Countryfied

Countryfied. What is it about spending time in the country that makes a person feel rustic and that makes a person want to tear through the old backroads and cornfields with some quirky Alan Jackson song running through their head? Is it the hospitality, charm and beauty of nature that makes the country life seem so appealing? Or, is it the old-fashioned games of horse-shoes and hide-n-seek in the shoulder-high cornfields that seem a nostalgic thing of the past? Perhaps it is the fun children have as they climb on top of the hay bales or the massive farming equipment. Whatever it is, this past weekend, we spent part of our afternoon getting countryfied. We took the twins to a nearby family farm where we all played in hay and corn mazes, climbed to the top of a hay bale pyramid and rode in the back of a tractor-pulled wagon through the farm fields. It was a really fun day, and a few pictures from our time on the farm are shown below. (Mike was with us too, but regrettably, we didn't get one picture with him...next time, next time.)

Paige and Taylor taking turns steering the John Deere tractor.

Teamwork - two sets of toddler hands were needed to turn the tractor's steering wheel.

When you can't ride the real thing, rocking horses are a close second on the farm.

Halloween Is Almost Here

Halloween is almost here, and I'm pretty excited about it. We've got our evening planned for where we'll go trick 'r treating with the girls, and we've been getting in the spirit of Halloween with visits to the pumpkin patches, face carvings in our pumpkins, and we've got their cute little costumes all set. Speaking of costumes, now that we've actually bought the twins' outfits wouldn't you know it - now they want to be something else. And, what they want to be is changing daily: "I want to be the princess, the mermaid, the ballerina..." and on and on.

I have affectionately joked that the twins are going as DIVAS and that perhaps multiple outfit changes are in order on the night of Halloween because after all, that's what a real diva would do! Nah, I'm NOT going to do that but I do find it very funny that their little minds and imaginations of what they want to be for Halloween changes all the time, hour by hour, day by day. If you ask them what they want to be for Halloween one moment, they'll tell you one thing, ask them again a little later on and you'll get an entirely different idea for their costume.

So, what is their costume you ask? Well, while we were shopping about a week ago, cruising up and down the costume aisles, the twins came across the outfit that they JUST HAD TO HAVE: Ariel the Mermaid. $100.00 later, we were leaving the store with two matching Ariel the Mermaid costumes. I do have a couple of props up my sleeve in case Halloween night comes and they start screaming out "I want to be the princess now". I have purchased a couple of princess crowns, and as soon as the shouts for changing to a princess start, I'll just whip out the crowns and say, "Oh, yaaaaaaaay, look now you have princess crowns - you're the princess mermaids." Problem solved!

Conquering the Pumpkin Patch

We came, we saw, we conquered...the pumpkin patch.

Today, while Mike was attending the President's Cup golf tournament, the twins and I spent part of our morning at the pumpkin patch. It was a great day - the weather was absolutely beautiful and the pumpkin patch wasn't very crowded so we practically had the patch to ourselves. On days like today, I honestly don't know what I love more - watching the twins run all around and explore their surroundings or taking tons of pictures of them. It's a good thing I don't have to choose! Here are a few pictures of the girls' day among the pumpkins. More pictures will be forthcoming, but for now, these are some pretty fun shots:

Arriving at the pumpkin patch -- you take the left side, I'll take the right side and we'll meet somewhere in the middle.

Paige picks her pumpkin.

Taylor: "I love my little pumpkin."

Picking up the pumpkins, and this one goes right here.

Paige was cracking herself up so much that she fell off the pumpkin backwards.

Paige finds herself a perfect pumpkin pillow.

Paige and Taylor lounging around the pumpkin patch.

After conquering the pumpkin patch, the twins rested.

A Day At The Pumpkin Patch

Today, we traveled to the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas to enjoy a day at the pumpkin patch! The twins also took part in their first hayride. A photo montage is featured above in the "Day At the Pumpkin Patch" slide-show featuring some of the highlights of the day.

And, just for kicks, a few miscellaneous pumpkin facts we learned today to help you also get in the Fall spirit.....

* Pumpkins are not vegetables ... they're fruits.

* Pumpkins, gourds, and other varieties of squash are all members of the family Cucurbitacae, which also includes cucumbers, gherkins, and melons.

* Pumpkins have been grown in America for over 5,000 years. They are indigenous to the western hemisphere and were completely unknown in Europe before the time of Columbus.

* In 1584, the French explorer Jacques Cartier reported from the St. Lawrence region that he had found "gros melons," which was translated into English as "ponpions," or pumpkins.

* There was probably some kind of pumpkin served at the first Thanksgiving Feast. Pumpkins and other forms of squash made up one leg of the triad -- maize, beans, and squash -- that once formed the basic diet of American Indians.