Pumpkin Patch

Today I took the boys to the pumpkin patch, the same one we went to last year with Andre’s co-op preschool. Even though it is 50 miles away, it is well worth the drive and the experience of being at a real pumpkin patch and not an asphalted parking lot of some grocery store sparsely sprinkled with hay.

Unlike last year, the weather this time was perfect. Last time it was scorching heat, and today it was overcast, but warm the whole day. The boys loved it there, but got a little tired of me taking pictures of them. Harper was most uncooperative and there are only a few photos of him actually looking at the camera.

Awwww. They love each other.

The boys enjoyed the pony rides. $5 is a little steep, but worth it when you do it once a year and when you get to see the joy and excitement in your kids’ eyes.

One thing we forewent last year was the corn maze, so we decided to do it this time around. After about 10 minutes of letting the kids choose which way we went and my knee starting to bother me, I decided to take a more logical approach by taking only the right-hand turns. Seeing that we were pretty deep in the maze, and that it would take us a while to get out, Andre exclaimed: “Mommy, we are lost! We are DOOMED!”. Lucky for us we came to a dead end that had a map of the maze. Thank goodness for technology - I was able to snap a picture of the map with my phone and used it to navigate us out of there.

After we successfully exited the big maze, the boys decided to play it on the safe side and go through a kids’ maze a few times instead (a concentric circle maze, where if you keep going, you will make it out) and needless to say I did not object.

Andre and Harper got to sit on a real tractor

There also was a cool  real harvester converted into a slide. It was a really fast slide, and kids were flying out of there. Boys went on it a few times.

We went to pick out little pumpkins for the boys to carve for Halloween.

Harper loves to line things up, and pumpkins were no different!

There was a silly contraption – a series of tall bridges and connections built for goats to walk around. At the playground there was a conveyor belt feeding system built to send the food up to the goats. Andre and Harper took turns feeding the goats some carrots:

To conclude our adventures we visited a big pumpkin patch. We ran around the field of pumpkins. Harper tried to pick up all the big pumpkins, and every time not being able to do so, with a tone of frustration would exclaim: “It is too heavy!”

Andre already asked me if we could go back there next year and that would be a good indicator that the boys had a blast.

First love?!!!

As I was pulling up to my friend Kim’s house who was super nice to help me watch the boys while I had to take care of some business, Andre decided to inform me that he was in love. What?!

This is how our conversation went:

Andre:  Mommy, I love Amelia.

       Me:  You do?

Andre:  I love her because she is my friend.

       Me:  That’s nice.

Andre:  I am going to marry her.

       Me:  You are?

Andre:  Yes. I told Papa I was going to marry Elana, but I

                 am not. I will marry Amelia. She loves me and I  

                 love her.

I thought I wasn’t supposed to be worried about girls and romance until my boys are teens. Boy, was I wrong!

When I returned to pick the boys up, this is how I found them:

Yes, Amelia’s hand is on Andre’s lap. I love how Harper is looking at what’s going on, like a little chaperone about to break up their little “moment”. Too funny.

Disneyland

Unfortunately our Disneyland passes are running out on the 15th, and most likely we will not be renewing them for a while. So to make up for an upcoming break, we already visited the parks twice in the last 2 weeks. I think we might try to squeeze our in our last full day of Disneyland next week, and try to hit all the rides, and see most of the shows and parades. 

Harper loves carousels!

Andre decided to make a grumpy face because according to him “the horse wasn’t shiny”. (there was another horse with a silver saddle that he wanted to get on.)

I love the mischief on Andre’s face. It is so him!

Manhattan Beach

I was able to go to the gym early in the morning today, so that left a lot of free before-nap time. I decided to take the kids to the beach and rollerblade while pushing them in the stroller. The weather was foggy and overcast, which was perfect for the occasion. We started at the beach at the end of Culver Blvd. and went all the way to Manhattan Beach Pier (which is about 7 mi one way). It was a great workout for me and the kids enjoyed the ride. They chatted up a storm, pointing out everything they saw on the way, be it seagulls, dogs, sand, ships, people, and more seagulls; they sang songs at the top of their lungs (which made Mom a little embarrassed at times); they said (or more so yelled) ‘hi’ to every passing by jogger or bicyclist, and were very disappointed when they didn’t get ‘hi’ back.

The boys wanted to first go on the pier to watch the fisherman. We got lucky enough to see a school (whatever a group of dolphins is called, I know they are not fish, but it’s the closest I could come up with) of dolphins.

    

Andre acting goofy

Andre did a great job of taking this picture of Harper and I

Of course Harper wanted to take a picture as well. His turned out great as well. Love Andre’s expression!

My cuties

Andre and Harper have been playing quite well together lately. My favorite is their pretend game. Harper just recently figured it out, and his favorite is to pretend that he is a cat. He crawls around on all fours and meows non-stop. Andre plays along by petting, ‘training’ and feeding him. This game can go on for quite some time.

After the pier we went to a local pizzeria, and then had ice cream for desert.

      

On the way back both boys tuckered out, and I had a few miles of rollerblading without any chatter. We will definitely do it again.