Playing Catch

We got to spend an extra morning with Noni, Oma, Grandpa and Uncle Jon after our visit to the Festival.  Erin still LOVEs to play with her Oma.  Even though Oma is not moving quite as quickly as she has in the past, she still loves her Erin time too.  While some of us finished out a card game inside, Erin and Oma ventured outside to play.  Erin wanted to play catch.  So she and Oma did this.  For about 20 minutes.

Before we left I wanted to get some pictures of the kids with their Uncle Jon.  Uncle Jon generally does his best ghost impression whenever a camera comes out, but he was willing to play along with the kids.  We even got Noni to sit down for a few photos too!!!  I think they just came out super cute.

Stepping Back In Time

Last weekend we made our annual pilgrimage to the Shire.  We dressed accordingly and headed to MD for the Renaissance Festival.  It's a part of the fall that we all look forward to.  We met up with Uncle Jon, Noni, Grandpa and took off for another time. 

It was simply a gorgeous day!  Amazing weather.  Not too hot, not too cool.  As always, upon entering the kids wanted to make a bee line to get their faces painted.  This year Erin wore a super cute pirate girl dress while Jeffrey got another year's use out of his knight costume.  Erin chose to get "princess eyes" for her face paint, and Jeff asked for a knight sword, complete with blood because he had just slain a dragon ;)

We spent the rest of the morning, taking our time and wandering through the Shire. We stopped in at the honey shop which is always a favorite.  Erin and Tom did some juggling.  The kids got their pony rides and Jeff tried out a few games --- a crossbow game and a Jacob's Ladder (those climbing ladders that flip over if you don't balance right). 

We also caught a few shows.  We saw the end of one show where the highlight of the performance was the actor walking a wire over the audience with 3 swords in his hands.  Oh yeah -- he wears a kilt :)  Uncle Jon always likes the Rogues and the kids really enjoyed their music.  Then we went to see a Hack and Slash "Ale Show" that was just silly and fun.

But, as always, the Bubble Fairies were the highlight of the day.  We made a few trips to visit the Bubble Fairies.  Both kids have become old pros at making amazing bubbles with their wands.  Erin really enjoyed making bubbles for the younger children who were there and didn't have their own wand (you must purchase a wand to make bubbles, and we did that several years ago.  We continue to bring them back with us each year).  We stopped back at the end of the day for some extended bubble time.  The lighting was just gorgeous and Erin's favorite Bubble Fairy was there.  Erin looks for this Fairy every year.  She loves how they play and make bubbles together.  They stood and made bubbles for close to an hour at the end of the day and it was wonderful to watch. 

I Captured This Image Just As Erin's Bubble Burst.  You Can See It In The Picture.

So, we had a fantastic day.  Great time with family.  Great food (love the Steak on a Stake and Peasant Bread) and Cider.  Can't wait until next year!!!

Lost In The Corn

 

I just love autumn.  The way the trees change colors.  The cooler temperatures.  The apples and pumpkins.  Cider.  I love taking the kids outside and snapping pictures.  Yet as always seems to happen our weekends are quickly filling up, and I'm not sure how many opportunities we're going to have to escape to the great outdoors this fall.  So, with the kids out of school for a teacher work day yesterday, I took them to a local corn maze.  I've never seen anything quite like this.  It's mammoth -- 20 some-odd acres of corn fields cut into intricate mazes.  We joined with a group of Girl Scouts from our county and explored the Statue of Liberty maze.  Hidden inside the maze were 13 different quiz questions.  In order to "finish" the maze the kids had to find all the questions and bring back the answers.   At one point Erin mentioned that she wished the maze were the Washington Mo'm'ument because she knew a lot more about that.  I let her know that this was a great opportunity for her to learn about the Statue of Liberty.  All in all, it took our small group about a hour to find our way through the maze.

After we finished with that, I took some cute pictures of the kids near random hay bales, corn stalks, tractors and pumpkins.  They put up with my antics about as well as they usually do.  Then they were allowed to pick their own pumpkin from the pumpkin patch.  They really enjoyed being able to wander through the patch and pick out their very own pumpkin.  Much more exciting that buying one at the store.

I'm hoping we'll still find some more time to get outside in the next few weeks.  The colors here haven't really changed yet so there's still time!!!  Stay tuned for more cute pics of the kids in autumn.