Halloween...

We started off our Halloween weekend with some yummy rice crispy treats.  Ava had never had one, but I think she enjoyed them.



 this is her "seriously Mom...you have to take pictures?" face

 cutting out the shapes

 Ava's pumpkin

After naptime we decided to carve our pumpkins... we needed to be able to light them up on Sunday.

 she kept licking the lid... silly kid

 I tried to get Ava to help me pull out the seeds, but Ava only said "yucky goop!"

 Our pumpkins... (Na's needed cosmetic surgery!)

 all lit up

On Sunday evening our friends Ben, Carrianne, and Bella came over to go trick or treating with us.  The girls loved being pulled in the wagon.  We had to force them to walk at times, they wanted to ride even when there was candy at 2 houses in a row... and we live in a townhouse development, so the houses are attached!

 Joshua was there too... and he did have fun dispite his face. 

 must...hold...Daddy's... hand!

 after a while the wagon was so loaded down with candy it was getting quite heavy.  Ben stepped in to help.

 after a good night of trick or treating the girls relaxed with their candy on the couch

Happy Halloween

Yeck's Farm...

hmmm...new blogger format that I must get used to, which means the pictures I uploaded are backwards.  

Last weekend the weather was beautiful, a little on the warm side for Fall, but beautiful.  We took the opportunity to head over to Yeck's Farm for an hour and let Ava pick out a couple of pumpkins.  We were going to go down to Soergel's but our neighbor Dan suggested Ava might be better off at Yeck's... and it's not as expensive.  We'll get to experience the adventure that is Soergel's someday.

Yeck's Farm is a fully functioning dairy farm, about 10 minutes from here.  If there was a straight road from our house to there, it probably wouldn't even take you that long, but you have to travel the back country roads, (ahhh...Country Roads, Take me Home!)  We arrived around 11, which was a good time, the bigger crowds starting showing up closer to 12 when the hayrides start.  We figured Ava was still a bit young for that since it was a good 30 minute ride, even though it would be fun.  Again, someday. 

From the moment we pulled into the parking lot, we knew we had made the right decision.  Nathan isn't one for people traffic, so this not only suited Ava, but also her Daddy.  There was a pumpkin field, a barn where you could purchase crafts, decorative pumpkins and gourds, fresh apple cider, and an array of halloween/fall crafts; a corn field maze, a grain house, a trackor, and even shelters where people could host birthday parties or other events.  It was quite quaint. 

Instantly Ava started shouting "punkin' punkin'" when we got out of the car so we headed that direction first.  We got a wagon and headed out on the search.  Ava wanted the biggest pumpkins, but found that she could pick up the smaller ones, and that tickled her to death.  With Nathan's help, Ava picked a pumpkin for herself, one for Mommy, and one for Daddy.  We grabbed one smaller pumpking for Ava to play with and paid for our pumpkins, then loaded them in the car.  After that we headed out to explore the rest of the farm. 

Although Ava liked everything, her favorite thing was the tractor.  It was loads of fun until we noticed all the teeny tiny spiders ALL OVER IT!!!!  We pulled her off kicking and screaming, with all the other parents giving us 'that' look, but she had been on there for quite some time, and we didn't want to be picking spiders off of her... or taking any home with us.

We had a fun time at Yeck's and will probably head back there next year.  We might even go out there for Christmas.  They have fresh cut trees and crafts to purchase and you can also see Santa on the weekends.  Sounds a lot better than driving 30 minutes to the mall to wait in a huge line.  We hope you enjoy the pictures we took.

 driving the tractor

 I see you Daddy

 I see you Momma

 Ava tried her hardest to sit on the little stool,

but the ground was so uneven she kept falling off.

 walking the maze

 going to pay for our pumpkins

 which one to get?

 posed picture gone wrong... she was sitting on the ground.

 these Daddy!

 checking out a few farm animals

 thats was one funny looking chicken

 cheese!



Adventures...

Here are some pictures from our recent adventures.

Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere

Ava loved all the pumpkins... especially the BIG ones!

Happy Fall

sidenote: we forgot our stroller, this one was a lifesaver, although hard as all to steer, and a bit girly for our taste!

Ava got the chance to ride one her first kiddie rides at Kid Country. Despite the lack of smiling in these pictures she had a blast, and was a giggling smiling mess. Her favorite rides were the airplanes and swings.

Flying High

there's a smile

she loved the swings

the "Santa" look-a-like in the background was such a friendly gentleman. He kept trying to get Ava to smile for me by trying to grab Lambie from her... he succeeded once, and she knew instantly.

she had the pirate ship all to herself!

I think this was Ava's least favorite, but she wanted to try it.


mini ferris wheel

turn-a-bout

Mama and her girl

We even got the opportunity to hang out in the pool a little... can you tell she loves the water?

cheese!

"I'm foating, I'm foating!"

Ava loved having more freedom swimming around by herself

the arm floaty waddle before jumping in.

When Daddy is away...

the GIRLS WILL PLAY!

And what better way to play, than to get messy?

I love to bake. I hope I can pass that love on to Ava as well. So, for some time now I've been wanting to bake cookies with her, I even bought a bunch of cookie cutters. Yes, I knew it would be messy, she's 2. But I also knew she'd love it. So Friday afternoon after Ava's nap we got everything ready and had ourselves a little bit of fun and a lot of messy.

just up from her nap, but dressed and ready to go

wearing Daddy's grillin' apron, too cute!

sugar cookie dough rolled out, cookies cutters at work.

Ava chose the airplane for Joshua.

After the baking and cooling we got to icing. Ava wasn't nearly as fond of this stage until she realized what the icing was. I ended up icing the cookies while she licked the icing off her knife.
ooo, sprinkles

LOTS of sprinkles! Oops.

she needed to try the sprinkles to make sure they tasted good.

showing off her masterpiece

Finally sitting down to taste the goods.

They must be good.

We took Joshua's cookies over to him afterwards, in hopes it would make him feel better. He and his entire family, minus his Mommy, are sick. Yuck! But an airplane cookie should help for sure.

Our first baking experience was lots of fun. We'll definitely have to try this again... shoot we have 101 cookies cutters to experiment with!

videos...

Our chatter box has taken off again, and it's too funny. The other night at dinner Ava was raving about how she liked the pulled pork we were having, so we had to capture it on video. It's a bit choppy, but you can still understand her. (camera may not get fixed.... boo!)