an afternoon in the Son

Jetting back in time today to share a few pics that I never posted. This was a solid hour of free Fall family fun. Say that five times fast. A little magic was created with a leaf blower and the perfect amount of sunlight.

I can't help but think of the lyrics to Nichole Nordeman's Every Season as I look at these...

***

And even when the trees have just surrendered

to the harvest time,

forfeiting their leaves in late September,

and sending us inside,

still I notice You when change begins,

and I am braced for colder winds.

I will offer thanks for what has been,

and what's to come-

You are Autumn.

Love that song.

Love those words.

Love seeing God's handiwork in all of creation.

Love playtime.

And jumping.

And piling. 

And throwing.

Also love it when my kids do things like this so that I'm a part of it all.

Thank you God for afternoons in the Son.

p.s.- here's a video I found on youtube that beautifully illustrates what this song is all about- 

seeing God's hand in every season of life.

If you've never heard these words before, give it a listen.

So I dressed my kids up and threw them in a pumpkin patch

...because of the awesome photos that I *hoped* would come out of it.

And I got a few.

But did I get a single decent frameable pic of all 3 of my offspring together?

Nope. Nuh-uh. No way. No how.

Since we'd already carved our pumpkins, I didn't really want to spend money on more pumpkins but I wanted to take full advantage of the fact that there's a church who has a pumpkin patch every year pretty near our house. I put the girls in some of their Sunday best and Oliver in one of the 3 pairs of pants even remotely still long enough for him (sheesh he grew 4 inches since last October) and drove the 5 minutes to the patch. And since I didn't want to seem like a total free-loader by letting my kids run around while I snap pictures, I told them they could each pick out a pumpkin.

No bigger than their hand.

Because, you know they charge by the size at those things.

So off we went to the patch last Saturday morn before the parade. I pulled up in the mini, opened the doors, and let them run wild.

This is O's "I see the camera pointed in my direction" face.

Every.

Single.

Time.

In this one, I got 2 out of 3...

...and here?

1 out of 3.

The one that wasn't looking before.

(sigh)

And approximately 57 pics of 0 out of 3 looking at the camera.

And by the way, my plan of not spending a booty load on more pumpkins worked. This little photo shoot cost us $3.75-

3 little hand-sized pumpkins and a yellow warty gourd that MM picked out.

And hasn't really let go of since...

A little Fall-ness

Since blogland is in full-out throw-those-Fall-goodies-up-on-that-mantel-and-on-that-front-door-and-craft-some-Fall-ish-stuff-NOW mode, I thought I'd throw together a little post about some Fall goodies that I made.

Last year.

And the year before.

Because I'm currently in the midst of a 3-jobs-at-once type situation, and while I'd love to be craftin' up a storm with the rest of you, the only storm I'm seeing seems to have just passed through my house. As in, parts of it are a wreck.

Blargh.

Anywho- here are a few posts from the past to hopefully get your juices flowing and your hot glue a-meltin'...

(just click the title to go straight to the post)

Fall is in the air and on the Mantel

Fall is in the air and on the front door

Halloween decor 2011



How to make an easy-shmeezy Fall wreath

***

Don't forget to come and see me tomorrow from 9-1 in the gym of Holt High School for an amazing craft fair with tons of vendors and lots of handmade goodies!

Food too.

Lots of food.

mmmmmm...

Happy weekend to ya!

Halloween pics........finally

our weekend was busy busy busy. Lots of fun activities packed into a short time. Our church's Fall Festival was saturday night. Oliver dressed as a Clone trooper, Eliza was Princess Leia, and MM wore her big sis's fairy costume with tutu. The weather was absolutely perfect. Wonderful evening with wonderful friends.

Here's Oliver in his favorite thing of the night.....the bouncy, jumpy things. (do they have an actual name?) on the hayride.....
(thank you Kara, for watching my clone trooper)

after the hot dog....ketchup on the nose

Eliza's favorite game was Pick Up Duck. She kept them after she picked them up though.

This is where MM hung out all night. She loved watching everything from here. She ate and even went to sleep in it. Precious girl.

Halloween the next night-

Oliver wanted to be Ironman. He already had the costume. Awesome.

Princess Leia was in the wash, so......Clay tried a few others on E, who wasn't really in the mood to try on costumes, and finally found a princess dress that fit. (whew) MM decided she would be a banana.

Here's O in a super-cool Ironman pose:

O and E got new toothbrushes from black mawmaw. (for those of you who don't know, this is what they call my MIL) Oliver's just happened to be an Ironman toothbrush. He brushed his teeth as SOON as we got home.


my sweet MM. (we had a monkey costume that was just a wee bit too small for E, but seriously...how cute would it have been for the girls to be a monkey and a banana??)

I promised pics of Clay's pumpkin, so here it is. Pretty awesome, huh?

All 3 with aunt MalMal

Now, ....onto more recent happenings:

Oliver is the VIP in his class this week which means each day, he will get to share something about himself with the class. Monday, all of the kids take a t-shirt (which starts out as a piece of posterboard) with pictures of their family, activities they enjoy, favorite toys, etc. Here's Oliver posing with his shirt before leaving for school Monday morning.

Last night I had a PTO concert with my first graders. They did an AWESOME job. SO proud of them. And don't they look fab in their sparkly gold hats and bow ties?

(yes. yes they do)

And today.....

I voted.

Did you?

I just watched the acceptance speech of our new Governor-elect, Dr. Robert Bentley.

He began his speech by thanking God.

What a blessing.

I have no doubt that God has mighty plans for Dr. Bentley.

Proud to be an Alabamian.

these pumpkins are from Clanton...

wowza am I tired. And sunburned. And stinky.

But by-golly-miss-molly did we ever have fun at the pumpkin patch today. Rode all the way to Clanton, AL on a school bus.

Petting zoo, bouncy thingys, hayride, actual REAL pumpkin patch. (we came home with 2 beauties) Amazing sunflower fields, beautiful blue skies, stinky (but cute) animals.

Good, good day with my O man.

Just love this shot of him running to pick out his pumpkin.

One of his favorite things was playing on this hay mountain.