JM&MB at the Cider Mill

This past week we had parent-teacher conferences.  Each conference is set at 15 minutes, which was about an hour too short for Violet and 10 minutes too long for each of the boys.  My kids are so blessed to go to a great school with teachers who truly care about them!  And Violet's teacher actually emailed me after the conference to see if we could do ANOTHER one the next evening, which we did.  I love knowing that my kids are in such good hands when they aren't in MY hands.  Anyway, so because of the conferences, we had our first day off school for the year and you know what that means. . . A Just Me and My Boys Day!  We decided to go to the Louisburg Cider Mill where they have all sorts of fun fall things going on.

The last time the boys had been to the Cider Mill was when they were in preschool at age 4.  Look how cute they were then. . .

And how ornery they are today!

Even though it was a JM&MB day, it definitely made me think of the girls.  When Violet was born and we were spending time in the NICU, my friend Kari brought me a dozen of the delicious cider donuts from Louisburg.  And you can't see her, but 2-week-old Evelyn is in the sling between Oliver and me in the picture above!  She was so tiny then and so big now!  So the girls were certainly on my mind as the boys and I enjoyed our day.  They started out trying to see who could jump the farthest.  They made several attempts, but don't think they ever made it as far as any of these animals. 

And we'll visit our "usual" pumpkin patch soon where we'll take our usual "How Tall This Fall?" picture, but the boys still wanted to see how tall they were.

And look at the adorable scarecrow and pumpkin I have!

I was excited to take a trip through the corn maze with the boys.  Look at that cool maze of the headless horseman!

Here we go!

It didn't take long for the trail to split, and I had a hard time convincing the boys that we had to all go the same way.

I enjoyed the pretty blue-ish flowers and the heart-shaped leaves wrapped all along the corn stalks.

There were clues along the way, and initially the boys didn't want to use them.  After awhile, they decided maybe we should.  And after an hour had passed, my calm little Magellans decided we should call the front desk to be rescued.  :)  They even had the compass going on my phone with no sign of success.

I had snacks in my bag and thought that maybe they just needed a little rest and some nourishment.  They ate pretzels and oranges and one of them apparently dropped a pretzel.  I know this because we passed that same pretzel about half a dozen times as we continued to weave our way through the headless horseman.  I thought it was funny; my boys didn't really recognize the humor in it.

Eventually we did find our way out without any SOS calls to the front desk.  Maybe corn mazes won't be at the top of my list of 'fun things to do with my boys' anymore.  I thought it was an exciting adventure anyway!  We went through the barn to see what other fun things we could find.

And we found a jumping pillow!  My goodness are these things fun!  And the best part was JM&MB had the whole thing to ourselves most of the time we were jumping!

Next we went on a wagon ride to "Mount Sunflower" as they called it -- my boys were quick to point out that this wasn't the REAL Mt. Sunflower that we had visited on Father's Day with daddy.  There was a fun slide here that my boys each went down every way you can imagine.

It was a really nice day outside, but all of the hiking, jumping and sliding had my boys a little warm.  They found a nice, cool place to rest in this corn bin.

I'm sure that's some nice clean corn the boys were rolling around in.  They just kept saying what a nice bed it made, cool and comfy.

It was already well past lunchtime so we curbed our hunger with some of those yummy cider donuts I mentioned earlier as well as cider slushes.  Good stuff.

Then we toured the property to see how the cider and donuts are made.  The boys didn't remember much of this from their preschool field trip so it was fun to see them excited about the thousands of apples and big machinery.

Once we were done at the Cider Mill, we had a late lunch at a local favorite, Miss B's Cafe.  It didn't disappoint and we left very full and satisfied.  I could tell it was a successful day because BOTH boy were sound asleep on the drive home.

I thank God for a beautiful day to spend with my boys and most of all, I thank God for my boys!

(On a side note, Russ had a Just Me & My Girls day where he took the girls to McDonalds and to play at the park. He sat in the bathroom at the PlayPlace with Violet for nearly a half hour and then I think both girls were quite whiny for him at the park.  He didn't get any pictures.  Not sure he will be looking forward to these days as much as I do. . .We'll try again next month!)