Eleanor and Henry started the week with our annual visit to the Dider Farms Pumpkin Festival. Both kids were super excited about the trip, they were looking forward to the pony rides and also to the train and rollercoaster. Henry got to ride on the same pony named “Jack” that he was so excited about last year, and Eleanor also picked the same pony “Jackson” that she rode last year. We also hit the super slide, the “Himalaya” ride, the strawberry ride, the circling cars, the train, the airplane ride, the tank ride, the frog ride, the rollercoaster, the funhouse and the camel ride. Eleanor didn’t want to do the rollercoaster again this year, but Henry was really excited about it. We were so proud of him as he bravely hoped on the ride all by himself and loved every loop. Eleanor hit the funhouse around ten times, which would have worked out to $30 worth of funhouse, but the woman working the door took a liking to Eleanor and sympathized with my ticket situation and gave us more than half of them for free. Eleanor declared the funhouse her favorite part, while Henry said the pony ride was his favorite. Henry’s least favorite was the frog ride – he was super excited to ride it with his big sis, but got a little scared – “the going down parts were a little scary” he said. He really wanted Eleanor to ride the rollercoaster with him, but Eleanor didn’t want to. The second ride that Eleanor wanted to do was the pumpkin shaped bouncy house, but when the operator told us Monkey would have to wait outside she got so sad and we ended up skipping it all together. All in all it was a great time though, and definitely worth it to see Henry’s proud smile as we let him carry the apple and pumpkin doughnuts out to the car.
School and activities went really well this week, Eleanor and Henry really got back into the regular routine. Gymnastics class has really been a great addition, both kids love their respective days at the gym. This weekend Henry had his first birthday party for a classmate, at Pump It Up, of course. He had a blast, and it was really evident that attending so many of the parties for Eleanor’s classmates really helped him feel comfortable. On Sunday we carved up our pumpkins – Eleanor did the Mr. Potato Head decorations, Henry did stickers, Mom did a smiley face per both kids requests, and Dad tried a cat pattern that came with our pumpkin carving tool set. We also enjoyed some nice fall weather getting the bikes out in the driveway. Eleanor is starting to get a hang of the bike, and can get around the whole driveway all by herself except for the hill. Henry also likes to ride the bike, but prefers to hit the breaks and giggle when Dad is trying to push :) We also had a fun package arrive from Uncle B with space themed raincoat, umbrella and bath towel for Eleanor, and firefighter coat, umbrella and bath towel for Henry. Oh yeah – and Eleanor slept Friday night in her rocket ship tent!
