Monday, Nick's Garden Center, Aurora

 Today, Casey took the day off work and we all went to a fun garden center in Aurora with fun Fall and Halloween activities. We were supposed to go to a pumpkin patch nearby, but found out it was closed today. Bummer. But this was really fun, even though farther away. Lots of free activities and a coule of pay as you go ones. Fun times. Bounce house obstacle course, ring toss, bean bag toss, baseball throw, hammer whack a frog into a cauldron, a big tall hay bale maze, play areas with cars and big tires, a train ride, and a wagon ride through a haunted tunnel. So cute. It's at a nursery/greenhouse with a year round farmers and fresh foods ( and lots of other stuff) market. Plus plants and trees , of course. There were venders of fresh produce, too.  I was fascinated by watching them roast green chili peppers in a big black rotating iron mesh drum. You could smell it. Mike bought some kettle corn. Katie's always so good to bring snacks for kids and everyone. And we had water. We stayed a couple or three hours? Afterwards, it was close to two and we went to their favorite Mexican restaurant close to their old home. The lady knew Casey by name. And had missed them! It was good food. Four kids sat at one table; four adults at the other. And there weren't squabbles. ( I'm thinking they were hungry). Haha

Fun day. Corbin's good friend was home, right there by where we were eating,  so Mike and I drove the twins back to Castle Rock and the rest stayed to visit in the old neighborhood for a bit.

I was going to make my eggplant parmesan for dinner tonight ( because I hauled all my eggplants from my garden here!), But we are all going to be too full from such a big lunch eaten so late.  As I type this, I've had a nap, it's after 6pm and the parents and older boys aren't home yet. I'm guessing they ran into rush hour traffic. We missed it. 

Denver is so huge and populated!. Big cities are so ...big! Takes forever to get anywhere.

Katie goes back to work tonight, Casey goes back tomorrow morning, and it'll be us and the kids all day long:-).

Bean bag toss

Franken-Mike

Waiting for the pumpkin story time to end.

Mr Jack-O-Lanturn telling a long ol' scarey story. He ended with some silly jokes and rhymes. There were fun facts all over, about pumpkins, etc. And so many varieties of pumpkins and gourds. It was so cute and well- decorated.

Katie taking photos of the bean bag toss participants. Quintin wasn't successful here, so he started meltdown; Hailey had hers later over snacks and photos. Despite the drama, it was still fun and manageable and in the end , most folks were pleased. They were here some years ago and had fun then, too.

A bath tub in which to scrub ones purchased pumpkin. Haha.

Hit the hammer on the lever and catapult your frog into a black cauldron.

Hailey as a bat.

Katie as a bat. "Gone too soon"

The cute train that circled the property ( in 3 minutes or less) . Toot, toot!!

This ( below) is on the tractor-pulled wagon ride that went through a haunted tunnel. I think it was their greenhouse. But we went all around their 5 acres of trees, shrubs, equipment, etc.