Pumpkin Patchin' and Two Rants

Saturday the kids and I hit the Pumpkin Patch. It was 95 degrees and I wore jeans. But the kids were dressed summer like. You know it was funny though, every where I looked adults were dressed like it was 50 degrees. We are just willing the cold weather to come. It's just not right for sweat to be rolling down your back on October 20th. Ridiculous. But once again I digress. I pulled a cheap trick and went to Kroger first to get the big pumpkins for $3.88 each because I just could not wrap my head around paying $10 for the same pumpkin at the patch. At the patch we picked out the small cute pumpkins and some cool gourds. They had this great set of slides that my kids would not leave except when I tricked them to come over and take some pictures together saying "Come here guys I have to show you something cool." They can never resist the promise of "something cool." Yes it's a pretty lame thing to do for a picture but this post would have been pretty boring with picture after picture of them going down a slide which is what they did for the 55 minutes of the 60 minutes that we were there. The other 5 minutes were spent actually picking pumpkins. Go figure. And I think I am going to have to pronounce my camera dead, flat lined kaput! It's not even auto focusing. I tried to fix the flash through a You tube video that I found online but I made it worse because now everytime the flash fires my camera smokes which I'm pretty sure is not a good thing. So no flash, no auto focus,and I've been told the cost to fix it would probably make me want to buy a new one anyway. It's a sad state of affairs. Counting down the days to the Black Friday sale where i will throw some serious elbows to get a good camera deal.Ok  enough with the ranting. Behold, the pumpkin patch pictures..................

It was bright outside.

Really bright apparently! This is one of my favorites of the day. i love that boy of mine.

"Trying"

They did the parents no favors by putting these little tractors out. They didn't manuever very well so the parents had quite the work out pushing the kids around. Of course Carson loved it.  

My pumpkin posing girl. At least we got a couple of classic pumpkin shots.

Headed for the slides. Like moths to a flame.

This is what picture taking is really like with these two and I am glad I got this on camera. He obliged for about 2 minutes and then he was off!

I Pledge Allegiance...Kate Style

I find out the most amazing things about my kids just by total surprise. This morning Kate came up to me and said "Mommy this is my left (holding up her left hand) and this is my right (holding up her right hand)" I love these little surprises. The other night Kate and I were talking about her day and out of nowhere she starts reciting the pledge of allegiance perfectly. I was bowled over. Even though it was 10:00 where my Mom lives I called her right away and Kate thrilled us both by reciting it again. I love sharing this stuff with my Mom.:) So here's a little bouncing version of our girl reciting the pledge of allegiance. Special note: She says "of the America" and she says indivisible perfectly. I am one proud Mommy:)







pledge allegiance 001 from Betsy Gowens on Vimeo.

Two Beautiful Girls

Some Pictures I took of my dear friend Hope and her beautiful daughter Vera.

Kate's Road to College

Kate is in Pre-K this year or as she likes to call it "Free- K" I was incredibly surprised when I learned that she had "homework". Homework at 4??!?! What?!?! The teacher gives it out on Monday and it has to be returned by Friday. I wish I could say that we work on it a little each night but in truth we whip it out on Thursday and she finishes it in 10 minutes. :) I am planting my procrastination seed in her already. Bad mom! Although I do have to say the nerdy school loving side of me likes to sit there with her and look over her shoulder. I love smoothing back her hair behind her ear when it falls in her face (Do you think she will still be ok with this when she is 13?) . And I love how she looks to me for approval when she knows that she did it right. And brother loves to be a big part of it and asks for paper to draw on while Kate works. I love how he sits over there "C-A-R-S-O-N" as he pretends to write the letters of his name. But pretty soon it won't be pretend. Oh I pray that they love school, and love to read, and have a love for learning.

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, that is a Sharpie marker. She will use nothing else for some reason. Not the first and certainly not the last time one of her teachers will think "What was Kate's Mom thinking!??!?!"

See that look? I wish I could bottle some of that up. Proud of herself with out an ounce of self conciousness.

He told me this was his "happy face."

Just wanted to take a picture of the way Kate writes her name at Age 4.

Kate was all for a brother sister shot but of course Carson balked.

Saturday

Last Saturday, 50 degrees......this Saturday, 85 and muggy. Hmmmmmm...

Kate TV

A video of Kate reading the Very Hungry Caterpillar. Just awesome to be able to capture these moments in her life. She's not reading of course, but she's reciting from memory because this book has been read to her since she was a tiny baby. And that makes me proud of her like you wouldn't believe. Special note: How she says "caterpillar" (Cata pilla!)  how every day that the caterpillar eats something it seems to be Saturday, how she says "one slice of Siss cheese (swiss cheese) and one slice of spanami (salami):) and when she talks about the caterpilla having a tummy ache she says "and then she got the tummy skated."




bed 003 from Betsy Gowens on Vimeo.

What a Day!

Can you guess where Carson is?

Now can you guess?

Here's a hint.....

It was freezing cold! (that's mid 50s in Texas)

They also had these there.

Give up? We went to the Fort Worth Air Show! Honestly I thought this would thrill the kids. My friend Hope works for the company that sponsors the show so she got us VIP passes. The kids were scared at first. Especially Carson! I carried him into this plane. But once he went in and timidly walked around he was an old pro and wanted to go on every plane:) Fear conquered!

This girl had lots of fun and went with the flow until....... well you'll see.



It was great. So many planes on the ground for the kids to see and explore inside. Carson kept asking me "Mommy these planes aren't going to take off are they?"

A pink helicopter or a "Girl Helicopter" as Carson called it.

Carso gravitated to the orange helicopter.

Kate enjoying our complimentary fajita lunch. Thanks Hopie!

Kate trying out her ear plugs. I picked these up at the entrance kind of as an after thought. I mean how loud could it be? Whoah Nelly! It was loud and Kate was terrified. She kept saying she wanted to go home. Let me just say she wasn't  foolin' it was incredibly loud. Of course we started out watching the F-18 jet fighters. Yikes! Maybe if we had started out with the bi-planes we would have been ok. Lesson learned. And the big huge gun range head phones every body had their kids in? 

 

A Definite must for next year!



But before all the drama  .....we got a good picture.  

My beautiful friend Hope who made this day possible for me and the kids. Seriously she is  constantly thinking about others and how she can make their lives better. I love her so much.  

Kate admiring her all access badge. It had her name on it. She thought she was big stuff.

I tried to get a good shot as we left. There were these 2 guys to the side saying "Say cheese burger and fries" not sure if they helped or hurt.

She was such a trooper today.

I told him that if he put his arm around her and took a picture we would go to the library. The library as a bribe?? That's not bad.

On our way home we swung by Hobby Lobby as they finally put their Halloween stuff on sale. We picked up these pumpkin lights. Awesome.

And just an extra creative picture. I'm throwing a baby shower for a co worker and I made her this Diaper cake. It has sparkly ribbon and the blankets are a pink jungle motif. Her nursery theme is centered around monkeys. And a J for Jordyn!