What an incredible stretch of weather we have been blessed with the last few weeks! It has been great to be out enjoying temperatures in the 70's throughout much of October. Then we have been topping off those beautiful days by watching the Cubs at night.
The gorgeous weather has allowed the kids to continue to play outside every chance they get. It hasn't been all play though. The leaves have started to fall and while the majority of the leaves are still on the trees we have been able to pick up a descent amount already.
To say that Beckett loves picking up the leaves is an understatement. He uses his imagination to pretend I'm a combine with my mower as he follows me on his four wheeler and acts like the grain cart. I use this to my advantage because then I can ask him to pick up any sticks that are in the yard along the way. Picking up leaves would not be complete without both kids jumping in the pile of leaves that we worked hard to create. Beckett would take a running start a jump into the middle of the pile and disappear (we could still hear him laughing though), Brynleigh more or less took a few steps and fell into the pile and would come up smiling with a grin full of leaves in her mouth. Beckett also turned the pile into an adventure by driving his power wheel tractor and four wheeler through them, doing everything he could to keep from getting stuck, pulling and shifting the machine from side to side and doing his best not to tip or flip over. Needless to say it was entertaining to watch them in the leaf pile.
We also went on a couple of combine rides the last few weeks with a couple of our friends, Bryan and Jeremy. Beckett and I were in awe of how impressive these machines are. It is crazy how the size of machinery continues to increase even after you think there is no way they can get any bigger. I was also impressed that we were able to fit five people in a combine cab. Yes, that's right, two grown men and three children can fit in a combine. However, I don't know if I would suggest it. HAHA!
We have also been watching the Cubs continue their post-season run the last few weeks and tonight the Cubs will have the opportunity to win the World Series!!! I won't make any prediction on the game but it sure is a weird feeling knowing that the Cubs could snap a 108 year old streak. Growing up a Cubs fan most years have been pretty rough, but this team has always felt different. We will see if it is meant to be!
Beckett has really got into baseball this year. He of course still doesn't fully understand everything or have the attention span to watch for very long, but he can tell me the score and who is winning. It is fun to answer all his questions during the game. I love how he gets excited when they score and how his first question every morning is "did the Cubs win last night" and he like a lot of people is a big Kris Bryant fan.
Here are some memorable Cubs quotes from the past week:
While watching game 5 of the World Series Beckett says:
"Dad I think there are a ton of Cubs fans at Wrigley Field tonight, I've seen a ton of Cubs shirts and hats, and one lady even had the "W Flag" on her hat"
Beckett also has his own baseball terms. For example:
Offense=Cubs are up to bat
Defense=Cubs are up to glove.
Last Saturday Beckett asked to play baseball for a few minutes:
With the leaves turning colors one of the things I enjoy doing is going out and seeing all the colors. I took Beckett for a ride around the Lake Carroll trails to get a glimpse of the different colors. We were still a little early when we went for our ride, but we did see a lot of deer and there were a few spots with some descent colors. Here are a couple of the pictures we got along the way:
Beckett spotted these deer at the bottom of the ski hill.
This one doesn't have much color, but I like it.
The last thing I have to share is Halloween from the Carroll house. Beckett calls the shots on what he is going to be for Halloween the last few years and this year was no different, other than the fact he also told us what Brynleigh was going to be as well. Beckett chose to be a farmer and he said Bryn could be a pig. A farmer and a pig...easy enough, more on this in a minute.
On Saturday night we carved our pumpkins. Kayla bought a kit this year with some nice carving tools and about a dozen different designs that you can trace onto the pumpkins. I was impressed with how they turned out considering I struggle to draw stick people and could not even be considered a marginal artist.
We asked Beckett to take his shirt off as he is a touch messy when he gets the seeds out:
Brynleigh was very clean because she was not about to touch that pumpkin:
This is the cat on top of a fence with the moon in the back that Beckett picked. (I know you didn't need the description to know what it was :))
Bryn went a more traditional route:
Beckett had the costumes picked out in early September which should have made our lives easy, except for Kayla and I kept pushing off ordering a costume for Bryn for a variety of stupid reasons, mainly just being forgetful. Kayla thought she ordered one on the 26th, expedited shipping of course, but the order didn't go through correctly so it was never shipped. So on Sunday, the day before Halloween, we started the process of creating a pig costume from materials in our house and what we could find in town. In hindsight it was probably not all bad, she is 20 months old and I don't think she would be one to allow us to put a costume on her. So saving $30-$40 and making a DIY costume is fine by me.
They turned out pretty good. Here is a shot of them with Grandma Betty, she is our traditional first stop. Beckett in his bibs, flannel shirt, John Deere hat, and work boots. Brny was decked out on pink with a headband with pig ears, two black dots on her nose, curly tail and of course some Miss Piggy shoes.
Here is the farmer pulling his prize winning pig in his John Deere wagon:
I ended up pulling them the rest of the night while he rode.
I must admit that I want to do what Jimmy Kimmel does and tell the kids that I ate all their candy, but I just cant bring myself to acutally do it. How could you break the hearts (even if only temporarily) of these kids who had so much fun working for their candy? Our well mannered little boy skipped the "trick-or-treat" and every stop and just want straight for the "thank-you!".
Notice Bryn is missing her glove. She took it off so she could start eating her candy on the walk home, priorities. Love that girl.
That pretty much wraps this one up. We have a couple more tractor rides lined up so I hope to get some pictures of those and the warm weather will hopefully hold out for a few more four wheeler rides.
Stay safe and insure that I see you next time.