Fall, This and That

Fall weather has arrived and it is so wonderful. I love when we can turn off the air conditioning and open our windows. The kids have been anxious to get outside after school and have had fun playing with their neighborhood friends. We have been encouraging as much outside time as possible, knowing that the end of daylight savings is rapidly approaching and it will be dark super early soon.

We have engaged in some Fall festivities. Luke had his first "field trip" to Forest Hall Farms. I use the term loosely, because parents had to attend. But, we had a good time. Luke was his normal chatterbox self and his teacher remarked that she's never heard him speak so much, apparently he is very "quiet and cuddly" at school. Give him time, ladies... Now, he refers to all farms as pumpkin farms, which I love (especially since he has stopped calling all spiders "spider-man" and anything with Mickey Mouse "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse").

One really fun activity we did was trick-or-treating on the Dove at St. Mary's City. We got there about 30 minutes after the event started and the line was loooonng. We waited close to an hour. The kids made good use of the time, going to the craft tables and having fortunes told. Thomas and I were getting a bit frustrated at the long wait (particularly with trying to keep Luke entertained), but it was totally worth it! The good thing about being in line so long was it was dark by the time it was our turn and it definitely added to the fun. The decorations on the Dove were awesome and everyone was so friendly. You can tell they are history people, because they all recognized that Jack was a Union soldier. He had his spiel ready for anyone who asked about his costume and would proudly recite his regiment and offer a salute. They also had some games on the dock and we had a great time. One of the people asked Luke what he should say and Luke looked at him blankly, so the man prompted, "say trick-or-treat, Lion" and Luke responded with (you guessed it, I'm sure): "trick-or-treat Lion." After the experience Luke is sold on trick-or-treating and loves Halloween!

On Sunday, we went to Fall fun days at Mount Vernon. It was really nice, they were demonstrating all kinds of stuff, from weaving to boat building. They also had an amazing living history interpreter at the slave cabin. She never broke character! Someone asked about what happened after George Washington died and she yelled at him, "what do you mean died? He's walking down there by the river, just came and bought some eggs from me." It was very interesting (and sad) to learn more about the day to day lives of the slaves. No one wanted to leave and we enjoyed several hours outside in the farm area.

NPS was out in honor of their 100th Anniversary. The girls completed an activity and received small trophies. They also added their thumbprints to the NPS board.

Luke ran through their maze dozens of time, he'd run through, come out, yell "do it again" and go back. Meanwhile, the girls explored a nearby tent where they heard all about cooking in the 1700s.

After Mount Vernon, we headed to Six Flags. It was a beautiful day and we were really enjoying being outside. They had some fun fall activities, including a small hay bail maze and a spooky trick-or-treat trail. They gave the kids tons of candy, about 5x what they were given when they did the trail at the Six Flags in New Jersey. Everyone had a good time, but we didn't stay too long. It was a busy day!

Bugs wandered over to be in their picture. I loved that the characters were in costume.

Today (Friday) the kids celebrated the last day of Red Ribbon Week with a book character parade. It is quite the charade. Even the teachers drop the pretense and come dressed as things like M&Ms. Of course, there are many who are actually book characters. Among the many princesses and Darth Vaders, we saw some Pete the Cats, Fancy Nancys, Diary of a Wimpy Kid (don't know his name), Alice in Wonderlands, etc. Anna and Jack dressed in their Halloween costumes, but their costumes are actually represented in their favorite books. Anna was a veterinarian, her favorite books are Puppy Place and feature a vet. Jack was a Union Civil War soldier and brought along his favorite book--A Savage Thunder, which is about the Civil War. Kara wore a legit book costume, Anna's book character from last year--Little Miss Chatterbox. Of course, we have lost the Little Miss Chatterbox book, so she brought in a copy of Little Miss Neat. Luke's preschool is doing their Halloween activities on Monday, so stay tuned!

In other news, Kara's cheernastics class ended and she has not signed up for anything else. It has made our schedule more relaxed and we are enjoying the reprieve. She liked doing floor gymnastics at our local dance studio, but they moved about 25 minutes away from our house and Kara did not want to be in the car that long. The gymnastics center just wasn't as fun for her. Anna is doing a children's chorus. They rehearse very close to our house, so it is easy to simply drop her off and pick her up once a week. She has indicated that she wants to try soccer again. I think she has forgotten how unhappy she was playing, but if she is still interested in the Spring, soccer may be in our future again. Jack is doing another round of machine pitch baseball and says he plans on playing baseball forever!

Great Wolf Lodge

On Thursday we told our kids there was a two-hour delay. We had a leisurely breakfast and around 9 we gathered the kids and asked, "how about instead of going to school today, we go to...Great Wolf Lodge?!?!?!" They were thrilled! They jumped up and down and squealed and raced to get their car bags packed. We threw our suitcases in the van and headed off (discussing on the way the difference between a lie and a surprise).

