Mathews Manor Pumpkin Patch 2011

 I can't believe my children are 5 and 8 and this is the first year we have gone to a pumpkin patch! That's crazy! I guess the month of October has so many activities, we've just never had time. Anyhoo....we decided to check out the new pumpkin patch in our neck of the woods this year. It was their first year to try it and I think it was pretty successful. Little Bit really enjoyed it.

Since Miss Priss went with Papaw and D to Georgia for a Scottish Festival, Little Bit and I decided we needed some mother daughter time for ourselves. What better way to spend a BEAUTIFUL fall Saturday?? While Mr.Mark helped weed-eat and clean out gutters, Ms. Rose was able to join us as well.

 

 Getting ready to go in I had to stop and take pictures in front of all the fall goodies. Thankfully Little Bit humored me and smiled!

Once we were in, the first thing she wanted to do was the bouncy slide. 

At first she was a little hesitant without Miss Priss by her side, but she quickly got over that! I think she could have stayed on the slide ALL-DAY-LONG!

 

 

 

When I finally managed to pull her off the slide, we went over to check out the Hay Maze. 

I don't think Little Bit completely understood the concept. She thought it was just a fun place to run around in. We finally convinced her to find the exit so we could go see what else there was to do.

 

Next we took a break for a quick snack. Cute spider cupcakes and some sweet tea!

Then it was off to the hay ride to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins.

 Little Bit walked ALL over the ENTIRE patch to find the perfect pumpkin. 

 She examined each one!

 And finally found her perfect match! It couldn't be too big or too small.....it was just right!

 Mrs. Rose and Little Bit enjoying a s'more as we waited for the tractor to come back and pick us up.

 The farmer was also a photographer or so he said! ;) He did manage to get a nice shot of the 3 of us!

 Concentrating on making sure she painted her new pumpkin just right.

 Last but not least she had to get her face painted. This girl was really good at painting whatever the kids requested. They didn't just have things to choose from, this girl made it up as she went!

 

Little Bit was thrilled about her cat.

After a long day at the pumpkin patch, Little Bit helped me get ready for the afternoon's photo shoot. She said "Here mommy, I'll pose for you!" Now why won't she do that when I'm taking her pictures??

We had a great Little Bit - Mommy day for sure. We missed Miss Priss, but I know she had a blast in Georgia. Miss Priss took her camera this time, so I will be loading some of her pictures from the Scottish festival soon.

The big K-5 zoo field trip

 Last Friday I had the pleasure of going on Little Bit's first field trip. She's in Kindergarten, so of course we went to the ZOO! It was the perfect day for an outdoor trip. We couldn't have asked for better weather. And best of all, the trip just happened to fall during my fall break....so I didn't even have to take a day off (although I would have!)

We started our day on the animal carousal. Little Bit had to ride the tiger to show team spirit!

 

Then we moved along to the barnyard animals. I love that they have added this to the zoo. The kids see "normal" animals that live around here and they get to pet them!

 

 

 She's so funny! She loves ponies and insisted she have her picture made in front of them so I could put it on the blog!

 Just cute!

 Digging for dinosaur bones!

 Little Bit and her little friend we walked around with all day. They were so cute together and just fed off of each others excitement!

 Watching the massive alligator snapping turtle. 

 Amazed by the bobcats.

Okay I thought this was cool. The momma and daddy lions had cubs. They were all so cute and the daddy would just come by and play with the cubs.

 Checking out the giraffes.

 The elephants are finally back!

I had to include the next two pictures because I LOVE my new lens. These were taken right in front of the camera! So cool!!! I can't do that with my other lens. You have to back wayyyyy up to get the shot. This lens is more for those great close ups!

 

 Waiting for the train on platform 9 3/4.

 On the train ride. I think she was little tired of smiling!!

 Riding the carousal around one last time!

This was the funniest part of the day for me. Watching all the kids line up and seeing Little Bit as part of her little school group. They were all like little ducks following the momma and Little Bit was so big. Its hard to watch the grow up so fast. 

 

Another first has come and gone. We had a blast and I was so glad I got to tag along. Its fun to watch them grow, but sad at the same time because its going so fast. 

Whoo, hoo, hoo loves edible fall crafts....we do, we do!

 Fall is in the air and I am in LOVE! I'm in love with the weather, the decorations, the holidays, the colors of the leaves and most of all with a new website I've found.... Pinterest. Its basically an online bulletin board that you can pin all those great ideas you find on the internet to. Its the modern version of clipping pages out of a magazine and physically pinning them to a cork board. 

I see things on the web all the time that I would like to try, but if I'm not looking at it I forget about it. I bet NO ONE else out there is like that!! HA! So this keeps ideas organized and categorized for me! I'm officially addicted to Pinterest!

After finding some great craft ideas on pinterest yesterday, the girls and I decided to go home and get started on these yummy edible creations! First we made witch's hats from striped cookies, hershey kisses and orange icing. This was super easy for little hands and not to mention super cute too!

 

The girls unwrapping all those kisses! That was the hardest part of the whole project (well I take that back, the hardest part was keeping them from eating everything along the way!).

 

Our finished batch of witch hats!

The second project was another easy one for little hands after the initial baking and icing of the cupcakes. We made our adorable Owl cupcakes with Oreos and M&M's. While sitting down to watch TV, we twisted the tops off the Oreos and place the M&M's into the white filling. Once we placed the Oreos on top of the icing, we topped it off with an Orange M&M for his beak. Super cute and once again super easy!

 

Thanks to Pinterest for making me feel like an actual organized person and for leading me to all these cute ideas. The girls and I had a great time creating and just spending some quality time together. 

More projects and fun ideas to come soon I'm sure!!