The Cutest Little Pumpkins At The Patch

One of my favorite family traditions is to visit Spooner Farms every fall. I have so many cherished memories from the pumpkin patch, and this year was another great time!

We began our adventure the same as always, by donning our festive shirts (we like to dress the part for the patch)....

...and heading straight for the pumpkin sling shots!

The boys gathered their ammo...

...took aim and fired!

And we won!

This was our third year in a row of winning a giant pumpkin. I'm sure we could've just bought the pumpkin outright for what we paid to play the slingshot game, but you just can't put a price on bragging rights! I think it's clear that Cole agrees!

Next we headed to the animal farm to check out rabbits, chicks, turkey, and other such feathered friends. There was a super cantankerous turkey that was giving Caden a severe verbal warning. You can see from Caden's face that he wasn't appreciating it too much.

Cole and Chase loved the fuzzy bunnies.

Then we visited our four-legged friends in the pasture. I love this picture of my boys looking at the horses. Look at their little stair-step bodies from youngest to oldest. 1 - 2 - 3 Boyd boys!

The big boys decided to feed the goats some grass. We issued several warnings to Cole about stretching and/or leaning too far over the fence...

...but he still went overboard!

Daddy rescued him, and we continued on our adventure!

This year there were pony rides, which was new at the patch, and so much fun! Cole was a natural, of course, because he's so outdoorsy! Here he is with his horse, Walker.

He's such a cowboy!

Eight seconds!

Here's Caden with his horse, Bullet. He wasn't too sure about this.

A quick reassuring hug from Daddy made everything better.

And he was ready to ride off into the sunset...

...as long as Daddy was close by.

Here we have Chase and Stacie. You can imagine how unimpressed Chad was with the name "Stacie" for a horse. However, Stacie was over 30 years old (I didn't know they could live that long), and she deserved our respect, even if Chad would prefer her to be named something tough and manly sounding like Hunter or Gunner!

"Nice horsey!"

This is one of my favorite pictures of Chase ever. I love his proud posture. It's easy to see

that he was very pleased with himself. Pure elation!

After the boys dismounted their trusty steeds, we headed for the water pump races.

Caden faithfully retrieved the ducks from the bucket of water. His brothers owed him for that...the water was ice cold! Here he is racing to catch some ducks!

And grabbing them to return to his big brothers.

After everyone was sufficiently wet (especially Caden) from the water pump races, we spent some time exploring all the millions of pumpkins and picking out the ones we wanted to take home. I took so many pictures (over 165!), and I wish I could include them all, but here are some of my favorites. (It was very hard to narrow them down!)

Do you see my little pumpkin in this picture?

We finished our adventure with another tradition, hot chocolate and caramel apples before we hit the road. The promise of these treats kept the boys going when they were ready to give up, but Chad and I weren't! It's a great way to end the trip.

And here's Mommy, with the cutest little pumpkins at the patch! I just love these boys so much. Thank you, Cole, Chase, and Caden for making my life so full! I will always cherish these memorable moments!

Cole's Kindergarten Debut

After spending most of my summer fretting about Cole's impending kindergarten debut, something unexpected occurred...school was delayed due to the teachers strike! I went from thinking that I never wanted my baby to start kindergarten, to thinking that my baby might actually never start kindergarten. At first I viewed the strike as a gift...a few more days at home with Cole. But then a few days turned into many days and I began to get impatient. The strike did end up being a true gift in that by the time it was over, I was MORE than ready for Cole to begin his school career!

School was supposed to start on August 31st. Here's what it looked like...definitely not the "first day of school" picture I was anticipating. We brought treats to the teachers at his elementary school to show our support and appreciation for them. We were off to a good start!


~F I N A L L Y~
On September 15th, we got the word that the teachers and the district reached an agreement, so it was time to get out the new "it's the night before the first day of school" pjs. We'd been waiting for these! (Cole picked these Transformer jammies. I know, they're hideous, but he thinks they're way cool.)




So here we are, the morning of Cole's first day of school. He was so excited to go to big kid school...it really was the sweetest thing ever.


When we pulled into the school, the first thing Cole said was, "Hey, where's the picket line?" I thought that was pretty clever. We did make several visits to Horizon during the strike, but I had no idea he was paying such close attention to all the honking and shouting I was doing for our teachers!

Here we are at our official FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

If only...

...Cole would look...

...at the camera...

...and smile!


Here he is with our neighbor boys, Rickie and Bryce, waiting for Miss Gregg to open the door.


I went to high school with this little boy's mom. How funny that our kids are now in kindergarten together. I never would have imagined this back then!
Jaden and Cole



Miss Gregg opened the door and instructed the kids to find their name tags. Cole went right to his seat and got to work. What a big kindergartener!

Let the learning commence!

