Pumpkin Patch

Iowa has some awesome pumpkin patches! When I was a kid in West Virginia, we always went to the pumpkin patch, every year - it is a highlight of my childhood. I think the same will be said of my boys when they're older. It's just too fun!

We're getting excited for Halloween around here! For our Family Home Evening activity last night, we made Halloween frames, compliments of DMU from last year! Austin "helped" Jensen with his. Jensen was pleased with the outcome.

Luke was pretty proud of his too. He did it all by himself.

Luke started taking a preschool cooking class for kids - Kinderchefs. He LOVES it! I casually mentioned in a family email that I wish I had the skill or modivation to make Luke an apron. My mom decided that Luke had to have one and then she went above and beyond and got him a chef's hat too! Of course she got one for Jensen too! So thoughtful! Jensen didn't take his off for hours after it came in the mail.


This pumpkin patch has an old "Herbie car." Our kids love it!

Long slide + huge hill= tons of fun! Luke went down by himself a bunch of times. Jensen wasn't quite convinced that it was safe, probably next year he'll go for it.

This place seriously had everything, Jensen sat in for the driver of the kiddy train.

Corn pool anyone? Austin wanted to stay here all day, he was so relaxed in it. There were slides that went right into the corn pool. The boys went down them fowards, backwards, face first, etc. It was a lot of fun! Time flew here and before we knew it we were almost out of time to pick a pumpkin!

Austin trying to "round up" the straw steers with his rope. It took him about 10 minutes to finally get the rope around a non-moving steer. I can't imagine how hard the real deal is.
Luke pretended to be rodeo riding this straw steer.

You don't want this thing taking a nip at your finger tip. Austin was tempting it pretty badly. I was fairly certain we were going to leave the petting zoo in a rush to get Austin and his fingers to the hospital. Close call.

Luke is in some serious need of a bike and some practice time. We have some little trikes at home that are way too small for him. It makes Austin so mad to see Luke moving forward on one of these with his legs, rather than pedaling the bike. Either way, these tractors made for a great time!

Despite my best efforts to shame him, guilt trip him, bribe him, do whatever I can to make him cut his hair - Austin won't and is growing his mop on top out. His hair is naturally curly and he has chosen this time in all of his whole life, to see how curly and fro-y it can get. Sometimes he'll be laying on my lap and his massive amount of fro will get in my mouth! Now, to make me even more mad, he has started growing some facial hair too. Woof! I don't want Eliza's birth pictures to have a guy like this in them! What can I do?

I don't know where he gets it, but Luke's new favorite item of clothing are tank tops! Pretty strange. Someone gave us one once and he LOVED it! Then I saw one at WalMart for $1 and thought it would make a good football practice shirt, but he wears it as a regular shirt all the time. I guess he doesn't know the stereotype that goes along with tank tops.

These boys are getting so big, especially Luke, he is such a good little helper. Sometimes I have to ask him to stop cleaning up Jensen's messes so Jensen can learn to clean up his own. You couldn't ask for a better older brother/oldest child than Luke - he's a good boy. He and Jensen play for hours and hours, best friends. You know it's time to have another kid when they are completely entertaining themselves for that long. It's time for another challenge, baby #3 here we come.

Just like any member of a Flake family, this kid LOVES his chocolate!

A long time ago, I think it was for Luke's 2nd birthday, so two years ago, Austin's Grandma bought Luke a subscription to "Wild Animal Baby" magazine. It has been one of the BEST presents ever! Luke loves getting something in the mail. Then we read it, do the activities, over and over and over again until the next one comes the next month. They keep well too because they have a harder cover and pages, meant for kids to play with and read over and over. We have all our old ones and read them over and over again. Now that Luke is getting a little older, he gets the magazine "My Big Backyard" which is the one for toddlers. This one has stories geared more towards toddlers with long attention spans and has activities like using scissors and stuff that he can do. I haven't checked with Austin's grandma, but I'm pretty sure she's supplying this one too because it keeps coming. Anyway, thanks Great-Grandma Williamson, these little magazines provide hours of entertainment each week and teach the kids about different animals - they love them!

Eliza Kramer due October 17th!! My mom gets here on the 16th so I hope I don't go early! I need her help - thanks for coming mom!