Triple C Weekend

Our weekend included:

 a Carnival at one of "the cousins'" schools. Each classroom had a different theme. It was fun to see all of the other kids in costume.

a Corn maze that was fun, but not as much fun as in years past. The recent snow wreaked havoc on the maze and broke off the tops of the stalks, so we could pretty much see right across the whole maze. It was a beautiful day, though and a lot of fun to spend part of the afternoon outside soaking up some sun.

and

Carving pumpkins. Eva G was pretty much exhausted by this point in the day and wasn't too interested in actually helping, but she did enjoy the pumpkins after they were finished and we put candles in them and turned off the lights.

Wintry Wednesday, part 2

Yes, this is Thursday, but here's a little more of what we did yesterday afternoon...

Wintry Wednesday

What else is a girl to do on a snowy day, but play dress up and dance around the beans we were playing with earlier?! Ah, life is good and the snow beautiful!

Nebraska

We spent this past weekend in Nebraska where we met up with some of Calvin's family. We had fun and couldn't have asked for more beautiful weather. We took in a couple of museums, had a cookout and s'mores, played cards and just enjoyed the time. 

Of course, we saw lots and lots of farms as we drove. But the most interesting ones were the wind farms. There were so many of these as we got nearer to the state line on our way back. It was really quite beautiful to see these huge things spinning so smoothly--they looked like gymnasts. Eva G insisted on calling them weather vanes, even though we kept telling her they were wind turbines. She really liked seeing them off in the distance and then got so excited when we got close to them.

There's more to Nebraska than corn...they've got Carhenge too!! It was actually kinda neat, despite the cheesiness of it. 

Big Pumpkins

We got out and enjoyed the beautiful weather this weekend and got to see some really big pumpkins. These were humongous, with the winning pumpkin weighing 751 pounds! There were also some huge zucchinis and a cucumber (we think) that just looked unnatural. It was fun to get up close and touch--and sit on--these pumpkins.

Snowy Saturday

This is what we woke up to this morning: 

 

 First footprints of the season--just enough on the deck to make it lots of fun!

 Those mittens sure got in the way of putting in the eyes--the little carrot is from our garden.

 A friend made this hat for Eva G when she was still in the hospital. It was just the right size for our little snowman(woman? :). We took it off soon after and it's now back inside safe and sound.

The daddy, the mommy and the baby snow people. Eva hugged them and told them she loved them. It was really sweet.

The sun came out a few hours later and melted most of the snow, but our little snow family is still hanging in there, though slowly dripping away...

Zoo, Meltdown, and Colors, oh my!

We took advantage of the great weather this weekend and enjoyed some fun outdoor adventures. 

Friday afternoon, Daddy came home early and we went to the zoo. The animals were really lively--especially the grizzly bears that splashed in the water and growled and just generally put on a great display for us. Of course, there were giraffes to be fed as well. It was a fun time, until we got to the carousel. We asked Eva several times if she wanted to ride and she said she didn't, even though she was dancing around when the music started up. We walked past it a couple of times and each time she didn't want to. Sure enough, on our way out, she said she wanted to ride the "carouswell" (she combined carousel and ferris wheel) and then the meltdown began. She's really a very even-keeled kid and doesn't usually get too worked up about things. This was not one of those things. Everyone knew where we were on our way out, as the crying was hard to miss and continued well into the car and as we drove back, until she fell asleep. Lesson learned: don't go to the zoo without a nap before and take the long way out if that means skipping the "carouswell" at the end of the day.

 Saturday afternoon we headed up to the mountains to catch the fall colors and couldn't have picked a better weekend. The colors were absolutely magnificent. We also stopped for a little bit of fishing--which really means Eva G just casts her line and then asks, "Where's my bobber?" We took the scenic route back home and got home just in time for bed. It was a fun afternoon with Cousin S (not sure how we didn't get a picture with him in it).

**it was a few days later that I realized I didn't do 3 on 3 this month!! Eva was working on a little cold today, anyway, so maybe it's just as well that we didn't do pictures with runny noses and such.