Leaves and Pumpkins

Oh boy, the leaves just keep a fallin'.  Seriously, there have been days where I've gone out and raked and then an hour later you can't even tell, aside from the piles of leaves of course.   Isaac sure likes helping though.  Especially if Jacob pulls out the leaf blower.


Isaac's favorite tool for leaf clean up is the ever useful snow shovel.

 

Look out!  This cute bear is coming at you with his claws out.  Better run.  He is scary.

I love the following picture of Jacob.  Just sayin.

We all were out in our coats but Jacob and I quickly shed our layers as the sun was out making the cooler weather seem a little less cool.  Isaac mostly stayed bundled though.  I kept asking if he was too hot but I mostly think he didn't want to have to stop playing to get rid of his coat.

One of my fall highlights is the trip to the pumpkin patch.  I think the kids like it too.

I'm sad because somehow I lost a bunch of photos of the trip but here's what I do have.

We stopped to look at some animals.  This pumpkin patch is awesome because it is a working farm where you can go out into the field and pick your own pumpkin off the vine.  They have chickens, a pig, goats, sheep, and other fun animals around.  Isaac and Ben loved the pig.

And who doesn't love a put-your-head-through-a-hole shot?  I absolutely love that Isaac stuck his whole head through.  The moment before this photo he was managing to get himself stuck in the hole by putting his arms in with his head.  Awesome!

 

Love these cuties!  Such big boys.  Can't believe how old they look in these pictures.

 

Can you tell how much Ben liked the wonder horse?  He is pretty pleased with himself.  I can't get enough of his wide open-mouthed smile.  He makes this face a lot when he is proud of an accomplishment so every time he walks for more than just a few steps it's with his mouth wide open.

Pilot Isaac steering the plane.  If I had extra money floating around I'd buy one of these for the backyard.  They are a fun toy.

While Isaac played at the playground Ben got some quality time with his parents.

 

 

 

 

And then it was on to the actual pumpkins.

I don't think Ben is too sure about sitting in the ground with a bunch of dirty pumpkins.  That's a pretty tentative look on his face.  But he seemed to do a little better when Isaac joined him.

 

Also, what is that awesome face Isaac's making?  Taking pictures of him these days is almost impossible.

And off to pick our own pumpkin from the fields.  We must have been really late this year because pickings were slim.  But I think we managed to find a keeper.

 

I describe this picture as "holding a pumpkin, almost dropping a child."  Jacob describes it as "Isaac's saying he has to go potty and you throw Ben at me and stop to take a picture.  Seriously?"  As I mentioned, we were pretty far out in the field and I was going to let Isaac take care of business in the stalks of corn or something but Jacob didn't like that idea.  We have been having some problems with Isaac thinking he can pull down his pants wherever and do the deed so I can see how rushing to the porta-potty was probably wiser.  But it was a trek.  And Isaac wanted to be carried.  So he and I rushed back near the parking lot.  Isaac was wearing his crocs (I tried to get him to wear tennis shoes but gave up the fight) and discovered he didn't like tromping through the weeds and dried plants hunting for pumpkins or for a place to take care of pottying needs.  So just as we were approaching the parking lot where things were clearer he said "I can go here" and started to try and pull his pants down.  I told him no way!  We had just walked all that way to get to the actual potty and now that we were feet away he was going to go IN the potty!

Meanwhile, Ben rode in the wagon with the pumpkin.  He tends to stand and crawl around so I'm sure this was a fun walk back to the cash registers for Jacob too.

Good times!

 

But we did bring home a gem of a pumpkin!  Now we just have to carve it up.

First Snow

I once heard of a family that had a "first snow of the year" tradition and I liked the idea.  I've been looking for something that we can do and I think I may have hit upon it.  Jacob bought me this rosette iron a long time ago and it looks like a snowflake.  I've never had rosettes before and they are fun.  Basically a fried batter in whatever shape your iron is.  We sprinkled on some powdered sugar too.


The kid in the hood is Isaac.  :)  

Anytime I put him in something with a hood he insists on actually wearing the hood.  After a visit from John (or was it Diana?) he went around calling himself "hoodman" for a while.  And I would laugh every time.   I digress.

