Autumnal activities

It's October, so that means it's time to go pay way too much money for a gourd to cut, gut, and have rot on your front porch.  'Tis the season, right?

The pumpkin patch we went to this year was more of a pumpkin field, with a pumpkin house, but they had some other fun stuff to do, and we got a Groupon for it, so what are you going to do?  NOT go?  I don't think so.


The big attraction for Ella was the cow train.  Oh, mercy.

The cow train, for the uninitiated, is just what it sounds like.  It's a bunch of cow cars hooked together and towed around by an ATV.  Good family fun!  In fact, so much fun that she insisted on riding it a second time.   She's turning into quite the little daredevil when it comes to thrill-type rides, which is strange coming from a kid who screeches when we're in the car and she thinks we're going too fast.

There was also a corn maze, huge jumping pillow (which we avoided because the line was really long), gem mining, and of course, ye olde pumpkin patch.

I believe that the pumpkin we came home with is about the size of Gussy (and if you're familiar with Gussy, that's saying something).  Carving has already taken place -- I went with something Ella-friendly this year, good ol' Mickey-the-Mouse.   Pics of that to come.

At the playground (y'know)

Three years!

Can you believe that this itty-bitty...

...turned THREE this past Tuesday?

Yeah.

When did that happen again?

The official party isn't until this Saturday, so on Tuesday, we went to lunch at Jason's, then to the Greensboro Children's Museum (which was great, except for all the daycare/daycamp groups that were being allow to run amok with ZERO supervision).

She had a really fun time at the museum.  She went shopping in the market:

Look, mom -- an artichoke!

played receptionist:  

and read with Daddy (although that didn't last more than a couple of pages...way more exciting things to do).

After dinner at Elizabeth's (birthday girl's choice), we went over to Grandma and Pop's house for cake and the ever-important birthday song.

All in all, a happy day for a happy kid.

Triad Highland Games

I got a deal on Groupon last week for 2-for-1 tickets to the Triad Highland Games.  We'd never been, so we thought it might be a fun thing to check out. 

There were loads of vendors, including one selling:

Yes, those are haggis-flavored chips.  I tried them -- they weren't bad!  I wasn't brave enough to try the real deal, though, which was being sold at another stand.  No thanks.  I'm only brave to a point.

I enjoyed watching the dancers -- Jon, not so much, but he put up with it for awhile.

 We watched some really strong guys heave a 58-pound weight over a bar.  Well, some of them heaved it over the bar.  Some of them just heaved it.

Ella pumped up with an IRN-BRU:

And there were bagpipers and drummers there as well.

All in all, good family fun, even though I came home w/a somewhat nasty sunburn :(  Boooo me.

A visit to the farm.

This past Sunday, the Goat Lady Dairy had their fall open farm day, so we headed out to see where some of our very favorite cheese comes from!  We buy their stuff at the farmer's market all the time, and it's all so very good.  If you're in the Greensboro area and have never tried it, you're missing out.

The dairy was about a 40 minute drive, and Ella, who had not had a nap, fell asleep about halfway there.  Needless to say, she was a tad on the crabby side when we arrived and had to wake her up.  Poor planning on our part, I guess.

Anyway, it wasn't too crowded at all when we got there.  I don't know if maybe the semi-overcast weather kept people away or what.  There were several other local farms there selling various meats, cheeses, breads (all of which were gone by the time we arrived...boo), etc.  We picked up some kielbasa and a gorgeous flank steak...and of course some goat cheese!  This time, we got Sunny Paris, which is full of happy, bright flavors.

Here are a few more pictures from the afternoon:

Pumpkin patch, pumpkin PJs, and pumpkin carving...

...all in that order.

After trying to get there for about the entire month of October, we finally made it out to the pumpkin patch today!



Ella wasn't entirely sure about all these orange things that seemed to be surrounding her...



...but they turned out to be harmless.



We bought a nice carving pumpkin, and when we got it home, Lukin decided it looked like a nice snack. Yes, he ate the pumpkin. Part of it anyway. Yeaaaah...he's not too bright. This is how he left it:



I was able to carve on the other side, so at least it was salvageable. For the carving party, Ella wore her most appropriate PJs:



And here's the finished pumpkin!



Creepy, no? :)

Lake Brandt

Mom had mentioned to me earlier this week how pretty the leaves were out at Lake Brandt. We stopped by today on the way over to Mom and Dad's house, and even though it was overcast, I got a few good shots. I'm really surprised at how much color there is on the trees this year -- for some reason, I didn't think there would be much.

Farmer's Market

It was a gorgeous fall day today (if a little warm), so we headed out to the Piedmont Triad Farmers Market. We didn't really have anything that we were going after, aside from some apples for me so I can try a new apple dumpling recipe.

I'd never seen so many different varieties of eggplant!

It's scuppernong and muscadine season!

They had what I thought was an adorable pumpkin house...

...but it turned out to be a Ghoul School -- even cuter!

Let's go drivin'

After a fantastic BBQ lunch with Jay & Janet Friday afternoon, Jon and I dropped Ella at Grandma and Pop's and went to the driving range! It was the first time Jon and I had even hit a ball since we moved back from Florida. We want to play at the beach, so we figured we shouldn't be entirely rusty. I considered it a success for myself, as I only missed the ball in its entirely about 4 times or so (I am not a great golfer...I like to torture myself by trying to play, though). I even managed to get off a few decent shots that I felt really good about.

Playing golf, to me, is sort of like taking pictures. If I take 50 pictures and get one or two really nice ones, that's good. Same with golf. If I hit 50 balls and get one or two really nice shots, that's good too.

Ella apparently did okay while we were gone, but when we got back over to Mom and Dad's to pick her up, she flipped OUT. She's in a really super-clingy phase to me right now, and if I'm around, and she's in a mood, she doesn't want anyone else to hold her or to be anywhere away from me -- she gets MAD. So mad that it kind of scares me. I feel terrible NOT holding her when she's like that, but I feel terrible holding her all the time as well, because then I feel like I'm just giving in to her and ultimately, making things worse. I hope this phase is short-lived...it's not fun for any of us.

A failed attempt

Well, we had plans today to have Ella's 1-year pictures done. Ella, however, had other ideas about how the afternoon would go.

Remember that precious, happy smiling baby from her photos 6 months ago?

Here, let me share with you a reminder:



This child was not present today. The child there today was screaming, clingy, and absolutely not interested in smiling.

Where was my happy, smiling baby?

We wound up rescheduling for next week, so hopefully things will go better then.

The Natural Science Center

Since the weather was pretty nice today, and we (or more specifically, me) were itching to get out of the house, we took Ella on the first of what I'm sure will be many trips to the Natural Science Center. We made the mistake of going a little too close to nap time, so there was some periodic grumpiness, but overall, we had a nice visit.

They have completely redone the "animal discovery" (read: mini-zoo) area since the last time we were there, and I was impressed with it! It all looks really nice, and there's a decent variety of animals there.

We saw maned wolves, tortoises (which came RIGHT up to you...and they were huge!), and a tiger, amongst others.

As we were walking down the path to the tiger enclosure, we could see him pacing back and forth in front of the fence. Suddenly, he let our a roar, and jumped and lunged at the fence -- holy crap! The gibbons up the hill went into a screeching fit. It was pretty impressive -- and intimidating. I couldn't get a really good picture of him, because he was constantly on the move.