Happy Birthday Johnny Appleseed

In honor of Johnny Appleseed's upcoming birthday our family spent Sunday (after church of course) at Apple Hill. It's a local place where there are tons of apple orchards all close to each other and in the fall they always have tons of activities going on. We usually take a few trips there a year. This past Sunday we visited 5 of the orchards and had a bunch of fun.
Actually to be totally honest I was hot and felt dirty and after the second one I was ready to go home but the kids and the dad insisted we keep going. So here is a bit of what we did...

Our happy family after the long day!

Mom is extra happy because we are on our way back to the car. :)

I wasn't sure what this was but Adia says right away "look at the big emu"... whatever!

Kaden was happy to keep his distance.

Adia and Adison participated in the egg race... Adia got a free carmel apple for 2nd place!

Adison got a bunch of tears for dropping her egg off the spoon. She didn't care that most of the kids did the same thing.

Making apple turnovers... we cooked them at home the next day - so yummy!

Kaden trying to get in on the action.

This guy was taking people for rides on his little cart being pulled by miniature horses. He actually went pretty fast around the turns.
Couldn't pass up the opportunity for cute daddy daughter photos.

So cute... as you can see Avery isn't being as sweet as her brother (notice her open hand).

Daddy and his best buddy looking for fish.

Following the leader.

"Mommy, take my picture."

And here are a few pictures I found as I downloaded my camera...

I thought Kyle would LOVE for me to share them!

This is what little girls do with their little brothers when they are bored... Avery and Adia think these are SO FUNNY!

Kenyon looks like he might just have a future career in modeling in the other pictures for his nice poses in a girls bra and scrap fabric... but after posting them I realized if you blow it up there is a bit of boy parts showing so I needed to remove it. If you got lucky enough to see his great pose - oops!

What's Going On???

It seems like it's been forever since I last posted but when I look at the date of my last post I realize it has barely been over a month. I'm not exactly sure how this all happened but here is a glimpse of our last month and a half. We have.......

Had a suprise visit from our exchange student, Winnie. She is from Taiwan and stayed with us for a month about 2 years ago. This time we got to visit for about 8 days... so fun! We took her to Shasta while she was here, went to the Shasta Caverns, went Jet Skiing and so much more.




A few days after she left we had a family reuinion with Kyle's parents and siblings. It was lots of fun. We played games, visited museums, went to the zoo, rode some trains, had a talent show, ate lots of food, rode bikes, went swimming, had a talent show and so many other things I don't know how we fit in a week.


Not even a week after that ended my beautiful sister Stacey, her precious boys and my mom came and stayed with us for a few days. It is always a nice treat to see her little family. She watched all of our kids one night and treated us to a really NICE dinner. Then Kyle watched all the kids so Stacey and I could get dinner, see a movie and go shopping with NO KIDS! What a treat!

Avery started soccer again! She hasn't lost her touch and had a great first game with a whole cheering section of her own. It included: her family, g'ma and g'pa middleton, g'ma howell, Aunt Stacey and boys, Aunt Terri and Livi and even Uncle Ty!

I got to reconnect with my Grandma who I haven't seen in about 8 years! It was so nice to see her and for her to meet all my kids.

We took a day trip to Bonfante Gardens in Gilroy (Thank you Papa) to spend the day with my sisters and their kids as well as my parents.

I got to meet and hold my newest niece (#27)... Thank you Rick and Leah!

Adia and her BFF, Danielle, got to have sleepovers and spend some good quality time together. Our family LOVES this friendship!

We have had some fun with our newest pet, Ginger.

We have all been busy learning new chores and becoming team players! Go team Middleton!!!!

We started school and so far we are having our best year ever! Kyle helped me create a really tight schedule and we are all enjoying our studies and working really hard! Adia is now in 6th grade, Avery is doing 2nd, Kenyon and Adison are doing preschool and Kaden is still in full Character training mode!

Adison and Kenyon LOVE having their own "Preschool Time".

We took a nice trip to Shasta for our Labor Day weekend. We visited a museum, hung out and went to Mt. Shasta city where the kids all competed in different age groups, watermelon contests, and Kenyon and Avery even won!

Kaden is NOT enjoying some of the things he is learning. The whole world of mom and dad (and siblings) saying "NO" is not a welcome one from him. We have been having a lot of moments that look like this.

Our new schudle gives us plenty of time for "Outside Fun" and the kids seem to be hooked on these Razor scooters right now.

We also make plenty of time for "Free Time" where mom tries really hard to be nice and pretend they don't ALWAYS turn that into "mess time".

Kaden had a small fight with some sick bug and big sister Avery spent lots of time rocking him and helping mom put him to sleep. She is SUCH A GOOD BIG SISTER!

Kaden usually just climbs back down when he goes up on the table but he was tired this time and decided he would just take his nap right on top.

And the most recent event since our last blog update was our BEAUTIFUL BABY GIRL turning 3!

I can't believe she has gotten so old. We just spent the day as a family and she had a great time! We played birthday bingo, opened presents, had a balloon hunt with flashlights at night and it was everything our sweet (sometimes) little girl needed to make her special day perfect!

The kids even performed a "Birthday Dance" they had taught her.

And Kaden LOVED her new baby doll but was very frustrated the milk only came out for the baby and not for him.

THE END!

Daddy Adventures #1 - Lost Lake

Due to the recent realization that I will never be an outdoorsy kind of lady (no matter how hard I try) and that I tend to ruin trips to nature that the kids would otherwise LOVE (as well as my husband) we have come to the conclusion that 1 or 2 times a month the kids get to have a "Daddy Adventure". We marked it on the calendar as such and when the 1st one came dad told them what to wear, dad packed a picnic and dad went on a 2 hour drive to go explore some lake he had heard of. All the while mom stayed clean, didn't have to fight to defend herself from vicious bugs and was nice and cool in her air conditioned home! The kids had a blast, I got stuff done, Adia gets to practice photography skills, Kyle and I didn't fight and when they come home they get to relive the day all over when they share with me and show me all the cool pictures. Here are some of the highlights of our wonderful new idea!

What a perfect way to explore nature. The kids were so proud of themselves and loved telling me how much I would have been scared of the car ride (and how mad at dad I would have been), freaked out by the snake, I wouldn't have been daring enough to climb out on the rocks and I LOVED nodding my head in agreement and making them think I am beyond impressed with the ADVENTUROUS spirit all of them have!

Thanks for going without me guys! I can't wait for the the next one!