Pumpkinville 2017

We could not have planned our day at Pumpkinville any better this year - it was absolutely beautiful! Clear, cold...perfect fall day. Of course, we didn't go until almost the end of the season, with just one weekend left This made for a crowded event, but we still had a blast. I didn't bring my camera, just my iPhone, so that I could enjoy the time with my family even more.

 We started off in the petting zoo.

 Where Henry has finally gotten over (most of) his fears of the animals - enough to touch them, at least!

 We then used the pony ride tickets we bought for each of them to take a ride.

 Then, it was hayride time!

 I have a couple of favorite spots at Pumpkinville where we always get a photo. One is at the entrance to the hay maze (I like the knight!).

 And I love this shot near the pond, with the two giant trees. We even managed to get a photo there without anyone else in it!

Then, it was finally time to hit the big slides.

When I realized that I couldn't actually keep filming while trying to sit on my own burlap sack to slide down, I stopped the previous recording. Oh well!

As in previous years (I think last year was the first?), Pumpkinville now has two zip lines for the kids. Here they are on the one for littler kids, where you sit:

And also one for bigger kids where you hang (no video, only photos):

 The very last thing we did was wait in line for FAR too long so Natalie could get her face painted. Henry didn't want to, so Evan took him to do a few last things while we waited. She did look adorable after it was done, although we sure had to wait a long  time for it!

 Finally, on the way out, we stopped by this photo op spot and a girl offered to take our photo. What a nice family day! And posting it this far afterwards is REALLY making me miss fall, my favorite season!

Fall is beautiful - 2016 edition

In my giant photo/video dump last week, I made an album of photos that I took this fall around Leesburg. Turns out that we've had some pretty amazing sunrises in our neighborhood:

When they're like the photo above, it turns my entire bedroom pink in the morning! 

And really pretty skies after it rains in the afternoon/evening...

And some beautiful fall leaves. These were taken at my office complex, where the colors are just gorgeous. 

With photo shoots that I did at my complex this year, I did get some non-phone photos of the colors too, but those will be posted up on the photography blog when I can!

A fall trip to Fredericksburg

Almost missed this one, as all of the photos were on my phone, and it turned out I had OVER 600 PHOTOS to transfer from the past few months off of my phone to my computer. That was a pretty productive few hours last week, for sure! I thought I was done with October, and it turns out that I have three posts to still do! So much for catching up with 2016 before 2017 hits...but we'll get there, I promise.

Anyway, to celebrate my birthday with my parents and sister, I took the kids down to my parents' house the second weekend in October. I had taken Columbus Day off, as the kids didn't have school, and so taking them overnight there was a great way to let Evan focus on some election work. Before heading down the kids wanted photos - Natalie in particular due to our "matching"outfits.

 

After we got to my parents', we headed into downtown Fredericksburg to take a trolley tour. I'm not the biggest history buff (Evan should have done that tour with us for sure!), but it was actually really interesting and we could not have had a more beautiful fall day.

 

There was a public chalk art display going on in downtown, so after we got back from our tour we took a walk down the closed-off street to see the art. So beautiful!

On Monday, we went to a local farm about 10 minutes away from my parents' house. There was a hayride out to pick pumpkins, in an absolutely stunning field filled with beautiful orange pumpkins!

 

 

When we got back we had some local ice cream and toured through the plant nursery - a cute farm for sure! I bet they had great stuff during the Christmas season too. I love finding places like this that we've never been to before.

Leesburg Animal Park & Pumpkinville 2016

Wow, so much has happened in December...I've gotta catch up! Since I'm nearly done with October, we're getting closer. Hopefully my time off over the next couple of weeks will let me catch up before 2017!

Anyway, back to October. Evan was busy during the last weekend in October, so I took the kids to Pumpkinville for the day, that Saturday We got there when they opened, as it was a beautiful day and I knew the place would get busy. We were there for 6 hours! The kids wanted to start off by heading to the back of the park to go on the slides, zip lines, and more. We figured we'd hit the petting zoo at the end.

First up, slides!

Then, the ziplines. Oh, the ziplines. In previous years, you had to buy extra tickets for them, but not anymore! Now both were included in admission. And yes, there were two! The kids went on the smaller one first

And it was only later that I noticed the second, larger zipline behind that one. We went back over there for that one later (see below).

Next up: cow train!

Then we spent quite a while at the pedal carts. For the first 20 minutes or so there were almost no other kids on the track, so mine got to try out all of the different carts, big and small.

Then we did the hayride, stopped for a snack, and then more ziplines!

Some climbing around (I love this photo!)

Then it was time to hit the petting zoo. It was crowded at this point, and we discovered that the animals were rather full by this point. Henry finally got over his fear of petting zoo animals, and really tried to feed the goats and sheep, and they didn't want to eat anything. Can't blame them, after hours of eating! But I was very proud of Henry for getting over that fear...it's more than can be said for his dad ;)

The last event of the day was face painting...or, arm painting for Henry. There were two face painters, and the line wasn't too long, and it was free, so I said why not. Dragon and bat were pretty perfect for Halloween weekend!

It was a fantastic day for the 3 of us at the festival. So happy to spend that day and make those memories with the kids.

Fall fun at Temple Hall Farm

One of my favorite things to do in the fall is take the kids to one of the many farms in the area that have a fall festival. Historically, we typically go to Pumpkinville, including last year. I also took the kids (just the 3 of us) last year, so this year I thought we'd hit up some place different! Two years ago my parents and I took the kids to Temple Hall Farm (I had also taken them to Pumpkinville in 2013 too!) and we had a nice time, so I thought we'd do that again. It was a beautiful day in October, even if it started out a bit cold, and unlike in 2013 I actually remembered my camera this time, so I got some nice photos of the kids.

In going through them to post here, I had such a hard time choosing favorite photos of the kids from our first activity: the giant jumping pillow! I know there are a lot of these photos, but just look at how good they are, and how much fun the kids are having!

 We did a lot of other things at the farm: rode the hay wagon, checked out all of the animals, and saw everything around the farm. We even took a short break for some funnel cake!

 As it started to warm up, we decided to hit up the big corn maze. We actually had a really fun time navigating it! There are numbered sign posts throughout, and you can get a map with riddles to direct you at each sign post. In between you still have to use some deductive reasoning to figure out which way to go; even with all 3 of us working together we still had to turn around a couple of times! Here are the kids at the start of the maze (left) and at the end (right). They were so happy that we "conquered" it!

 

After the maze we hit up the store to purchase some pumpkins and mums.

 And just as evidence I was there: one selfie of us on the hayride!