Charmingfare Farm

Charmingfare farm is a place that has some farm animals and others you would expect to see more in a zoo or something. Like these beautiful wolves.

This raccoon was hainging from the top of the cage and laying on a bar. It was too funny.

For Halloween they had a couple of events planned and one was for the kids. They started out feeding the farm animals, once again confirming how mean goats are, especially to baby goats!

I didn't actually take pictures of them.

Then they had a horse drawn hay ride to see the decorations in the woods, that doubled as a scary hay ride at night.They dropped us at a hay maze in a barn and then took a tracker wagon ride to a corn maze, which was flooded out :( The kids got to wear their costumes and each station gave out candy. A little pre-trick-or-treat day. They are holding the animal food. The goats grabbed the bag right from Jacob and ate most of the bag as well. No wonder those little suckers have such big guts!

Flashback Friday

This picture represents simple times, before things got complicated by engagements, weddings and siblings :)

Baileigh turns 10

Well she turned 10. At the end of September. Her first year in the double digits. Wouldn't we all give our right something to be able to go back there when life was so simple and we didn't have to worry about bills, grocery shopping, jobs and ends meet. :) I always see her around the boys so it was fun to see her with her friends. We went to her bowling birthday party.

Though we don't get to see her as much as we would like due to living far apart, we do have some good memories and have gotten to see her grow up over the years. Here are a few pictures of her over the years.

A visit to Auntie Chelle at the camp. I use to think she looked so much like me as a baby. A visit with her new cousin, days after Joshua was born. We went to Maine 5 days after my c-section.

Easter, she came down with Grammy.
The first three born. One to Ed, one to me and one to Jeanne. (wrong date on photo)

A visit to see Grampa Perry when he was sick.Another new cousin was born. This time Baileigh came to visit Jamie.

Flashback Friday

This is a picture of my Dad playing at the camp in 1961. I am so grateful to my grandparents for building this place for our family. It has been a place to enjoy and make lifetime memories. I am glad that my boys are able to continue in similar fun to that my dad had as a boy. Of course, they are not allowed to dig holes (we need to keep all of the earth that is left as the water tries to steal some each year) :)

Can you spot the difference...

...between these two pictures?

After many headache complaints and a couple of eye appt's we've decided to try glasses. I was hoping to put it off for as long as we could, but with 100% of my family and lots of Jim's as well needing glasses, the poor kids don't have much of a chance to avoid it. I was in the 2nd grade when I got mine, so he got one more year than me. Jeffrey lasted until he was 16, but I think that is just because he was ok with seeing the world with blurry vision.

It was the cutest thing when we went to pick them up. As soon as he put them on he had the biggest smile I have ever seen on his face. It really was like, "Oh, this is what the world really looks like". His prescription is very slight, only-1.00 and -.75 but once you get use to seeing clearly, there is no comparison.

Flashback Friday

One of my favorite parts of facebook has been catching up with people I haven't seen in 25 years. Sad that I can actually say it's been 25 years, but it has. I have just loved reconnecting with Amy. She was an old neighbor who really was a lifeline in my early years.

Talk about sweet socks :) (actually I hate them, even if they are the rage again) This picture reminds me that I am a skinny person trapped in a fat person's body :) Some day...some day.

Can you imagine why I would jump if I saw this thing coming up to my camera lens?

That's exactly what I did when he got close. I was trying to get up close and he returned the favor.

Last week Auntie suggested we hit up the farm after school. Come to find out, they aren't open very late so we were pressed for time and limited on options due to the distance we would have

to go. This one turned out to be a bit of a dud, so we took the opportunity for a photo opt, bought some apples and went home to make apple crisp. I was so jealous reading about everyone else making apple things I just had to get in on the game. I really wanted to make zucchini bread, but they didn't even have zucchini. What kind of a farm is that??? The pocket book if for all my peeps who laugh when I have it everywhere :)

"Don't ever lose that sense of wonder...."

Flashback Friday

My sister-in-law does a Favorite Photo Friday on her photography blog. I'm going to steal the idea but put a twist on it with Flashback Friday. Technically today is Saturday, but why wait until next Friday to start.

Here is the first installment. Check back Friday for the next.

Ok, so I cheated. It is technically two pictures, but I scanned it as one. One costume, two different kids, I promise...look at the dates :)

Soccer Saturday

I'm glad that I can actually say that it is...the way the season began, I wasn't quite sure it would happen. If you remember, we tried soccer with Joshua when he was in Kinder. but he was too nervous to get into it. When Jacob was old enough to start sports, I really thought that would be the catalyst that Joshua needed to get into it. T-ball was my inspiration for getting Joshua into soccer. He became the team helper and really looked forward to it, so I ran with it and signed him up for soccer...without him asking me of course. Since when do parents ask for permission, when do kids get a voice :) (Believe me when I say this is meant sarcastically, with Joshua I learned very early when he was picking his own clothes out at age 2, with conviction, that he had his own mind and opinion and by the way...that I was in trouble)

So anyway, long story short, the beginning of the season did not look too favorable until I requested to have Jacob bumped up an agegroup and put on the same team. I considered doing it as registration and should have really went with my gut!!! Joshua jumped right in when Jacob joined and loves it. He looks forward to every practice and game.

Love that look...following a goal :)

Jacob is not as into it. Following the Wednesday practice when Joshua is saying "ooh, we have a game tomorrow" (Saturday) Jacob is saying "we just had one". To which I have to remind him it was just a practice. He just kind of does his own thing, lots of tumbles and rolls while others are playing or stretching. He hangs back while the play is happening...and then asks me where all the pictures of him are :) This is what I've got...This picture cracked me up and really goes to show the attention of some of the younger kids in the range :) Last week Jacob said to me, "Mom I just saw Ryan from my Kinder. class." So I said, "Well did you say hi to him?". He said, "No, I don't think he will remember me." That just cracked me up. It is only a month into the new school year and he thinks people from his last year's class won't remember him.

Well this week they played each other...and stared each other down. It was so funny. I still laugh when I see it.