Bloomsbury Farms

I love small town activities that are both entertaining and eccentric.  Here is one we look forward to visiting next year with Edwin.

The train ride was the ideal activity for James.....we arrived early and got numerous rides around and around the track.

This is a corn box.  We found it's much easier to clean up from the corn box than a sand box.

Only in Iowa, right?

Our neighbors were with us and that just added to the fun.

Anne, Gavin, Loie, Grace, and James stood still for a brief moment.

 

These are corn cob guns.  We shot corn on the cob in the pasture that was still filled with cows. 

Sorry for any pain we may have unintentionally inflicted on the poor animals across the ditch.

This is the pumpkin cannon.  They moved all the cows for this activity, but really the cows were safe.  The cannon shot the pumpkins across the pasture and into the neighbors farm. If I was good at distances I'd guess how are far the pumpkins flew, but alas, that's Edwin's area of expertise and you'll have to wait until next year when he is there to gauge the area.

The kids found this 45 pound pumpkin. 

 What a beast!

Blueberries

Earlier this summer we found a great price on local blueberries.  We made syrup and froze several pounds for blueberry pancakes, muffins, tarts, or whatever other tasty goodies we can think of this winter.

Ironically, once the blueberries were stored away Edwin and I realize we brewed a little more than syrup.

 So we are now introducing... Baby Blueberry! 

 Each or our kids had a unique in-utero name.  Baby Blueberry was named because morning sickness hit hard and fast and we explained to the kids why mom was so sick.  They asked how big baby was, and well.....baby was the size of a blueberry according to one website. With all those blueberries in the house the kids understood just how big Baby Bluebery was at the time.  The name stuck and we are happy to have Baby Blueberry arriving this spring. 

So there you have it....

We are expecting a healthy baby boy in April.

Curlers

We finally found some sponge rollers and we all think they are fabulous. 

James likes to curl his hair too. 

 He's having such a difficult time being a boy in this house full of girls.

Missing

Look What Grace is Missing

It's been about 8 weeks of "loose tooth" syndrome at our house.

Today was the final day.  It's Grace's first tooth and we are excited to try to catch the toothfairy tonight while she is sleeping!

Ah, the joys of childhood!

Halloween Festivities

It all started with two little girls who knew last year they wanted to be witches. 

We bought a few witch hats and embellished them.

James needed a wizard hat to go along with his big sisters.

We spent an afternoon painting pumpkins and gourds.  For Family Home Evening one night we painted Styrofoam balls to look like eyeballs (I neglected to take any pictures of Grace's wonderful idea so you'll have to wait until next year.)

We dressed up for the church Trunk or Treat

Anne wanted to be a scary witch for Halloween night

Grace was a pretty witch

James wanted face paint too and refused to wear any sort of costume.  However, he helped himself to the neighbors' candy troves and gave lots of hugs to the elderly couples.  We had a successful Halloween.

Edwin did a great job carving the spider pumpkin too.