Pumpkin patch fun

So - I figured I had better do something fun with Sam on his last day at home as an only child. We headed to a pumpkin patch with some friends, and the kids had a blast! The place had playhouses to play in, a pirate ship to climb on, animals to pet, and of course pumpkins!


The boys atop the hay.


Sam peeking out of the kid-size barn.
The next 3 are a series for Papa:
Headed to church......


Calling everyone in.........
And exiting through the window!

Pig petting

All four of the kids at least visible through the holes......we tried for all smiling, or even looking, but met with little success.

How tall is Sam?

Pumpkins!

Which one should I pick?

Looking out the pirate ship porthole.

I'll share mine

Sam has been watching a lot of the cartoon Kai-lan lately. For those of you who may be unaware, Kai-lan is a little Chinese girl who has a variety of critter friends (Tolee, Hoho, and Rintoo) who learn lessons about feelings and behavior. They usually get some wisdom from Kai-lan's grandpa, YeYe.

This morning Sam and I were laying in bed talking (not about Kai-lan, mind you) when he randomly tells me, "Kai-lan has a papa, but not a grandma. That's ok. She can borrow mine. I'll share."

What a sweetheart. Let's hope he's still up for sharing when Sadie gets here.

Is he serious?

Last night we had to go pick up Joe's truck from being fixed at Sears around 8. (Score: truck - 3, Joe - 0. We have managed to "invest" about $3K in the lovely thing in the last 3 days, but that story could be an entire blog in itself, especially coupled with the stories concerning the money we have "invested" in paying off our tickets/court fees/traffic lawyer recently. But I digress....) We put Sam in his pjs just in case he fell asleep on the way home, which he did. I transferred him into bed without him waking up.......until 1 AM. I heard him moving around but tried to ignore it for a while. When he began yelling for me, I decided I had better check things out. I found him standing by his door with the lights on.

"Mom, where's my animals?" (Side note: He usually has an assortment of about 20 stuffed animals strewn around his bed, but I had actually picked up his room earlier in the day for the first time in about a month and had placed them all neatly in a basket on the floor. Apparently, he could sense they were missing in his sleep.)

"Here. Now go back to bed." I dumped the basket on his bed to restore them to their "places."

"Mom - we forgot to read 2 books." (Another side note: We always read 2 books before bed.That is, unless he happens to be already asleep when it is time for bed. Again - something that apparently he could sense was missing while sleeping.) He looks up at me expectantly. Was he seriously thinking I was going to read him 2 books at 1 AM?

"It's dark. I am not reading 2 books. Go to sleep."

I felt victorious until he woke up again a half an hour later. I sent Joe in, which I knew would just prompt hysterical screaming for me, but I could not get myself out of bed, due to the Tylenol PM I took to fall asleep so that I would not lay awake making lists in my head about China all night long. (Wow - that was an impressive run-on sentence. You'll have to excuse me. Blogging does not bring out the best in my language skills. Any fellow Buckle-Downers are probably embarrassed, but hey, I never claimed to be an English major!)

Joe attempted to quell the screaming. He lost. Sam was in bed with us - head in my armpit, feet in Joe's face - for the rest of the night. Score: Sam - 1, Jane and Joe - 0.

The Apple Machine

One of the things I had forgotten I had until my mom organized my basement was an apple peeler/corer/slicer. Looking for something entertaining to do yesterday afternoon, I decided it was finally good weather for apple crisp (or as Sam calls it, Apple Christmas.) Here's my little helper.

SORRY!

Sam recently found the shelves of board games in the basement. His entertainment the other day was to bring one upstairs, take out all the pieces, briefly "play" it, and then descend to the basement to find another one. This got old really fast. He was drawing with Pictionary pencils, buzzing the Taboo buzzer, and throwing dice all over the place. I managed to reign him in with the promise I would play a game with him. I thought my best bet was Sorry. I knew we wouldn't play by all the rules, but was hoping we could draw cards and move the guys along the board for a while. All was well until he drew a Sorry! card. Stupidly, I was a bit dramatic in showing him how to sorry someone back to their own home. The game rapidly went downhill.......

Here he is showing off the game later that evening.

Make Uncle Matt proud

As a child, my brother Matt could often be found in a similar position while reading. Come to think of it, he can still be found reading books like this.


Sam has to give each of the "Sam-size"chairs in his room equal reading (and camera) time.

I wonder where Sam is hiding.....

Sam has a new fascination with hide and seek. He hasn't quite figured out the need to make sure his entire body is out of sight. (Or the fact that giggling isn't a good idea, either.)