october 31.

holidays are so much more fun with avery around.  halloween was actually pretty cool this year because she really understood pieces of the holiday.  trick or treating didn't go all that well.  she didn't get the concept of saying trick or treat and she can be a little shy around strangers so she wasn't all that into actually going from house to house.  BUT she loved her costume and she loved getting henry dressed in his and she did pretty well handing candy out to people who knocked on our door.  

we started off the day in some halloween pi's.  with our usual coloring, sticking, and taping of pictures all over the wall.  charlie and i both worked and avery refused to nap for a second that day.  anyone who works from home knows how crucial that nap time is and just how hard it is when your kid decides to throw all of her stuffed animals out of the crib and scream at the top of her lungs instead of napping.

luckily she's been in a pretty awesome phase of playing by herself for long periods of time, which has really helped get some work done lately.  of course if i'm on the phone all bets are off.  anyway, after work i decided to take her and henry for a walk.  dunkin hurt his leg somehow and has been limping pretty badly so he's been missing out on his usual walks and ball playing.

it was really windy and avery fell asleep in about 3 minutes.  after we got back and avery finally woke up, we got ready for some trick or treaters and i forced henry into his costume that i make him wear every year.  spending $10 on a costume isn't such a terrible idea if he can wear it every year, right?  avery was so excited to get into her costume and i forced the two of them back outside to take more pictures.

don't mind the dying pumpkin and mums.  the pumpkin was carved 2 weeks ago and i never watered the mums.

avery really loved her costume and i was just happy to find something that was warm and still cute.  avery's really into animals right now so the leopard costume was pretty fitting and it was 40% off at old navy.  i was a little disappointed at just how skimpy some of these costumes for kids her age are already.  i figured we had at least 10 years before we had to fight that battle but i was not about to dress my one year old up as a sexy lady bug.

and just because i can, here was avery (and henry the squirrel again) last year on halloween.

weekend happenings ...

we had another pretty good weekend that seemed to just fly by.  how is it that tuesday and wednesday can take forever to go by but somehow saturday and sunday go by and it seems like it was just friday night?  we spent the weekend having a little fall fun and getting a few things done around the house.  sadly, i have no proof that we actually accomplished things around the house but i assure you we did. 

on friday night we took avery to a halloween party at the place where she takes 'gymnastics'.  i was thinking that she was going to boycott the costume but apparently she decided that she's the cutest thing ever when she wears it and has been asking to wear it almost every day.  of course as soon as she has it on she keeps saying "it's so cute" and "mommy, so cute", which means that she wants me to reassure her that yes, she does in fact look adorable.  so anyway, she happily put on her costume on friday night and we headed to gymnastics.  they had a few activities set up for them to do like fishing for candy, some obstacle courses, making bags for their candy, and then a few snacks.  she only napped for 20 minutes that day and i thought that she would pass out in the car but she surprised me by staying awake the entire time.

quite impressed with her cuteness. 

showing henry who's boss.

a little apprehensive about walking under the giant cat.

making her treat bag.

a cupcake.

AND a lollipop, which was her favorite.

on saturday charlie took avery to gymnastics, the car wash (which she's been begging to go to for a while), and grocery shopping and i headed to ikea.  i'm usually never alone and it felt a little weird to be spending a few hours without avery.  i have to say it was pretty nice to enjoy a 45 minute drive without listening to applause even once.  i got to listen to country music the entire way without anyone complaining.  i got a few random things there and avery's birthday/christmas present which was the main reason for the trip.  i figured with a baby on the way soon it was better to get the present now then worry about it with a newborn.  avery and i took henry for a walk and then we met charlie at the playground so avery could show off her climbing skills.  some other people showed up to play while we were there and they had a dog that avery wanted to pet.  after she pet the dog she pointed to his penis and said 'penis' and then charlie wanted to die.  all i can say is that we have four male animals at home and she's interested in body parts.  we did some more cleaning and random things around the house on saturday and finished by hanging even more shelves that night.  the good news is that i've officially put all of the tools away for now so i think that we're done hanging things for a bit.

some rock climbing.

sunday we did some more stuff around the house and then went to a birthday party later that afternoon.  it was at another gym and avery had a ton of fun playing on everything, except for the foam pit.  that she did not like.  we came home, watched the rest of the broncos game, saw a killer sunset, and read books before bed.

the foam pit.  not a fan.

lately she's been insisting on reading books on our bed.  i think this is 'hot fudge', which has gotten a lot of attention in the past few months.  

