Fall Break Continued. . .

Graydon decided to carve one of the small pumpkins we got from Brocktoberfest.

Throughout Fall Break, each one of us picked a family activity. Mine was the pumpkin farm and tree tagging. Curtis chose family basketball. 

Due to our odd number and my lack of athletic ability, I was the referee and time-keeper! Andy and Curtis teamed up against Bella and Graydon. 

Andy and Curtis's team won! 

We followed up with blizzards and shakes at Dairy Queen. This was Andy's activity choice. 

Surprise, surprise. . . Graydon picked bowling! 

I finished crocheting this cardigan that I had been working on-and-off for the past year! I'm really happy with how it turned out. 

Bella went on her first college visit: Indiana University! 

Lots of big decisions for her future coming up in the next year.

On our final day of break, we went to downtown Franklin. This was Bella's choice for our family activity. We visited lots of cute shops.  

There were also a couple fun murals. 

We ate dinner at a little cafe.

And got dole whips for dessert! 

Lots packed into one week at home!

Fall Break: Pumpkin Picking and Christmas Tree Tagging

We are on Fall Break! Oftentimes, we travel during this week. We've gone to Florida twice and Tennessee. We've also done Wisconsin a few times. This year, however, we decided to stay home and relax a little. But I also wanted some quality family time - it's my very favorite thing. Everyone gets to choose a family activity this week. This was my activity: pumpkin picking and Christmas tree tagging. 

We had our picture taken in this same spot several years ago. I was hoping to re-create it, but I didn't take into account the location of the sun at this time of day. We have light stripes all over us! 

Here is the original photo from four years ago!

We went through the bamboo maze.

And took a long walk to the pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins!

Next stop: Christmas Tree Farm.

The farm we go to for our Christmas Tree has become appointment-only. We missed out last year, but several weeks ago, I made our appointment for the day after Thanksgiving. The next step was going out there to tag our tree. If we wait until the day of our appointment, all the good trees might be gone. 

We've never tagged our tree ahead of time before and this was kind of a neat experience. First of all, it wasn't freezing. And second, we had the whole farm to ourselves. 

Here is our 2022 Kilps Family Christmas Tree! We'll be back on November 25th to take her home! 

Race to the van!

Welcome to October!

Bella bought some puzzles, but I have kind of been hogging them. I did this one completely by myself. I discovered during COVID that I really love to do puzzles. I'll work on it while waiting for my coffee to brew or waiting for water to boil or waiting for something to bake. I'll work on it at the end of the day when all activities and obligations are done. I will sometimes listen to a podcast, sometimes listen to music, or sometimes just work in silence. I love it all. It's gratifying to see it come together.

I walked into the dining room and the sun was shining in such a way that it made everything feel like it was glowing. I'm not sure if I'm not typically around when the sun is at that point or if I'm too busy to notice, but the dining room felt almost dream-like on this particular afternoon. Of course, photos can't fully capture the feel, but it was a good one. 

I walked into the living room on two occasion within a couple days of each other to find a fireplace video playing on the TV. 

You'd think we didn't have an actual fireplace or something. 

The boys had their fall band concert last week. Love hearing them play! 

Of course. :)

Columbus hosts an Ethnic Expo every years. It includes booths of food from all over the world.

Andy bought some juice from the Kenya booth. They drove all the way down from St. Cloud, MN to participate in this event. 

Andy got some pork from West Africa and the boys chose China. 

Bella and I chose India. We still don't know the name of what she got. She just pointed to a picture that looked good because we didn't know what anything was just by the name of it. 

I recognized "chicken" and "curry" for the meal I chose. It was SO good (and a big spicy). I drank a lot of water with this meal. 

Major milestone for our old van - it reached 200,000 miles!