved playing in this gold mine - because of course it involved water!

We completely missed the pumpkin patch before Halloween this year, but this may become a new tradition of just going on the last day of the season!  Don't let my secret out though!

I always love when we find some time as a family and escape for a couple hours to have some fun.  It doesn't happen as often as I would like, but when it does its so sweet!

That day was the little piece of Fall that I so badly needed before the Christmas season takes over!

I hope I can survive and not be a Scrooge this year...but I'm going to stuff my face with turkey first before anything Christmas related happens!  Gotta' celebrate being Thankful first!

Trick-or-Treat

This year to celebrate Halloween we went to Boo at the Zoo! 

I highly recommend this to anyone - even if you don't have kids!  Fall at the Zoo is awesome!  The trees were gorgeous, all the animals are so active with the cooler temps and they serve BEER in the fall!  My question is why don't they do that all year long?

 Besides for the beautiful scenery and the animals, the Zoo passed out candy and had tons of activities to do for the kids.  My kids enjoyed it all, but the hay maze was their favorite...

 Eli was the kid that would hide and then throw hay at you as you ran by.  He was not well liked by many other kids...

...and then he put on a little show in the Hay Maze!

Eli was a CU Marching Band member...

Ashtyn was a Cowgirl and looked so cute!  She even got some new boots out of the deal!

 Eli thought it would be smart to run through the Hay Maze with a sucker...well he of course dropped it and then it was covered with hay.  He thought it was hilarious and kept showing everyone!

I'm not sure where he comes from...

 We ended our day with a snack while watching the Elephant show.  I've seen the show three times now, and learn something new every time!

I loved Boo at the Zoo!  Perfect way to spend a fall day and celebrate Halloween.  Can't wait for Zoo Lights now!

On Halloween, Ashtyn had a party at school with her classmates and then afterwards went over to Nana and Papa's to have dinner and start the night out trick-or-treating in their neighborhood!

Of course we did a little photo shoot to show off the costumes.  I definitely didn't over do it this year!  The kids picked the easiest costumes ever and the best part they are apart of their everyday wardrobes - score!  No money wasted!

My sweet cowgirl...

 I never get a good picture of them together...maybe one day!

 Eli is a Tuba player for the CU Marching Band!

He lived his dream for the night!

 He's actually putting on a performance in that very moment!

 The weather started out nice and then it got really cold and windy.  Not ideal trick-or-treating weather.  Eli was really into this year and would say "Trick-or-Treat" and then make his way into the house to find the candy bowl and choose for himself what he wanted.  No manners.

We were frozen solid once we were done with Nana and Papa's neighborhood and the amount of candy they got was ridiculous - so I was fine with being DONE!  We warmed up and then headed off to make our rounds visiting Mimi, Pam and Grandma Sandy before heading home.

The plan was to trick-or-treat with Emily, but once we got to their house Eli was over it and it was just too cold and windy.  So we hung out for a bit and looked at all  the candy they had gotten.

Emily dressed up like a cowgirl with Ashtyn! 

Our Halloween seemed to fly by as does every other holiday, but it's just the start to all the Holiday Madness!  I'm ready for it this year though - bring it on!

Happy Halloween!