Apple Picking Fun!

This past weekend, Andy's parents and sister came up for a quick 1 day visit....with the main goal being "APPLE PICKING"! Years ago, we had 5 Glynns visit us and we had such a fun time at the apple orchard & it became a tradition...that hasn't always worked out! This year, though, it was the perfect fall day to have fun sampling apples together!

Most people know that Ava and Colin are "tight"....and this collage below captures their love of each other. He is usually found right beside her in all they do. Much of the time, I take it for granted how much "GaGa" and Colin love each other...it really is a special treasure. Our children consumed MANY apples on Saturday...they do encourage tasting the apples before you pick....but the Glynn kiddos took that to a whole new level!
And there were beautiful pumpkins....lots of them! For those of you who rarely see the 4 Glynn kiddos...here they are:
And in other news...Tonight, the NFL lineup has the Green Bay Packers playing the Chicago Bears. Of course, we all know Andy's been a Bear fan for his entire life. However, in the 10 years that we've lived here, he's become a bit of a Packer fan, enjoying their games with Ellie. However, the one game where he is NOT a Packer fan is when they play the Bears!

In the summer, I got this Packer shirt for Colin...and for 2 games, he has not worn it--I'm not into team, so if no one tells me they are playing, I don't remember to put on his shirt! But this weekend, Andy told me about the big game and all I could do was laugh....I knew I had a 24 mo sized BEARS warm up outfit and I knew I had the PACKER shirt.....and I knew I had a baby who says "Go Hawkeyes" whenever he sees a football....What a confused child he must be!

Here are the fans of the house this morning:
Happy Monday, everyone!

A Day At The Farm!

This past weekend, we returned to Pickett, Wisconsin to attend the "Day On The Farm" event.

This event is amazing. It is FREE. Anything that costs money is very reasonable and all proceeds go to St. Jude's Hospital. It is an event to remember a little boy, Jarid Kumbier...a little guy who passed away from a cancerous brain tumor in 2000. To read more about it, check out this link http://www.dayonthefarm.com/index.html
--it REALLY is an amazing fun family event!

At the farm, there were kid sized tractors to ride (Jayna was the lone rider!), there were pretend cows to milk (again, Jayna was the lone milker!)...there was a "corn pen" full of dried corn to play in (fun!) and there are many wooden "statues". On these statues, hundreds of children have stamped their hands and written their names--every year they do this. It's amazing to see just how many have come to the event!

There was a corn maze (Ava: "Dad...this is scary!), a giant sand pile (Which Colin LOVED.), and a really cool pumpkin patch with green and orange pumpkins. Above, Andy is holding the heart shaped green pumpkin....because I love green and we all love each other! :)

There were also ponies....

and since I am allergic to horses, ANDY got to do the honors of walking around the pony ride with Colin....nothing like dodging "the" piles! Colin was in heaven...just waiting, he was doing a little jig saying "Hi Horsey!" and he just floated around the pony walk for his turn! The girls enjoyed it too--it's not too often they get a chance to ride a "horse"!

The event was a 2 day event....and both days, they did a giant balloon release. It was breathtaking to watch. The red balloons were for adults who had lost a battle with cancer, the yellow balloons were for children who had lost the battle.

Andy and I continue to reflect on how much work goes into putting this on...and it is so much fun for the children. We happily will continue to find time to support this great cause and to spend "A Day On The Farm"!

Labor Day 2010

Once upon a time, a sister visited another sister and on Sunday, that visiting sister and her boyfriend went to Two Rivers to see some sort of 'design' museum type thingy....and as soon as they arrived in Two Rivers, that visiting sister called her sister and said "YOU GUYS HAVE TO COME HERE! It's a KITE FESTIVAL!" That was 5 years ago that we dropped what we were doing, jumped in the van with our swimming suits, and spent the day at the beach...and started our Labor Day tradition of the beautiful Kite Festival in Two Rivers, WI.

But this year...the weather was windy and cold. Not beach weather at all. Add to that I had 1 baby getting over the croup cough and 1 8 yr old who had already missed a day of school with a cold. We weren't going to be swimming in Lake Michigan with the weather like it was.

So what to do? We realized our beloved children's museum pass was about to expire...so we high tailed it down to Madison where it was rumored that their new museum was loads of fun. We invited our Kite Festival family friends....and off we went, without our swimming suits!

The museum is amazing. It is totally different than any other we've frequented (And we've been to many in the midwest!), it was engaging for a HUGE age span and they had LOTS of staff on hand, keeping the areas picked up and ready/fun to play in.

All 6 of the children loved it, and played together so nicely. We played for a bit and then took our picnic lunch out to the capitol lawn, and then played some more. We couldn't figure out what the deal was-did Madison have street vendors out every weekend?! Later, we found out it was the day of "Taste of Madison" and thankfully, we got to the city VERY early and only glimpsed the gigantic crowd that was milling about the capitol!

The museum had fun/challenging climbing structures, and a "human" gerbil ball.

Below, you will see Silas and Ellie....typical competitive 1st borns playing with the water tornado exhibit:

And watching their success:

And then, the 2 non first born/non competitive children watching the 2 competing first borns:

The museum also had a painting WINDOW! Ingenious!!! The kids painted on the window and then squeegeed the paint off to clean their "canvas". Colin REALLY got into it and we have red paint memories all over, forever....

The museum also had cool, unique blocks. Let's just say this next collage is titled "My Blocks"...those of you who know Colin will laugh....

But with those blocks, our friends thought of the best idea: to build a gigantic domino maze! Very neat and very cool. To see the dominos falling down, click HERE. After the 2nd setting up of the maze, one of the girls said "The crowd wants more, we should do it again!" Setting up the blocks had created quite an audience, who also cheered and clapped when the blocks went down. Another girl looked at me and said "Embarrassing!"

And then, on the roof top of the museum, they had lots of outdoorsy stuff. Petting the chickens, seeing an egg be fried by the sun, gardening stuff, flowers, it was really neat!

After we left the museum, we were hungry for dinner. One of our new goals is to be more "normal" with Ellie's allergies. We're calling ahead of time, asking what the restaurants can do for Ellie's meal and we've been shocked at how "easy" and wonderful this has been. Friends had suggested going to "Ella's Deli" in Madison. What a fun place it was.

For 1 thing, children need NO entertainment while waiting on food here: the ceiling is filled with motorized creatures to watch move back and forth and the restaurant is decorated similar to a carnival atmosphere. And, as you drive into the parking lot, you can't help but see the gigantic carousel. The Glynn kiddos each rode 2x, they LOVED it!

And then the day was done! We got home around 7:45pm and all children were in bed and almost asleep before 8pm! They were EXHAUSTED...and what a fun substitute it was. Next year though...we'll hopefully be back at the Kite Festival!