Lately...

Time for a photo dump!

Let's pretend like you haven't seen most of these on Instagram and just play along in my virtual scrapbook, shall we?

We've been busy around here doing all sorts of fun fall activities. And since the weather has been a touch cooler, the kids have been spending a lot more time outside (which makes this mama very happy!). The evidence of which is very apparent on our driveway:

 

 (The gory zombie was drawn by Payton)

We visited another farm this week, but as a family this time. It is owned & operated by our former children's pastor and his wife. The kids had a ball feeding all of the animals, riding the tractor "hay ride" and playing farm games.

The Donkey's name is Troy. How proper!

 

 

Yes, I did coordinate the boys' outfits...No, I did not coordinate mine with Brian's. I'm wearing Halloween orange, he's wearing Gator orange. Trust me, he would want you to know that. :)

Target did not let me down this year when it came to our annual Halloween Cookie Village. I had 4 kids over to decorate and they provided 5 houses in their village kit. Perfect!

 

Smartest decision I made was to have Avery over to help out with Parker. She's such an amazing Mommy's Helper.

The Village is proudly displayed on the counter right now, but suspiciously keeps losing candy on a daily basis. Hmmm...

And just to round out our Halloween activities, we also "Boo-ed" our neighbors and "carved" a pumpkin. Well, we didn't really carve it, but we decorated it enough that it has some character, but won't rot in 36 hours.

Even Mocha was able to enjoy the cooler temps. We brought her outside for the first time to play in the grass. Come to find out, Miss Prissy Pants doesn't like the grass. She stayed on the towel the entire time.

Our school district was closed yesterday, so since it was such a gorgeous day out, me and the boys headed to the beach. We spent all morning and most of the afternoon there with no agenda or schedule to keep. It was lovely.

The boys found the nicest group of sisters to play with. They hunted for hermit crabs and found tons!

We stopped for ice cream at the beach pavilion on our way out. It was the perfect way to end the day.

The only thing left to mark off my "Halloween Bucket List" is to take the kids to a pumpkin patch and get some good pictures. A cold front rolls through our area tomorrow, so I think that will provide the perfect weather for pumpkin picking!

Have a great week everyone.

It's Fall!

It's official.
Fall has finally arrived in Florida.
It is only about 5 degrees cooler, but man does it make a difference!

Our mornings look like this...

French doors wide open.

My afternoons look like this...

Farm Visit

There is the sweetest man who retired as the children's ministry pastor at our church a little over a year ago. He decided it was time to close that chapter on his life and pursue one of his dreams...opening a farm.

It's not yet a "petting zoo" type of farm. More like, come-out-if-you're-feeling-adventurous-and-willing-to-walk-in-the-mud kind of farm. It's still a work in progress - and we knew that ahead of time. But me & the boys, along with two of my other awesome girlfriends and their kids, packed up our SUV's, slathered on the bug spray and headed out for the farm!

Just a 45 minute drive outside of our suburban bubble, we encountered sprawling acres of farm land. And the boys were in heaven!

Here is Pastor Don walking Parker over to meet one of the ponies.

 

Then Payton got in on the action:

 They got to hand-feed them some hay.

Along with the ponies, there were cows & a donkey in the same field.

And the kids got to feed all of them!

 Look at that expression on Parker's face. Hesitant, yet loving it!

 Parker & his buddy Nathaniel:

 Payton liked feeding the cows, but I think he was afraid they might bite him. I mean, those cows have some big ol teeth!

Then...they discovered the mud...

 Oh how they discovered the mud.

That's okay though. I was prepared with a change of clothes, towels and endless wet wipes in the car.

There were also sheep.

But they wouldn't come near us. (Can you blame em??)

 And tons of chickens!

 Even a couple of baby chickens!

Of course Parker was obsessed with the fake deer. Go figure!

In the end, this is what Parker's socks looked like:

But we got to bring home farm-fresh eggs, experience a real, working farm, and let the boys run uninhibited in the mud. It was a good day.