Unadulterated Autumnal Bliss

Otherwise known as leaf jumping.

Saturday night we participated in a group date with several of the priests and laurels in our ward.  Adam had mentioned to the priests that we would be willing to host something like this if they were interested.  The YM planned the entire evening, with no help whatsoever from Adam.  

We began the night with some beach volleyball, which, in my mind, was the perfect activity--an extra volleyball practice!  Did I ever mention that I got called to be the YM/YW volleyball coach in addition to my primary calling?  Well, I did.  But I tried to back off on the coaching on Saturday.  After all, we were on a date, and it was just for fun.  And it was really fun!

When it was too dark to see the ball properly, we headed to our house for some graham cracker haunted house-making.  The guys had gathered all sorts of candies, cookies, and icings to decorate with, so the possibilities were nearly limitless!  I loved the amount of creativity exploding in my dining room!  We have some pretty talented young people in our ward!

Here's the group as we were just getting started:

And here are the finished products.  Brilliant!

Here's Adam showing off our combined masterpiece--complete with pumpkin patch, graveyard, and some spooky Halloween characters.

A close up of our ghost (and if you look closely you can see a noosed gummy bear.  Yep, I was feeling a little gruesome right then).

And this was my proudest creation of the evening, little Franky.  And all this time you thought I wasn't creative!

We had a super fun time!  It was a little weird to think that we have been on group dates with some of these kids' parents, but that's the awesome thing about our position in life right now.  We can be friends with the middle-age couples and their kids!

Flat Acres Farm

A couple days ago Ty came to me while I was sitting at the computer and asked, "Mom, will you post me up?"  "Do you want me to play basketball with you?" I responded, thinking that was what he was referring to.   "No, Mom, I want you to post me up some new pictures of me," he said in a frustrated tone.  "These Hawaii pictures have been on here for a long time."

It's true.  I haven't had much of a desire to blog since posting the Hawaii pictures, mostly because it seems like nothing in regular life has been blog-worthy after all of that!  But, I think I am finally ready to move on.

So yesterday we took a family excursion to Flat Acres Farm.  There wasn't quite as much to do as there was last year, but the boys (and Adam and I!) still had a really great time.

There was the hay bale maze

Which was a little tricky!

The snake tunnel

And of course the corn maze!  In the middle of the corn maze was this cool hay jump!

McKay was thrilled to make it out of the maze (notice how he is clutching the map, he was giving us "directions" the whole time!)

There were tubs of corn to play in

And a tractor-pulled hay ride

There were some fun photo-op spots

And a giant game of Jenga

Which McKay knocked over.  Surprised?

And at the end of our visit, each of the boys got to choose a little pumpkin.

Then when we got home, there was a Halloween package from G&G Marchant (yep, the same ones who just sent us on a trip to Hawaii.  Because that certainly wasn't enough!!).  The boys got Halloween crafts, toys, balloons, and their very own candy jars filled with treats.  It was heaven for them!

We are definitely getting into the Halloween spirit around here.  Such a fun time of year!

Marchant Family Pictures: Sunset Beach, O'ahu, 2011

These pictures make me happy.