Where Did October Go??

October seemed to whiz right by us.  I happened to look at our blog and realized I haven't posted anything in over a month.  Lots of catching up to do. 

Life has been a whirlwind lately.  Between the kids, housework, preschool,  party orders, planning Kate's birthday party, and trying to cram in as much fall fun as we can before the weather gets too cold, I have been letting a lot of things slide.  Mostly laundry, cooking regularly, and our blog. 

On top of all of that, Mark has been doing lots of web design on the side.  He is also working with a local restaurant doing all of their social media, as well as creating lots of print materials for them.  He and his boss have recently started a new venture, as well.  He is crazy busy.  All of that is helping make it possible for me to stay home with the kids, though, so we both feel that it's worth it.  We try to carve out as much time as possible for family fun. 

During the month of October, we visited three pumpkin patches (two as a family and one on Kate's field trip), went to Purina Farms Haunted Hayloft, took fall pictures of the kids, went to a trunk or treat, went to Boo at the Zoo, did an overnight getaway with friends... hmmmm.... what else am I forgetting?? It's been a CRAZY month, but SO much fun!! I will eventually get around to posting pictures of all of these things. 

For now, I'll leave you with some pictures of the kiddos at one of the pumpkin patches we went to.  Hopefully, more regular blogging is around the corner.  I LOVE being able to use this blog to look back on what we were doing at this time last year, or look at pictures of the kids in years past, so I hate when I let it slide. 

Can you BELIEVE our girl will be FIVE in a couple weeks?????

Rombach's Pumpkin Patch

Rombach's has become a tradition for us. We have gone the past three years. Last year, we went twice... once with family and once with friends.

We went the Monday before Halloween with Mimi, Uncle Scott, Martha, Maddie, Lily,Uncle Brad, and Vicky. The weather was awesome and it's not very busy on the weeknights, so it was perfect for the kids to run wild.


(Lily, Kate, and Jack Man)


















(Poor Jack had no idea what was going on!)

Our Sweet Babies

Mark took these pictures at the pumpkin patch as the sun was setting. I love them. In true Roskowske kid fashion, Jack would hardly cooperate for any "posed" pictures and Kate was dragging him all around. These candid shots turn out to be the best anyway.

It's pictures like this that I know I will look back on when they are older and wonder where the time went.

Beware of picture overload, by the way.


































(Ah, this picture is so classic Kate and Jack.)














(Everybody loves Jack Man!)

Brookdale Farms

I think we have packed more into these past two weeks than we have in the past few months! It's been a month full of fall fun. We've been to two pumpkin patches, Grant's Farm, The Magic House Halloween party, a pumpkin carving party with friends, and the Haunted Hayloft at Purina Farms. Whew!

We tried a new pumpkin patch this year, in addition to our fave (Rombach's in Chesterfield) and we really enjoyed it.

There was a lot of stuff for the kids to do. There was a little barrel ride through the field. There were pony rides, which was Kate's reward for filling her "sleeping in her own bed" sticker chart.







There was a big trough full of corn, a petting zoo, and a corn maze! We had never done a corn maze together before and it was so fun!! Kate got totally freaked out thinking we were lost. We kinda egged it on a little bit because we are just mean like that. Ha!





Jack, on the other hand, could have lost us in the corn maze and lived a long and happy life there.



















After the corn maze, we went to the play area where the kids played on the hay bales and slide. There were tire swings and a zip line.

Kate did the zip line! She tried once and just got overwhelmed, started crying, and got down. Later, she wanted to try it again and she got up the courage to do it. The look on her face was pure horror the whole way. I wish we had a picture, but Mark had to catch her or at least slow her down at the end. Afterwards, she said she was never doing that again! On the way home, though, it was all she could talk about.





At the end of our time there, Mark and Kate did the pumpkin slingshot. They bought a bucket of pumpkins and tried to hit the target way out in the field. They actually did it once, so they won another pumpkin to launch. It was so entertaining to watch!







And Jack, well... he just liked to chew on the pumpkins. Ew!