MacQueen's Orchard

The trees are getting full of apples - it's that time again - time to go pick some apples!!  I'm certain my family loves our annual photosession...  well, ok, maybe they enjoy the actual picking of apples and the yummy treats we hope to make with the apples.  But I love this opportunity to get some great pictures of everyone.

We had this great idea of how to pick the biggest apples on the tree!

This year both kids were allowed to drive the truck, just a little, in the orchard.  They loved it! 

Monarch butterfly

We finally have a butterfly!  It was such a cool thing to watch the change from tiny caterpillars into full grown butterflies.

Zack's first soccer game

Today was Zack's first soccer game. He was pretty excited about it. We got to play against our good friend Jacob, and two kids from school. It was cute to watch the first time players, like Zack. A few times they were looking in the opposite direction of the ball! For the most part they did a great job though, and even though no score was being kept track of, Zack informed us that the other team won the first game and his team won the second game :)

One of the parents brought a snack and it included Sunny D. He was so thrilled with that - he kept telling us "I can't believe we got this whole container of orange juice!". It was a big hit - guess I know what to buy when it's my snack turn!

Go Tigers!!

Pokagon camping trip

The "Pokagon curse" definately seems to have worn off from the Willfords.  We have had several super great camping trips here.  This was no exception.  It was a beautiful crisp fall weekend, just perfect for camping.

Alan made a great breakfast of pancakes, eggs and sausages.  I think this is one of my new favorite traditions of camping - letting daddy take over the cooking duties for the morning!

We had our favorite campsite - right next to the giant rock.  The kids climbed over it all weekend.  We also found another caterpillar to take home and raise into a butterfly.

I'm not sure why, but Zachary had no interest in riding on the horse.  Sydney loved it as usual.  I can't wait until the kids are big enough to go out on the trails with the horses.  That will be fun.



The training wheels come off!!

This is a day Alan has been waiting for.  Zachary learns how to ride his bike without training wheels!!  It takes a bit of time and space taking off the training wheels and transporting them when we go camping - that is why Alan hoped he would get rid of them soon.  Once Zachary started trying, he picked up on it really well.  I think he caught on faster than Sydney did!

Look at him go!!!

We are so proud of you !!!

Fulton County Fair

One sure sign that summer will be ending soon is the annual fair.  There is nothing quite as good as the chocolate milkshakes at the fair.  yum yum yum!!

Seems we started a new tradition of the kids going on the bungee jumpers.  No one has mastered a jump yet - maybe next year Sydney will.

We didn't buy an unlimited ride pass, but we did let the kids go one ride.   They chose the fun house. 

Later we went to look at the tractors and farming equipment.  It was a fun day.  We certainly look forward to this trip every year.

East Harbor camping trip

We took a camping trip over to East Harbor state park. Our main reason for that campground was it's close location to a fun place - Mystery Hill & Prehistoric Forest. Alan had visited Mystery Hill as a kid, and when he heard this location was going to be closing after this season, we needed to go check it out! It was pretty funny - just looking at the house on Mystery Hill was making Alan and I woozy!! As you can see - water runs uphill!!

It was really hard to walk around in the building - the kids witnessed this "force of nature" when they saw a ball roll uphill! :)

This chair appeared to be floating as I sat on it....

After tumbling around in the house for a bit, we headed outside to the Prehistoric Forest. The kids got to dig for fossils.

Here's a good one!!

Wow, look at the size of those snakes!! Zack can hardly believe it...

I don't know, were the dinosaurs really this orange color?? who knows, maybe...

Watch out kids, you'll be eaten alive!

Our next stop was the African Safari Wildlife park. It is a drive through park where we encountered all sorts of hungry animals. They gave us a big cup of dry food to feed the animals, but the animals were getting spoiled by the bags of carrots that some people were feeding them, so our dry food lasted quite a long time.

The animals certainly were not shy - they just stick their heads in the windows looking for a snack.

"Hello????"



I didn't mind most of the animals - well, at least after I got over my initial fear! - but then a huge, stinky buffalo put his head in the window. Ewww! He was a little too large for my liking - and we closed the windows everytime they came near us on the rest of the adventure!!

The animals roamed all over their habitat - the babies were so cute!

Although Zack didn't want to partipate, Sydney enjoyed getting a little close to the animals.

At the very end we finally decided to buy a bag of carrots too, hoping to get a giraffe to have a snack. However, every car in front of us must have had the same idea because the giraffe's wouldn't even look at us. Instead the zebra's got our carrots, which was OK too.

The park also had some nice exhibits - and even a pony ride.

One of the main attractions was pig races. I believe we were rooting for Pig Daddy. They were all pretty darn quick, but our guy didn't win.

Back at camp, we had beautiful weather. It was a perfect camping weekend. One of the best parts for the kids was that Sydney got a reward for having a perfect spelling test - Alan bought her the Doodle Jump game for his iPhone and they got to play it. So happy!

Our campsite wasn't super private, but it was nice anyways.

And to end our trip we got to see a beautiful sunset. A perfect ending to a perfect trip!

Sydney's new look...

So Sydney started begging me to get bangs cut in her hair, just about the same time the her friend got them. At first I was very sceptical and against the idea. I do like her hair long, and one length, although I am the first to admit that most times it looks like it needs a brushing - 30 seconds after she claims she "brushed" it. So when she brought up the topic, I resisted. Then I asked her to show me a picture from her school yearbook of the hairstyle she was looking for. She found several kids with bangs, but they all looked pretty dorky to me. I finally caved in, and agreed to trim some longer, "whispy" bangs to one side of her hair. I figured that would be the least destructive :)
I started trimming, and when I was finished Sydney ran to the mirror to take a look. I was surprised when she came out saying "I don't like them!!", and then she cried... and cried some more :( oh man, that was a bummer. She continued to say it, as if I could just glue the hair back on where it used to be! In an effort to regain happiness, I explained how they will grow out eventually and she can wear headbands and clips until they do. Luckily she found that to be a good way to hide them, and finally calmed down. Sadly, that won't be the last time she gets a hairdo that she doesn't like!

I think it looks pretty good in this "after" picture - granted it was all straighted out this morning, and nicely "fluffed".