October fun: Apple orchard, tournaments, parks, and Halloween

I love October. I mean, I especially loved them before I developed terrible awful anxiety over sickness and stomach bugs when I had kids, but overall, Octobers are still pretty good. The weather is cool, the leaves are changing.

We hit up the apple orchard on the most gorgeous day.

We did a corn maze where we had to find a bunch of letters posted on signs and then unscramble them to figure out the secret word. The secret word gave you an apple and it’s always the highlight of the day for Olivia and Emelia. Who, by the way, were competing to see who could wear the most amazing patterns.

Seriously. Big apple eaters around here. Even the baby partook and gave it two tiny thumbs up.

We explored the pumpkin patch and I had to endure 45 minutes of, “Mom, can we get a pumpkin please? But Mom, can we just get a little pumpkin? See that girl over there? She just has a little one, can we just get a little pumpkin? Can we just get a pumpkin, PLEEAASSE???”

To which I replied, “Grufntnbiwcmklajtiho;irhgivn;veion;ion! For the last time, NO!”

“Come over here and sit on this pumpkin so Mama can take a picture of you.”

“No, for the love, we’re not buying this pumpkin.”

On the 20th, Olivia took part in her first karate tournament. It was on a Friday night in which we drove downtown and endured massive crowds. She was SO nervous. I mean, she was nervous, but as we got closer to it, she started getting really nervous. And then by the time we found her ring and she sat with the kids from her school, she was Really Nervous.

It’s the first time I felt those nerves of a parent who knows their kid is gearing up to compete and is terrified of performing for the first time. I mean, she performed in her first play this summer, but this was her first real event competing against other kids.

She did SO well. Chris and I were so proud of her. I knew she did her absolute best, and we really talked after about, “Do you feel proud of yourself that you did that?”

She got a trophy and metal and I bought her a Diamond Nationals T-shirt which she thought was the coolest thing because it had a picture of a dragon on it, and she’s all about dragons right now.

That Sunday, Chris had a migraine, so I took all three kids for a walk along the river.

These outings outside with the four of us seem so much easier than say, going to Target. They were all so well-behaved. Austin loved riding in the stroller. (Note the adorable crocheted blanket I made him.)

The walking bridge tunnel was recently repainted, so we explored that on the way to the park and boat landing.

The colors have just been amazingly vibrant. There are a lot of bad things I could say about the weather in Minnesota, but we have the most perfect Autumns. Austin agreed.

On our way back to the car, Emelia discovered a tiny little door someone installed and painted and she was convinced it was a fairy door.

We did the annual Trunk or Treating at the girls’ school. They needed more cars to participate, so we decorated ours (probably would have won for Most Pathetic Trunk of All the Trunk). But the kids had so much fun even if it was freezing cold because of the ferocious wind and weather that was suddenly now in the low 20s. Because of the weather, my parents came to watch Austin, which made me sad, because I was looking forward to him coming, but it all worked out.

Emelia was Red Panda and Olivia decided to wear her Harry Potter costume from last year.

We decorated pumpkins. My sensory kid wasn’t so sure about touching the pumpkin innards, but Olivia was more than happy to dive in. Chris asked if they should save the seeds for me to bake, but for the second year in a row I was like, Yeah, there’s no way I’m actually going to have the time and/or energy for baking those. As delicious as they are. Maybe next year.

The next day, after school, they got a picture of them.

The baby wore his skeleton costume before he grew out of it. And then his monkey costume for Halloween. We went to my sister-in-laws as we’ve done for the last few years because they have the best neighborhood for trick or treating. It was ridiculously cold out again, so my hopes of taking Austin out for his first Halloween didn’t happen. I stayed inside with my sister-in-law while Chris and my brother-in-law took the girls out.

I tried to get a picture of all of them together, but… Instagram kids they are not. And I love them for it. Especially Emelia’s one sockless foot. Olivia finally wore her Ghost Spider costume. All in all, it was another good Halloween.