We had absolutely STUNNING weather last weekend here in Connecticut. It was perfect for my photography business mini sessions and perfect for doing all the fall things and perfect for making me feel like Connecticut is a kick-ass place to live. IT’S A JOY JUST TO BE ALIIIIIIIVE.

On our lovely free Monday (you’re still a jerk Columbus, but I do enjoy a day off) we spent the morning at Creamery Brook Bison Farm taking part in a Walktober event with friends. They’re open on weekends in the fall for tours and I highly recommend it. They had a feeding and petting zoo as well as a chance to meet the bison up close.

In the afternoon we went to Buttonwoods for their corn maze and fall fun. It’s a tradition! We did both sides of the corn maze, the hay ride, the cow train, the hay tower and the kids went nuts in the corn pit. We all came home with pants full of corn and a zillion pictures. Don’t worry, Linc really liked the corn pit, even when we were pouring it on his head. He ate more than his share. Mmmm…roughage.

Three kids is a lot of kids. I mean, it’s not A LOT of kids. 15 is a lot of kids. But three kids is more kids than I have hands or eyes, so the logistics of taking them out in public can be difficult.  It’s actually not so bad, since I can keep one kid literally tied to my body at all times, especially when we’re out doing things and it’s not really safe to just leave him on the floor. If it were up to me, that’s where he would hang out most of the time, since he’s pretty entertained by ceiling fans and smiling and I can smile at him from the couch.

But the two bigger ones still expect me to be Fun Mom who Does All The Things, so last weekend we went and Did All The Things. Since they have the attention span of gnats I managed to fit all the fun into just one warm, beautiful Saturday so we could stay home and do nothing on the colder, less beautiful Sunday. I like to pretend I am Supermom but I can only keep it up for like, 4 hours. Then I turn into regular old fed-up, impatient, tired mom.

Luckily it really was a gorgeous day and I did not collapse after climbing the giant hill to the apple trees and I even managed to bring my camera, which is the thing that I have been letting go in the name of sanity. But it was really fun to do fall things AND take pictures.

Please enjoy some pictures.

That’s Mohegan Sun, the casino. We take people there when they visit.

This thing fires water bottles at big targets. Evan would have spent every dollar I own doing it all day.

I hate corn mazes, but Evan took charge and actually lead the way through. There was another mom with a 4 year old who walked with us and even she was impressed.

There is still corn all over my house from this corn pit

We got to Sunflowers for Wishes every year, and this year might have been the best so far. Even though we got rained on. Hard. Which was totally my fault because I insisted on trying for just a couple more photos.

The fields where the sunflowers bloom is one of the most popular photoshoot spots in Connecticut – we must have seen more than a dozen people with their fancy cameras and bags trying to pose families in the sunflower field…without getting all the other photographers and families in their shot. I know in theory a huge field of sunflowers SOUNDS like a gorgeous spot for photos, in reality it’s less romantic. Sunflowers are a lot taller than kids, so posing them in the sunflowers just shows up as posing in a forest of green stalks. The outside of the field is all bright sun. There are TONS OF PEOPLE and you can only Photoshop out so much. Plus if you bribe your kids with ice cream, they’re either whining to go get it now now now or a sticky mess from already eating it.

I am sure there are photographers who get amazing, dreamy, fabulous pictures. I am not that talented yet – plus I went with my kids to, you know, have a good time while they were open instead of waiting until 8 pm for the magic hour light. But I do think looking back on my previous years at Buttonwood is a great example of how far I’ve come:

Sunflowers 2012 – Just a few pictures

Sunflowers 2011 – Evan and Tiny Fat Baby Caroline

Sunflowers 2010 – Avert your eyes from my terrible Picasa photo effects!

So…yeah. Improvement!

Mooing like a cow is hilarious.

Baby cows!!

Pay no attention to the horrible gash on his left eye. He banged it on the couch (????)

Caroline, look at me. Look at me. Look at me. Show me your eyes!

Team Sunflower, roll out!

When we got home, E asked why our daughter was wearing a bag.

Strawberry cheesecake

My precioussssssss…

This is her “Why am I sitting on this quilt when it is raining on me?” face.

Hiding from the downpour. It was an impressive amount of rain. p.s. He had blue cotton candy ice cream.

I have one zillion more pictures of this (and plan to drag my husband down for some family shots on Friday) but the kids and I did Sunflowers for Wishes yesterday and had a blast, as usual.

The place that has the sunflowers in the summer also does a corn maze and hay ride in the fall. I talked my friends into dragging their toddlers out into the cold evening for some ice cream (obviously the snack of choice when it’s 50 degrees out) and some fall fun and ended up having pretty much the best night I’ve had since having kids. Or at least right up until my friend Jessica lost her engagement ring in the GIANT CORN PIT. Her yellow gold engagement ring. (Spoiler alert: they found it!) But even sifting through a literally ton of corn kernels couldn’t ruin the rest of it.

Here’s the rest of it:

I totally forgot to get a steppin’ out picture until AFTER I’d been rolling around in the corn for an hour, so I am FILTHY with corn starch.

On Caroline: Head to toe hand-me-downs
Pumpkin hat seen in other photos hand-knit by me
(Although it’s really too small already. I’m making her another one & need to find someone with a small-headed baby for this one. Or at least a slightly younger baby. Do YOU have a 4 or 5 month old who needs a hat?)

On Me:
Fake fake Uggs – Walmart, at least 2 years ago and damn do I love them
Jeans – Old Navy
Shirt – Target
Hoodie – Target (half of a very sexy sweat suit set)
Necklace – Lisa Leonard swag from The Creative Connection last year

p.s. Every time I start to feel really good about the quality of my photos I end up lost in a Pinterest wormhole of truly gorgeous and professional pictures and realize I know NOTHING about photography. All the fancy lenses in the world aren’t going to make me a better photographer until I sit down and actually LEARN THE BASICS that my brain seems so reluctant to absorb. Plus even if I DID learn all the things, there’s a level of natural talent involved that I just don’t think I have.  My only consolation is that on a night like this one I was having too much fun participating to stop and set up every shot I wanted to capture. I’m just a MWAC (mom with a camera), and I’m mostly OK with that.

p.p.s. It also helps that E has finally gotten on board with playing assistant photographer, which is why I’m actually IN half of these shots. If only he understood how to take a more flattering photo of my double chin I’d be golden.