Enjoying the leaves

The moment I knew we were going to buy our home is when I was standing in the back yard. There were trees, there was a place to run, I was sold. We have enjoyed the back yard since, it was perfect. The kids have read out on the hammock, played with friends in the back, and just run to their hearts content. They have seemed to love it even more in the fall. My kids love raking leaves. I think it is because we let them play in them after. 

On Friday we pulled up from school and I asked "who wants to rake leaves" the three older ones started screaming "me, me, me"  "wait, can we all do it"  Knowing we would have an abundance of leaves we bought a few more rakes the weekend before, I told the kids they could all rake and off they ran to get to work.

About an hour later they called me out to see the pile that was almost as tall as Eve and then the playing started. 

Matty wasn't quite sure how he felt about the huge pile of leaves.

He even made a break for it when ever we could.

Yes all four kids are in there.

I have decided that James could be a participant in The Hunger Games he gets that blending down rather well.

And of course once he did it  the others wanted to try.

The kids had a great time and then went away for the weekend. When they got home this morning I showed them what happened on Sunday....

Their response?  "Sweet, when can we rake again?"

September zoo visit

I just realized that I didn't blog the entire month of September. I am pretty sure we did things, I painted all my basement doors and door frames and for the first time since we moved in Laine actually has working closet doors. The kids continued on with school, Christian went to Virginia for work, and I took a trip out to West Virginia to see my BFF and participate in a 5K. I realized that we didn't really do any family outings this months but we did sneak a trip to the zoo just under the wire though. 

I love visiting the zoo first thing in the morning when no one is there, it is even better in the spring and fall when it is really quiet. The kids had a day off from school so I packed them all up and we hit the zoo. 

 James decided to relax on the elephant!

 My kids love this picture, they love posing with any of the statues, but the rhino is their favorite.

 We also loved the new slide in the splash pad area.  Matty was particularly happy with the new slide and the train he and his sisters made.

Because it was rainy and cold the splash pad wasn't on but we did get to play in the pirate ship. 

Ah, a nest of cute kids. 

See more statue poising.

 We did get to watch the trainers train one of the tigers. It was fun to see and we got to see the tiger up close.

It was a fun day at the zoo- and we got out of there before the school buses arrived- lucky day