Every fall, we have a few Friday's off of school where the teachers have training or other things happen that require a day off. I usually try to do something fun with the kids on their day off and so I took them to a working farm near us.  We got to see live animals and work on the animal sounds with Matthew.  I think he enjoyed it.  He knows most of the animal sounds, but fun to see the real animals!

The kids seemed to enjoy showing Mathew everything.  He's at such a fun age where he is really interested in everything and learning so much.  He loves to be taught by his siblings and they love teaching him new things too.

LOVE this picture.  It was totally not posed by me either - they all just were walking that way!

Matthew checking out the horses.

Then we made our way to the farm house, which was actually a museum inside to show how a farm works.

They had really cute rocking chairs outside.

Inside, the kids got to work together to build a silo out of blocks.

Ben taught Matthew how to milk a cow in the fresh milk exhibit.

Juliette shows Matthew the map of the farm.

And back outside there were tractors you could climb on for pictures.

Sisters.

After a fun morning, it was time to head home for Matthew's nap.  Good thing I have helpers to walk with him.

One last quick picture by some pumpkins though!

We stopped for a quick lunch before going home.  What a great morning!

On another day off of school I decided to take the kids to a pumpkin patch.  I had heard good things about the place where we go strawberry picking, so we headed out there for the morning.  You will notice in some of these pictures that Abbey is holding a red bull (Benny the Bull from the Chicago Bulls Basketball team).  Her teacher gives it to one student each weekend and they have to bring it around, take pictures with it, and journal the adventures they had with it.  Abbey was thrilled to get Benny on a 3 day weekend, so of course he came to the pumpkin patch with us!

Abbey ready to drive the tractor.

On the wagon ride out to the patch.

Ben found a big one right away!

Abbey took Matthew and headed off in a different direction to find a good one.

Matthew found one just his size.

Juliette picked a good one too.

The rule was that they had to be able to carry it on their own....I couldn't carry all the pumpkins!!

Abbey was happy that Ben said he would help her to carry the one she picked out.

My little pumpkins.

Time to go home.  Abbey really likes walking with Matthew.

In other happenings during fall, Ben joined the beginner band at school.  He is learning to play the trombone.  He gets lessons once a week during school, once a week after school and once a week before school.  He is enjoying it and we are loving listening to him as he progresses.  Mathew loves to help Ben practice.

And Matthew continues to grow and become a big boy.  

He often grabs books and sits on the couch to look through them.  I love how interested he is in books, just like his siblings!

Another picture of Abbey and Benny.

Ben is playing travel soccer again this year.  His team is really good and didn't lose a game all season, finishing 1st in their division.  Here they are after a weekend tournament.

They did awesome!

Fall Fun!

One of the exciting things about first grade is the field trip to the apple orchard. This year, it worked out that I could go with Matthew and join in on the fun! I had told Juliette that I couldn't go, so it was a fun surprise when we showed up at the orchard!

Juliette having fun with some friends.

Matthew had a lot of fun.  They had big buckets around that you were supposed to throw apples that had fallen on the ground into and he had a blast doing that.  It worked out well for him because they were mostly bad apples so I didn't have to worry about him throwing and damaging them!  

And he enjoyed sampling the apples too.

Juliette was nice enough to share her juice box with Matthew.  It was a really fun morning.

And in September we celebrated Paul's birthday.  We made his favorite carrot cake and Abbey did the writing with icing and helped to decorate it - she did a great job!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Fall sports kicked into gear and Juliette got to play big kid soccer for the first time - last year they played 3 v 3 without a goalie, so this year is exciting as they play more as a team, including trying out their skills as a goalie!  Juliette enjoyed being goalie.

Good save Juj!

Abbey got into her soccer team again this year.  It is fun to watch their progress year over year.

And we went on our annual apple picking trip.  Unfortunately, we just could not coordinate with the Acuff's this year - our schedules are just too hectic and we couldn't find a time that we were both free.  So we went separately.  Also, we ended up not going to our usual place.  We decided to try a place that was a bit closer - only 45 minutes away.  We did that because we couldn't find a day that was completely open to make the trip up to Wisconsin.  We had an afternoon of a few hours, so we went somewhere closer to fit it in.  I was disappointed with the place though and hope to return to our usual spot next year.  But we still had fun.  Here we are ready to board the wagon to take us out to the orchard!

Abbey getting ready!

On the wagon!

We chose this place because it had honey crisp apples, which are delicious.  But, we were given one small bag to fill up and you couldn't get more than that.  Well, honey crisp apples are pretty big, so the bag was full after you put in about 6 apples, which made picking go pretty quickly.  Matthew just liked putting apples in the bag.  He would pick them up off the ground and fill his bag and then dump it and start all over again.  It was cute.  We let him do that as much as he wanted, and then filled his bag with good apples right before we left!

Abbey picked good apples!

Matthew filling up his bag!  One of the other things I didn't like about this place was the trees were very close together and there were only 3 rows of honey crisp apples, so you were really close to all the other people picking apples too.  It just felt congested.  Matthew actually found a bag on the ground and emptied it out before we ran over and realized it - oops!  We apologized to the person and she seemed ok with it.  Good thing Matthew is cute!

He didn't know any better...

Ben is a pro at getting up in the tree to get the high ones!

Abbey is pretty good at climbing up there too!

Juliette prefers to use Daddy to get the high ones!

Looks like she got a good one.

Ben trying to fill the bag as high as possible!

Matthew got one to go.

But then he spotted another one!

What a cutie pie!

It was a very fun time, but I just didn't like the place as much as our usual place.  Hopefully we can get back there next year.  I will say, though, that the apples were delicious and GONE within a week!