Kayda's Walk-a-thon

Today Kayda's class had a walk-a-thon to fundraise for a ropes course challenge.   Kayda wrote out emails to ask for pledges.  Every time someone emailed back she got SO  excited.  She would yell "Mom!" And come running over to tell me.   Thank you for supporting her. I hate fundraisers in general but this kind 100% of it goes to the school so it doesn't bother me. 

 The kids got to dress in their Halloween costumes for the walk-a-thon.  Kayda refused to even jog for most of the time because she was "saving her energy". When they called out "two minutes" she started running.  It was fun watching her weave through everyone that had already worn themselves out.  On a side note,  Kayda came home and told me that she was the last girl in the speed test.  Since it is a process of elimination she is the fastest girl in her class and I believe she said the 3rd fastest in the class including boys.

 Carson and I volunteered to help.  We walked some and  then cheered and yelled for kids to go faster.  He was very shy and didn't like being out of arms reach.

 He noticed I wasn't  right next to him.

 I loved watching her.   She is so confident.   Sometimes she walked with other kids but she really spent most of the time walking alongon her own and completely comfortable with it. I love that she doesn't feel the need to be with other people all the time. She enjoys it sometimes but she is just fine,  and just as happy,  on her own as well.

With how many laps she ran, Kayda managed to fulfill 1/4 off the class goal by herself!

Maris Farms

Today the kids and I tried out Maris Farms as a pumpkin patch!  It has an entry fee instead of making you pay for each individual activity which was really nice since these kiddos decided they should run between them at the speed of light, then back again. 

 Carson is not usually a fan of pictures with his brother and sister, unless he's playing.  Fortunately we were getting pumpkins so I was able to tell him that he only got a pumpkin if he took pictures for me!  Never had a problem the whole time!

 The kids got a kick out of this.  It's a 20 ft pipe they crawl through.  Carson didn't want to go in, so instead he pushed it like a swing while they were inside.

 This slide cracked them up!  Each of those pvc pipes roll independently so it's quite the bumpy ride!

 This is one of the oddest jumping services I have ever been on.  You would expect it to be like a mix between a trampoline and a bounce house.  No.  I was standing on one side, another adult was jumping on the other end and was making me bounce.

 I cannot stop laughing at this picture.  For this picture, and the previous four pictures Kayda has the same look on her face, staring at the same place.  What was she looking at?  No idea.  Looking at how her body is positioned, it doesn't look like she jumped at all (which she probably didn't).  Daddy thinks it looks like she's levitating.  I think it looks like she's standing on miniature port-a-potties.

 Boys versus girl!  It was unfair I know.  She held her own though!

 Corn maze!  When we went into a corn maze before you were given a map.  Then you had to find 10 unmarked locations that had stamps.  This corn maze had a couple of "clues" to help you find your way but it was map-less so we ended up going in a few circles.  The kids never believed me when I said we'd been somewhere. Kayda and Dillon actually went on to try another section but Carson was worn out so he and I went back to some of the other fun things.

 Not that you can tell here but this is a big wood box, it's about 12 ft tall, 8 ft wide and 15ft deep.  It is essentially a path that you have to crawl through.  There are 4 different levels inside that you work your way through.

 This room was amazing!  It is all dried corn kernels.  When you stand in it you sink in about a foot and it feels so cool!  The kids had a BLAST!

We went down to choose pumpkins after this.  After we were done Carson really wanted to do the slides again.  As I was pushing a wheelbarrow of pumpkins up a fun hill I sent Dillon with him and said for them to meet me where you weigh the pumpkins.  Well, apparently the didn't hear me or didn't understand.  We were waiting there, watching for them to come up.  I guess they thought we would be right at the top of the hill. Carson was crying and Dillon was being a very brave big brother.  Finally they came up a little farther and I was able to wave to them.  Poor boys!  Breaks my heart.  Next time I need to make sure they listen.  That's the first time we've had that problem even though I try to let them be pretty independent. 

Carson was still anxious so he refused to be in the last picture.  As you can tell Dillon isn't real happy right this moment either.  My poor boys!  Despite the little incident they all had blast and want to go back.  It was quite the job to convince them to wait until tomorrow to carve their pumpkins.