Today We Remember

{Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. John 15:13 NIV}


We will never forget the sacrifices made by the men and women who laid down their lives for our country.

fall.

fall in tennessee doesn't disappoint.


every where you look is filled with color.








i love fall.
walking lucy.
riding a bike.
playing outside with the kids.
love.




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what do you do in the fall?

pumpkin patch, part two.

so, yesterday i left you with the beginning of our fun day at the pumpkin patch.
it was a beautiful, sunny day.
fall was evident in only the trees...it felt more like a cooler summer day.

we were all hot and sweaty after playing on the slides, hamster wheels, and 4x4's.


it was off to the snack bar for us.
everyone, except for jake austin, got an apple cider slush.
YUM!



mckinley made it her job to pull this wagon around. everywhere.


then, we were off to play again...

can i just say it was me, ME, who jumped up on these big 'ol tires and schooled all the kids on how to leap from tire to tire.
{what happened to the playground equipment we had as kids?
merry-go-rounds that you ran around to start and then jumped on, swings that went so high you thought you might go all the way over, tire courses that you leaped across....my kids would have LOVED the playgrounds i grew up playing on!}

jonah was so proud that he made it all the way around, without falling even once.



at this point we had been at the orchard for three or so hours.
hubs was past his "i'm so excited to be here" point.
it was time to go find the perfect pumpkins, sorghum, pumpkin roll, apples, and gallon of apple cider.



i told jake austin he should find him a good lookin' knucklehead pumpkin.
cause he's a knucklehead!
he didn't think it was a funny joke.





see you next time, jackson's apple orhcard!

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ready to see a picture that is nothing short of a miracle???

pumpkin patch, part one.

early monday morning we set out on a day trip to bowling green , ky...
jackson's apple orchard.

this is our second year visiting this orchard.
we knew about this fantastic slide.




this next picture cracks me up.
jett would climp the stairs to the top, sit down ready to slide, just when you thought he'd push off normally he'd BLAST off on his back with his little arms by his side.
AWESOME!!


how much fun are these "hamster wheels?"


we all enjoyed them...

i even tried.
a little sideways but, i tried.

of course, mckinley had to see the 'hee-hee's.'



poppy, you totally need one of these 4x4's in your front yard!


after all this fun jett was ready for something cold to drink.
come back tomorrow to see what goodies we had!

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a little thursday funny for ya...
i told mckinley she was momma's precious girl.
she said, "no! i'm papa's girl!"

well, alrighty then.
i love you too!

amish. again.

yesterday the kids and i took a short drive to the amish area of town.
i was specifically in search of fresh corn.
goodness knows i've got a ton of my own cucumbers and tomatoes!


look! some of the horses were taking in some shade.


she had a bunch of canned yummies.
i bought some bread and butter pickles.


she went out into the corn field, picked my corn right off of the stalk and brought it back in her apron.
love it.


i asked for six.
she graciously gave us seven.
and counted them with jett.
she was very sweet!


it's such a simple way of life.
simple and beautiful.



so, this next picture makes me laugh.

as we were driving away i noticed this wooden trunk in between the trash cans.
it was really a very neat trunk.
but, i wondered if it was trash or like an amish trash can.
what did i do?
i turned around and asked that sweet lady if she was throwing the trunk away.
she said "yes."
SCORE!!!
it's awesome!
and probably handmade.
and now mine!

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totally off subject but, has your summer been as hot as mine?
it's sweltering out.
too miserable to go out in unless you absolutely have to.

what are some things to do with my kiddos for this last week before school starts???

unlikely sighting.

i've joked, loosely, that with the amount of amish folk that live around here it would be funny to see a horse and buggy at the walmart.




you shoulda seen the pile of poo under that horse.
i spared you a pic of the visual.

i wish i could have found those amish folk, not that i looked, while i was in there.
i'd have loved to see just exactly what they were buying.
nosy? no.
curious? yes, that's it.

have you seen anything out of the ordinary lately?

2nd Annual Butterfly Festival...

of Oak Grove, KY.

two of my neighbors and i took all of our kiddos (all ELEVEN kiddos) to the butterfly festival last weekend.
i had no expectations.
i just wanted to get out and have adult conversation.

it was super hot.
i stood in line for 20 minutes for water.
after realizing that everyone was in line for food and the line was NOT moving i decided to take the money to the back of the little food trailor thingy and hand them $4.00 for four waters and get the heck outta there!
was that rude? it probably was.
did i mention it was hot?
like 100 degrees.
hot.

jett and his new friend, hunter.










this is me.
holding a tarantula.
for reals!
(i had to do it to get the kids to do it)
((i get mom of the year for that, right??!!?))












there were bubbles...


and flumpo (or was it flumpie) the frog too.


aside from the heat, it was a great day!