The Joys of October - Part 1

Is there any better month than October?  If it's not my absolute fave, it's in my top three, at least.  There's something about fall that energizes me and brings me to life, even though the year itself is winding down.

This particular October was jam-packed with family fun.  It's been that wonderful kind of exhausting around here.   Earlier in the month, I was able to go to my first women's retreat with our church, while the girls and daddy headed up to Grandma and Poppy's for a long weekend.  I even got back a day earlier than they did, and I spent my first night completely alone in the house since....?....well, I don't even remember!  It was restful, but weird!  I helped myself to some Chinese takeout and a Gilmore Girls marathon, but once the sun went down, I barricaded myself in my room and slept with the closet light on.  I guess I'll take the craziness over the eerie silence, after all.

As a family, we were able to enjoy a local pumpkin patch/farm, where the highlight of the day (for the girls) was the "pumpkin bounce."  It was like a huge trampoline built into the ground:

But my personal favorite October activity was a Saturday night on the farm belonging to a sweet family in our church.  They invited the whole church out to their beautiful farm for hot dogs, hayrides, games, and a cakewalk...and the girls and I won a cake!  I suppose we stacked the deck a little by letting all three of the girls participate in multiple rounds, but who's counting, right?

The girls are still loving school, and October has been especially exciting and festive for them there.  They've been practicing letter sounds, learning about fire safety, observing bugs, checking out books in their little library, bringing in items for show and tell, and having fun in Bible, music, and "active kids" class.  I wish school could always be like this for them - fun and simple.  Their school sold pumpkins throughout the month for a fundraiser, so I volunteered to help out for a couple of hours on a day that they were in class.  It was a slow morning in the pumpkin patch, but I'll be honest, I didn't mind!  It was nice, quiet, and relaxing.  This was my view:

Not a bad way to spend a morning at all!  Of course, of the three or four people who visited while I was there, only the last ones pointed out that I hadn't turned the sign over from "Closed" to "Open."  Oops.  Maybe that's why business was so slow.

I think I will have to dedicate a whole other post to the adventures of Halloween, so this will have to be Part 1 of our crazy busy October!  Part 2 coming soon.