…are you really that desperate for snow?
PJs and tennishoes, taken this past Saturday after yet another snowfall.

The kids were supposed to have Christmas performances & parties today but instead we woke up to a snow day!

Harper is much happier about the snow than she has been in the past. (Her hat must have fallen off in all the joyful jumping…)

Cole & Mark had a snowball fight…

…and Harper built a snowman whose name, coincidentally, is also Harper.

Typically our snow is short-lived but it’s still. snowing. outside. This rarely happens, so I guess we’ll just enjoy it while it lasts!

The kids had a day off from school last week so they decided they’d like to visit the Biltmore Estate. Though the main reason we went was to see some fall color we happened to visit on a day when preparations for Christmas at Biltmore were in full swing. (They’re stringing lights on the tree here.)

Once we entered the house we were delighted to discover decorated Christmas trees already up and glowing in each room (except for the banquet hall tree, which goes up this week.)

Here’s the Fall we were looking for! After driving through the walled gardens we noticed these beautiful trees near the pond.

Be still my heart…the colors + light were irresistible.

Finally, a parting shot from the river.

A polka-dot mermaid and Wolverine…

…and a little giraffe stopped by, too.

Cole’s first grade class took a field trip to Stepp Farms to visit the orchard this past week and Harper and I volunteered to accompany them.

A little pumpkin love…

We had a great time with Cole’s class, picking apples, wandering through a corn maze and soybean walk, and taking a wagon ride through the orchard.

After the field trip was over we stayed behind to pick out some pumpkins. One nice thing about waiting until the last minute to get pumpkins is that they were 2-for-1!

At the patch…

So many choices! They also had several pre-picked pumpkins (should you not want to trek to the patch) but the kids wanted to choose their own.

Cole decided he might need a little help pulling the wagon on the way back.

And finally, the finished products. Harper’s is on the left, and Cole’s is on the right (he carved most of it himself this year.) Now we’re officially ready for Halloween…

My brother (Uncle Mark to the kids) was here this past weekend, and we thought it’d be a great idea to show him the beautiful Fall leaves. We headed to Max Patch, which looks absolutely gorgeous on the website. For 5.5 miles we drove through these beautiful yellow leaves that loomed over the winding, bumpy road. But as we got closer to the summit things started looking a little…

cold. foggy. muddy. slushy.

…and downright snowy, in fact! We decided that Uncle Mark brought the snow with him from Minnesota and we’d like him to take it home with him too, please. Harper said, “This is NOT the way I like it.”

These are NOT the colored leaves I had in mind.

This is NOT the vista I envisioned.

The drive back down the mountain was just as beautiful as the approach, and we definitely still had fun…even though we got lost a little and ended up eating at a tiny cafe somewhere between Waynesville and Hot Springs and possibly interrupted someone else’s family reunion.

Ah, memories. Finally, finally we found the right roads, and returned home to celebrate Uncle Mark’s upcoming birthday. All the while making plans to return to max patch, though specifically on a warmer, sunnier day.