Shortly after this, I left Cole to begin his school career. I think it's important to mention that I didn't cry. This is beyond a miracle, because I've been crying about it for the last 4 years or so. It was a great feeling to drop him off, knowing that he was ready, and that I finally was too!

Here he is coming out of class after school.


He doesn't look too happy in this picture. He said he wanted to go home because he missed Daddy. Daddy was home all week with an injured foot and the flu, so I think Cole really was missing him...



Of course, Mrs. Galassi was there and came by to share in our big day. She's been there for many of Cole's "firsts"...
Here she is with Cole on his first day of life...

...and here they are together on his first of kindergarten!

Thank you, Molly, for being an important part of Cole's life. We love you!

This was without a doubt Cole's favorite part of his first day of school, Miss Gregg gave him a giant cookie. What a great way to end the day!

So now we're about four weeks into the school year, and Cole's doing great. I can already see how much he's learning and growing in just this short time. I can't wait to see all the changing that he does over the next several months. I'm so proud of him!

Hello, Desperate Times. Meet Desperate Measures.

It's super hard to imagine my precious angel-baby boys ever acting so wild & crazy that Chad and I would be compelled to send them to the backyard. . .and then lock the door on them. But desperate times call for desperate measures. They were so unruly-crazy-insane one evening, that we sent them outside to burn some steam, and then, well, you know what we did next. . .click! I know it's not the nicest mommy-moment in the world, but I love the looks on their faces as they realize that they can't come in, and that their loving mother is prolonging the misery by photographing them instead of unlocking the door. Although you can't tell from their expressions, the lock-out only lasted long enough to get these pictures!

You Plus Me

= 7 YEARS OF HAPPINESS!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, CHADDY!

Chase's Preschool Debut

Our little Chase Ryan Boy (that's what he calls himself, evidently he believes the "d" in Boyd should be silent) started preschool today! Hooray!! Last year it was very hard and sad for Chase to stay behind when Cole went to preschool. Sometimes he would cry, and I would tell him that he had to grow a little before it was his turn for school, and he would stretch himself in his car seat to try and get immediately taller. It was so cute, and a little heartbreaking. So...you can imagine the happiness he felt (I felt it for him, too!) when it was finally his turn for school!!

We started a new tradition this year of getting a brand new pair of jammies to wear the night before school starts.

Here we are right before we're about to leave for school. He looks like such a big boy!!

The Brothers Boyd

The backpack is a very important accessory for any preschooler. Naturally, Chase chose Cars.

Cole spent most of the ride on the way to school with some serious sour grapes. Joyful Noise has been HIS preschool for the last two years, and he was none too happy to have to stay behind while Chase got to go. Hmm....sounds familiar. Here are some of his comments to Chase, "You don't get to play with toys during circle time." "Colby won't be in your class." (That's his favorite friend from Joyful Noise.) "You'll have to do crafts with glue and scissors." (This might sound like a benign comment, but it was actually said with great disdain because he does not like to do crafts.) I finally had to tell Cole to keep quiet with his discouraging remarks, to which he replied that he's been waiting for school to start for so long, and then he started crying! I feel so bad for Cole and the long wait for kindergarten...I have sour grapes about that too.

Sour grape face.

Even Caden looks a little bummed.

Chase entered his preschool class without any apprehension at all. Here he is greeting Miss Amy, and showing her the exciting things he sees, like The Very Hungry Caterpillar hanging on the wall...

...and of course, his backpack!

Chase and Miss Sara.

Making friends.

This is right before I left. He was totally fine with it, but I was a little teary to say goodbye. It's a very weird sensation, leaving one of my babies for a big event like preschool. I'm so happy that he's finally reached this milestone, but I'm going to miss him! After this day, he'll always be in school...he's not a baby anymore!

(After I left, we went to Costco and my tears became ones of joy when I only had TWO kids to manage instead of THREE. Oh school, how I've missed you over the summer.)

When it was time to pick Chase up, I got there a little early so I could watch him on the playground. But he wasn't there! My first thought was that he was naughty, and was having a time out. I got so nervous, thinking of what he could have done on his first day of preschool. But no! I was super relieved to find out he wasn't in trouble, he just chose to stay inside and play. I did learn however, that he had a lot of trouble with circle time, as I thought he might since this is his first exposure to structured activity. He really wanted nothing to do with it. He did confess this to me by saying, "I wanted to play with race cars, but Miss Sara wanted me to sit on the carpet. I didn't want to sit on the carpet." We talked (a lot) about how he needs to cooperate and follow directions, and obey Miss Amy and Miss Sara. We'll see how he does tomorrow! I am just so excited for Chase to get to have an experience he can call his own, make his own friends, and have something that's just for him. I can't wait to see how he grows and thrives at Joyful Noise with Miss Amy and Miss Sara!