School + Pumpkins

It's hard to believe that it's been nearly one month since school started. Louisa seems to be enjoying first grade as much as she did kindergarten, which is a lot. Right next door to Lou's classroom is Cora's 4K classroom. In Madison, 4K is a half-day program; Cora is in the morning class (7:35-10:37), while Louisa is at school until 2:40. Nate usually drops them off together in the morning, but Cora gets to take the bus home, which is awesome. She enjoys it and Peter likes seeing the bus each day.

Yesterday after school I had pot roast in the oven and a pretty clean house, so I wanted to stay out of the house until dinner. The weather was finally cooler, which made me feel like it was a pumpkin patch kind of day. Nate came home to accept a Home Depot delivery (a piece of metal for our cellar door) AND meet a buyer for our pick-up truck (he bought it!), so the kids and I loaded up for a surprise outing. The whole way, Louisa tried to figure out where we were going. On the way home, everyone was very quiet (read: tired). I asked Louisa if the pumpkin patch was a good surprise and she said Yes, that was the best surprise ever.

The pumpkin patch was pretty cute - just a person's house 20 minutes outside of Madison. Nobody was around but they had a great self-service set up and lots of fun scare-a-crow type halloween decorations, as well as lots and lots of reasonably priced pumpkins, squash and gourds. I told the kids they could each pick 2 pumpkins, but they had to be able to carry them. Peter and Cora were immediately taken by the tiny 2-for-$1 pumpkins, so I didn't complain when they each picked four. Louisa on the other hand, saw the pick-it-lift-it rule as a challenge and picked the biggest one she could handle. Once my kids are too cool for pumpkin patches, I'm really going to miss how easy it is to surprise and entertain them!

They love these things

Walking the hayride trail

A new friend

I think Peter may grow up to be very orderly

Making sure we got them all