Emma Krumbees!!!!

What a fun place, this Emma Krumbees!  Despite the deep, deep, chill in the air this past Saturday,

the kids and Jason and I had a really fun, Fall time.  We have never been to Emma Krumbees and its actually been on my list of "Fun Things To Do With The Kids" (aka "My list of things to do to get the kids out of the house!) since Cale's been one!  Now see, it only took me FOUR years to get to it!!! Anyways, it was pretty dang cute!  Little spendy, but cute!

They were so patient while I drank my large cup of hot cider :)

But, they also got to enjoy a warm, gooey brownie!!

YUMMO!!!

Here we started our tour of the scarecrows. Cale got a kick out of some of them, others, well, he didn't quite know what to make of some of them!  And to tell you the truth, neither did I!  Some were actually kinda creepy!

This one below, though, was pretty funny :)

 Another favorite of Cale's...The Gingerbread Man.  He actually learned about him in school recently, so he wanted a picture with this guy!

 I tried to get Keegyn involved of some of the fun little cut outs, like the one below, but she wasn't participating at this point of the trip...she was still angry with me for taking her sucker away so that she could warm up her hands in her pockets.  God forbid I try to keep her fingers from falling off!

 And...here she is...now out of her "grump" phase!  Lovin the slide...at least once she figured out that is she layed back she would go faster!  I have to admit, it was a really slooooowwww slide.

Tractor climbing...didn't last long. Just long enough to take this quick snapshot!

 My baby...already know has to pose for the camera! Cute...even with sucker smudged all over her face!

 Cale's turn at the slide...he found if he went head first, it was a bit more entertaining :)

 After having taken her sucker away earlier...she was not gonna let that happen again...Look at that vice grip she has on that thing! Good Lord, child!

 Last, but certainly not least, Keegyn got to enjoy her pony ride!  Not quite worth the 5 bucks, in my opinion, cuz it just didn't last long enough!  But Keegyn loved it and couldn't stop smiling...I guess you can't put a price on that :)

 Keegyn named her pony.....Monty.  And he was "soft."



What a great day for apple pickin'!!!

 We spent our afternoon at Applewood Orchard today and enjoyed the cool Fall weather! The kids enjoyed the haystack...Cale a little more than Keegyn, as she kept getting the hay "down my butt." Poor baby was scratching so much cuz the hay got down her diaper after having fallen down so many times!

 Jason actually pushed Cale down in this picture...Total Knockout!

 One of the many times Keegyn ended up on her tush...

 Off any running in the apple maze

 We tried....

 ...and tried....

 ...and tried (even by throwing apples up at the higher ones) to pick some good apples, but either we were late in the game this year and they were all picked over, or we aren't "diehard apple pickers"  (as Jason claimed our case to be) cuz we really could not find ONE apple that I considered "great." ;)

 We ended up pickin six of our own...all about the size of this one...

 ...and this one...

Then we called it a day and went and bought my "pre-picked, unblemished, HUGE" Honeycrisp bag of apples!!!

(Plus a little apple cinnamon bread and apple crisp...MMMMMM!!)

HAPPY FALL!!!

WRAPPING UP OUR 4TH OF JULY WEEKEND!!

We were extremely busy over the week of the Fourth!  We had something planned everyday, and we didn't waste one single minute!  From parades, fireworks, and swimming, to Mall of America, date night, and more swimming!

We topped off our jam-packed weekend with a little "boy time" for Cale.  He had 3 of his buddies over for slip-n-slidin', water balloons, and water guns! One of the little boys, Payton, lives across the street from us, but the other two, Connor and Elijah, are friends from preschool, so it's already been over a month since he's seen them.  I love how it seems like no time has passed at all though between these little guys...they had the best time :)

This is Cale and his buddy Elijah in a heated game of "water war" with Payton and Connor.

 Payton protecting himself from Elijah's "fireball"

 Uh Oh!! Connor sees what's coming...Elijah's "fireball" AGAIN!!!