  

continuing our halloween tradition.

so every year since charlie and i have been dating we've always carved pumpkins and made riceballs for halloween.  we haven't always done it on the actual holiday and we have missed two years in the last nine.  i think the second year we were together we didn't continue the tradition and we missed last year because we were back in maryland for the two weekends before halloween visiting family and friends.  i was looking back on some pictures from that trip the other day and it really made me miss the east coast falls.  so pretty.  

anyway, we knew we definitely wanted to keep up the tradition this year since avery was old enough to get the whole carving a pumpkin idea and because she's really into pumpkins.  we actually have a ridiculous amount of pumpkins sitting on our porch currently.  i think the count for 'big' pumpkins is up to six as charlie didn't want to carve any of our pumpkins that we got from the pumpkin patch.  we actually picked up two more from whole foods, which shockingly had the lowest price for pumpkins that i've seen.  

avery was totally into the idea of carving them and helped me pick out the seeds and put them into a bowl for roasting.  we carved two pumpkins and avery and i did most of the cleaning out of the seeds work since charlie was making the riceballs.

once i showed her what to do she was all about it and helped for a really long time.  after cleaning out the pumpkins she took a break for a bit to play with dunkin.  she is really into him these days and it's so cute to see her hang out with him like he's her buddy.  i think he secretly likes her, too, especially because she's always trying to go outside and play ball with him. 

she likes to grab his nose and say 'honk, honk'.  he doesn't love this.

meanwhile, charlie was cooking the riceballs.  we probably should have gotten her more involved in this process as she really does like to cook and bake, but it's just so messy and there are so many uncooked ingredients like meat and eggs that i think it would be harder to have her 'help' at this point.  maybe next year.
  

and avery got bored again and went outside to play with dunkin.  or actually she went outside and then insisted that he come and play with her.  we had gorgeous weather on saturday.  it was in the mid 60s and it was so nice to have a few windows open while we were hanging out.

looking for his ball.

she settled for throwing a flower. 

tackle. 

we finally finished carving our pumpkins and cooking the riceballs.  i always forget how long this process takes!  the riceballs were delicious as always and avery loved having the candles in the pumpkins.  we put them back outside and hopefully they won't get destroyed by any animals before halloween so we can light them again. 

charlie's is the cat that he did for avery and mine is the face.  i should have made it a nose but i ran out of carving motivation and thought it still worked this way.  i've loved the fact that we've been able to do something fun and fall-like each weekend in october.  it's such an awesome time of year when there's fun things to do, the weather is perfect, and there's not the pressure of the holidays to decorate the house or bake fancy meals or buy a bunch of presents.  i really do love the holidays but sometimes i love the low-key ones more because there's not a lot of pressure to do anything special so anything that you end up doing is a lot of fun.  we've got one more weekend in october to enjoy and i think we're taking avery to a halloween party where she does gymnastics.  i did buy her a costume although she's been pretty adamant about not wearing it so we'll see if she actually dresses up for it.      

weekend goodness ...

mmm... i love the weekends even when it seems like nothing epic happens or as charlie says 'i feel like i'm living the same story over and over again'.  basically he means that cleaning and laundry get old.  i agree but i also love that feeling at the end of the weekend when everything is 'done'.  charlie took avery to gymnastics on saturday like usual but then they went straight to the grocery store and shopped for the week.  since that's usually my task i can assure you that was greatly appreciated.  i got all of my cleaning done on saturday morning when they were gone and then we spent the rest of the day hanging out with avery and enjoying that sweet naptime that i never used to get.  

henry helped us and then we forgot that he was outside with us.  good thing there weren't any good rabbits for him to chase.

charlie got her when she woke up from her nap and they headed outside to put up some halloween decorations.  nothing crazy but we're actually acknowledging halloween this year.  i'm really more of a fall versus halloween decoration fan but if charlie had his way he would deck the house out for halloween.  i'm not really into the whole scary theme so we picked a few tame options.  i think if it were up to him we'd have a fog machine and dangling corpses all over the house. 

