We Made October Count At the Last Second

It was down to the pumpkin picking wire but we made it.

So in the shivering 45 degree cold, late Saturday afternoon, we trekked through the soft mudded grounds at Powers Farm Market.

A tradition(<-click) if we ever had one(<-click). (and here!)

The focus this year went to the haunted tepees.

In and out.

In and out.

In and out.

Back in,

back out.

Then one more time and we called it a day because we couldn't feel our fingers.

So we carved on Sunday and trick-or-treated on Monday and just like that October 2011 vanished into thin air.

The Part Where I Begin Speaking Strictly Fall Related Matters

he did not get his eyelashes from me but I wish I could get mine from him

The fallish thing we've done aside from our trip to Virginia was Simon's preschool co-op field trip to the apple farm. There were sweaters and boots, there were trees with apples, there was cider and 7 three year olds with their moms and many younger siblings. Oh, and afterwards there was ice-cream. Slightly less fallish, but with pumpkin on the menu it seemed more than acceptable.

kids in a wagon. Eees cute, no?

In our front yard we have one of those trees that hangs on like a balding man to his comb-over, clinging to its last leaf until just after the first snow fall, letting down a consistent blanket of yellow and orange in the inbetween time. I've been meaning to get out there and get the clean up started but I just can't bring myself to do it. Vacation messes up everything. And our small window of fall simply cannot afford dilly dallying. I think it's pessimistic of me to admit after the second week of a month I pretty much declare that month over. I'm the same with birthdays. Two months past your last birthday, you're basically the next year older. That's probably why sometimes I actually have to take a second to remember how old I really am.
Now that we've recovered more or less from suitcase mode I dedicate myself and my children to the season. To the season! Because it's almost over you know.

SVU Homecoming 2011

Well for starters it should be said that Homecoming was part of a two-tiered vacation this year. The first being to Steve and Rebekah's in Chapel Hill to check out their new life situation (major jealousy happened in Chapel Hill and I have pictures) 
and just when the children were getting used to vacation sleep (play crib in the laundry room) we packed up our scattered belongings and headed to Virginia...sweet Virginia in the fall. 

waterfalls in Virginia in the fall

I've said it once and I'll say it again: You haven't laid your eyes on fall fall until you've experienced Virginia in the fall. I've never seen anything like it, beauty all around. 
And it is certainly something to see on the Southern Virginia campus. Maybe it's college campuses in the fall in general. So smart and so collegiate-y. 
Collegiate-y is not very collegiate sounding.

But,we were proud we actually made it onto campus this year- to an Alumni cookout no less! And all with the people we love and very much look forward to seeing every year. To top it off, most of those people we love are now making little people we can love. So, you know, a serious amount of love happening you can imagine.

And so it goes in pictures...

Hello seasonly appropriate winding Shenandoah;) 

We were happy to find the baby zip line residing right where we left it last year.Simon guinea-pigged the no seat zip line.

Mack makes a name for red heads everywhere. He's spicy. I really liked him.

The gathering at Todd's BBQ- where 100 children and babies ran wild and we were greeted with very thick southern Buena Vista accents.Jaron has a nice face that is usually hidden behind a camera he didn't whip out once this year. What's up with that?Burke and Lauren's side yard. A lot happens here.Jeff and Burke- both red. Both bearded.New baby in a sling. New baby in arms. New baby in belly. A baby for you, and you and you and you.The best park Lexington has to offer. On the way home from the best park Lexington has to offer I caught Lena stealing a kiss from Ethan in the back seat(!) True (scary) story.Ginger Buddies 2011Baby Clementine in utero. (Clementine!!)Calvin, Mack, Simon and Henry. I would trade 2 of mine for a whole month of Henry. Unfortunately, Henry belongs to Jen and Paul.Jordan and Kristy made her. She is sweet and milky white and her name is Davis Ann.Henry hides from me because he senses I might steal him. I would never do that. Especially when his mother is standing right behind him. Calvin contemplates death by tires.Piggy-braided Lena high fives the men-folk she has known since birth.Red is the color of the weekend.He is new and he smelled like a heavenly slice of baby pie and his name is James belonging to Scott and Suzanne.The worst face painter ever attacks at the SVU Alumni BBQ to give these friends a "flower" and a "pumpkin". Friendly lawn games with children under foot. Us on the front steps of Main Hall, where a younger Jeff picked a younger me up many a times to take me out on hot dates (AKA the Ruby Tuesday in Lexington).Jeff is sometimes funny.Lena and Ethan on the quest to find the biggest leaf.Inside Main Hall still smells like a couple hundred year old building.Lena finds the SVU sticker display. I find the nearest exit.I'll claim the two with red hair and devilish profiles. Something about a man and a baby, and I right ladies? And the cheesiness, I guess that's mine too.

Then we capped off the weekend with breakfast at the Pedal Car Diner at Lee Hi's truckstop before we all went our separate ways.
Conversation over hot cakes and bacon and babies in hats.We overtook the wall of booths in the back for our farewell feast.It was here, after breakfast, where the children talked their father into buying them 3 toy cadillacs and a piggy bank for Binners to keep his monies in.One day their beards will be red too.Then Mack was a little stinker in his Simple shoes and signature sweat pants and we said our goodbyes...

the arrangement that didn't last because of all the fighting

Thanks to Burke and Lauren (hosting the madness two weeks away from her due date because she is a better woman that I) and to Tones of TonesVaisey for holding down the fort so Jeff could take 10 days off. And for all of our dear dear friends that make coming back every year a no brainer.

A coupla Homecomings past: 2009, 2010