Favorite Time of Year

Our street and some favorite trees. Click to enlarge.

Ok, I am LOVING this weather! Sure, we've had some chilly days -- (when Michael went out of town, the heater went on!) -- but many of our days have been beautiful with cool air and warm sunshine. We put on sweatshirts and open the windows. Just perfect. As the leaves change color and start to fall, I am appreciating Autumn as I haven't been able to in 10 years. It feels right to wear jeans while watching football, to smell the scent of wood burning in the air, and to eat soups and chili without it being too hot to enjoy it.

In Florida I would decorate for the season, trying in vain to make it feel like Fall in 85 degree weather, but no matter how hard you try, pumpkins and hay bales will never work alongside palm trees. It was with new-found joy that I Autumn-ized our home.

Plaques were a craft project from here. Click to enlarge.

Whenever I would visit Kentucky in October/November, we would go to a pumpkin patch not far from my sister's house. It just felt like Autumn, so I was most excited to hear about a similar local farm not far from us. Last Saturday, on a beautiful and warm Fall day, we called up Michael's brother and his family to join us and headed out to Neiderman Farm.

Hee Hee. Click to enlarge.

Upon arrival we found so many activities to entertain us. First there was a play area with tunnels built into the side of hills (Adam LOVED) and a great pirate ship with slide. Cousin Alyssa was a wonderful babysitter! Adam went nuts for the barn animals. He was all excited and giggly as he approached each pen, yelling "BAAHH!" at the goat and running crazy through the chicken coop. He even picked up some hay and tried to feed the cow on his own. There were also these neat swings for 6 people made out of large corrugated drainage pipe, a tractor-pulled train and a giant inflatable jump pillow.

So much fun. Click to enlarge.

But the highlights were the corn maze and the hayride to the pumpkin patch.

And I found out that the farm also has a Christmas Walk in December. As much as I love the trappings of Autumn, I am super excited for Christmas!