We had lunch at Chick-Fil-A and checked in. Our room was ready, so we quickly dropped off our bags, changed and went to the water park. The other surprise for the kids was that several of our neighbors were joining us. Jack was thrilled when he saw Kolten, who lives across the street from us. He is only in PreK, but he and Jack love to have lightsaber battles and rough-house. Unfortunately, none of their school-aged friends joined us (one family was supposed to, but their son got stitches a few days before departure and was told he couldn't get them wet for 10 days). They enjoyed playing with the other kids. We rode all the slides and even took Luke on the family water raft. Unfortunately, he did not like it. He actually grew more timid as our time there went on. He loves the slides attached to the giant kid structure, but hated the water bucket dropping on him. They also have a water feature that lets people drop a trough of water on you on your way to the slides. I don't know why people thought it was funny to scare a 2-year old, but they did. So, Luke eventually decided it wasn't worth the risk and gave up all slides except the ones in the baby pool.

The birthday kids

All the kids!

Back to Thursday, for dinner we went to Cracker Barrel, which was good. Then, we stopped at Walmart to pick up food for Friday's breakfast and lunch. When we returned to GWL, we met up with our friends and did the trick-or-treat trail (really short, but good candy), and looked for all the hidden peeps. Then, we saw the clock tower show in the lobby, followed by the bedtime story. Luke took one look at the clock tower and decided he wasn't interested, so Thomas put him to bed and I stayed with the older three. Finally, it was time for bed.

With a few of our friends.

Friday, we went back to the water park in the morning. Then, we decided to visit the Virginia Air and Space Museum. It was really cool. It had lots of interactive exhibits that were fun for all of us, including an AirTran DC-9 that you could climb around in and attempt to "fly". The kids loved the children's area, where they could design and build a rocket, see video of the sun, dress-up in astronaut suits and experience lots of other exhibits. We had a great time. In fact, they were working on a new exhibit that had lots of fun looking "games" and the kids all want to go back when it opens.

Flying the DC-9

Kara drew out her plan on paper and then executed this design.

Cutouts!

We drove to the Yankee Candle Flagship store, a must-visit place anytime we go to Williamsburg. Then, it was Olive Garden for dinner and back to GWL for some more pool time. We put the kids to bed around 8:30. Thomas stayed with the kids and I went and relaxed in the hottub with one of my friends until the park closed, then we met up with our other friends and chatted for an hour or so. It was really nice.

Santa was hanging out in the Christmas area at Yankee Candle. The kids had to write down if they were naughty, nice or in-between. J & K put "nice" and A wrote her name in the "in-between" column.

Saturday, we went to the waterpark in the morning and then headed to Jack's favorite place--Yorktown. First, we had lunch at one of our favorite places--The Carrot Tree. Although, it no longer has the historic atmosphere since it switched locations, it now has an outdoor eating area that makes it easy to take the kids. Luckily, they were having a children's festival in the town area, so the kids got to make crafts while we waited for our food. We walked around the festival a bit more after lunch and everyone had a good time.

It was a beautiful day!

Then, it was off to the battlefield. We watched the orientation film (one of the better ones we've seen, so we enjoy watching it when we visit) and then looked around the visitor's center and gift shop. It was getting late, so we decided to forgo walking the battlefield. We were there on October 16th and the famous storming of the redoubts took place on the evening of October 15th, so it was fun to see everything how it would have looked when we won that very important battle (thanks France!).

This picture represents from our car forward. In just this one half of one row, 14 different states were represented! We love it when others love history:)

I will conclude with one last picture of a sweet, sleeping Jack:

Jack and Anna turn 9!

On Monday, October 3, Anna and Jack celebrated their ninth birthday. We work hard to make birthdays special around here, so of course, there was no exception for our resident twins. Naturally, we lead up to the big day with lots of discussions about their birth story and clicking through hundreds of baby pictures on Shutterfly.

The actual day began with a leisurely breakfast of pancakes and sausage. They donned their birthday buttons and I drove them to school. Thomas came home so that we could surprise them together for lunch. They knew I would be there, but they weren't expecting their dad. He's the fun one (who pretends to be a snooty waiter when we have lunch with them, so they and their tablemates were thrilled). They handed out small cupcakes to their classmates and proclaimed that they were having a great day so far.

Aren't they cute? Luke was a bit jealous of the attention (and tried insisting it was his birthday, hence his sort of inclusion in this photo).

