If You Give Two Boys A Rake...

...they may start off raking the leaves, but they will probably end up just playing in them.

Fun Weekend

Cox Farms was just the beginning of our fun weekend!  Saturday morning the Primary held an activity at the DC LDS temple.  So we packed a lunch and headed out to relearn the lesson that traffic is pretty much always bad on 66 and 495.  However, we did arrive safely and spent the morning at the Visitors' Center and then on a stroll around the temple.

Between that and a stop at Trader Joe's the day was almost over when we got home.  Not a bad way to spend a Saturday (well, except that TJ no longer carries their gluten free pumpkin pancake mix which I had heard great things about but sadly missed out on this year).

Sunday started with the usual: meetings for Jason and church for all of us in the morning.  The afternoon air turned out to be nice and crisp and calling my name.  And since I enjoy torturing my husband and children, I decided it was calling their names as well.  Lucky guys.  And because they are SUPER lucky, I brought my camera to document the torture.  As you can tell, they clearly suffered.

Clearly.

Cox Farms

Cox Farms Fall Festival is one of those traditions that has been much more difficult to keep going now that the boys are in school.  So, we haven't been a couple of years.  I have been very tempted to take the boys out of school to go, but after playing hooky at Shenandoah National Park earlier this Fall, I felt like that might not be a good idea.  And Jason, who doesn't believe in playing hooky ever, agreed.  

Luckily, they now have a great afternoon deal and yesterday we had great weather.  Plus, this qualifies as one of those "before the baby comes" activities.  So, as soon as Jason got home, we loaded into the van and braved Friday afternoon traffic.  

Totally worth it.

As always, the boys enjoyed the slides.

Well, Ben wasn't quite sure about the final drop on the Dino Slide.

We were lucky enough to see a bunch of friends while there.  We got to meet Ben's friend Will.  We figure Will must be pretty important because for the last few weeks Ben has been rather proud of the fact that he can spell "W-I-L-L".  The boys were super cute together and went down the Barn Slide together.

We also saw Peter and his family.  Peter joined us for most of our time and the boys had a dance party in front of the stage.

Then I was lucky enough to catch some excellent dismounts on the rope swing.

And finally, after playing in the hay mountain, it was time to get kicked out of the park.  We took some pictures by the largest pumpkin at the farm (this is the zombie shot), picked out our baby pumpkins and then headed home.

And then we sat in traffic for the next 2 days getting home.  Just kidding.  Well, Friday afternoon traffic in the DC area really isn't anything to kid about.  I would love to tell you that the boys wore themselves out and slept in the car on the ride home.  However, the sad reality is they were still going full speed crazy when we got home.  By the time we got them showered, fed and in bed, Jason and I were ready to go to bed well before 9pm.  

Picture Day

Whatever happens today, I just want the world to know that when I sent the boys to school today for picture day, they had brushed hair and ironed shirts (although considering what damage they managed to do between my bedroom and the front porch, I should have used starch).

I am pretty sure that they will look nothing like this by the time they sit down in front of the photographer.

It took a morning of nagging and an enormous amount of gel in Michael's faux-hawk to reach this point.  And they are all wearing t-shirts under these shirts so they can shed them as soon as the flash goes off.  Normally we don't bother worrying about picture day because they have something like 20 of them a year (slight exaggeration) and I refuse to pay the obscene prices they charge for what are usually mediocre pictures.  However, I told Josh that we would get him a yearbook when he is in 5th grade (this year) so he would have pictures of (most of) his teachers and the year he would know the most number of kids.  So, showers/baths and button-up shirts it is.  I just warned Michael not to move too quickly and hopefully all these pictures will turn out well.

Shenandoah

Another fall has come and with it another trip to Shenandoah National Park with Nana (aka playing hooky).  And we did actually manage to hit the park during some nice color, but it was hard to see much of it because most of the park was covered in clouds.  As in we drove through them for miles and miles.  Luckily, the clouds parted at the visitor centers and the restaurant so were still able to get out and climb on rocks (a must for the boys) and see some beautiful fall foliage (a wish for me and mom).  We skipped doing an actual hike this time as I have certain proximity requirements when it comes to bathrooms these days, but we did wander around Big Meadows and that was a hit with the boys.  

We started this tradition when Michael was tiny and I think we've gone every year.  The boys are getting to be so big!  Crazy to think that next time we do this we will have a baby in tow as well!

The Project

Oh man.  School projects.  AKA torture for parents with a deadline.  Josh's class has been studying Native Americans and the kids got to pick a project that was due today.  Which is why Jason and Josh spent some (a lot of) quality time Monday and Tuesday evening making this pueblo.

Josh is incredibly lucky to have Jason as his father.  I went and got books and materials for Josh weeks ago and reminded him day after day that he needed to work on this.  In the tradition of students everywhere, he ignored me.  When it came to crunch time, I told him that there would be no exceptions made for chores and bedtime for this project.  At which point, Jason took one for the team and spent two evenings working with clay (plan A - didn't work) and then cardboard and paint (plan B).  Josh was pretty happy with the results and hopefully his teacher will feel the same.  I would like to believe that he will learn his lesson and not procrastinate next time, but I am not sure that I ever learned that myself.

Pack Meeting

Last night was the pack meeting.  We have a great cubmaster who does a wonderful job of mixing teaching and fun.  I love that he helps the boys work on skills like having good sportsmanship and plans fun activities at the same time.   They got to play the stick pull game (Jason and the cubmaster seen below demonstrating) and balloon volleyball. 

And then of course there were awards to be handed out.  Michael earned 5 belt loops and has been looking forward to getting them in his hot little hands for quite a while.

Josh earned one as well, but there was a communication issue so we'll have to do those next month.  In any case, we are just so grateful for all the scout leaders who put so much time and effort into helping our boys have a great experience in scouting!