a day on the farm

Dewberry Farms to be precise.

We went with the CF homeschool group.  It was a neat opportunity despite the hour+ drive to get there.  There are acres and acres of activities.  Here is a sampling of some available.  (too many to do all of them in the several hours we were there)  My sweet church friend Lisa helped out a bunch since it was challenging to corral all three of mine...or push on the bicycle go carts etc... She has experience--having 5 herself all within 2 years of each other.

We went on a hayride first.  We had been warned about the mosquitos and having just experienced the plague at the San Jacinto monument, we did not last long out picking our pumpkins before we climbed back aboard the relative safety of the hayride wagon.

Next we took a few pictures of some of the kiddos in our group...and we muddled around a few minutes.

We went on Sliiide Mountain. (even Mommy--and it was fun!)  It is a lot higher up than it looks in the pictures!

We did pedal go-karts.  Here is where Lisa found herself pushing one girl while I pushed another.  Neither girl knows how to ride a bike (oops).  We certainly got a good workout.

Some more playing around by the massive fort and other playground stuff.

  

  

Next the kids jumped off the massive hay bale by swinging rope.

There was more swinging--this time on big orange balls.

We went inside a barn to see a pumpkin carving wonderland.  The only lights in the place were the lights inside the hundreds of pumpkins.  There were sections of pumpkins that were grouped by cartoon characters, famous people, patriotic themed, animals, etc...  Absolutely incredibly carved.  Very intricate and very recognizable.  Wow!  (We did lose a child or two inside and had to go back in after them.)

More snapped photos of the kids in front of photo opportunities.

We went back to the fire truck area and the kids tried their hand at ringing the bell in the carnival style game.  Sadly, my kids need some practice.

We took a steer barrel ride.  It was one of my favorite things to do.

We decided to go down Sliiide Mountain again.

Then we were off to the corn maze.  Sadly, the corn had gotten mostly destroyed by the heavy rain we had had the weekend previous.  We still managed to lose some kids for a while.

There was a picking flower garden and the girls posed for me with their few finds.

We rounded off our day by spending a few minutes jumping on the inflatable pillow.  

Thank you, Dewberry Farms, for a very fun day!

life at this stage...

Another month slipped into oblivion.

Here are the photos of all three for the rest of October and November.

We have done "ninja training" several more times.  Most often the girls (including lots of other younger siblings) watch a princess movie on the ipad while David works out bundles of energy.

David is doing much better at school.  His reading level is comfortable enough to read his Bible every night and then tell us all about it.  And this quiet time every day is done solo and all his idea!  I love that he is so eager to read God's word!
And his spelling (and handwriting) has drastically improved too.  He is doing some really hard words each week!  He still loves to leave us little notes around the house.

We have enjoyed several meals out together as a family...including dressed up on Halloween.

We did lego club again--as well as spending lots of lego time at the house.

 Basketball is beginning again.

We spent hours this month pondering a local move (are the kids standing in our future home???)

And of course, dress up by everyone.

 

     

And there were also just a few sweet snapshots.  All taken with cell phone as fulfillment to request by kids.

One fun activity not noted here will be in a separate post.  Whew!  What a busy month!