Imperfect Living

Today was one of those gorgeous fall days where you cannot help but smile. The kind of smile that starts on your lips, but actually warms your whole being. A wide blue sky, mild temps, a bit of blustery wind, the trees starting to turn beautiful colors...all reminders of God's perfect goodness displayed in His creation.  (Have I mentioned before how much I love autumn?!!)
After taking Darcy to school this morning, we enjoyed a relaxing morning at home. I caught up on some work. Drew kept busy with trains & such. Sophie enjoyed some time playing with Drew & also some time playing by herself (which she enjoys, but rarely gets!) Jack finished up his homework (and spent lots of time just chatting with me, one of his love languages is definitely Quality Time!) Since it is fall break, I wanted to do something a little fun with the kids, but by Friday everyone is also pretty tired from a busy week, so I didn't want to plan a big outing. After looking out at our porch, still sadly lacking in fall decor, I decided it would be the perfect day to go get our pumpkins! There are several wonderful pumpkin patches in the area, but it has been our tradition since we moved back here six years ago to always get our pumpkins from Jeff's sister & brother-in-law's store. We picked up Darcy from school & headed out.

 Drew found his perfect pumpkin right away!

(Well his first perfect pumpkin!)

 Uncle Tom having fun with Drew

 Darcy carefully inspecting all of the pumpkins to find just the right one

 Now Drew has really found his perfect pumpkin, maybe?!

 Sophie picked hers & carefully carried it to the wagon herself

 Drew opted for quantity over size & has now filled up his own wagon with little pumpkins...

 He's ready to go now!

 Lucy carefully inspecting her own pumpkin

 She's our precious pumpkin 

 Then we went inside to pay & Drew really, really found the ones he wanted...

 So he put the medium sized ones back outside...

 And opted for 5 little pumpkins that he lined up all in a row!

 Don't fall off the pumpkin cart!

 Picking pumpkins is hard work, so Drew decided to have a seat. 

 Here Drew is repeatedly telling me, "No take my picture! No picture!"

 Teamwork! 

 After we paid for our pumpkin bounty, the kids had all worked up a thirst, so we went into the store to get some water from the water fountain...but look everyone found all kinds of pretty (and breakable, eek!) things to look at. (And of course "I just want to look at it" really means that the item will be picked up & handled & turned upside down & carried around the store & hopefully returned to it's rightful display!)

 Jack was really partial to the gorgeous, richly-hued velvet pumpkins with real stems. I first saw these on the Nester's blog & they are divine, but we stuck with the garden grown variety today. 

 Sophie & Darcy really liked the cute decorative gourds.

 And Drew was fascinated by the cute birdhouse with a screen door that really opened. He kept telling me, "It opens, Mommy!"

 Whew, thank goodness we were able to get out of the beautiful store before any of the lovely gift items were "loved" a bit too much! And we moved on to much safer territory...the playground!

 We haven't built a play set in our yard since we moved last year, so playing on the swings & slide was a real treat for our kids.

 The weather was SO nice, it was great to let them just run & play & be silly.

 Just hangin' out

 Finally, Lucy was getting hungry, so it was time to call it a day...and I wanted to get home to put our lovely pumpkins on display!

 Fall has now officially arrived at our house!

I seriously love to put pumpkins & gourds everywhere! 

 I love their texture & colors

  If I could, I would buy hundreds of pumpkins & use them all over the house...on the porch, displayed on the mantles, in bowls, on tables, on chairs, inside, outside & upside down!