Hartsburg Pumpkin Festival!

The next day of Grandma and Grandpa's visit, we drove to Hartsburg and found the festival of all festivals!

Stripes

(Hence the reason for the first picture being black and white. Our family was a little two stripey/rainbowy for a good farm equipment pic.)

The Woodworkers Association had a table with a free car making station (donations accepted):)

Alex did a great job making an awesome car.

Here he is hammering in the wheels.

A lot of the pictures from this weekend were taken by my father-in-law.

This is one of them and I love that it's a picture of me taking a picture...

we even got Alex in the backround!

This is a picture of the side of the winery. It really was quite cute. Chris and I got a bottle of their 'driest white', which turned out to be really dry. We were all surprised and thought it tasted great.

A festival just isn't a festival without a band!

I've taken a lot of these pictures lately.

It just doesn't seem like there are very many pictures of just the two of us.

I'm not naming any names, I'm just sayin' that after awhile someone got very, very sleepy.

Corn Dog

:)

Cutie-Pa-Tootie!

Just hanging out in the pumpkin patch with Dad!

Grace's little pumpkin!

This 'baby pumpkin' the kids are still talking about today!

What a great time! I was so bummed that we were rained out of the festival last year, and so excited that we got to go again this year.

It seems like most of the vendors have the same spot every year...

we were able to find the caramel apples in the same place...

which were delicious, by the way!

And after the festival, naps were had by all!

Apple Butter Festival

Long story short:

Last year I thought we were going to an apple butter festival.

But there was no apple butter.

One year later realized we had been at the wrong festival!

Decided to go to the REAL apple butter festival this year!

Grandma and Grandpa were in town to help us with our 'festivaling'.

We were all excited for the Apple Butter Festival...

...but alas, the festival wasn't actually a festival, and when we got there they had sold out of apple butter.

HA!

Alex found these sunglasses in the van on the way...he just HAD to wear them!

Nice.
Look who loves me!!! Grandpa!!!

This picture is so sweet.

Obviously he is disappointed that there is no apple butter.

So to hopefully recover from our dastardly mistake of promising our children a good time when, in fact, there was none to be had, we made some fun of our own by going to the local park.
We did some play play playing.
(I think this picture of Grace swinging is hilarious!)

WOAH!!!

Grace has this thing with cats. This cat in particular seemed to love Grace too!

Both of the kids rub on this necklace I've been wearing lately while I'm talking to them.

Cute and comforting.

We decided to continue on with our self-festival making and because of the hot nice weather, we went to Shorty Pants for a delicious lunch.
Festivus Schmestivus!

(We had better luck the next day!)

Art Festival in Linn Creek

Cuteness Warning: Alex and Grace will be appearing in this entry as a puppy and a kitty, respectively. Beware!

Cuteness!
Adorableness!

Woof!

Meow!

The poor little girl in this Clifford costume was WAY TO LITTLE to see out the eye holes. As a consequence, she could only see the teenagers coming up to her, not the little kids. Alex was pulling on Cliffords legs for a good couple of minutes, and when she finally did she him or any other child, she had no idea how tall they were. I'm telling you, this girl would be cracking up if she saw this picture. I'm sure she thought Alex was on his tippy toes, or maybe an inch off the ground. It was hilarious!

There were lots of fun crafts at the festival. This festival is held in Linn Creek and is completely free!...including lunch! So Alex and Dad made a fun balloon race car together which in the end came darn near pretty close to working! ;)

There was also a Rennaissance corner.

Alex speared the boar.

A little kitty lapping up her milk!

A happy family Rasmussen style!

Go Trucks Go...Again!!!

Go Trucks Go is a Parents as Teachers night where all different trucks and boats gather at the school's parking lot and all of the kiddos can check them out. It is a favorite for Alex, especially because he gets to jump around and explore fire trucks!

This picture is from the Go Trucks Go event last year, can you believe it?!

And here he is now...all grown up!...kind of :)

The Koeppen Men

Good practice if Grace and Emma are planning on becoming future bus drivers!

Nose rubs...

...and big hugs!

Daddy and Grace

...what a fun night!

St. Michael's Day!

So, at my church growing up (St. Michael and St. George), we celebrated St. Michael's Day every year on the last Sunday in September. Instead of us kids going to the 'little' church, we went to into the 'big' church with our parents. The highlight of this celebration is the BAGPIPES!!!

I have a special place in my heart for bagpipes and I've never known why...until this very Sunday.

This Sunday I brought my husband and my two children into a family tradition I hadn't realized existed. In my family, St. Michael's Day was always happy and joyous. We were together (in the aformentioned big church), there was happy heart pounding music, there was no judgement, no pressure, no whatever else. Nothing negative. Just the four of us, sitting together in a pew, listening to the service.

These are the experiences that make a family. So on this very Sunday this year, I sat in a pew with my mother, my husband, and my two healthy and happy children.

All I could feel was blessed...and very, very lucky.

I talked to my brother on the phone who became immediately excited. I told him how I had been waiting until the children were old enough so that the loudness wouldn't scare them and how great they did. I told him it would be fun to make it a family tradition to come up every year from the Lake to go to the service.
His response: Perhaps it should be a family tradition for us all.
And so it goes...


And to top it all off, this picture captures my brother's favorite part of this Sunday which I had forgotten about...it's COOKIE day in the Great Hall after the service!
When I first told John we were there for St. Michael's Day and how awesome it was his immediate reply was, "Ah man, I bet it was a cookie day too!"
Indeed it was, my friend, indeed it was.

Four Seasons Chili Cookoff!

Q: Does Grace like cotton candy?

Um...

A: Not after the first try!

Q: Does Alex like cotton candy?

A: YES!!!

And Grace finally came to her senses!

The proud parents of cotton candy eating children!

Grace wanted a pumpkin and it lasted about three seconds before she wiped it. As a matter of fact, she's still sitting in the face painting chair. Oh well!

Alex wanted an apple, and I think it turned out really cute!

After the festival, we hopped in the van and drove straight to St. Louis for St. Michael's Day! Yay!