Pumpkins and Liepold's

We had ideal weather for our morning at Liepold's. Greg took his usual second-Friday-of-October vacation day so he could spend the day with the rest of us at the pumpkin patch when the kids have a day off. We smartened up this year and went to Grandpa's pumpkin patch first and did not buy the spendy pumpkins at Liepolds. Grandpa had plenty, so we came home with a couple each. The kids had written their names on bottoms of the ones they wanted a month or so ago, so they had them claimed already. We did go through the corn maze at Liepold's, though--twice. The kids wanted to do the "dead end challenge," but we got to the end and realized we missed a couple, so we went back through all over again and still didn't find the other two dead ends. We decided they must not exist (or the signs were torn down) because we explored every single path of that maze. We almost got through without Greg having to carry anyone this year. If we'd just done it once, we would have made it, but Grant needed a piggyback rest on our second go-around.

It really is a fun tradition for our family. It's a joy to watch the kids enjoying each other, working together, and just having fun together. Greg and I walked along behind while the kids forged ahead, deciding where to go. It was a beautiful, sunny morning. Couldn't have asked for better!

We bought some apples at the farm and made applesauce and apple crisp when we got home. It finally feels like fall around here. All this unusually warm weather has made it feel more like summer than fall (I'm not complaining, as it's made our soccer season quite pleasant), but fall is here now, and it feels right!

At Grandpa's pumpkin patch

Leaving her "hanging"

The tooth fairy had to pay two visits to our house this last week. Kari lost her last baby tooth. Braces here we come! And Aubrey lost one of her top front teeth. The way she tells the story is quite different from the way we remember it. She told Grandpa and Grandma A., when she saw them at church on Sunday, that she "just pulled it out" and that "it was easy." The real version was not quite like that. In fact, it was nothing like that. It was many moments of drama over the last week, and 15 straight minutes of drama in the car Saturday morning on the way to Joel's soccer game. She had been wiggling and twisting her tooth when her mouth started bleeding. She started screaming and crying hysterically in the back seat of the van. Unfortunately, we had no tissue, but we did have some baby wipes, so we handed those back to her. She screamed incessantly, "There's blood! I'm bleeding! It's hanging sideways! Take me back home! You can't just leave me back here!" We tried to calm her down, but she was spiraling, and there was no stopping her. We didn't want Joel to be late to his soccer game (turns out he was late anyway because we had the time wrong), so we didn't pull over, just kept driving. The other kids, Greg, and I all started laughing and couldn't stop laughing because she was being so ridiculous. Joel told her, "Don't worry, Aubrey. You'll be laughing, too, soon!" Finally, she pulled the tooth out, and the screaming stopped. She was all smiles.