"Pumpkin Maze!"

Ezra has become enjoyable company again. Even if we go somewhere! And he realized (again) that he does in fact love his father. Add in the fact that Seth is soon leaving for a week and I really wanted us to try to get in a family date before his trip.

All month long Facebook has been full of people's pumpkin patch adventures, and, gradually the idea grew on me enough to suggest it to Seth. We might have gone to a corn maze in high school? but we couldn't really remember. Besides that, I'm pretty sure I've never gone to a corn maze and I just didn't think it would be all that much fun (especially because of what I thought was all.the.hype).

We're also not sure what we think in regards to Halloween/fall festival, etc., celebrations. I grew up with Reformation Day/Reformers celebrations being the focus of October and Seth grew up with parents very, very opposed to anything Halloween-ish (like pumpkin carving). And in general, we don't really make a big deal out of holidays and such.

Does that paint the picture? We were pretty skeptical.

But when Seth's job got cancelled last minute (11pm the night before!?!) we decided to make Friday our family day.

The boys woke us all up by 7am (lovely, right? except this morning they woke us up at 5:30am). Seth was going to go to a coffee shop to work on the computer in peace, but Ezra freaked out when Seth started walking out the door, grabbing at his bag and trying to pull him back into the house. (!?!?) So Seth stayed, hiding away in the bedroom to make phone calls... but it wasn't too long before Ezra slipped in there as I was distracted by Isaac.

I heard them talking, but assumed Ezra would pop back out again in a few seconds. But he didn't... and he didn't... When I finally got curious and peaked in, they were cuddled up on the bed watching Curious George on the laptop! So adorable. I love it when Ezra deigns to cuddle with Seth.

After cuddle time was over, Seth dictated e-mails to me and I washed dishes and packed our bags and made lunch... and then off we went to Maris Farms!

It's rather a long drive, I suppose. I always pretend like it isn't, since I want to justify driving so far for piano lessons, but it was a good 45 minutes from our house. Ezra did look sleepy towards the end, so we ate pumpkin cookies and potato chips (nutritious!) and sang "What Does the Fox Say?" to keep him awake.

And then we arrived. There's an episode of Curious George where George goes through a corn maze (which Ezra talked about on the drive out there), so he totally knew what to expect. Of course, he also got very distracted...

He bee-lined to the tractor and wanted to drive it.

But then we found the sheep and goats! And even bought a quarter's worth of feed out of the dispenser (which he's very interested in, thanks to Uncle David's recent  of a candy machine in my parents' living room...

We took a ride, sitting on hale bales in a trailer pulled by a big orange tractor.

We admired pumpkins and stomped in thick mud.

We enjoyed all of the activities in their play area, including tunnels and spider webs and bouncy houses.

And we also walked through the corn maze, but we didn't take photos of it, I guess. We definitely, definitely got our $10 worth. It was a fantastic family date.

Friday Update #41 (10/11/13)

Seth and I went paintballing.

The Seahawks experienced their first loss.

Poor Isaac had a 102* fever this week and is cutting new teeth. But he also started standing! What a active and mobile baby! (It's getting harder to call him baby, since he's moving around all the time). He's starting to follow me from room to room, goofball. He can crawl oh so fast!

Ezra made me cry by yet again convicting me with his understanding and example and fierce attachment to me.

We're gradually seeing the "light at the end of the tunnel" as far as Ezra's intense separation anxiety. He did pretty well in Sunday School and at BSF this week. So many people are praying for him now and it's obvious those prayers are effective.

One night this week the boys went to bed relatively early (for them) and instead of going to sleep early ourselves, Seth and I tried to watch a movie together. Big date night, ha ha. Of course, Seth quickly fell asleep and I fell asleep during the impassioned speech that is what, according to Seth, makes the movie worth watching. But hey, we tried, right? That's noteworthy.

Ezra and I made "letter cookies" this week too, which were definitely a hit and probably worth the big mess.

And then we went up to Shoreline to celebrate my Grandma's birthday and meet a new cousin.

Baby Wyatt

We went to go celebrate my Grandma's 79th birthday at her house Friday night. Ezra was so excited for his Great Grandma's birthday party! He gave Grandma a painting he made last week and proudly told everyone about it ("a flower! a bird! a house!") when they first walked through the door.

We also got to meet my cousin's new baby, Wyatt Allen Anderson. Wyatt is my grandparent's third great grandchild, my first cousin once removed and Ezra and Isaac's second cousin.

Ezra was pretty fascinated by the "little tiny baby Wyatt".

Isaac Can Stand!

I finally got photographic evidence that Isaac is pulling himself up to standing. He's been doing this for several days with ease, but of course he doesn't always stand up for long (or I don't have a camera handy).

Isaac started standing up at about six months and three weeks, almost exactly on pace with Ezra. Maybe Isaac will start walking really early too? He definitely wants to be included in all the action.

Dying to Self

Whenever we're all in the car together, we know that Ezra can very easily hear everything we say. He's a captive audience, after all. Our conversations with each other are always peppered with asides to Ezra, anyway, if not completely interrupted or redirected to include him.

But yesterday, as we were trying to talk about another facet of our "life plan" regarding activities and vehicles in particular, I was telling Seth (again) that it is really hard for me to stay at home with the boys - both literally and figuratively. But, I said, "I know that this is how I get to die to self everyday".

Ezra immediately broke in, "No! Mommy! don't die! I want you to stay with me! And to be happy!"

And I burst into tears. How does he have any idea what "die" means? Or at least, understand enough that he could respond so appropriately, so convictingly?

Paintball!

Seth and I get to be involved in the high school youth ministry again this year. Seth is teaching Sunday School and I get to help with some of the lesson planning, as well as event planning. We have such a "huge" (comparatively speaking) group of high schoolers this year! And, a month in, attendance has been great.

We're determined to plan at least one event each month, alternating the focus of each event between service and recreation. In August we painted the youth room. Several things happened in September that postponed what was to be our inaugural youth event: paintball!

So, on the first day of October we took the entire day and did our service activity and then, after lunch, went paintballing.

Early Saturday morning, Seth and a number of the youth went over to help one of the families from our church prepare their new house for their upcoming move. I went to church with Ezra and Isaac and played with them in the nursery (yay! for Ezra having a positive nursery experience! acclimation!) and got food prepped.

Then my mom came and picked up the boys and we all drove out to South Prairie. I'd originally planned to stay home with the boys, but once my parents found that out they sacrificed their rare afternoon off to take the boys to a Greek Festival/street fair and Emily's volleyball game. And I'm so glad I went. It was really fun to hang out with the youth and get to know them better and watch them enjoy one another's company.

Friday Update #40 (10/4/13)

Isaac is crawling like a mad man and as of three days ago is pulling himself up on everything. Today he even pulled himself up to standing!?! on the couch. I was right there and caught him when he inevitably fell. But my goodness. Even Ezra wasn't quite pulling himself up quite this quickly (he waited until he was one week older, ha ha).

Emily turned 18, so we went to the Old Spaghetti Factory to celebrate after her volleyball game.

The boys wore onesies with Emily's number, 14, painted on them in MRLH colors.

The cabinet over our stove fell down and shattered most of my mixing bowls and bread pans and pie pans.

Isaac was super cute.

We have a big paintball event with the youth from church tomorrow.