later in the afternoon we headed over to anderson farm for some fall fun.  i wasn't expecting much but we were meeting some friends there and i figured at the very least they would have a few animals that would entertain avery.  but the place was awesome!  it was sorta expensive to get in at $12 an adult (avery was free) but it was all decked out.  they had a bunch of chickens, birds, and roosters which avery was pretty impressed with.  she spent a lot of time talking to that rooster.  they also had goats which she really likes.  there were a bunch of corn mazes, although we only did the really short one for kids.  there was also barrel train rides, hayrides, a kids play area, pumpkin launching, and of course pumpkin picking.  we didn't end up picking anything since we had already gone last weekend but avery really liked the play area even though i thought a few of the bigger kids were being really obnoxious.  she also really liked the barrel train that she rode with charlie and the other small hayride.  basically she had a lot of fun and we'll definitely be coming back next year.

sunday started off with pancakes.  mmmm.



she likes for us to dip her pancakes in syrup and occasionally mixed up syrup with salsa.  so we get the request of "mommy, dip in salsa".



this is her latest trick that charlie taught her called "big smile"

we spent sunday hanging around the house and getting a few things done.  we watched the broncos game in the afternoon and then avery and i walked to the playground while charlie cooked dinner (two meals in one day!  i could get used to that).  and avery refused to eat dinner until charlie suggested putting ketchup on it and then she cleaned her plate off.

she climbed up here on her own and then said "mommy, look at me!".  i know she's my kid but i cannot get over how adorable she is some times.  apparently gymnastics is paying off since she's a little more willing to climb all over things without my help these days.  

i love weekends with my crew and i'm especially loving this time of year.  all the leaves are changing, avery's wearing footed pajamas, and it's the perfect weather to get outside without coats and hats.  i think next weekend we have plans to carve pumpkins and make rice balls.    

i guess it's officially fall

maybe it's the extra quilt on the bed, or the flannel sheets that charlie asked for, or the snow that we woke up to on friday but i can't deny that it's fall any longer.  we had such a good summer this year and i have really been trying to enjoy this time of calm before we're a family of four.   but it's october, the leaves are  changing, avery's wearing footed pajamas, we've had our first official colds of the season, and the heat has kicked on a few times at night.  it's fall.  

fall definitely seems to be the most popular season.  it's still a close call for me between fall and summer. usually i'm in a hurry to get to that crisp fall weather when sweaters are comfortable but jackets aren't necessary, but this year i'm in no hurry for october and november to fly by. 

this weekend we went pumpkin picking.  we headed to rock creek farms, just like we did last year when avery was only 9 months old.  and we left with 4 huge pumpkins and a bunch of little ones to scatter around the house.  avery's really into pumpkins for some reason and i think she liked the experience.  she had a hard time walking through the fields because of all of the vines all over the place.  she walked for a bit and then asked to be carried the rest of the way, which meant that charlie did most of the pumpkin hunting, cutting, and carrying.  the farm charges a flat fee for all "pick your own pumpkins" which i think is code for "find the biggest pumpkins to get the most pumpkin for your money".

avery found this teeny, tiny green pumpkin and picked it herself and then insisted on carrying it around the pumpkin patch and putting it in the back of the car with the normal pumpkins we picked.  also, between the crazy rains last month and the snow the day before the field was super muddy, which made it even harder to treck through.

after pumpkin picking we headed over to see the farm animals.  i remembered there being more animals last year but they had ponies, a donkey, cows, sheep, pigs, and goats.  one of the cows was mooing the whole time and avery thought that was pretty cool, but mostly she was into the donkey.  we spent a long time just watching the donkey.  

charlie was having a lot of fun playing around with the new filters on the iphone.

and then we finally tore avery away from the animals with the promise of little pumpkins and headed home.  we have plans to resume our normal halloween tradition of carving pumpkins and making rice balls this year, although we have yet to pick a night.  last year we were back in maryland the week before halloween and i ended up running out to target on halloween for a costume for avery and halloween candy to hand out to neighbors.  we didn't get a bunch of trick-or-treaters last year.  i'm guessing this is partially because we don't live on a through street and people tend to skip our little street. this year we've talked about taking avery to a house or two just to see what it's all about.  but we're definitely going to be carving pumpkins.  i think she'll get into it and she loved the riceballs the last time charlie made them.  so pumpkin picking was a success and i'm slowly getting accustomed to the idea that fall is actually here.