Fall Activities

Just a few days after we returned home from Florida, I was able to attend Hallie's Kindergarten field trip to Darden Farm and pumpkin patch.  It's a small farm that's fun, but not too overwhelming for young children.

There were bins of dry corn for the kids to play in.

The farm was creative in decorating their hay bales for Halloween!

Hallie's Kindergarten class with their amazing teacher, Mrs. Boyce.

The class navigated the corn maze together

Me and my sweet girl!

A couple of weekends after Hallie's field trip, Dan's parents were staying in Virginia Beach and they joined our family for a visit to Hickory Ridge Farm. It's much bigger and has many more activities, so we were there for at least 3 hours.

We went on a wagon ride around the farm.

Walked through (and played in) a corn maze

The girls each got to take a pony ride

They also enjoyed the farm's other attractions, like tractors, bounce houses, baby animals, and play houses they could go inside. They set up a "restaurant" in one of the play houses and served dry corn and sand casseroles to their customers.

Fun day with family!

Emma came down with an ear infection and high fever in late October, but with the help of antibiotics, she felt better just in time to trick or treat on Halloween.  We joined Dan's brother, Tim, sister-in-law, Dawn, and our nephews in their neighborhood. 

Emma was a Native American and Hallie was a kitten.

The whole crew, including cousins and their friends.

Our sister-in-law, Dawn, bought carving pumpkins for all the kids. 

Emma was the only one who loved playing with pumpkin guts!

Hallie designed her pumpkin and I helped her carve it.

Out in the neighborhood, collecting treats!

Hallie tallied up her candy and was wowed by the amount!

At work, they offered prizes for Halloween costumes and office decorations, and my coworkers and I won the decoration prize.

I borrowed Hallie's cat ears and paws for a simple costume to wear in the office.

Hallie wears it much better, of course!

One of Emma's classmates had an amazing birthday party. Her parents rented a limo and they picked up each girl in their class to ride together and have dinner!

I didn't get to go, and I'm a little jealous!

These party girls had the time of their lives!

They ate dinner at Uno Pizzaria, where the kids could make their own personal pizza.

Since Hallie was missing out on the limo ride that night, I took her to Chuck E. Cheese's so she could play games and ride rides.

A week after Halloween, Emma's class was quarantined for a week because her teacher and one student caught COVID. Emma wasn't sick, but since two people in her class had come down with COVID, the school automatically quarantined the entire class for 10 days to make sure it didn't spread further. So Emma had very little homework to do each day, and she thoroughly enjoyed her week at home from school!

She did a ton of reading that week. I snapped this picture of her sitting near me while I worked at my computer. She's reading excerpts of "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe" aloud to me, because it's such a good story she can't keep it to herself!

She entertains herself pretty much all day, which is great when I'm working. She made these beautiful My Little Ponies out of play doh.

This fall and winter, Emma also had several dentist appointments to fill four cavities.  The dentist gives her laughing gas and lets her choose a movie to watch during the appointments, so she "kind of enjoys" getting her cavities filled.  I feel like they're not instilling the right amount of dread and terror that having cavities should bring to a child!  

Hallie had her very first dentist appointment this fall, and she was thrilled, since Emma's been telling her how cool the dentist's office is!

She didn't get laughing gas - it was just a checkup. But they played a movie on a screen on the ceiling above her head, and she loved it!

Hallie recently joined a ballet club at school. It's once a week for 6 weeks, and we thought it would be a good introduction to dance. We think she'd enjoy a "real" dance class, but we'll see what she thinks after this club experience. She wanted to get dressed up and have her hair done for the occasion, and looked so pretty!

Hallie struggled with going to ballet club the first couple of weeks because Emma decided not to do it with her. But now she seems to be enjoying it, and we catch her doing ballet moves around the house.

We completely skipped Hallie's 4-year-old wellness visit at the doctor, so she had to get some make-up shots at her 5-year-old appointment. That wasn't fun, but she was a brave girl.

StoneBridge School celebrates Christian Heritage Day each year on the last Friday before Thanksgiving break. It's a fun and educational day, where they learn about the Pilgrims and Native Americans' lives. 

Emma got to make candles, roast apples, learn rope tying, play tug-of-war, grind corn, learn about bee keeping, and do a "chore" relay race.

Hallie got to play games, do a scavenger hunt, meet Pocahontas, roast apples, pet baby farm animals, make crafts, and sew with a (large plastic) needle and yarn.

Each class had a Thanksgiving feast in their classroom at the end of the half day.

In November, we took the girls to the Norfolk Prime Outlets, where they had pretty Christmas decorations and a train ride around the mall.

We also visited the Norfolk Botanical Gardens' Million Bulb Walk. We like to visit Christmas attractions in November when the weather is still pretty warm. Plus, it gets us into the holiday spirit as Christmastime nears.

It's such a busy time of year, but we're enjoying the special events this season brings.