{almost} Wordless Wednesday

Lately I feel like I am forcing out these wordless Wednesday posts.  I think it is because I am not able to take great pictures because my camera has "passed away".  While working on a project my camera fell out of my hand and hit the hearth of our fire place.  It bent the lens.  This caused the pictures to be out of focus and the camera would not turn on after I turned if off.  

So I have been without a camera for going on a month now.  I take pictures with my phone.  Sure they turn out well enough, but it's not the same as having a camera.  I am not sure how you guys do it using your phone for it all.  Now sure, some of the pictures turn out great, but by far they are not exceptional.  I get frustrated with the phone camera often because of the delay in the shutter and that causes me to miss the great smile or funny expression.

I had been hanging on to my first digital camera for quite sometime.  It was just one of those, it still works so why get rid of it things.  I had upgraded but I kept it.  When my dad's camera died, I gave it to him.  He is willing to send it back to me since he just uses his phone to take pictures.  I think I might need him to do this.  October is on it's way and we have so much going on.  I am not sure I am going to be able to rely on just our phones.  I mean pumpkin farms, fall festivals, and Halloween not to mention all the Touch of Home Learning preschool stuff we do that we need pictures for.  

So for today's Not-so-wordless {almost} Wordless Wednesday I give you ... the best my phone has to offer.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
Oh do I ever have a mini me.  She walked into Garden Ridge
and gasped! "Mama look at all the Christmas Trees!" 

Fall may have decided to come with full vengeance
but that will not stop us from taking advantage of
parks without kids because they are all in school.

When the kids are in school that means that
Mommy lets me play too.

We are still pretty green, but we have 2 parks that are just so peaceful.
After playing we went to spend some time looking at the water
and the birds.  Enjoy God's creations.

Happy to be helping Mommy make lunch.

{almost} Wordless Wednesday ~ Happy Fall

Everytime we go to Target.  "Mama, go pick pumpkins?"  I don't think she is going to be able to hold off until when we go to the pumpkin farm.  We have it planned to go in 4 weeks!

Our Saturdays are booked between now and then and we don't really do much on Sundays - it is football season.  You know.  And I am purposefully staying away from sharing all the crazy pics on Facebook about Monday Night's game.  Maybe next time we are at Target Iwill pick up the "Ruffaree" costume for our dog.  I think he would have done a better job!  I digress.

So on the 20th we are going to Shaw's Pumpkin Farm in Milford.  This farm is perfect for little ones.  {I think I might even see about making a playdate with Mommies for a week time visit}  They have all these great wooden play structures.  They make cute characters out of the pumpkins.  They have a corn maze (which we didn't do last year).  They have animals, but you cannot pet them.  That is only down side for us.  Little Miss wanted to pet the farm animals. 

How things change in just a year. 

1.  Look how little she was!  At the time of this picture she was 22 months old. 
2.  That jacket has been put to rest thank to a certain terrior. 

3.  How did my non-pregancy shirts still fit 8 months pregnant?  I was not that small.

Happy Fall!

Fall Fabric Pumpkin

Crafts are one of my favorite things to do. Especially the no-sew variety. I am not a great crotchetier or knitter, so those don't work for me at all. This fall craft was so simple older children could do it with very minimal supervision. This fall craft can be brought out in September and left out until you put your Christmas decorations out. 

This craft was inspired by a bath tissue pumpkin I saw on a blog. I did not want to use a roll of bath tissue to make the pumpkin, mostly because I didn't like the shape, so I doctored the idea.

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Fall Fun

I am a planner.  I like to have a plan.  This does not fit the greatest into the family that I married into; however, I am a flexible planner and I can usually adapt fairly easily.  Hickman #1 may disagree with that statement.

In September I take out the calendar and make note of when all the birthdays are (which days of the week) and what day of the week Christmas falls on.  I then plan out what we are going to do for our Advent Activities.  Here are tips how to plan your own Advent Calendar.  Here is also a list of 40 family activities you can use to jump start your own thinking.  Hickman #1 and I did this together and it was fun.  The crafting part of it will of course fall on me, but I am okay with that.

I then start planning any fall festivals we might want to attend.  I work around birthday celebrations and try not to plan something on both days of the weekend.  This is so that we don't get super overloaded.

We went to Georgetown, KY to spend the day with 'Gama and Popca'.  We went to Evans Orchard.  Here is a review of the fall festival.  We also went to a fall kick off apple festival.  This past weekend we went to Shaw Farm with friends.  I will be posting a review of the farm very soon.  Here are some pics from our fun time.