September 5 = Liam's Third Birthday!

The Naval Academy's first football game was today so Zachary had to attend and his Dad went with him- so the rest of us headed to Clark's Elioak Farm in Ellicot City.  This is the same place Malia had her seizures and then we went back a few weeks later and Liam had a blast.

As soon as we walked in, Liam found a slide.  He had everyone go down it with him- multiple times each.

 Eventually I got him to explore some other areas of the farm.  We saw some rabbits and chickens...

... some sheep...

...lots of horses...

 ...and some really stinky pigs.

 Matthew and Grace worked together to recreate a picture we took last year.  Here's this year's:

 And then I talked him into a pony ride- but he upgraded to a horse this year!  He did such a good job.

Then he found something else to climb on...

Malia had fun having every one take turns holding her but a day wouldn't be complete without a little sass from the little lady.

October 18 = Pumpkin Patch Take Two Day

Zachary had a cool trip he took with his LEAD Program classmates, exploring areas where battles in the civil war were fought- they stayed overnight outside- sounds fun but not something I'd actually want to do.  So my mom and brother came up to help me with the babies and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to take a trip to the pumpkin patch since the last time we went there (see 10/1), didn't turn out quite how we had planned.

Warning: Lots of pictures to follow!

Here's Malia, all ready to go!

So this looks like a preset Windows desktop background but it's the view we had at the pumpkin patch.

The first item on the agenda was the pony ride!  We waited for the smallest pony and one of the staff members put him up on the saddle.  He wasn't sure about this but he was a good sport.

 Then we got to feed some goats!  There was an aggressive one that I fed so that he was distracted which let Matthew help Liam feed one of the nicer goats.

If you didn't know any better, you'd think Liam was a good 'ole farm boy!

Then we went to a mini petting zoo they had set up.  The bunny and the horse were the only ones Liam was really interested in- he wasn't feeling the chickens or sheep.

 

The next stop was the cow train.  I had no clue what that meant before we got there but it ended up being really cute and they had a couple of "cows" that were big enough for the parent to join in for the smaller kids.

 The patience level was waning- Liam's, not mine!  So the last thing we did was a hay ride to the actual pumpkin patch and we picked out a pumpkin just Liam's size.  The whole ride to the pumpkin patch, Liam pulled hay out of the bale he was sitting on.  When we got off and started walking around looking for the perfect pumpkin, he sat in the grass and started pulling grass out of the ground and throwing it to the side. 

Malia was a big fan of the pumpkins!  How cute is she?!