 

And while we fried and sugared, Ben explored in bookshelf cupboards that are usually off limits.

Aren't they pretty?  Too bad they weren't that tasty.  Fun though!

I put Ben in real shoes for the first time and I'm pretty sure he didn't know what to do with them.  He's not steady on his feet and certainly not in those shoes.  I was hoping he could stand in the snow, but not dice.  He landed on his rear pretty quickly.  And was mostly happy for a bit and then was wet and cold, I'm sure, and ready to go inside.

I love a baby all bundled up in the snow though!  Adorable.  

I also love a toddler/pre-schooler playing in the snow too.  I let Isaac stay out and play while Ben and I went in.  He had so much fun.

He shoveled snow.  Not sure he understand the point of shoveling, but he had fun moving the snow off the grass.

Then he discovered eating snow. 

I love the above picture.  The tromping through the snow is awesome!  I really love the first snow of the year.  I also love that it was mostly melted by the afternoon.  Just enough time to bundle up and snap some cute pictures and not have to shovel or drive in snow.  Perfect.

I also super love this hat and glove set that my mother-in-law sent.  It's one of her older patterns but it is so cute.  The hat is a bear with eyes and mouth and the cute ears and the mittens have claws on them.  Check it out, great pattern.

Great first snow day!

Why Do I Even Bother

I managed to finally mop and apply a shine finish coat on my wood floors.  I hate mopping and have never put a nice finish on them since we've lived in the home.  It needed to be done.  And the floors look good.

But then an hour later this is what was happening.

 

The "playdough" is in fact gold fish crackers, or crumbs as the case may be.

 

Ben and Isaac were covered in the crushed up goodness.  It was everywhere.

Why do I bother cleaning at all?  I guess it did sweep up pretty easily and the boys were content enough in the making of the crumbs I was able to get the dishes done without little helpers.  So, I guess there is always a silver lining.

Fall Colors

Oh Fall, how I love thee.

I was so excited when we woke up the other morning to enough leaves on the ground to make a nice sized pile.  Isaac was excited too.  Ben didn't know any better and then when he did know better the excitement wore off quickly.  Do all babies hate leaf piles or just mine?  I'm reminded of this gem from when Isaac was near Ben's age.


Things started out well.  Ben was happy playing with Isaac.

 

There was even a little laughter.

 

And then the melt down began.

Mostly, Ben got angry, screamed and cried a little, and then just moved out of the way.

And he crawled out of the pile EVERY time I tried to put him back in.  Oh well.  It was still fun.

 

And Isaac had a ball.  He wanted to stay out and rake all day long.  But, it's the front yard on a slightly busy street and I didn't want to stay out all day long.  Too bad for Isaac.

 

 

He wouldn't look at me at all and would rotate when I tried to move to get his face.  Silly boy.  He did have so much fun jumping and throwing leaves.  I don't blame him.  I love it too.

Yes, he is tyring to eat a leaf.  I thought he would grow out of eating foreign objects but Jacob and I are still constantly telling him to get things out of his mouth.  Frustrating.

Know what else was frustrating?  Trying to get a self portrait with the boys in it too.  Notice no Isaac.  Yeah, it didn't happen.  But I feel like I've not been in pictures with my boys lately and I would like to be.  Jacob and I are going to try and get some 3 year photos of Isaac soon so we'll see if I can get into some photos then.

I love this tree.  I also really love it when a good chunk of those leaves blow off my lawn.  Is that horrible, not so neighborly of me to say?

I also love it when these kiddos play well together.  They were playing with stickers.  I did have to keep pulling them out of Ben's mouth though.

And just look who is starting to walk.  I know it's blurry but he is not very steady on his feet.  He is getting pretty good and pretty brave.  He'll take 7 or so steps every time he is stood on his feet.  And, he's starting to let go of things and take a few steps on his own.  I've tried getting video of it several times but it is hard.  I think I may have gotten a good one today.  I'll see if I can post it later.

And here's a random picture of our dining room.  I couldn't quite capture how cool it looked with the big beautiful tree through the windows and the spooky Halloween decorations on the wall.  It was pretty.  And I love the bats.  I can't believe I've never done them before.  I've seen them all over the Internet for several years.

Happy Fall!