FUN Fall Friday!

{I just added a tutorial for Knox's Cuffed Pants to the previous post. They are super easy, so go check it out!}

We had a jam-packed, fabulous Friday! My friend Britney moved closer to "the city" a few weeks ago, which puts her in a totally different community and about 45 minutes away from us now :( We miss the Tiptons dearly. They have 2 boys around our kids ages, and Knox is always asking about Carter… So Britney and I decided to plan a fun get together to Autumn at the Arboretum, which is out by her.

I got us packed for a long day out the night before, dressed the kids in their fall attire Friday morning, and we headed off.

And we made it there with only about 7 freak outs by mommy trying to drive on the "big" roads. I accidently jumped in to the HOV lane and ended up being trapped there for like 10 miles. Here they line them with concrete walls and, I swear, allow only about a foot clearance on either side. I felt like I was going to crash the entire time. Needless to say, the HOV drivers behind me were NOT thrilled at my 30mph interstate driving… AGH! And OMG I don't think I will ever get used to the interstate system here. I took one wrong exit and ended up at the Children's Hospital 20 minutes away from the Arboretum… But yes. We did finally make it :)

This was a first for us, but it's been on my fall to-do list ever since we moved here… If you're from here you're probably already familiar with Autumn at the Arboretum. They do a HUGE pumpkin display from September to November.

This is the ULTIMATE pumpkin patch. Everything is set up in a fairy tale theme. They probably have 10 different "houses" set up complete with pumpkin landscape, horses, Cinderella's carriage, etc. It's so whimsical and wonderful! I only wish my amateur pictures did it justice…

The kids had so much fun just playing in the pumpkin displays. But I think we managed to get some pretty decent pictures too…

{Miss Hadley}

{Knox}

I got some cute ones of Britney and her crew too…

Aren't they cute?!? Since I put together Knox and Hadley's outfits so last minute, it hit me when that Carter was the only one out of our crew without an appliqued shirt. I felt horrible! He still coordinated in his brown, but I wish I'd had the energy the night before to make him one too… We laugh because every time we're out people ask if all of our blue-eyed blondes are cousins. I'm sure they really looked like it in coordinating outfits!

The pumpkin display alone is amazing, but the arboretum is filled with so many other neat things…

We had a picnic lunch and then spent several hours just walking around to look at everything else… So fun!

It was a long day, but these little ones were such troopers! We were there from 10 til about 1:30 and Hadley stayed up the entire time.

We were blessed to be able to enjoy such a fun day as guests on Britney's membership. I'm so jealous she lives close to this. In fact, I love the entire area in general. I think when we decide to move it will need to be somewhere around here… ESPECIALLY because it's just 10 minutes from James' office! He spends 2hrs commuting every day, I can't imagine a life where he could be home so fast…

Since we were so close to downtown, we met up with James at his office and he treated us all to a cupcake date ;)

Knox and Daddy each had a chocolate peanut butter cup one, Hadley had a mini-pink one, and I had carrot cake. I was immediately drawn to the "Graceland" one. (For obvious reasons.) The description read 'Peanut butter cake, banana frosting… and a crisp bacon crust.' Yikes. They had me up until bacon. It probably really is good, but I'm weird about different "types" of food mixing. Like I can't do Taco Pasta, Mexican Pizza, etc. So this was out…

We were able to get out of downtown before Friday traffic and home by 3:30ish. Needless to say, both kids took a good late nap. But the fun didn't end there…

We came home to a special Halloween package from Poppy, MiMi, and Uncles Philip and John, so I let the kids open it once the woke up.

They had a ball getting in to all the packaging…

It was filled with all kinds of goodies and treats. They were thrilled! We owe Poppy and MiMi, Phillip, and John a big thank you!