Corn Maze

I was out of town last weekend, Marie was at a debate tournament, Caitlyn was resting up between shows, and so Russell took Alison, Kristen, and some of his students to the local corn maze. From what I heard, it was a gorgeous day and they all had a good time. Bonus: they picked up our pumpkins, so we didn't have to do that later!

 The farm made a whole bunch of designs out of their pumpkins. This was Alison and Kristen's favorite.

Exploration Place!

Alison and Kristen had picked up free passes to the Exploration Place with the summer reading program, and they expired on Labor Day. So, of course, that's the day we picked to go.

The big reason we wanted to go (besides the free tickets) was that it was the Science of Fear exhibit's last day. Nothing like waiting to the very end.

They had four booths that went through typical fears. One was the fear of falling.

(I didn't do that one.) (They didn't have fear of heights, though. That one would have been terrifying.)

Russell wanted Caitlyn to mimic the faces.

And there were some interactive stations as well.

From there, we stopped in on a science show about parasites, in which Kristen got to help with the leech.

And then, since we were there, we hit the rest of the Exhibits.

And, of course, you HAVE to end with playing in the castle.

It was a fun way to spend Labor Day!

Full Moon Night Hike

Kristen really liked the night hike we did last year, so Russell took her on another one on the last day of the month. It was a full moon (a blue moon, as Kristen proudly announced when they got home), and they saw deer, frogs, and lots of spiders. Not too many pictures, being dark and all.

They had a great time, though!

An Evening at the Zoo

At the beginning of summer, Russell noticed that every Tuesday in July, the zoo was offering free (if you went and picked up passes) admission in the evening. Since it's been forever and a day since we've been to the zoo, we figured it'd be nice to (make everyone) go.

We gave Kristen the run of the camera, so we got a lot of animal pictures.

But there were people, too.

It was a good trip.

Kristen and the River

One of the things we did this summer was to make sure Kristen had as wide a variety of outdoor activities as possible. The latest was an early-morning tromp in the river. (I'm assuming it's a branch of the Arkansas, but I don't know for sure.)

Russell wasn't planning on staying with her, but he'd brought the camera, and she begged him to go along. So he did. I'm glad (even though it ruined socks and I'm still sweeping sand out of the house), because it looks like Kristen had a fantastic time.

Farm to Table

Russell, over the years, has made lots of friends in the local local food community (yes, there needs to be two locals there).  One of those happens to be the people that run this place:

They grow blackberries. It's an interesting story (they didn't grow up in the country, they didn't major in agriculture, they're basically learning as you go), and so when I needed blackberries for jam this year, we knew exactly where to go.

Then I read in the paper that every Thursday-Saturday, they do a morning farm-to-table breakfast at the farm. We definitely needed to go. So, we took the two kids who were up early, and headed out.

Breakfast was delicious. (Unless you're under the age of 40, then it was "icky".)

(Veggie fritatta, blackberry-lemon scones, yogurt with homemade granola and fresh blackberries)

Then, we went on a tour of the farm:

And we kicked around to see the horses and play on the swings.

It was a delightful way to spend a summer morning.