Perfect Pumpkin Patch Day

Tomorrow morning Elise has her 6 month well check appointment so we will miss our favorite storytime at the library by our house. We've had our library books for about a week and we've read all of them and most of them multiple times. I wanted to make it to the library at some point today and hoped Elise would wake up from her morning nap early enough that we could make storytime at a different library close to a running trail I like that loops around a playground Carter loves. Lucky for us she woke up 10 minutes before we would need to leave so we hustled booty and made it just as storytime was getting ready to start. I love the librarian at this library. It is obvious she stays up-to-date with ideas for early childhood learning and behavior management. There are drawers full of toys in the children's area and she has labeled them all with words and pictures to show what is inside. Carter loves it because he is able to figure out where things go all by himself. The storytime was fall and leaf themed which was fun and she changed it up by passing out scarves for the kids to dance with a song to rather than the shakers that we see at most storytimes. She had the kids come up and get 2 scarves each. I asked Carter to go back up to get one for Elise when I saw there were enough and he was careful to get her 2 since everyone else had 2. It was very sweet! Elise loved playing with the scarves during the song, I just had to be diligent that she didn't sneak them into her mouth.

Playing with her scarves. Notice she was wearing her pumpkin outfit, but required a clothing change before the pumpkin patch.

After storytime we played in the children's area for a while and then headed over to the park to run. I planned to run 3 or 4 miles and the loop is 3 miles. Around 2 miles into the run I pointed out geese to Carter and he didn't respond. I looked in the stroller and he was asleep. A little while later Elise stopped playing with her toy and I realized she had also drifted off. It was the first time they have ever both fallen asleep on a run. Unlike Carter, Elise rarely naps on runs. When Carter was a baby if he was struggling to sleep a sure fire way to get him to nap was to go for a run. Elise not so much. Pretty much the only way she will sleep outside of her crib is in the baby carrier or in her car seat in the car. So it was a pleasant and unexpected surprise. Since they were both asleep I just kept running and ended up going 6 miles. When I hit 6 miles I decided not to push it too much and started walking. The minute I switched from running to walking Elise was up, but Carter slept for another mile or so walking. At home Elise went back down for a nap but Carter did not.

Big boy napping on our run.

When Elise woke up we got ready and then headed out to the pumpkin patch. The plan was for Ty to leave from work and meet us there. I was so excited I had Elise dressed in a special outfit and had Carter pick out an orange shirt. I brought along their pumpkin stocking caps made by Oma and we were set. Carter was super jacked up when we arrived. He could hear animals and see inflatables, two of his favorite things in one place! We immediately headed for inflatables and then he stopped off in a play house. He wanted Elise in the house with him and he divided the food out between me, him, Elise, and daddy. Elise loved grabbing and holding the food. She was having an absolute blast! When Ty arrived we took some pictures of the kids together with the pumpkins, Carter did some more bouncing, and we ate some snacks I packed for us (pumpkin muffins and apples were quite appropriate). Not sure exactly what it was about the grass and hay, but Elise absolutely loved it. She was laughing and grabbing handfuls of dry grass and generally just enjoying herself. Then she got tired so I headed home with her to give her a bath and put her down for bed while Ty stayed with Carter to play some more. It was a wonderful family outing and I'm glad we had 2 cars so Carter could stay and play while Elise headed home for bed rather than Elise staying and being miserable or Carter having to leave earlier. Now I'm just wishing we could go again tomorrow! This post is mostly just for the pictures, so here we go!