U is for unpredictable...........and utterances

i generally find it quite hard to plan my days in autumn. there are so many things i want to fit into the season - apple picking, fall festivals, hayrides, corn mazes, decorating for halloween. then comes the struggle of trying to squeeze those wants into a schedule already full of soccer, cub scouts and back to school nites. at times it can be quite frustrating......a planned trip to the orchard is cancelled b/c of storms or the desire to take a hayride on the boardwalk has to be left as a desire b/c of a cub scout event you just can't avoid.....

but sometimes the unpredictability is a good thing. for whatever reason we have our saturdays free of scheduled activities this season. all of our sports commitments fall on sunday - jam packing our already busy sundays. but that is fine - i prefer to pack in one day then ruin two. anyway - last saturday found us alone and without something to do. the predicted rain was over quicker than expected and the rest of the day was turning into a beautiful autumn one....perfect for a last minute trip to the pa renaissance faire

our family loves going to the renaissance faire. my husband loves the shows and for whatever reason seems to be the one always dragged out of the audience to participate. my oldest son got a huge kick out of the human chess match this year. i love the crafts and vendors......(aren't those head horns to die for? i can't wait to try and make my own pair for halloween this year!) we all love the costumes and of course all the bad for you but yummy faire food.

now while my family loves the faire - we have no friends who do! we've tried to bring other families along with us in the past and it wasn't the greatest experience. we ended up leaving after only a few hours b/c everyone was bored! BORED! i can't even imagine!

so this year we did it alone..........and it was a perfect day! even though we got there alittle later than expected (around 2pm) and left at closing we still have plenty of time to do at least something that each of us wanted to do........and we each left - predictably - happy.......

now some autumn utterances and sounds you'll hear in our home........

• "mom, can i please have some hot cocoa now!" (asked by my 6 year old around 9pm right before bedtime)
• "can i just try on my costume - i promise i won't ruin it for halloween" (spoken by my 6 year old starting oct 4th)
• "OMG i love warm apple cider - can we buy some for home?" (spoken by my 10 year old who won't touch an apple all year but drinks enough cinder in oct to clean out an orchard)
• the sound of the whistle (heard all day sunday, and monday nite, and any other nite football is on and my husband is home)
• "i'll have a pumpkin spice latte - pumpkin pancakes - pumpkin muffin - pumpkin ice cream......ANYTHING pumpkin (oh this is all me..........)