Fall Fun

So far this fall, we've tried to stay outside as much as possible which is pretty easy since Lilly loves to be outside. She gets very mad when we have to go in (even today when it was 50 degrees and I was freezing, I still had to bribe her with goldfish to come inside). Other things we're doing or have done include visiting my sister, brother in law, and nephew, Samuel for Samuel's 2nd birthday party (we forgot our camera, but there are some great pictures on Sara's blog) and re-doing our basement to make it into more of a play area. Once it's completely done, we'll post pictures. Here are some other fall pictures we've taken:

football hall of fame:

"hmmm, can I eat this leaf?"





"I'm not trying to strangle myself,
my eyes are just lower than everyone elses"


"I'm so cute, how can mommy tell me NO when I throw all my
food on the floor at every single meal?"

pumpkin art

Lilly and I decided to decorate our pumpkins this week (well, I decided, she just went along with it). Instead of carving pumpkins (Lilly and a knife--probably not a good idea) or painting the pumpkins (Lilly and paint--also not a good idea seeing as she loves to stick everything in her mouth), we glued tissue paper on them. I did most of the glue work and tried to encourage Lilly to stick the tissue paper on the pumpkin. She was more interested in taking the paper off. At least she didn't try to eat the glue (when we were ripping the paper up, she did try to eat that).

ripping up the paper:



decorating:





finished product:

Pumpkin Patch

Last weekend, we took Lilly to a pumpkin patch. The pumpkin patch also had a petting farm, cow train (I'm sure Lilly was hoping it would be a train pulled by a cow, but as you can see from the pictures, it is all fake), and a corn maze (we didn't try this one - Lilly would either have run off through the corn or tried to eat the corn stalks). Here are some pictures:

picking out the perfect pumpkin:

the cow train:

Lilly is a scarecrow:

sitting on a saddle:

Nature Girl

Lilly loves to be outside. Lately we have been walking up and down the driveway and along the sidewalk and Lilly will stop every time she sees something interesting on the ground (stick, leaf, bug) and pick it up (or try to in case of a live bug). Her hands were full and she was getting very frustrated because she couldn't pick up anything else, so I got a bag for her and she filled it with all her fabulous finds. Here are some pictures of the nature girl:

Looking at the flowers:


trying to pull the flowers off of their stems:


picking up the dirt:


Look what I found!

Random pictures

Lilly has been very active lately (aka bored with all her toys and things in our house). Here are some pictures from the last few days.


Walking with her hippo (she loves this toy):

Hanging out in the bean bag:

Resting after eating and eating her "yogurt popsicle":

In the laundry basket (she loves to sit in this and be pushed around the house):

Visit to MN

Lilly and I went to visit my brother (Tim), sister in law (Tanya) and their kids (Alex, Sophie, Mabel) for a few days this month. Pete was working in MN for 2 weeks, so he met us at their house for the weekend. It was so great to meet Mabel for the first time and hang out with everyone. Lilly had a lot of fun playing with all the girls' toys and climbing the stairs (her new skill). One of my favorite things about the weekend was discovering that Sophie's favorite song is "Ring of Fire" by Johnny Cash - she knows almost all of the words!

Alex and Sophie:


Timothy and Mabel:



Pete and the girls at Jesse James Days:

In and Out

Lilly recently discovered the concept of "in." Up until now she has taken everything OUT of drawers, boxes, baskets, etc. Tonight, I was cleaning up the kitchen while she amused herself and this is what I found when I looked in the tupperware/container drawer:



My shoe, her shoe, a dishtowel, a strainer, and a cell phone do not belong in this drawer. I frequently find things (mainly toys) in this drawer.