Fall Farms

One of the fun things about fall is hitting all the fun farms. We went to Gentry and Honeysuckle Farms this year. They had fun picking pumpkins, playing on farm equipment, doing corn mazes, seeing animals, watching the pumpkin cannon, watching the hillbilly hog races, and trying the other fun things they had for the kids to do. Matthew was a little bummed because he could do the long corn mazes because he already had his boot/broken ankle. Matt took him to a haunted forest later when his boot was off. The farms here are a lot of fun, but we miss Patterson Farm in Cleveland because they had a yummy fresh bakery. Maybe we will find one here next year!

My funny Owen

Owen is such a fun kid. Since he is the only one home all day, we get to spend a lot of time together. Right now two of his favorite things are Ben Ten (we pretend battle with different aliens all the time- his favorite changes all the time) and cars. Not like Disney cars, but real cars. He can tell you if the car is a Honda, Toyota, BMW, Mercedes, Dodge, etc. We recently went with Emily to take her BMW to the shop and Owen decided he wanted this BMW convertible. He asked if he could have it for Christmas. When I said, "Sorry," he said, "But I will share with Daddy!" Another one of his favorite things right now is his Captain America costume. He loves wearing it. He even fell asleep the other day fully decked out. He didn't even bother taking off his shield. Oh, and I threw in a picture of Owen's curls all combed out- fro style, just because it is funny. Gotta love that Owen!

Owen's 4th birthday

Owen turned four on Sept. 24. Earlier in the week he was in charge of snack at school and he took in these fun Ben Ten cupcakes. For his birthday Matt had the day off (he just got back from a 2 week conference in Tucson). We had the traditional donuts for breakfast. Then we took Owen to Jump Zone in the morning, which he loved (even by himself!). His daddy played with him during the day. When the boys got home from school we went directly to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner and lots of games. When we got home we had a family Ben Ten party. Owen requested his favorite- cheesecake, which Nana made. Then he opened a ton of Ben Ten presents. He really loved his new Ben Ten sheets and Humongosaur stuffed animal, the Ben Ten movies from the Richardson grandparents, Ben Ten omnitrix and toys, Cars color changers, a kung zhu pet, and a new bike. (More family around = more presents I guess!) Anyway, it was a great day and he is happy to be a big 4!

Science Center

Nashville's science center is always a big hit with the kids. I've blogged about it before, but this time the favorite was the space walk. Usually there are big lines for this so we don't do it, but they do love it (even though they yell, "Atomic Wedgie!" the whole time).

After school snack

We try to do fun after school snacks sometimes with the kids. This one was a big hit!

Owen at Mrs. Jenny's preschool

Hatcher Dairy Farm

Feeding and milking cows!

Fire truck!
Owen all tired out after the trip to Gentry farm.



First day!
Holding his "Owen" that he made for the first day.

Mrs. Jenny lives just around the corner and does a preschool Monday and Wednesday from 9-11:30am. Owen has four other boys and one girl in his class. He loves it! Mrs. Jenny taught K and 1st grade for a few years before she had her son Tyler, and she does an excellent job. He says his favorite part is snack. He also likes riding his bike there everyday and all the fun activities they do. We've already done a few field trips- Gentry Farm, Fire Truck, Hatcher Dairy Farm. On one we even got to ride on a bus- his favorite thing they've done! She blogs about all the fun things they do every week and I added her blog under our friend's blogs in case any of you grandparents want to check in on what they are doing!

Croup

A few weeks ago we had a pretty scary night. We were watching tv when we heard Owen start coughing. He sounded pretty bad. Soon he wasn't really able to catch his breath at all. Holly came over to stay with the other sleeping kids while Matt and I rushed Owen to the ER. He ended up having to get a breathing treatment and two steroid shots before he started breathing easier. The Dr. said it was croup- an infection of the vocal chords that can cause swelling, closing up his breathing tube. We were all a little scared, Owen especially. I've never been seen so fast at an ER before. After a few more hours of monitoring, they sent us home. He slept in our room the next couple of nights with the humidifier, just to make sure he was ok, but he never showed any other symptoms or had any other problems. It was very out of the blue and we were really grateful that they were able to help him. Listening to him struggle for breath was horrible. The only lasting effect was actually the monitoring stickers- it hurt too much to peel them off and it took weeks for them to fall off, even with much soaking in the tub. That Owen bounces back fast.