Red Berry Barn

Since our beloved Baggenstoes Farm closed last year, we needed to find a new pumpkin patch. I really hoped to find one on our side of town that offered a similar simple but fun experience as Baggenstoes did. After lots of searching and asking around, there were very few choices. We settle for the Red Berry Barn, right outside Sherwood. 

This place was geared towards the littler kid crowd, but our kids still found things to do that they enjoyed. We probably won't go back, but we still had a fun time. 

He makes most adventures fun!

Apparently this place is known for their pumpkin donuts. So of course, we had to try them. They certainly did not disappoint! So yummy!!

There was a corn maze, but it was quite a lot of money, so we asked the kids if they'd be okay going by themselves. (We had heard it was a pretty simple maze). They both were excited to go on their own.. and off they went!

They did it!! :) It didn't take them very long and they said it wasn't as good as Baggenstoes (theirs was HUGE) but they also said they had a fun time. 

My three favorites....

Love her...

If you only knew how long it took and how much fussing was involved in getting this photo....

Yep.. we certainly don't have it all together, but together we have it all!

Fall Photos 2018

I have done a photo shoot with the kids each fall since they were babies. Last year, after a couple of failed attempts due to lack of enthusiasm, I gave up on it. This year I was more prepared with bribery (ha) and other incentives, and overall it went well. 

Here are some of the out takes. I have silly kids... who each other and love their cat. 

And my favorites from the day... 

Goodness, I love them!!

Happy Fall, Y'all!

Fun Run

Fir Grove had it's annual Fun Run today. Matthew looks forward to this event every year. He raised over $200 for the school and was excited to run hard and have fun today!

 Him and his buddy Kellan ready to go!

 He takes this very seriously and was all ready to take off and RUN!

He ran 4 more laps than he did last year and I couldn't be more proud of him!

 Happy boy!

Best friends enjoying post Fun Run treats!

Proud of my boy, thankful for our school!

Outdoor School

Evelyn spent this past week at Outdoor School at Camp Magruder in Rockaway Beach! I never went to Outdoor School so was so glad our middle school gets to send all of their 6th grader. Granted, it's 4 days away from her momma which isn't my favorite, but she had the BEST time, learned a ton (science is cool, y'all), and made some new friends. 

Ready to go!

So very thankful for the amazing group of friends who love Evelyn so well!! 

We missed her like crazy while she was gone! I am so thankful she went to church camp this past summer.. it made this separation much easier!

She came home tired and in need of a hot shower but full of stories of her time away. 

Post shower.. trying to escape Matthew the blanket monster..haha! He missed her terribly this week and would NOT leave her alone for the first few hour she was home. :) 

She is so glad she had this opportunity and said it was one of the best experiences she has had in school so far. I am thankful she had such a great time and learned so much.. and even more thankful she is home safe and sound!

Football

After playing flag football last year and LOVING it, Matthew was pleading with me to let him play tackle football this year. Being a former peds nurse and knowing how dangerous it could possibly be, I had a really hard time agreeing to it. But, the look in his eyes along with his love for the game convinced me to let him play.. just one year. He did spring training with the coaches and was so ready for the season to start in August. He did an amazing job in the "boot camp" prior to team practice starting and was ready for the season to begin.

Happy and tired boy after his first night of boot camp!

Due to the forest fires and the smoke that they brought into the city, practice was cancelled a lot. Matthew was awesome in trying to keep his conditioning practice us and worked out on my elliptical to make up for lost practice time. I was so proud of him!

First practice in full pads... Matthew and his buddy Owen were so excited!

First game tough man photos!! 

Smiles at the end of the game. He played with grit and toughness and we were so proud!

Grandma and Grand dad came to cheer him on. 

Sadly, his love for playing was overcome by anxiety. He really struggled with hitting others  (it seemed really mean to him, even if that really wasn't the truth) and really didn't like getting hit. His anxiety got so bad that we made the decision to stop playing. I could elaborate but let's just say it was one of the most difficult couple of weeks as we struggled to figure out how to help our sweet boy. We are thankful for amazing coaches who really helped and supported us as we navigated thru the muck, and they were in agreement of our decision. 

Thankfully there are flag football leagues for older kids so Matthew is so excited to be signed up to play flag again in the spring with two of his best friends. 

I am glad he got to try tackle football and that up until game time it had been an amazing experience. I am more thankful, tho, that my happy boy is "back" and that he feels like he was loved and supported in the midst of it all. 

Indy Car Racing

Doug got free tickets to the Indy Car race here in Portland along with pit passes. We all were super excited to go to this event, as the kids have never been to a race like this before. We had planned on going both Saturday and Sunday but sadly Matthew came down ill and we only made it to the qualifying event on Saturday. Still tho, we had a great day!

In pit lane... where we saw lots of drivers walking around.

It was cool to see all the cars coming out of the pits to go qualify. We saw most of the drivers as they walked on to pit lane too. 

The coolest part, for the kids anyway, was being able to sit in VERY high end cars. Both of them are very much into super cars and high performance cars, and this was so exciting for them!

Bummed to not make it to the actual race on Sunday, be we did watch it on TV as a family which was almost as much fun! :)