Grandparents and Pumpkins

My mom arrived at our home at 3:45 yesterday afternoon just as we were returning from our 2 mile (round trip) walk from a playground. She watched the kids playing outside (jumping on the trampoline, riding bikes, drawing pumpkins with chalk on the driveway, etc.), and then we had dinner when Paul came home. During the hours before bedtime last night and again this morning, the kids had a lot of fun with Grandma doing things like reading many books, coloring, playing UNO, doing a 100 piece pirate puzzle, playing Chutes and Ladders, playing with paper dolls, etc.

Nadia had her 7th U8 soccer game at noon in Milton. Paul's parents met us at the game! None of her grandparents had seen her play a U8 game until today. My mom and I had to leave after the first half of the game so that we could get Ian to his 1:00 game in Turbotville. Oliver slept through Nadia's game. After Ian's game, all of us (except Paul) drove to Ard's Farm. It was Nadia, Ian, and my fifth trip there. We went on October 9, 2010, October 22, 2011, October 13, 2012, and  October 6, 2013. My parents,

Paul's parents, and Paul have each been there some of the times, but only Ian, Nadia, and I have been there every time. I had fun looking back through the previous posts (some are linked above) to see pictures from the past trips. It rained a little on our drive to Ard's, but thankfully it only rained for a couple of minutes while we were there, and we were in the "Fun Barn" while it rained so we didn't get wet at all. My mom stayed there for about one hour, Paul's parents stayed for about two hours, and the kids and I stayed for about three hours. The kids would have stayed longer if I had let them, but I knew Oliver was really hungry for dinner as he had hardly eaten anything for lunch. Pop Pop joined the kids and I on the hayride and in the maze park. Paul's mom and my mom enjoyed some time chatting together at a picnic table. We hadn't seen Paul's mom in two months as she has been staying at home to avoid another trip to the ICU due to pneumonia while her immune system is weakened due to chemo. She's scheduled to have her third treatment next week so this weekend was the best time to see her. She wore a mask (she told the kids it was her Halloween mask), which was a relief to me because some of us (myself included) have had a respiratory bug lately.

Some of the highlights included the hayride to the pumpkin patch, going down a BIG slide many times, climbing over and through hay bales, playing in a large container of dried corn kernels, digging for treasure in dirt (Nadia found a real shark's tooth!), and doing a maze. Oliver's favorite two things were the slide and rolling around in the plastic pipe. He laughed his head off for a VERY long time in that thing! Nadia really wanted to do the large corn maze, but I promised her we'll do one next year. There also was a falconry show going on in the maze park. The kids got to see a few different owls, hawks, raptors, etc. I was thinking of my brother when we saw the peregrine falcon, as it's his favorite bird! A fun day was had by all. We brought home four pumpkins. We'll carve three of them, and the fourth I will use as a decoration on the dining room table through Thanksgiving. I haven't edited all the pictures I took today. Expect to see more pics from our adventures today next week!