Halloween Week & Joe's Birthday!

Happy Birthday to our Fall Birthday Boy! Joe is 6 now, and he wanted to have lunch with Daddy for his birthday.

 Then, of course, since he's obsessed with pumpkins, we went to a pumpkin patch to pick out our jack-o-lanterns!

 We like hugging pumpkins. They're cozy. 

 Pumpkin birthday cake! This is becoming a tradition. 

 Then it's time to carve the pumpkins... It had been a long day, and Joe had to go take a break. The ooey gooey pumpkin guts were grossing him out. 

 Joe goes for the classic look, I go fancy. Stephen likes to go ugly, and Stephen Jr got creative, added screws, and made a monster pumpkin! And carved it himself, I might add!

 Next up on our Fall week agenda: Corn maze at the botanic gardens! We got a hayride (behind a tractor) to the maze...

 We petted the horses but didn't get a ride with them, the line was too long.

 Not much of a maze when you can see over the top... But big and fun anyway!!

 

 There were fun festival things, like a bouncing pillow, train rides, this giant spiderweb...

 And funnel cakes!! I haven't had a funnel cake in forever!

 Time to ride back with the tractor!

 

 We don't have a yard yet, and the leaves around our apartment are suspect (with all the dogs around) so we went to a park to rake leaves!

 Joe only lasted a few jumps, then all the leaf bits in his clothes made him VERY upset. Oh well!

 Even Dad jumps in leaves!

 We started hiding Bracken's ball in the pile for her to find. She loved this game!!

Caramel apples to finish off the night right!

So for the trunk-or-treat party, we went all out with Stephen's mummy costume. He was in character for hours! He kept stumbling around moaning, "Must... Eat... Brains...". It was hilarious. And Joe was so in character as a Ninja Turtle (even though he has never seen the show, he just loves the muscles on this costume we were given) that I was a little afraid he was going to punch someone in the haunted house!

 We weren't planning on trick-or-treating on Halloween, since Dad was out of town, but when your best friends invite you over, you don't say no! Following the crowd of kids sprinting from house to house kept us warm, that's for sure!

 Stephen ditched the mummy costume for something a little easier that night. 

Happy Fall/Halloween/Birthday!!

Trip to DC

Sooo, what with the whole government shut-down and all... Most of our DC plans were pretty well squashed. So we got creative! (And, all of these pictures are my Mom's. I took a zillion pictures on my brand new iPhone, then lost every single one. I cried. But at least someone documented most of our trip! I can usually count on her to cover things pretty well, photographically speaking!)

 This. Is the most awesome store. I bought 6 books, all 1920's or older, all books that I knew and loved (plus some paperback versions of some favorites I didn't own yet) for under 20$!!! Just about my favorite store in existence!!

Grandma introduced the boys to the adventures of geocaching (which they now want to do ALL the time)

 The only person I know more obsessed with Fall and pumpkins than me and Joe is my Dad. So on our way to the beach, we just HAD to stop by a pumpkin patch! Which turned out to be the prettiest pumpkin patch ever!

 So what if we can't take them home with us? Grandpa will take good care of them!

 There were games, animals, treats, and more. Also the best corn maze I've seen since Missouri!

 I am in love with the beach. I could be a beach person. I could learn to sail, and things...

 Last time we were here, Joe was miserable. Cold, wet, whiny, ugh. This year? BRING IT ON!!

Stephen, on the other hand, is always bomb-proof. He's never cold. He gets that from me. (When I was his age, anyway.)

 Whoops! Wipeout!! Maybe we should back up just a little...

I don't know what this black sand is, but it was Stephen's favorite part of the beach

That and finding parts of horseshoe crabs. Like this tail-slash-dagger.

We stopped for AWESOME crab on the way home... And a tickle break...

Another day we drove out to Luray Caverns, the boys' very first cave! I will be honest, I wasn't expecting much, but WOW. They were fantastic!!

These are my favorite parts of caves, the pools that are so still and so perfect that the reflection of the ceiling looks like a whole other landscape below, without water!

The boys were in heaven, constantly asking the tour guide question after question...

I just wish Stephen had been with us!

Next to the caverns was a toy and automobile museum, a shop, a history center, and a MAZE! A real hedge maze!

It was TONS of fun!

And on the way home, the boys got invited up to the cockpit of the plane!