the Paladinos

I won’t even mention how long its been since my last blog post.    This week Gabby was assigned an Arkansas diorama project.  She decided to go with one of our local battlefields and we settled on Prairie Grove.  It’s beautiful and one of the most intact Civil War battlefields in the nation.  You can do some walk through and some drive through with a narrative cd.  The grounds are so beautiful and well maintained.  We need to plan on going back in the fall when the apple orchard is open (which is original to the site) and you can pick apples.   

After our tour we made a stop at The Briar Rose in Farmington.  It was the cutest bakery/café with a Sleeping Beauty theme.  Wood fire pizzas, sandwiches, espresso and amazing baked goodies.  That’s my kinda place!! 

The ridge where most of the battle was fought. 


The house in the background is right behind the ridge with the apple orchard right behind it.  Both are original to the site.





Looking for a geo cache that we never found.




My loves!

Briar Rose in Farmington

Complete with working mini cottage door.

The kids are currently out on their 2 week Fall break for our year round school.  To me this is the biggest perk of year round school.  It’s my favorite month of the year with beautiful weather, changing  trees and fall clothes (aka no more shorts weather!!).  And a great time of year to take a vacation.  I’ve been telling Michael that we need to go somewhere during the fall break for about a year.  BUT I hate planning vacations.  I don’t know why but I put it off as long as possible.  Which this year was literally the week before we left.  We knew we wanted to go somewhere outdoorsy where we could enjoy the fall foliage and see some out of the norm wildlife.  So I asked some girlfriends for recommendations and one suggested Gatlinburg.  So off we went! 

It’s a 12 hour drive which we broke up into 2 days.  By far the longest road trip we’ve ever taken.  We went the scenic route which again was decided the night before with little research or thought.  It ended up working out perfectly though.  We stopped when we wanted to or needed to and just took our time. 

When we crossed the TN border we saw a sign for Patti’s 1880’s Settlement and thought we would pull off and check it out.  It ended up being the cutest/oddest little village and we stayed for a few hours.  They had antique stores, a boutique, mini zoo, a few other shops and an amazing restaurant with huge meringue pies.  One of my favorite desserts!!  It was a great start to our vacation!

A little harbor across the street.

Mmmm!

Elsa from Frozen and Peter the construction worker (complete with a MOM tat!)


And this year we added a third trick or treater with construction worker Daddy!   Thanks Papa Mike for letting us borrow the gear.