After school, we made sure to have their current favorite snack on hand--soft pretzels. We also let them open their birthday gifts. Their main gift is a trip to Great Wolf Lodge (stay tuned, they don't know when we are going...) We let them skip homework and go straight out to play. Finally, it was 5:30 and the Darrows came over. It was our month to host dinner, so we invited them to join us for the kids' birthday dinner. Jack wanted pizza and Anna wanted cheese fondue. Cheese fondue seemed difficult to finagle with so many people, so we had Jack's dinner with Anna's cake. For her cake, she wanted a "fall theme with at least one animal." I made some chocolate trees and bought some candy bears to stick on. It was not my best cake, Anna said she liked it, but it was not her favorite, which was a fair assessment.

I totally forgot to get a picture! Here is a half-eaten tree (just picture longer branches) on the last piece of cake.

We had dinner, the kids played, then we had our cake. It was a very pleasant day. The kids were appreciative of our efforts and both of them (separately and unprovoked) thanked us for making the day so special for them!

On Saturday, we had Anna's meal and Jack's cake. As mentioned, Anna wanted a cheese fondue. Jack tried really hard to talk her out of it, insisting we should only have cheese fondue on New Year's Eve to keep it special. But, she was immovable, and obviously Thomas and I had no objection. So, we had our cheese fondue, followed by Jack's Civil War themed cake. We followed it up with a family movie night and concluded the second birthday celebration. And, because we love to drraaaaaggggg birthdays out, we still have Great Wolf Lodge to come.

No Wilson cheese fondue is complete without at least 4 different kinds of bread.

Jack LOVED his cake, he even proclaimed it his favorite one ever! I felt like it was cheating because it had inedible parts. But, it was really fun to make.

Philadelphia Trip, Day 3

Everyone was awake early again on Sunday morning. We had our hotel breakfast and then headed to our first destination--Monmouth Battlefield. The land was bought by the State of New Jersey and it was our first time visiting a Revolutionary Battlefield that was a state park and not a National Park. However, it was extremely well-preserved and very beautiful. We walked around the visitor's center, saw a short film and then explored outside for a little bit. While exploring we walked down a huge hill, across a bridge, through a bit of a corn field and then back over another bridge. While walking this path, we came across an area with thousands of grasshoppers. It was the strangest thing, they were just bouncing off our legs as we walked. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture, but it was very weird.

Can you find something that doesn't quite belong in this picture???

Another beautiful battle site, almost seems wrong that all these places are so pretty.

Then, it was off to Six Flags Great Adventure. Our season passes are good at all Six Flags, so it seemed like a good way to spend part of our last day. Since it was off-season and a Sunday, we did not expect it to be crowded. However, by our standards it certainly was! We got into the park shortly after they opened at 11 (it was only a few minutes from Monmouth) and headed straight for the Safari. They have one of the largest drive-through Safaris outside of Africa. The tour actually lasted 45-minutes, which was much more than we expected. We saw some amazing animals, including the world's most adorable baby giraffe--only two weeks old!! It was a good time of year to visit, because there were several baby animals, but the giraffe was everyone's favorite.

After the tour, Kara decided she wanted to try out a small roller coaster, unfortunately, she hated it. Jack and Anna (and Thomas and I) love roller coasters, but Kara hates "big hills." This roller coaster (I use the term loosely) didn't have any big drops, but it was fast and loud. We rode a few kid rides, as Luke was about to mutiny, and then had our lunch. Then, we went on a ride that was actually fun for everyone, the Parachute Training Center.  It lifts you 250 feet into the air and then you slowly come back down. 250' is really high! I sat with Jack and Luke and was really nervous for Luke (and kept a tight grip on him!), but he did fine. It was our first family ride that had a bit of a thrill.

Anna is a little nervous about heights, but she decided she wanted to give it a try anyway.

On the trick-or-treat trail. They actually got some good candy.

Luke did not like this ride. He was very scared and we felt terrible! He's extremely daring, but usually he has a big sibling or parent next to him.

The lines were long for the major attractions, so Thomas and I had to skip the big rides. They actually have the fastest and tallest coaster in North America and Thomas really wanted to ride. Next time! He and Jack did ride one stand-up roller coaster, which reinjured Thomas' head. It was his first day headache free and the bumpy coaster ruined that for him. We should have known better when there was no wait for that particular coaster (they have something like 13 roller coasters). In contrast, the one we had heard was really good had an hour wait.

The kids rode several more rides, we had dinner and left around 6. The haunt people were starting to arrive, which meant it was time for us to depart. The drive home was (thankfully) uneventful and everyone was in their own bed by 10. The park is a lot bigger than our usual Six Flags, but it was also much more crowded. Their "light" day was comparable to a fairly busy day at the Maryland park. There were more (and better) rides and better food selections in New Jersey, but our park is just right for our family, although, I do hope to visit the New Jersey park again to ride some of the coasters that we missed on this visit.

Overall, it was a great trip. It wasn't fun that Thomas spent so much of it in pain, but he is a trooper and pushed through with nary a complaint. With a few exceptions, the kids were great and got along well. I can't wait to go back!