Meet George and "his" horse

I believe our move to DC influenced the girls' costume choice this year. After our visit to Mt. Vernon, Anna was quite set on transforming herself into her idol, George Washington. To put a little context behind this, Anna has read about George since the ripe age of 6 when she dragged in a hard bound book of George's early years to class and proceeded to read it much to the surprise of her teacher. She will often take the opportunity to research obscure facts about him and then educate us at the dinner table. I've learned a lot of random things about our Founding Father. I'm pretty sure going to Mt. Vernon has fulfilled a bucket list item for her and actually meeting him was just about the best thing ever.

So no, it did not surprise me when she declared her costume choice for this year. Fortunately after her hat purchase, it was fairly easy to put together. We found a pea coat to borrow and the rest was history. Ha! See what I did there?

Being that we are all into themes at this house, Paige wanted in on the action, but she obviously refused to dress up as a dead old guy. No surprise there either. Next best option...an animal associated with a dead old guy. The running joke in our house is Paige's desire to be an animal EVERY Halloween. It was a parrot for a year or two, a dog for at least three, a giraffe some where in there and now a horse. To be exact, she was George Washington's horse.

I did not blink at the fact we had no horse costume already on hand. This crafty mama whipped out her glue gun, the internet and a hoodie. One stop at the craft store later for some yarn and felt and we were on our way. Paige was thrilled with the results and I feel like we may even get some non-Halloween use out of this hoodie.

On Friday the girls wore their costumes to a not so spooky skate which was fun. They have really made good friends with a couple of other girls there and they all loved the fact they could skate while wearing costumes.

We carved our jack-o-lanterns over the weekend. The girls are getting better and better at doing much of the work. Of course the actually cutting part was left mostly up to me and Patrick although they both gave it great effort.

We roasted the seeds for a delicious snack!

I was hoping to be posting pics of our trick or treating at THE White House (yes, it's a thing), but unfortunately we could only get two tickets at the last minute and didn't think it was fair for only one girl to go. Bummer! We did have a great time hanging out with some new friends from our church though. It was thoughtful for them to invite us over. Needless to say, we have too much candy, but fun memories which the girls HAD to count and sort when we got home. Stay tuned for how I put those treats to good mathematical use.

 Happy Halloween from DC!

new babies!

We are overjoyed to announce our newest members of the family have arrived! Sweet Holden and Addie were born on Thursday afternoon weighing in at 6lbs 4oz and 6lbs 6oz. Jessi carried them until 38 1/2 weeks when they decided to induce. She was amazing! The labor and delivery went great, praise the Lord.

We were able to meet the twins at the hospital on Friday night, after the girl's not so spooky skate. They were so excited! I've loved hearing their sweet prayers over the past few months and seeing their kind acts of service as they love on our family. While they have vowed they will NOT be doing diaper changes, I know they will be a big help entertaining Big Brother, Carson.

Happy Birthday Holden and Addie! We love you to the moon and back!!

Pumpkin Patch...an old tradition in a new place

Confession...I LOVE the pumpkin patch in the fall. I have the cutest pictures of the girls when they were babies at a local church patch. Even one of our Christmas card photos came from there. It's a sweet way of seeing their growth over the years and the bright orange pumpkins just make me happy.

I have to admit I was a bit sad about missing our usual location this year, but the truth is both girls would have been in school and our pre-school visits strolling around the patch would have been over. So instead I was overjoyed knowing the girls and I could discover a new place together. 

On Tuesday we hopped in the car for a drive to Jumbo's. It's a farm located about an hour away near Frederick. This means scenic views and mountains! The beautiful setting did not disappoint and the girls were completely enamored with the native residents-pigs, goats, sheep, horses and calves.

There was a cute little playground we enjoyed while taking in the sun and fresh air. It was a bit breezy, but we managed to stay warm when we entered the corn maze. Being the only ones there, the girls spent forever collecting corn kernels and wandering around. 

We also took a wagon ride around the property and up to their pumpkin patch. This was a real patch with pumpkins growing...totally different from our rows of lined up already picked pumpkins. And then we ended with our own selections which we can't wait to carve soon.

The perfect ending to our trip was a surprise stop at Sonic! There is only one Sonic here...located an hour away. I remembered it was near us at the pumpkin patch, but my phone died so I couldn't find its exact location. I exited, found a gas station and asked a local. Turns out my Sonic-dar was very strong...we were just a mile down the road from it!! To say there was a celebration in our car would be an understatement.

Stay tuned for our Halloween costumes this year. They have a DC twist!