Leaves and lights.

Ben was home Friday so I enlisted him and the boys in "Operation Leaf Cleanup". The boys had the best 2 jobs: jump in my nice, neat piles of leaves and drive the bags to the road. Ben worked really hard and I treated him to lunch: pizza and hotdogs at Sams.

Later that evening, we attempted the Botanical Gardens' Member Walk Thru Galaxy of Lights. If you recall, we made an attempt 2 years ago and failed. We didn't even try it last year. This year we managed to drag it out from start to almost close, watch Nina out sprint other families to get a wagon, witness DRS's continued theme for the year(ask Ben), enjoy hot chocolate and snicker-doodle cookies, listen to complaints about walking, wait in line for 20 minutes for 1 of 4 to sit in Santa's lap and continue our healthy lifestyle with fast food at 9 o'clock at night.

Wouldn't you consider it a success?

Dashing through the garden between raindrops.

Fall break day one. Everyone was playing nicely when I decided to stir it up. The rain had stopped and I thought it was in the family's best interest to get some fresh air. Pack it up, let's move, let's move. Off to the Botanical Gardens for the scarecrow trail. We had 1 hour and 45 minutes until swim practice. No lingering at the scarecrows and stay out of the wet grass. Everybody smile and no complaining. Now, have fun. I must say it was a fun trip. The kids enjoyed finding the scarecrows and I was successful at getting some pictures. I was able to motivate the kids to navigate the corn maze in record time. On the way in to the gardens, Hayden was commenting on the desserts the cafe was serving. While I was waiting (forever) for Ally to come out of the bathroom and Hayden had the boys at the train, I snuck into the cafe and bought a piece of chocolate caramel pecan cake and a coke. When we got to the maze I told the kids that when I said go, they should start the maze and I would start eating the cake. If they made it out quickly, they might get a bite, if not, well too bad for them. I only got one bite.