This year we finally visited the zoo for Wild Zoo Halloween. The kids wore some other costumes that they had at home and saved their new ones for Halloween. Ben wore Luigi (of course) and Lucy was Rapunzel. They had trick-or-treating for the kids, a hay maze, meeting Broomhilda (a friendly witch), and they got to pick out a little pumpkin. The zoo had really cool painted pumpkins all over. The kids loved seeing some of their favorite characters on the pumpkins. Overall, it was a really fun time and hopefully we will make it there again next year.  Elsa and Anna pumpkins were a hit with Lucy!    Picking out their pumpkins. Checking out the GIANT pumpkins.  Meeting Broomhilda the witch.  Curt took Lucy and Ben through the maze.  Mario and Peach pumpkins...Ben was sad that there wasn't a Luigi one too. I love that Lucy is yelling "CHEEEESE!" It's so hard to get a good smile out of her lately. :) 

In October, we visited the Hilger Family Farm for the first time. Now that Lucy is getting a little older, places like this are more fun. We thought it was a nice farm with lots of fun things for little kids. Lucy had lots of activities to do that were just the right size for her. We got there soon after it opened and by the time we left the place was packed! I don't always enjoy crowded (claustrophobic) places, so I'm glad we got there early.    Ben and Lucy are standing in front of a kid's maze. Lucy loved it and went through several times.    In the barn, they had some swings set up.  A super easy hay maze. :)  Ben liked this slide and some big tube slides that were hooked to a swingset. (I didn't get any pictures of those.)    They also had a corn maze that we went through really quickly. We might have to find a more challenging one next year. Then, we went on a hay ride before picking out some pumpkins an...

In September, we took the kids to Cook's Orchard. It was our first time visiting that orchard. We had a fun morning walking through the trees and picking some apples. The kids didn't really pick the best sized apples, so we grabbed a few more from the store. We also got cider slushies. They were so good! I love cider and it tasted even better as a slushie. We will have to make a trip back to the orchard next year!          When we got home, I made a quick apple crisp recipe with some of the apples. Curt loved it! The kids were not fans. They don't really like cooked apples for some reason. We had it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and I thought it was delicious. More leftovers for the adults I guess!

In the fall, we squeezed in a couple more zoo trips before the zoo closed for the regular season. We will miss visiting the animals until the zoo opens again in April.   How many pics do we have in this car? A million...at least.  We went on a weekend day, so Curt could join us.  Blurry family photo.      We always have to stop and feed the giraffes. That is one of our favorite parts.  One day while Ben was in school, Lucy and I met Glenda and Norah at the zoo. They were starting to get things set up for Wild Zoo Halloween. One last ride at the zoo.   See you in the Spring! 

Lucy had her very first dentist appointment in August. She was so excited. I didn't really expect her to be that excited, but she does love to brush her teeth! :) She got right up in the big chair and wasn't scared at all. She sat very still during the whole cleaning. Her hygienist is so sweet and she gave Lucy lots of rides in the chair while we waited for the dentist to check out her teeth. Lucy said her favorite part was getting a dolphin toothbrush. :)   Getting settled and checking out the room.  The hygienist showed Lucy her tools and explained how she would use them.  Open wide!  Lucy loved holding the little hose to suck the water out of her mouth. I was surprised how quickly she learned to use it all by herself.  Checking out some big teeth at the end of the appt.

It's that time of year again...fall soccer. Although it's only August it feels like fall to me since Ben already started school last week. This is Ben's third year playing soccer with Upward and Curt's second year coaching. We really love the Upward program and are looking forward to a fun season. Ben had a sleepover the night before his first game, so he was dragging out there a bit. Hopefully he will get more into it next week. Lucy had fun playing with some other little girls, but it is definitely hard to watch the game and keep an eye on her. Last year, I still had her in her stroller. This year, she has freedom and wants to run free! I snapped a few quick pics with my phone, but hopefully I can take a few with the good camera one of these games...that all depends on my little wild Lucy girl. :)      The players and coaches waiting for the game to start.  Ben running out to the center of the field after they announced his name. The teams say a praye...

I haven't been a good blogger this summer, but since I love to look back at old pictures on the blog, I wanted to at least give a quick glimpse of our summer. We didn't do any super exciting exotic trips, but we had lots of fun together as a family and that's what great memories are made of. We did take two separate trips up to Michigan to see our families. We tried to fill our days with fun activities like going to the beach, zoo, mini-golf, etc...It was great to visit with everyone and the kids loved playing with their cousins! Overall it has been a really great summer. I cannot believe that school starts tomorrow. How is Ben already a first grader? AHHHH! I know he will do great tomorrow. I, on the other hand, will probably be hiding some tears as he gets on that bus in the morning.    Ben started soccer practice and has his first game his Saturday. (He's in the gray shirt)  We went to Parkview Park after dinner last week. It was fun to run around toget...