Apple Orchard

The autumn fun keeps on coming. 

 J had a day off, so we took the girls to the apple orchard to run through a corn maze. We did the big one first, and it took us a looooong time. 

And it was hot.  Both girls were piggy backed by the end.

And they celebrated when we finally found the exit.

Then the girls picked pumpkins for carving.

Carving pumpkins was a lot of fun, and we got creative.  Although Boo was completely grossed out by pumpkin innards. 

 
A few days later, the girls and I met Heather and her kids at the Apple Orchard for another round of the kids' corn maze, pumpkin hunting, and playing on their awesome play set.  The kids ran the smaller corn maze completely on their own. 

Zoo Boo 2011

The girls had so much fun at Zoo Boo this year.  Boo wanted to do all the face cut outs...and there were A LOT.  Small sample size here:

The splash park was made into a little obstacle course that Kitty ran through again....and again....and again.  Boo and I finally moved on to pumpkin bowling while she kept on going.

Not much in the way of candy, but the girls enjoyed what there was.

The whole experience absolutely delighted Kitty.  As soon as she got out of the car she started pointing and squealing at the costumes.  Anything costume was a cat, dog or a Rapunzel like Boo got an extra loud squeal and "Mom! Mom!  Look!"

Like the sun goin' down on me

Last minute, my friend and I headed to an outdoor Elton John concert.  Yeah, it was outdoors, and yeah it was frigid.  But yeah, it was awesome.  

 The pre-game show: Two Cellos.  Their performance of With or Without You made me cry.

 There he is, on the left.  The man himself. 

And then the dessert.  Delicious chocolate piano filled with whipped cream and berries.  My heavens.

Apple Orchard

Time once again for apple picking.  We ate plenty of apples and spent plenty of time in trees.  Love this orchard.

American Heart Association 5k

 My work was a sponsor for the Indy Heart Walk in September, and a bunch of my co-workers were walking.  I got it into my head to run the 5k, something I hadn't done since college.  I dragged my friend Gwen along for the ride. 

We had so much fun, already looking forward to the next one and an improved time.

 J brought the girls down to see me finish.  They had a great time with face painting and lollipops.

Fort Ben

Fort Ben has been high on my list of things to do in Indy for awhile.  So for my birthday I talked my sister-in-law into meeting us there for the morning.

We started out happy...

...then walked/ran one of the shorter trails...

...paused to some catch a breath...

...then played at one of the playgrounds. 

 And finished off the day with some Culver's ice cream.

First Day of School - Kitty

And Kitty had her FIRST first day of school this year. She has a fun two year old class with great teachers. She enjoys it immensely, and loves it when her school day rolls around. She got purple sparkle tennies for the occasion.

First Day of School - Boo

Boo's birthday missed the kindergarten deadline, so we got another year of preschool this year. She has a fabulous prek class, the teachers and the classmates are the best I could hope for. Boo was so excited to get back to school, and has had a great year so far.

State Fair

A good time was had at the state fair again this year. The smoked turkey leg was as good as I remembered. The girls had their first cotton candy and it was a hit.

Boo had her obligatory sno-cone.

Kitty got up close and personal with the cows.

And the girls graduated.
Boo was tall enough and brave enough to try the fair rides. She loved them.

I mostly watched while she rode, but we went on the Tilt-A-Whirl together. Twice.
I used to love the Tilt-A-Whirl. And I still love it, it just makes me sick for the rest of the day.

And she went on her first roller coaster.
But my favorite part of the fair was this...
Watching a pet neutered (on the left) right next to a cooking demonstration.

Backyard County Fair

This was the year. We decided to have Boo's first big birthday party.

She has a lot of little preschool friends that have summer birthdays, so all summer she attended really fun birthday parties: a Halloween birthday party, a Fancy Nancy birthday party, a tea party birthday party, a swim party, bounce house parties. As August crept closer I became increasingly panicked about what we would do.

Boo has always loved the state fair, and talks about it all year, so we decided to go with a Backyard County Fair birthday party. It was flat out fun to plan, I was excited about it as Boo.

I will admit, however, that I got more than one gray hair in the days leading up to the party. Among other things, a big storm was supposed to roll in right at party time. We had 24 kids attending, and I spent the better part of two days staring at my downstairs rooms, trying to figure out how to have the party indoors.

But by some miracle the weather was absolutely perfect. Everything went smoothly and everyone had a great time, thanks to some great friends who helped with booths, took pictures, and took care of crowd control.

We started with fair food: corndogs, watermelon, and carrots/dip in a little cup.
Then each kid got a bag with tickets...
and we let them loose in the backyard to do the booths and win prizes. We had:

Facepainting

Bean Bag Toss

Knock 'Em Down

Guessing Jar

Art Table

And a bounce house.

Kitty was enormously disturbed that the bounce house was loud...
..and we're still hearing about it, a month later, in a pitiful little voice, "Bounce house loud" (or, "Buh-hus wuh" in Kitty-speak).

After an hour or so of playing games, we rounded them up inside to open gifts...


...and have cupcakes.
The cupcake tower was fairly easy to make. I was very disappointed in the cupcakes: the batter pulled away from the cupcake liners, and the sprinkles melted on the frosting. Oh well, they tasted good and with five year olds, really it only mattered that cupcakes were present, taste and looks are optional.

After cupcakes, we had a Marshmallow Race.
The kids ran from one side of the yard to the other, balancing large marshmallows on plastic spoons, and then earned a medal.

The party was over at this point, but the kids stayed and played. Things finally wound down around nine, and we noticed the threatening clouds rolling in. We packed everything up in a hurry, and five minutes later we got hit with the rain and wind. But it was a success, and I'm ready to do it again.