The Pumpkin Patch

Our fall months are always extremely busy and I was having a hard time figuring out when I would fit in a trip to the pumpkin patch with the kids. Then one day I saw on Facebook that the little preschool that several moms in our ward had formed was having a pumpkin patch field trip and had opened it up to anyone who might want to join them. Guess what? Savannah and I crashed that party!!
Hanging with the preschool kids!

Addie (who I used to watch) and Libby, two of our favorite preschoolers. They love Savannah and were so excited that she had come on the field trip.

Picking out the perfect little pumpkin.

Enjoying the yummy cider. The little boy sitting next to Savannah had insisted on sitting next to her on the hay ride and holding her hand.  He definitely had a little crush!

Okay, so we went on a field trip with preschoolers...we had a blast and I got at least one of my kids to the pumpkin patch!

Corn Maze

In October Savannah's soccer team had a "team building activity" - making their way through a corn maze! We have always talked about taking the kids up to Pennsylvania to go to one of those huge corn mazes so this activity helped us make it happen. The team manager chose to do it at night so we headed up with our flashlights, hats, and heavy coats because it was cold!
While we waited for everyone to get there, Noah had a great time just climbing and jumping off all the hay stacks.

Savannah's team broke up into smaller groups and they had to work together gathering clues throughout the maze, hoping to eventually make their way out!

Once Savannah headed off with her teammates, David, the boys, and I headed off on our own.

The boys really enjoyed finding the clues and we were having a really great time...until it started to drizzle. And then it started to pour! Trying to make our way through a humongous corn maze in the dark during a rainstorm is not really that much fun.

Thank goodness workers were there to help us quickly find our way out of the maze and into one of the barns to wait out the storm.

It had taken us over an hour until we were finally out; Savannah, with her little group, had made it out in half that time and was just waiting around for us. Those amazing young girls. Savannah had a great time with her team which is good since that was the whole point.

Longwood Gardens

Savannah and I decided that we needed a fun field trip so one day we headed up to Longwood Gardens with two of my good friends, Heidi and Kara. Located in Pennsylvania, Longwood Gardens has over 1,077 acres of gardens, woodlands, and meadows (yes, I totally just stole that from a brochure). We had such a great time looking at all the beautiful varieties of flowers, plants, and trees. It was a great way to spend a day!
Our first stop of the day was at the musical fountain display.

We spent a lot of time in the conservatory...there were so many flowers!

Savannah and I both loved the humongous lily pads!

Watch out for the Venus Flytrap!

Savannah's favorite was the Chimes Tower; she said it looked like Rapunzel's tower. I totally agree!

Climbing the tower stairs. Thank goodness we didn't have to climb up any one's hair.

I loved the topiary garden.

Savannah always finds the cats!

It was a beautiful day!

Party Time!

Since it's been awhile since Indiana Jones was popular, I had to get a little creative when it came to planning Xander's party. Thank goodness Halloween was right around the corner - it made it a lot easier to stock up on spiders, skulls, and snakes! Who knew that my love for Egyptian statues would finally come in handy!

After all the guests had arrived and put on their Indiana Jones hats, they got right to work deciphering the first clue in tracking down the golden idol that had been stolen by Indy's arch enemy, Beloc. Savannah had written every letter of the alphabet in hieroglyphs and the boys used that to figure out the coded message.

Clue #1 directed the boys to the mummy tomb where they had to separate into teams and fully wrap one member of their team to receive the next clue.

The next clue led them to a staircase where each boy had to step on only the stones that had the letters that would spell out INDIANA JONES. Most of them got it right. When they didn't, there was a loud crack! Good thing they didn't fall into any pits!

Unfortunately for the boys the next clues were scattered around the snake pit. Climbing through the hole, they had to quickly grab a clue without getting bit by the snakes littered all over the ground. Definitely a scary experience!

Directions on the clue led the boys off to a nearby lake where they had to watch out for more snakes, crocodiles, and natives! Uh, oh!  Here come those dart-blowing natives!

Those pesky natives (Savannah and Celine) thoroughly enjoyed their task!

Despite a few poisonous darts hitting their mark, the boys were able to gather the pieces to the next clue which directed them to the Bangkok Palace to feast on some yummy food. Not only were there snake eggs, BBQ bat wings, rat bones, baboon hearts, and mummy dogs,

but for dessert the boys were lucky enough to get MONKEY BRAINS!!

They seemed to enjoy the feast!

They were able to find the next clue hidden in the food which told them to go to Boulder Canyon to retrieve the next clue. Only problem? They had to do it before the boulder knocked them down.

This was probably their favorite activity of the night. All the boys kept asking to do it again and again and again...

After Boulder Canyon the boys traveled through the desert, searching for their next clue. Finding clues is hard work, especially when you have to journey through the blistering heat of a desert, so the water they found was quite refreshing.

Oh, no! Beloc poisoned the water! The boys rushed back inside to find the antidote. Luckily for them the antidotes were located inside these "rocks".  A lot of fun "crushing" of rocks ensued.

Gulping down that antidote!

I'm so sad that I don't have any pictures of the last activity of the night - equipped with only a small flashlight, the boys had to enter the catacombs, crawl through spider webs, fight off scorpions and more spiders, and locate the golden idol. I sent them down two at a time because the boys were actually a little scared and wouldn't go down by themselves. They all emerged victorious, though, and before the party was over each boy had braved the catacombs a number of times.
The boys with their idols, discussing the night's adventure! 

You can't have a party without cake and ice cream.

I think the party was a success! Xander said he had a blast and that's all that matters.