Trip to Ho'omaluhia

On Saturday, we took a little picnic over to our neighborhood botanical garden.

Started out with a little happy meal action. Not a terrible view for a picnic!

We stopped into to visit my friend Cynthia's painting that was on exhibit in the art gallery.

I've been saving up the heels of our bread for weeks, so that we could feed the ducks and fish! 

Something tells me the fish are used to this! They swarmed the bank as soon as they saw us coming!

 It's all fun and games until someone falls in the lake.

I love how concerned Keaton looks...

And his mean mommy just keeps on taking photos.

And that was the end of that!

A conversation I don't want to forget...

Keaton: "Mom, I just love Marky." 

Me: "That makes me so happy to hear you say that!" 

Keaton: "Why?" 

Me: "Because I want you to love your brother." 

Keaton: "Well, you are REALLY gonna love it when I say this: 'Marky is the best baby I have ever had in my whole life!'"

Mama's heart is happy.

I'm thinking this may be a good one to pull out when they are 14 and 16?

Big Boy Bed

I was not ready to do this yet, but Mark has been climbing out of his crib for months now. The crib rail had become not only an obstacle to climb over, but an acrobatic platform. I caught Mark more than once standing on the crib rail and using it to jump either into the crib, onto his brother's bed, or onto the floor! So, for his safety, we finally had to remove the rail and graduate him to the big boy bed.

I had my doubts about whether he would actually stay in it at night once the rail was down.  But, the boy surprised me! I think he crawled out a few times after I put him down that first night (I found some extra toys in there in the morning), but he never came out of the room or rolled out during the night! He also stayed put during his nap yesterday. I guess he was ready!

As for the climbing/acrobat problem, I'm not sure if we addressed the real issue...

Pumpkin faces

Thank you, Brumbra for the super cool pack of pumpkin face stickers! The boys had a blast this morning sticking eyes, noses, teeth, ears, eyebrows, and hair stickers all over their new pumpkins.

The finished project from the OTHER side. Why leave any sticker un-STUCK? That's my boys' motto! 

Pumpkins!

Being totally honest here.  This season is when I  miss the mainland the most. October is the hottest month of the year on Oahu. The winds die down and we are left with suffocating stagnant heat. It's really hard to make chili and bake pumpkin bread when you are already sweating inside your house! 

Needless to say, an overcast day and a trip Wailmanalo Country Farms pumpkin patch was just the ticket to get us excited about fall!

 

Hay ride!

One thing I love about this farm is that it is owned and operated by a Christian family. The theme of this year's pumpkin patch was "Good Seeds on Good Soil." They share the gospel on every hay ride, and give God the glory for every harvest season!

Unfortunately, Mark didn't care for the music they played on the hay ride...

Feeding the sheep at the petting zoo.

It was perfect pumpkin-picking weather.

Keaton couldn't wait to pick out his pumpkin. He spotted this one as soon as we got there.

Mark thought he was pretty big stuff carrying around those heavy "Papas"

We had to try out the sweet country corn - straight from the farm!

Yum!

Happy fall, y'all!