Gorgeous Day at the Pumpkin Patch

I love our annual trip to the pumpkin patch and I love it even more when we get gorgeous fall weather.  Last Sunday was so sunny, my sweet family picture was just a bit squinty :)

We saw How Tall This Fall for the 14th straight year, both just my kids and then with the cousins!  I love that Syd and Jack still stand by this sign; that way my kids will never think they're too big.

We looked at the chickens and the cows. . .

. . . went through the hay bale maze. . .

. . . and then headed out to find our perfect pumpkins.

Besties!

And Vi sure loves her Brynnie.

These boys were quite the posse making their way through the pumpkins.

I love spending the day at the pumpkin patch with my beautiful kids.

What a great day spent with my family!

We finished up buying our pumpkins in the shop.  Seeing Evelyn by these fun gourds made me think back to a picture from a few years back (she looks a little happier today than she did then). . .

I'm so thankful for each new season spent with my husband, watching our kids grow, and enjoying God's beautiful creation.  Happy Fall!

Sunshine Bananas Play Some Soccer

Evelyn's soccer team just finished up their season, and these Sunshine Bananas had a great time! (Yes, their jerseys were yellow and the team was predominately girls, so there you go.)  Her good buddy, Maggie, was on her team.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, this was Evelyn's first experience with organized sports.  She was a little less aggressive than we are used to with her brothers, but still played really hard! 

Her coach rotated the players through every position, so Evelyn got her time as goalie as well as defender and offense.

Just a couple more pics of my girl on Saturday mornings this fall. . .

My kids are so lucky to have such great cheering sections at their events!  Uncle John and Aunt Becky were also able to come to several games.

Way to go, kiddos!  

I can't tell if soccer is going to be a sport that Evelyn wants to play again, but she was fun to watch!  And I love that after a game that her team lost 10-1, she asked me, "Did we win??"  Like I said, I'm not used to a sweet girl who doesn't have a competitive bone in her body.  My boys were certainly NOT that way.  I also love that she played hard, even when she didn't really know what was going on.  She was a good teammate, and that's all that matters.  I'm so proud of her!

Fun Fall Weekends

I love fall.  We are blessed with several friends who have annual get-togethers each fall and the past couple of weekends have been full of these fun times!  We had the Brown's Weenie Roast where we got our updated 2019 pictures, a family shot (minus the boys) as well as a girlfriends one.

We also attended the Wilson's hog roast, where it's like a petting zoo all year round!

 I only got pictures with the goats, but there were also chickens and cows.

 We didn't stay long enough to see if we were the big winners in the "Cow Pie Roulette" game -- how funny is that?!

 We had a beautiful evening for visiting with friends and sitting around the fire pit.  Views from the east and west were equally stunning with the sunset and full moon.

Another fall event we look forward to every year is Cowboys for Cortlyn.

We had fun cheering on Oliver's buddy, Coby, and Calvin's buddy, Renner, as they roped with the best of them!

 Violet sat front and center throughout the rodeo and was intrigued by the whole thing.

The boys watched when their friends were roping, but also spent plenty of time playing football in the year.  There had lots of friends there, as always! 

For the kids participation event this year, they did the "boot race" where all of the shoes are put at one end of the arena and they have to race to find them, put them on, and run back.

 Carson and Calvin came in first and second (as well they should have--I'm pretty sure they were the only 8th graders participating.)

 Evie and her friend, Ava, had fun all afternoon as well -- it was a great day for everybody!

What I love most about Cowboys for Cortlyn is that it's a time when our whole community comes together to remember a precious little girl and raise money to help other families whose babies are in the NICU at Overland Park Regional.  Two years ago at this event, I had our sweet baby Christian in my arms and he, too, spent the first part of his life in the NICU at OPR.  I'm thankful for the opportunity to remember him as well as Cortlyn, and honor the memory of both sweet babies at this event.  Regardless of how brief their time on earth may have been, their lives mattered, and remembering is important.

Kitty's Birthday, Too?

With Evelyn and Violet's birthdays just finishing up, I guess Violet wasn't done celebrating in our house.  Not wanting Kitty to feel left out, she's been singing Happy Birthday to her. A lot. Daddy indulged our girl by making a little Kitty birthday cake with cat food, and she thought it was hilarious! (She=Violet, not Kitty.  As you can tell, Kitty was NOT amused and looks bit humiliated throughout.)

I love it when she tries to get Kitty to blow out the candle.  Thankfully, no whiskers were actually singed in the attempt.  Now I think we are good on celebrating birthday girls in this house for a couple of months!