Halloween!

October 30 fell on a Friday night, seeming the perfect time to get Church families together to pack Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes for Samaritan's Purse.  Delightful icing on the cake was that old friend Kendall and Rick were in town with their 4 cuties, including their precious miracle baby Sam:)

 A VT football player, a "super kitty" (whatever that is!) and Thomas the Train, of course! 

 Big kids were off of school (the beginning of a 5-dau weekend!) for Matthew's preschool parade, which was loads of fun for all.  Margaret delightfully sported a family heirloom all weekend.  I only wish she could have known MY Dody, who lovingly made that for the generations of girls to come in our family. 

 Twister and her sexy red-neck!

Corn Mazes, Pumpkin Patches, Whip & Nae Nae

Emily came to visit in early October and the first thing we had to do was....show her how proud Matthew is of himself, of course:)

Snatched the kids up from school and grabbed a delightful lunch as beautiful Pippin Hill before hittin' the road for the mountains.

Having not started to turn yet in Charlottesville, it was a treasure to see the gorgeous peak at 4,000'.

A flower bed, of course...

The Valle Crucis pumpkin patch and corn maze is legit!

Their first corn maze/map scavenger hunt. We didn't complete the map, but we didn't get lost, and, remarkable, Matthew didn't take any eyes out with the flag.  We did, however, exit at the entrance.

Andrew's favorite game of checkers.  

Now that's a barn full of pumpkins!  Even the stalls were piled high!

It was a great few hours until...

Silly faces at the beautiful new Elk River river park.

Family, food, fires and football...pretty good Saturday afternoon in the Fall, if I do say so myself.

 

Thomas went all the way up the Ferris Wheel!

With 7 acres to roam, Liberty Mills Farm in Orange, VA boasts the largest corn maze on the East Coast.  There are 4 separate mazes of different levels within the enormous field, each with their own different game to go along and "Corny" jokes posted along the way.  That map itself is fascinating!  

These small hay bales make a maze about the size of the living room.  The trick?  You can only take left turns to get to the exit!  Andrew plowed away at this for over an hour.  Several groups of adults joined us periodically and NO ONE figured it out.  NO ONE!  Andrew would have stayed all day he was so intent on figuring out the correct strategy.  

Would LOVE to know what they were discussing inside the pumpkin tunnel!

 

"Now watch me whip 
Now watch me nae nae
Now watch me whip, whip
Watch me nae nae"