Pumpkins

WARNING: lots of pictures to come, and I don't apologize.

What a packed weekend! The Gillies and our family drove up to Cartersville Friday afternoon to go to the Cartersville HS football game. Jake's dad has been helping out with the team for years, and it was really fun for all of us to see him on the field in action with the players and coaches.

After a big breakfast Saturday and being joined by my mom, we all headed up to the Pumpkin Patch! Luke and Abby Jane led the way...

I spent all last week sewing pumpkin dresses for the girls, only to decide at the last minute that I didn't want to put the pumpkin applique on the dresses I had sewn and limit them to pumpkin season. So here are our $3.50 Garanimals shirts with said applique!

Remember this picture last year?

One year later...
Mimi and Joy, Blythe and Grammy
No one was really into this but the parents!This place is awesome: not crowded, great selection of pumpkins, games, petting farm, and hayride. Here is Blythe checking out the roosters right before one of the pecked her little fingers!!! Grammy was NOT happy about that rooster, as you can imagine.
Abby Jane kissing the "injured" finger.
She recovered and was interested in the llamas.
Those ears back made me a little nervous!
"Pat the Bunny"
Joy was a fan of the fences, and I'm a fan of those icy blues.
Checking out the donkey
They let all of our girls sit on the sweet pony.
Abby Jane, Jake, Grammy, Blythe, me, Joy, Mimi, Bop Bop, Cade, Paul, Luke, and Betsy on the hayride!

Sweet Mimi and Bop Bop- they hosted, fed and spoiled all of us this weekend- family is such a blessing.

Jake's getting older...

So we got to celebrate his birthday all week long! I surprised him with a dinner date on Monday night at Eclipse di Luna. It's a tapas place, and on Mondays you can pay a set price and try anything you want to on a special chef's menu. We figured out we tried over $65 worth and paid half of that. I like it. And it was just a fabulous dinner date with my best friend! Who also happens to be very good looking.

On Wednesday, his actual birthday, we celebrated with the girls, and Jake got lots of birthday love...

original artwork on his gift...

and plenty of assistance opening it!

Jake and I had a fun date night at home that night, starting with post-bedtime dinner, which meant actually savoring our food, and a movie... which our schedule has not allowed much of recently! I am indescribably thankful for the amazing blessing that Jake is in my life and the lives of our children! Happy birthday, babe- I love you!

CAMPING! At long last...

I know, I know, the suspense has been killing y'all. Here are the camping photos...

Dining al fresco at our awesome campsite at Vogel State Park- we were on the far end of the campground, so there were no neighbors behind us- so beautiful!

S'mores the first night! Turns out Cade liked the marshmallows better than the s'mores.

Cheating? Absolutely. Ashamed? Maybe a little, but the coffee sure was good that morning.

Joy is such a snugglebug- she LOVED throwing herself around in the tent in all the cushy sleeping bags and pillows!

Playing after breakfast while the twins got a nap!We went on a hike around the lake in the morning, and Luke, at 19 months, ran the entire way... he lasted longer on his own legs than the bigger kids!

Storytime before naps (looking through the screen)...

We played cards during the kids' naps... until it started raining so hard that it was blowing in the tent!

Thankfully the rain cleared out and we got to enjoy the campground's putt-putt course that was apparently there when all of us adults went camping there as children. Note Cade's follow-through: he was by far the best player from our group.
Luke and his daddy...
Dinnertime.
Both nights, us adults sat around the fire and talked until way past our bedtimes- SO fun. It started pouring rain late Saturday night, so Sunday morning we packed up and headed out a little earlier as a result. It was a fantastic trip! We can't wait for next time!

Camping Necessities

We're packing up to go, and I made sure we had all the necessities. Pumpkin muffins (thanks for the new recipe, Holly!)

Homemade granola...

Chocolate chunk cookies...

And yes, the fixins for s'mores. And then there's everything else that we'll need for when we're not having yummy camping food...
We're going with the Gillies, and this is our first time going with family- we're so excited! Hope everyone else has a great weekend, too! War Eagle, by the way...

At least you didn't...

Let your child fall headfirst out the front door of the house (down a one-foot drop onto a concrete step) while you snapped her sister in her carseat.

It didn't keep her down for long.

But I don't think I'm going to be winning any mother-of-the-year awards on that one. So this is your ego boost- whatever you've done today, it could have been a lot worse!

Home sweet Auburn

Bringing all three of our girls for our first gameday as a family of five was a delight to our souls. Yesterday was the day that the most of my roommates would be able to meet up- Steph and Beth, we missed y'all! Here are Victoria, Lyndsay, Mikelyn, and myself.

It was a hot, long day for our girls, but all in all, they did great. It's always sad when you know your kids are not at their best with their schedule completely thrown off, and yet they're meeting people for the first time, etc., but we were grateful for how well they hung in there, all things considered.

And we had help along the way. :)

Lynds and Jeff are expecting, so we surprised them with a little Auburn shower as we knew it was going to get trickier and trickier to get everyone together as holidays approach! I made this burpcloth last week- my first to make and not without flaws. Thankfully, Lynds is sentimental about things like that...

We tried this photo several different occasions with similar results each time. Maybe we need to teach Abby Jane how to hug without cutting off air supply. One funny story: Abby Jane and I walked past a student in a particularly fabulous sundress, and I told her, "THAT is a great dress!" She immediately pointed to Abby Jane and said, "No, THAT is a great dress!"

Jake, Mat, Jeff, and Marshall in their blue.

We did not make it around to everyone we wanted to see, but we did get to see my precious Em and pat the Little Bit in her tummy, due in January...

We also made it to the Boney tailgate, where Abby Jane got to play with Quinn, Caroline, and little Bradford. Their sweet "Gammy" loved on the babies and "Sus" (Lindsey's mama) scooped Abby Jane up for her very favorite thing in the middle of a long, hot day.

She has a thing for tubas. We didn't ever get to see Aubie since we didn't get to Tiger Walk in time, but we did see the band...
We also checked out the new arena- A-mazing!
Mat and Vic are naturals with our girls! Mat helped Abby Jane with a cupcake- pretty sure he secured lifelong friendship right there.
"Abby Jane, this is where callouts will be..." Cater Hall is one of my favorite buildings- Beth's and my joint lingerie shower was held there, too!
It was such a precious, golden day. This puts it best.

Busy

While Jake has been away on a writing retreat, we've all been busy around here.

Everyone is pitching in with the chores.

On Tuesday, my friend Rebecca came over and introduced me to my monogramming machine. I had been sewing up a storm, so I have now been spending the last couple of days doing a lot of this...

with only one absolute casualty. Thankfully it was a pillowcase dress- much easier to repair!