Fall Breaks

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I had a day off in October and a couple off in November so I enjoyed two fall breaks. Jess was able to take the day off in October so we were able to have lots of family fun.
Sunday night we made sugar cookies. Jack still likes to be "helper" and is actually not bad at pouring in ingredients...maybe even less messy than Jess.

He's learning what faces go with each emotion...I think this is a sad face.

Jess helped Jack lick the beaters.

Jack was extra helpful at rolling out the cookies too. He did much better than last time we made cookies and didn't ruin many of them.

Monday morning we went out for breakfast before we went on an adventure.

Our adventure was to the Roca Berry Farm. They have so many fun things to do and is really geared to younger children along with older kids.

One really fun thing at the farm is this 50 ft. slide.

Jess took Jack to the top and I was at the bottom to catch him. The slide is at the perfect angle because the kids almost stop near the bottom...no catching necessary. Jack thought it was a lot of fun.


We then went on a hay-rack ride to the pumpkin patch. This was one of those times when he said he was having fun, but he looked like he was about to cry or fall asleep the whole time.
We picked out several pumpkins. So many that we had to use the stroller to haul one because we didn't want to use a bigger wagon.

A few days later we carved our pumpkins. Jack enjoyed helping Jess scoop out the pumpkins and playing with the seeds.

Jack helped me roast the pumpkin seeds too.

We successfully carved three pumpkins. I was getting a cold so I only did one...and our little saws broke so we didn't do a fourth pumpkin. Jess did an awesome job carving this witch!!! He was feeling very geometric when he carved his second pumpkin.

I was channeling the Beatles and did their Abbey Road cover.

On Sunday of my second fall break, Jess, Jack, and I went to the zoo in Omaha. Jack was really excited to go to the zoo and was telling us that he was really hungry when we were leaving town so we stopped to pick up hamburgers...Jack was more tired than hungry though.
He woke up when we got to the zoo and eventually finished that hamburger. We had a beautiful day at the zoo and a really fun train ride. (Notice that it was the 8th of November and we are all wearing shorts!!!)

UPDATE - if you haven't seen what's above, just keep going. If you have seen what's above, here's something new for you.

Jack and I went to Red Oak for their school's homecoming. Laura was supposed to march at the football game on Friday night so we came to Red Oak to see that and to take Jack to his first football game. He really liked seeing the Tiger.

It was cold and rainy all day so Laura's band did not march but we still went to the game. It was the first really cold weather we had all fall, so 40 degrees felt like 14.

The girls were all dressed up for the game, Anna even had on her "battle paint."
The next day we headed to Clarinda for a band festival. Laura is the drum major for the junior high band and she is AWESOME!!!! I'm not just saying this because I am her aunt, she is really, really, really good.

Natalie was also in the parade; she held the banner that went in front of the band. It was her first bus ride, so it was neat to get to hear all about that after the parade.

Jack had a lot of fun watching the bands go by. Anna slept through most of it.