What a great start to the Fall season! The weather's been a bit unpredictable, but we've been enjoying the spurts of warm weather! We filled October with lots of our yearly traditions and ended it with a sweet Halloween!
Apple Picking at Water's Orchard
We visited a new orchard this year, Water's, which is right down the street from our usual spot at Butler's. Rows and rows of apple trees awaited us and the kids had a blast running through the trees and pointing to apples they wanted us to pick. We got a great variety of sweet delicious apples!! The weather was amazing that day, a bit on the warm side, but it made the tractor ride down to the orchard that much more enjoyable!
Mady had a little trouble walking over the uneven terrain at first, but got the hang of it pretty quickly! She's quite the walker... er, runner, now!
I loved watching Aiden walk along the apple trees.
Daddy and Aiden being goofy!
Family pic on the tractor ride to the orchard.
Pumpkin Picking!
We usually pick our pumpkins on the same day we visit the Pumpkin festival, but there was a day during the week where the weather was just so amazing I begged Daddy to take us when he got home from work. Of course how can he refuse the 3 of us!? It ended up being a great idea (of course since it was mine.. hehe) because the pumpkin patch was all OURS!! We were able to run amuck all over the field and have our pick!
Aiden had so much fun spotting all the pumpkins he wanted to get a closer look at.
It was so fun watching Mady at the patch. Last year she was only about 6 months old, so this was really her first time. She ooh'd and ahh'd a lot!! :)
Aiden is such a sweet big brother. There were lots of tripping hazards all around the field and Mady was pretty apprehensive about walking around. Aiden offered a helping hand... without me even asking him to! It's amazing how protective he's become of her lately. When Vic and I are scolding her or asking her not to do something, Aiden often comes to her rescue and tells us to stop. As they are getting older, they are starting to actually play together, which is so sweet to see... until they start fighting that is! :)
My beautiful baby girl.
Daddy with our haul!
I decided that this is going to be my annual picture of Mady... my must have shot. Mady LOVES being thrown up in the air and we have tons of pictures of Daddy doing just that. I love the look of pure delight on her face!
My two little Pumpkins!!
Pumpkin Festival at Butler's Orchard
October wouldn't be October without a visit to Butler's Orchard's annual Pumpkin Festival. We met up with Uncle Rez, Aunt Jen and Kai this year and we had a great time as usual!
Aiden at the water pump race track. I'm not sure why Aiden loves this so much, but we usually end up spending the majority of the time here!
Feeding the goats was an absolute HIT this year, especially with Mady. She had such a great time waving hello to them, patting them on the head and feeding them. I'm pretty sure the goats were pretty fond of her as well... she fed them at least 5 quarters worth of food!
Mady waving and saying "hi" to the goats.
Guess how many tries it took to get this picture? WAY too many!
Mady, Aiden and Kai
Back to the goats for a second round of feeding!
And of course another stop at the water track...
Happy Halloween!!
Aiden had been asking about trick-or-treating for weeks leading up to Halloween. For the entire month of September we kept asking him what he wanted to dress up as... and his answer was always "Spiderman"! When we went to the store for their costumes (sensory overload by the way), we showed Aiden pictures of all the things he could dress up as, with an emphasis on the Spiderman costumes. One look and Aiden said "I want to be a Policeman!". I was pretty excited about it since, in actuality, Aiden has never really seen Spiderman... I think his friends talk about it at school, which is where he got the idea from, and he loves policemen and firemen! I wanted to dress Mady up as a cow since I am always calling her "Mady-moo" and I feel like this is really the last year I'll be able to dress her up as something I want, but can you believe there was no cow costume? So we settled on Minnie Mouse... partly because she really loves her and partly because it was one of the only costumes we could find that came small enough for her. So a Policeman and Minnie Mouse is what we had!!
Pretty adorable, right?
Aiden is sneaking candy out of our stash... such an innocent smile... <3 p="">
Auntie Julliann and Auntie Elizabeth came over for trick-or-treating too!
I'm not quite sure what Mady is doing in this picture, but she's cute anyways.
I love giving out candy on Halloween (I don't want to be that house... you know?) , so I stayed back while Daddy took the kids out. He said that they had a great time going door to door for their treats. Good thing Mady is cute, Daddy said she helped herself quite a few times! Aiden's costume was a hit with our neighbors who said he was such a handsome policeman (well, of course he is!).
These two were my favorite little visitors!
The two of them came home with their buckets quite full... and their bellies were quite full of treats before bed that night (as were Daddy and Mommy's... I mean... kids have nut allergies... someone HAD to eat all those peanut candies)! Happy Halloween!
Aiden and Madelyn
Our two little ones are growing so fast and change day by day! I absolutely love watching them grow into amazing little people, but part of me is so sad they aren't babies anymore!
I can honestly say now that Aiden really is enjoying school. We'll probably increase his time spent there next year in preparation for... gulp... kindergarten! He'll be 4 before we know it... holy cow.. 4?! He has such a great imagination and there are times when I find myself watching him play and make believe. He's so creative! Sometimes he says the funniest things and I need to remember to start writing some of them down! He started a sports class on Sundays, which is a Daddy/Aiden thing, and we've found that he likes football... and does NOT like soccer. We're hoping this class will help bring him out of his shell a little bit. He's becoming more independent and more willing to try things on his own, but often needs some reassuring redirection when frustrated. He's loves bubbles, any form of transportation, fish, and cooking! He has a smile that will melt your heart.
Mady is such a little spark plug. At her 18 month appointment I was so happy to see that our little girl (emphasis on the little) finally made it onto the charts and landed in the 0.2 percentile for weight (and the 64th percentile for head circumference... thanks to her Daddy). The pediatrician was so impressed with her gross and fine motor development (please note the grip in the picture above- proud PT mom here). Mady has become quite the chatterbox and we're waiting for more teeth to sprout! She only has 4, but those chompers can chomp! She loves to color, dance and exercise her independence. She loves holding your hand and has officially made her pink blanket her lovey. She's always so cheerful in the morning, especially when you laugh at the fact that she has tossed all her stuffed animals out of her crib, and fights hard against nap time before passing out. Mady in two words is a sweetheart and very feisty! Her favorite words are "no" and "mo peeese" (as in more food please!). Her giggle is one of the best sounds in the world.
And we love them both to absolute bits.
November will be a busy month... weddings, birthdays and our much anticipated trip to Florida for Thanksgiving!! The holidays are upon us! Bring it on... we can't wait!!!
Little peek at our annual Fall Family photos...
