Skating at Rice Park

We found a new tradition that we really like doing.  We did it last year too.  If you have a Wells Fargo account you can skate for free up at Rice Park in St. Paul.  It's a refrigerated rink (luckily since there's no snow and its been unseasonably warm this year) right next to the historic and beautiful Landmark Center right downtown St. Paul.  This year while we were skating the police stopped by on their horses and handed out candy canes to all of us.  The kids got to pet the horses, Cowboy, Jet and Chase.  Jet is the one wearing a Santa hat. 

And just like last year we went out to Cossettas, our favorite Italian restraunt in St. Paul. It was a 25 minute wait in line but sooo worth it! Mmmmmmm!

Fun day. 

Gymnast

Sorry, you'll have to tilt your head :) 

Summer LOVES gymnastics!  And she works really hard at it.  She just recently got the hang of pulling herself up to the bar all by herself without the coach helping her.

 

Halloween Night

I love that my kids don't mind...in fact they love recycling our old costumes.  Summer was the witch this year which both Kenz and Ainsley have been before.  Mackenzie was Dorothy (Ainsley's costume from last year.)  And Ainsley picked a new idea this year of being Hermoine Granger from Harry Potter.  She's read almost all the books and she loves them.  I thought they all looked fabulous this year!

Summer, the cute and adorable and not-so-wicked witch.

Mackenzie is Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz.

Ainsley is Hermoine Granger.

Oh No!  The not-so-wicked witch is trying to steal Dorothy's shoes!
What good sports...I made them pose for that!

The Pumpkin Express

Saturday, October 15th turned out to be a beautiful Fall day.  We drove out to Osceola, WI where we boarded the old Pumpkin Express.  This Halloween Train ride has become more and more popular over the years. I could not believe how many more people were there this year. 

We rode on the old fashion train for about 45 minutes over to Dresser, WI where we got off and did a variety of activities.  We roasted marshmallows, rode the speeder train (which was really not very speedy), took a hay ride (through a housing division where the country side used to be), went through the haunted depot, ran through the hay-bale maze, ate kettle corn, and the girls each got to pick out a pumpkin to take home with them.  Summer jumped in the jumpy house and did a few carnival games.  



Don't worry ( Ande Amott)!  They are not ON the tracks...they are between the tracks. 



This venture really made me realize how grown up Ainsley and Kenzie are getting.  They had fun being outside and with the family but were a teeesy bit bored at times as most of the activities were geared more toward much younger children.  It was still a really fun family outing and we made the best of it but I sadly realized this just might be our last trip on the Halloween Express. 

    

Apple Picking

Fall in Minnesota is beautiful! 

I love the cool crisp clean air, the bright yellows and brilliant reds of the leaves, and all of our fun family Fall traditions.  I look forward to going to the apple orchard every year.  There are plenty if orchards around here to pick from so we decided to try a new one that we had never been to before. 

 We went east to Fischer's Croix Family Orchard.  It's located just outside the quaint little town of Hastings, MN along the St. Croix River. 

We LOVED this place.  They had goats to pet and feed, a tractor ride, LOTS of delicious apples (we picked Regents and Sweet 16 this year.) 

They also had a huge corn maze. We'd never done a corn maze before...just the cutesy little hay bale mazes that you can see exactly where you're going.

So this was quite the experience for us. The kids wanted to split up. Ains & I went together and Bart, Kenz & Summy went together. I was worried about splitting up because I trust Bart's sense of direction better than mine. And I was right. Ainsley & I were in that maze for 45 minutes! While the others found their way out with in 15 minutes. We kept going in circles so we ended up marking our paths so we wouldn't keep going the wrong way.
We finally made it out...alive!

After the maze we walked way over to the other side of the farm and found this beautiful spot where we just sat and played in the leaves. It was a perfect spot for some picture taking too.

We set my camera up on our bag of apples and set the self-timer.  One of the times Bart was running into the picture he touched the fence that was behind us.  We had no idea until then that it was an electric fence!!  It shocked Bart which sent a shock through me and Kenzie and into Ainsley.  We all screamed and laughed about it.  Then Bart went to check if the picture turned out. 

We all laughed SO hard! I don't know why I am the only one reacting at that second but we could not stop laughing all day about this picture. What a hoot!

I'm so grateful for my awesome family and for the fun memories we make together.