Got leaves?

Tall, leafy trees seemed like such a good idea when we moved into our house in July.  They would provide shade and look nice and give some character to our yard.  Now, the same trees are providing millions of leaves that are covering every square inch of our lawn and patio and roof.  Good thing that Grandma the Raking Machine is coming back on Sunday and we can get some work done!

Since this might be the only time that we live somewhere with a real autumn (well, North Carolina had four seasons but we didn't have any trees that lost their leaves), we had some friends over to play in the leaves yesterday.  Meredith's husband is also a Marine and they moved here from Hawaii for the same school that Zach's in.  She has two boys and a girl: Bennett, John Oliver, and Martha Grace.  The boys all loved jumping in big piles of leaves, getting buried in leaves, and throwing leaves on each other.  Martha Grace liked sitting in the leaves and getting her picture taken.  We had a great time and Dan and Ben can't wait for their buddies to come back over!

My new favorite picture of Dan!

Back to Science City

We've actually been back a few times since I first posted about it, but I don't always take my camera or feel like taking a ton of pictures.  Since the boys love the place so much, we went ahead and got a membership, which should pay for itself after our next trip.

Dan and Ben love to sprint through the main hall of the train station to get to the room with the model trains.  They would probably stay in there for two straight hours because there is so much to see.  My favorite is the model train layout made entirely of Legos with a Halloween theme.  I love the Lego haunted houses and the Lego trick-or-treaters.  After a good half hour in there, we drag them away to our actual destination, Science City.

In there, Dan loves to watch the model roller coasters, which are small versions of the ones I grew up riding at Worlds of Fun in Kansas City.  (Anyone else remember the Orient Express?)  He also likes to climb on the playground and climb on the trains in the KC Rail Experience.  Ben likes to build with blocks and play with the balls on the ramp.  And of course they both love the dinosaur digging area.  Another highlight is when an actual train goes by and they can name all the different types of cars.  The whole family loves Science City!

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Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

On Friday, Dan's class field tripped to the pumpkin patch!  This is their only field trip of the year so we were very excited.  (All of the other "field trips" come to the school: postal worker and truck, dentist, firefighters, etc.)  The weather on Thursday was gorgeous--75 and sunny--but Friday was cloudy and windy and chilly.  The kids didn't seem to care, but the parents were freezing.

Ben tagged along and pretended like he was one of the class.  He even tried to photobomb the class picture but I hustled him out of there just in time.  The kids had a great time--they did a craft in the barn, rode the barrel train, picked out pumpkins, and rode the hayride.  And of course Dan and Ben had to play in the sandbox at the end of the morning when I was frozen solid.  Successful field trip!

Standing (l to r): Mrs. Schultz, Brody, Cole, Brady, CJ, Mrs. Borgensen, Emily.
Sitting (l to r): Josanna, Drew, Ethan, Jessica, Alex, Dan, Ryan, Mikala, Joey

Botanica

The boys and I went for a little mini-vacation to Wichita last weekend.  Dan had Friday off from school, so we packed way too much stuff and made the 3 1/2-hour drive on Thursday.  (Zach was pretty busy with school so he took advantage of a quiet house to catch up.)

After an 85 degree day on Wednesday, I don't think the temperature made it over 65 the whole time we were home.  Maybe fall is finally here to stay!  The chilly weather didn't keep us inside, though.  On Friday morning, my mom and I took Dan and Ben to Botanica, a fantastic botanic garden in Wichita.  My parents have lived in Wichita for 20 years and my mom loves all things floral and gardening and outdoors, yet she had never been there!  Unfortunately, her first time was spent speed-walking after the boys so she didn't get to stop and smell the flowers.  Maybe a membership will be in her Christmas stocking this year (hint, hint, Dad).

The gardens were beautiful and it felt like we were the only ones there, even though the sun came out and the weather turned out to be just fine.  Botanica has an amazing children's garden with herbs and vegetables to water, a treehouse to climb, a sandbox for digging, and a cave to paint (with water).  Dan and Ben loved all the secret paths and bridges and rocks and ledges.  We had a great morning and I can't wait to go back at Christmas to see how it's decorated then!