Autumn Invitations

While we have kept busy with projects to get our new house in order, we won't turn down an invitation for fun. Autumn was full of good family invitations. For example, our son's family invited us to the Apple festival in Weston, Missouri.

The first stop was the Red Barn Farm, where we enjoyed riding the pony and feeding the animals.

We tried the apple cider donuts and bought ornamental gourds on this beautiful-weather October weekend.

Our younger son made another trip to Kansas City, so he got to enjoy the apple festival as well.

Downtown Weston was decked out in all things autumn, with plenty of photo opportunities.

While the boys headed home for college football games and nap time, the girls went to the orchard to pick fresh apples.

There are few things sweeter than a juicy tree-ripened apple that was just picked. The orchard owners encouraged us to try one right off the tree. 

We also got an October invitation to fly to Houston for the Texas fall band competition. Kansas City has a brand new airport that opened in 2023, and we looked forward to experiencing it for ourselves. The art inside the airport is big and beautiful.

Our nephew and niece picked us up at the Houston airport and treated us to five days of fun. We got to play some pickleball in their warm October weather down south.

But the timing of our trip was determined by the band competition that their two oldest children were competing in that weekend. The band first performed at the local high school game. This is Texas--where everything is bigger and high school football is big league. The stadium had a jumbotron, and the players entered the stadium through a three-story inflatable entry and smoke. Welcome to Texas high school football! The football team was pretty good, but we have to say that the band's half-time show was even better!

The big event was the Saturday band competition. We watched as these 6A schools put on flashy shows. The Woodlands high school marched 300 students on the field. Besides all the buses to transport that many band students, it takes three more eighteen-wheel trucks to transport the huge props that are part of this elaborate show. They have five minutes to get everything on the field, eight minutes for the high-energy show, and then two minutes to get off the field. The Woodlands band made the finals, so we were back in the evening to see the top ten bands perform again. It was a great treat! 

While the judges tabulated the results, all ten of the bands lined up on the football field. We were excited to see that The Woodlands band got first place and will continue on to state finals in a week. (Spoiler alert--at state they qualified for nationals in Indianapolis. There they came home with an impressive fifth place finish at the grand national competition.)

We flew back to Kansas City just in time to see some of the best fall color of the year. 

The trees on our street were at peak color.

The view from our back deck included a kaleidoscope of autumn reds, oranges, and yellows.

We got back to Kansas City just in time for another important October invitation--to Eli's third birthday. We now have a three-year-old in our family!

After being in very warm Houston, we got a bit of a jolt of how cold it can get in the Kansas City area in October. We were wearing gloves and coats for the final game of the fall soccer season. While everyone else was watching the game, Gram was keeping Eli busy by reading books.

We got another invitation, so we made another autumn trip. This time we were headed just west of Wichita, Kansas, where our great niece was the female lead in her high school musical. She made a beautifully green Fiona in the Shrek Musical, and we were so impressed with the talent in this show's cast. Of course, Elliott was the highlight. Her years of dance and voice training, and lots of natural talent really made her look like a professional!

Just a few days later we got to celebrate another autumn activity. We started the morning of October 31 at Carter's school. That cold snap caused us to bring out our big wool coats that haven't been out of the closet for many years. But Carter didn't even need a jacket when she walked by during the school costume parade. She's Isabelle from the movie Encanto. This character has long dark hair and turns everything she touches into flowers.

Eli loves dinosaurs, so he was a blue T Rex.

Our son Luke was also in the dinosaur theme, but his costume was riding a dinosaur. He was also carrying a shy blue T Rex that didn't exactly understand what halloween was all about. 

But when he figured out that all the neighbors were giving out candy, he suddenly was no longer shy. This little blue dinosaur took Grand-dude's hand and walked all over their little neighborhood.

Yes, it's been an autumn full of great family activities. It feels like we're in a good place enjoying some great invitations!