Harvest Festival

I miss my mommy. She has been in Ireland for the past 2 weeks and won’t be home for another week yet. I finally spoke with her on the phone the other day. She informed me she is having a GREAT time and misses Courtney. (You can see where I rank).

I just got my furnace cleaned and serviced. I feel much better, knowing that it has been done, and just in time! A cold front is supposed to be moving in tonight. I don’t think it will bring us our first snow yet, but it won’t be much longer!

Greg came over last weekend to try to fix a light in our back yard. Hubby installed a motion sensor flood light and it hasn’t worked since he put it up. Greg is good with wiring and electricity, so he came over to take a look at it. There is an issue with the light for sure, and possibly the light switch. I have to purchase another light and have him come over to install it.

I also want to put a motion sensor flood light on the other side of the house. There is no light over there currently. So, I need to either get a solar one, or we will have to run power from somewhere. I am going to look at the solar ones when I go to purchase the other light.

So, why all the lights? The last few times Hubby has been gone, odd stuff has happened. It started with that scare with the guy on the porch. The next time the door from our backyard to our garage was open one morning. Then last trip one of our deck chairs ended up placed against the fence, like someone used it to crawl over the fence out of the yard.

So, I am going to be very careful about letting people know when he is gone, and I am doing all I can to prep the house. I need to get some deadbolts installed too.

Today Courtney and I had a super fun day. We went to the Fall Harvest Festival at the Rockledge Ranch. The Rockledge Ranch is designed to be like an old homestead from Little House on the Prairie days. They only open up for special events; it’s not something you can visit at any time.

They were open today for the Harvest Festival. We hadn’t been before, but our friends have gone several years and really enjoy it. Courtney is finally at that age where she would enjoy it. So, we met them there right at the opening time. It was a BEAUTIFUL day. The weather was perfect.

We started by going right to the Pumpkin Patch. Each girl picked a pumpkin. At first Courtney wanted the first one she came to. I was able to talk her into venturing a little further. Then she found the one she wanted. She found a really nice one. Of course, these pumpkins were carted in from somewhere, so they were all pretty perfect.

Next we headed to the pony rides. She had asked me first thing this morning, before we even left, if she was going to ride a horse. I hadn’t even told her there was going to be ponies!

After the pony ride we went and did a “Candy Scramble”. There was a pen of hay, and they put candy in the hay and let the kids go in and dig through the hay to search for candy. Courtney went in, but it took her a while to grasp the concept of what she was supposed to be doing. The helpers on the outside would throw candy into the hay right in front of her, so she didn’t have to search very hard. So she “found” a few pieces of candy.

From there we went over and waited in line for the tractor pulled wagon. Once we got on, we went for a little ride around the park. It was a nice ride.

After our ride we went to the face painting. Courtney wanted a ladybug on her cheek. Kinsey wanted to be painted as a princess, with a crown on her forehead. And Hailey got a ladybug on her hand. The girls were all so cute!

From there we went to Old Chicago for lunch. It was already a bit past lunch time and heading towards nap time. The service was incredibly slow!! By the time we got home it was almost the end of naptime. But I put Courtney down for a nap anyway, but she didn’t sleep.

While I was making dinner, Courtney did some redecorating. She colored on the wall for the first time ever! I couldn’t believe it! I guess it’s just about inevitable that kids will, at some point, color on the walls.

After dinner and a nice long bath to remove layers of dirt, pizza and face paint, it was bed time for a little sleepy girl. She was asleep almost instantaneously. But when she has days like this, she usually doesn’t sleep well. She has already been up crying once or twice, so we will see how the whole night goes. It may be a very long night.

What a great day! You can’t ask for a funner way to kick of October, fall, and the Halloween seasons! I am really looking forward to Boo at the Zoo and the other fall festival we are going to hit later this month.