It was a long weekend and this will be a long post full of photos!

First of all, the colors this weekend were stunning.  We had plenty of sunshine, which made them seem even brighter.

We went to Target.

And the next morning Sarah was on a leash….

My Mom and Dad said “you have to watch the Great British Baking show” so I finally turned it on Saturday morning–we ended up watching four episodes throughout the day.  It’s included on amazon prime.  The first episode was “cake” and my little ones got VERY inspired.

They came up with this on their own after watching it with me.

Seth got points for rolling his up, just like the people did with their swiss rolls on the show.   After I took the pictures they got out the whipped cream, too.

They spilled so many bright white sprinkle balls on the floor that the kitten started chasing them around.

Rich and I took four of the children to a corn maze.  I think it was the first time that we took 2 boys and 2 girls with us anywhere, an even match-up.

Two girls

There was a playground in a deep bed of feed corn.

two boys

There was a hay bale maze for little ones to run through (or over the top which is what our kids did).

And fun places to take goofy picture of your kids.

We went through the corn maze but didn’t complete it 100% of the way…it got too confusing.  I don’t think we stopped laughing though.

There was a “pillow” to bounce on.

Before we left, we each picked out a pumpkin.

After a while he asked someone else to pull the wagon because his “legs were too tired.”

We got to the car and he said that I forgot his jacket so Rich had to go find it.  Then, while we were waiting he said he had to go to the bathroom so Grace had to go take him.  It’s amazing what you remember when you have to sit still.

On Sunday Rich went to church and I took the little boys to their game.  Caleb is number 54.  Both teams won.  It was a great morning to spend outside.  Rich and Grace were able to join me after a while.  Ethan dropped them off after church and went on home by himself (he drives now and it was great when I ran out of creamer for my coffee the other day and I could just throw him the car keys).

I could sit and stare at this picture forever:

My man and my girl.

As soon as we got home I didn’t go inside…..I wandered around in the gorgeous outdoors.

I love the faded pinkish red leaves in the background in this picture of glowing yellow.

And how the fall colors blend and mix and stand out.  I see the brown and gray of tree bark, plus several different shades of red, orange, yellow, and green.

I call Sam my halloween cat.  She followed me around, begging to get her fur stroked.

The Osprey was in our dead tree again and this time it had a fish.  I was able to lay down in the grass under the branch it sat upon, which was way up high above me.  The bird held the fish in its feet and lowered its head down to twist pieces off it to eat.  The twisting action was a quick back and forth motion, similar to a person testing a doorknob to see if the door is locked.  It was fascinating to watch this interesting bird.

But Rich wasn’t very pleased with it eating HIS fish from HIS pond.

But luckily, David ran over to look with us, and the two of them used my camera to zoom in on the fish.  They decided that it wasn’t from our pond, it was a trout.

(I found Dave’s “life is good” t shirt at the thrift store for 25 cents!)

Kids played football together on Sunday afternoon, until Emily had to go to work.

On Monday, Seth put clips all over his face!

Rich had to work but everyone else had no school or work, so a trip to Salem, MA was planned.

Michael, Jacob, Zak, Grace, and Emily went for the day.  This picture was taken before they left to go get Emily.

Ethan stayed home because he wanted to visit with his friend Tessa, also he had soccer practice.

The funniest thing happened while I was taking the picture of Tessa and Ethan.  We were at the bottom of the hill and our house sits at the top.  Sarah was playing with the pumpkins on the front steps and let one go….all we heard was her little voice “Here comes a pumpkin” and it rolled all the way down, off the dock, into kersplash!  into the pond!

Caleb waded into the cold water to get it after it floated close enough to the edge.

Thank you Caleb!

Caleb pointed out these mushrooms to me.

I’m going to dig up this little pink-leaved bush to put in my flower garden.  It’s growing at the edge of the woods.  I love how the leaves turned dark pink for fall.  It’s beautiful!

Last but not least, I took a this photo this morning while Seth read me his assigned 1st grade reading.  It was a variation of “Jack and Jill” that made me die of laughter…,,,,