Cornbelly's

I love this time of year. I don't know why, but when Halloween comes around I feel the need to take my kids to everything that the city and local area has to offer. The first thing that we ventured out to do this year was a corn maze/ pumpkin patch/ play land called Cornbelly's. Aunt Shannon came along so that we could go during the day and I could have a little bit of help with the girls. I forgot my camera, so I used my phone to snap a few photos. We were there from like 1-5pm and we were all worn out by the time we got home. Here are some of the things that we got to do there. 

 They had a little hayride that went around the outside of the corn maze. We got a little peak from the hayride at the Haunted Corn Maze that they offer in the evening. The ride was bumpy and the girls had fun pulling the hay out of the bale that they were sitting on. In the picture below, I noticed that you can see the big 'ol pile of horse poop that we had to sit by before the tractor started moving. Yuck!

They had an area that they called Princess Play land. They had a stage set up and some princess/prince dress up clothes to put on. Alyssa loved that. Ashley didn't want to put a dress on. Below is Cinderella's carriage to the ball. It is really hard to see the girls in this picture, but they are sitting in the seats inside the carriage. 



This corn crib was also part of the princess play land. Both girls played in it quite a bit. Ashley mostly wanted to throw the corn kernels. Alyssa wanted to bury herself in it. I wish I could have found an angle to take this picture from that didn't have that sun spot in the background.



 They had a few different train rides that the kids could go on. This one was called the cow train. They loved it because I let them go without any adults with they (mostly because there was no way I would have fit into that tiny cow car).

 We also watched pig races, played on numerous play sets, the girls enjoyed the inflatables, we went through the corn maze, but ended up cutting through the corn when Alyssa was done walking through it (we had lost Ashley and Shannon early on in the maze). We also spent a good amount of time in the section that has all of the haunted stuff during the night. I couldn't imagine what it would be like when it actually had scary people inside of it. It was a fun afternoon and well worth the money that I paid for it. Can't wait to take them again next year.

Fall Festival

At the beginning of the month, Alyssa's school had a fundraising event called Fall Festival. It was basically an auction(both silent and live), but they also had dinner and a bake sale. They had kids activities set up also. One of the things they had was free face painting. I had always avoided face painting in the past because I wasn't willing to wait in line or pay for it. I gave in this time, mostly because we had worked our way through everything else and we still had some time to spare. Kids were cutting in line throughout our wait so it ended up taking twice as long as it should have, but the girls were so excited to have butterflies painted on their faces (Alyssa smeared hers less than 10 minutes after getting it painted on).

One of the things that their Grandpa(who works at the school) had told them about was the marshmallow guns that were for sale. By the time we had gotten there that night, they were already gone. So Danny looked up online how to make them and went to work. After they were made, he let them decorate their guns.

And the finished product. Danny and I had as much fun as the girls that afternoon shooting marshmallows at each other.

Up and Running

For anyone who has been checking our blog in the past few weeks for updates, I apologize. However, I have a good excuse for not updating. Our computer got a virus, actually over 2000 viruses as the Geek Squad confirmed for us. Therefore, we have been without Internet and even the use of our computer since the beginning of the month. We are so glad to be up and running again. Bear with me as I try to post updates of what has been happening with us in the past month. It may take a few days or even longer depending on how successful I am at getting some pictures off of my phone.

We are doing well. The girls are so excited for Halloween and all of the fun stuff we have going on leading up to that night. We have already done a couple of fun fall/Halloween outings. Alyssa is loving Kindergarten and all of the new things that she gets to learn. Mostly, she is excited to see her new friends that she has made. Ashley is enjoying her one-day-a-week preschool that I'm doing with some of the other Moms in my neighborhood. Both girls are taking gymnastics at our city Recreation Center and are loving it. We also try to fit in story time at the library once a week. I manage to get some kid-free exercise in almost every day and I volunteer in Alyssa's classroom once a week. With all of those different activities scheduled in, we stay pretty busy and have a pretty solid routine in place. Danny is enjoying his job and hiring new employees each month. He will get more and more busy the closer they get to the Grand Opening in April so we are enjoying the time we get to spend with him before then. We actually just enjoyed a four day break from both work and school. We didn't do anything exciting, but we enjoyed spending those days together. It was hard to see it end and to go back to school and work today.

I will get some pictures posted soon of some of the fun things we have been doing lately.