 Notice in these next few pics how "close range" they are all at when firing off the water guns! So funny!

 Connor, Cale, Elijah, and Payton. 

(How dang cute are they??!!)

 Coolin' off with the freezy pops!

 There goes Cale....

 ...and Connor...

 ...and Elijah...

The Fourth has come and gone.  According to Jason, "our summer is almost over now."  Why he uses the Fourth as a "marker" for end of summer is beyond me, cuz we still have plenty of sunshine left!

And we still have a jam packed few months ahead of us.  We still have tons to look forward to, starting next week!

We're off to Michigan with the Thompson clan

Then we're off to Wisconsin Dells with the Buchar clan

Followed by a "celebratory" month in August with both Jason and I turning another year older, plus our Anniversary

Throw in a few birthday parties, trips to the beach, and trips to the zoo

Now that, my friends, will be the end to our summer!

Both Jason and I were lucky enough to have whole rest of the week off, following the Fourth. So we spent some time with kids at Nickelodeon Universe at the MOA.  We had to find a way to "beat the heat!"  (Thankfully, this was the last day of the massive heat....it was really starting to wear on us all!)

Keegyn could NOT believe that Dora was there!  She could hardly contain herself to wait in line long enough until it was her turn!

She would have stayed and hung out with Dora ALL day long if we would have let her. She just kept staring up into Dora's big eyes and smiling and saying "Hi Doda", and holding her hand!

 Waiting for Cale and Daddy to finish up on the Log Chute

 Cale, waiting patiently, for his favorite roller coaster at MOA...Fairly Odd Parents.  Usually Jason goes on with him, but I needed a mini break from Keegyn, so I offered to go....Man, I can't handle those like I used to!  After getting off, I really felt like a "mom!" I think I had my eyes closed for over half the ride!



                                           

IT'S GETTIN' HOT IN HERE!!!!

Oh, yes, it truly was gettin' HOT in here!!!  Our beloved AC went on strike for a good twelve hours the day after the Fourth.  We couldn't believe our luck, as this was the hottest week we've had all year!
So, despite the 107 degree temps, Miss K found a way to stay cool....and she was the ONLY one!

 

Thankfully, our "inside" heat wave ended as our BEST friend, AC, realized the strike would get him NOWHERE!!!

Happy Fouth of July!!!!

The Fourth came and went "with a BANG!"  Despite the massive heat, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves this year!

We started out with our own fireworks, put on by none other than Jason himself, right in our our front yard! The kids thought it was really cool to watch all the other neighbors light off their fireworks too...it was like a competition.

We lasted only about 40min (actually Keegyn and I lasted only about 30min) before we had to retire to the inside to get away from the heat and the "skeeters."

Keegyn in her "patriotic" outfit! Waiting patiently to head out to the parade.

 God Bless America!!!

Man was it HOT out there...over 100 degrees with the heat index, but these two were troopers!  Good thing Grandpa T had scoped out a good, shaded area under a big tree HOURS before the parade started and claimed our spot! Otherwise we would have lasted less than a minute!

 And with the freezies on board, the heat was a little better tolerated....a LITTLE better

 Lollipops and Capri Suns helped as well!

 This little guy was a candy-catching-machine this year!  His bag was when we left, like he had just gone trick-or-treating.

He even threw some elbows a few times when he saw something he really wanted!

 After an hour straight in that extreme heat, we headed back to Grandma and Grandpa T's to take a dip in the pool!

Man was that refreshing!

 Grandpa and Cale enjoying a friendly game of Water War.  Grandpa is VERY determined in this picture, just look at that facial expression!

"Take that!" 

 Cale's new "summer do"  The Mohawk

 Another favorite activity for Cale when he's at Grandma T's....digging for worms.  Look closely and you can definately see he caught one!

 Keegyn didn't think this looked too hard, so she got right in and joined the quest of "wormin"

 Time for Fireworks....and then BED!  Boy were we exhausted!