The Leaves

The girls and I walked to school to pick up Rooke with the intent of staying and playing in the leaves on the village green for a while.  It was a fun way to enjoy the Fall days we've been having!

Pumpkin Day

We started last Saturday with our annual family trip to a farm to pick out some pumpkins!  The farm dog tagged along with us. 

The pumpkin patch was pretty much a giant mud pit, so I ended up being the designated pumpkin-finder since Gretchen and I were the only ones wearing wellies and she didn't want to get hers dirty.  I don't blame her.  They're super cute.  (We have since purchased wellies for Rooke that actually fit him so he doesn't miss out on any more messy fun!) 

In our family, we like to paint our pumpkins.  At least for now.  I trust my children more with a paintbrush than with a knife!  While the pumpkins were being painted, pumpkin spice muffins were being baked and a sweet husband was making an eggnog latte for his tired wife.

And after all the farming and baking and painting, some serious bath playing was in order!

It was a great Fall day of family fun!

New Sounds

She's discovered how to make a new sound yesterday and was doing it all day long!

Our Library Bag

Many of these titles are ones that friends have suggested.  Keep the recommendations coming!

Badger's New House by Robin Muller

The World Champion of Staying Awake by Sean Taylor

Finklehopper Frog by Irene Livingston

Galimoto by Karen Lynn Williams

A Mango in the Hand by Antonio Sacre

Mitchell's License by Hallie Durand

The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary

We started with this one and Rooke enjoyed it so much, we've since read all three in the little series!

Zoomer by Ned Young

Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey

This is a CD that is so much fun!  The kids and I have had many a dance party with these creative and silly songs.  Our favorites are We Are the Dinosaurs, I'm Gonna Catch You and Victor Vito.

Seven Months

Our baby girl is seven months old today!  She loves trying out all sorts of new foods in this mesh chewing thingy.  Frozen mango is her favorite so far!  I'm also back in the never-leave-home-without-cheerios phase.

My mom's friend loaned us this donut.  I'd never seen one before, but it's been perfect for this age - especially when we're playing outside.  Bridgette loves to chew toys while watching, (yay for her bottom two teeth finally popping through!) and will happily hang out for about thirty minutes while the kids and I burn off some energy on the trampoline.

Beautiful Bridgette

From September with Ryan Gone

Ryan had two training courses to complete and traveled back to the states to take them.  Three weeks and two days without Daddy around is simply not very much fun (and extremely tiring!).  But he comes home tomorrow - hooray!  Rooke was convinced that the faster he went to sleep tonight, the faster Ryan's plane would fly.  It was his own logic and I chose not to argue!

Here's a peak through my phone at some of our days from September. . .   

She was up and dressed at 6am thanks to a leaky diaper.  Good thing she's so cute!

Hot chocolate treat on a rainy day at our local garden center cafe

I think they had more fun testing out these skate park ramps than they did on the playground toys!

My morning make-up routine typically lasts all of about two minutes.  On this particular morning, Gretchen joined me and, thanks to lots of laughing and curiosity, it took much longer!

Ryan usually walks to the corner store on Sunday morning to get us breakfast baked goods.  The kids and I went for an early morning walk to get our own while he was away.  

Gretchen's first stick-people drawing of our family.  We're learning to live without arms.

A shot at the back of Bridgette's party mullet from her six-month appointment.  I almost have the nerve worked up to give her her first hair cut!

A typical breakfast  

Our morning walk to school

A beautiful reminder of God's promises