We just love fall. All the traditions and festivities that go along with it...heading out to the apple orchard...taking a tractor-trailer ride through the farm and woods...finding the perfect pumpkin in the big pumpkin patch...finding our way through a corn {or wheat} maze...Friday Night Lights, dressing up as our favorite animal, hero, or character for Halloween...spending time with friends and neighbors...baking pies {yummy apple pies} and finally wrapping up the season by giving thanks for all the gifts we've been given on Thanksgiving.
And, fall is definitely a time to connect as a family...and that's surely what we've been doing over the past month. Leo's first October with us has been nothing short of amazing. Really, the only thing that hasn't been "amazing" is our ability to capture some of the best moments on camera due to Leo's eagerness to be ON.THE.MOVE!! (and when we can, there's no doubt he's wearing a bib to catch all his drool) But, that's ok. I'm learning to take better and longer lasting mental pictures of our little dude and all his adventures and accomplishments.
Earlier in the month we headed to our favorite pumpkin patch...while there were many, many gorgeous days in October - we did not go on one of the best; it was chilly & windy. Brr! Regardless, we enjoyed the tractors, rides, petting zoo, the wheat maze and found FOUR perfect pumpkins.
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| farmer drew |
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| have yet to meet an animal leo doesn't like (he loved this goat) |
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| this was the only way i could get leo to sit still - look at that big foot! |
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| waiting for the tractor ride to start |
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| in the wheat maze looking for the golden nugget |
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| golden nugget: FOUND |
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| pulling the wagon |
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| drew - just as he slid his hand on the pumpkin stem getting pickers (which led to our immediate departure - oh the tears & crying!) |
This October we've also jumped on a bandwagon...the Royals football bandwagon! Our local high school football team is undefeated and we've gone to a few games to cheer them on. It's been fun to be a part of the community...and the enthusiasm is definitely contagious! GO ROYALS!
The Halloween weekend started off with a special delivery from Granny & Pop...an incredible package from Michigan filled with lots of fun goodies for both Drew and Leo. There were lots of fun books [Spiderman and more MagicTreeHouse for Drew and Duck & Goose and Corduroy for Leo (leo thinks Duck & Goose are hilarious and belly laughs anytime we read the book - that cracks me up!)], a cute Halloween bucket, candy (which Leo will carry around in his fist until it's nothing but a melted chocolate mess), and other fun stuff. Thanks Granny & Pop!!
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| leo eager to see what's inside |
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| a bucket of candy & a candy bar meeting it's fate in leo's right hand (& a pirate ship under the soaked bib) |
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| drew LOVES his 'jack & annie' books |
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| leo actually sitting in one spot & looking at a book! (ta-da! the soaked pirate ship shirt!) |
We spent the night before Halloween partying with the neighbors at their 70's themed Halloween party. Some of us lasted longer than others - Leo & I, sadly, made an early exit. And, sadly, no pictures were taken of me...despite my very cool dress.
There is one fall family tradition that stayed intact - leaving our pumpkins intact. Damon and I have gone to the pumpkin patch together every year we've been together...yet have never managed to carve our pumpkins. Who knows why...we always say we are going to...but never do. The one exception was last year, we actually carved two (drew painted his) - namely so we could cook up some spicy pumpkin seeds. Well, this year it was back to tradition...our pumpkins were spared from the knife. [though, i admit, we thought, about carving them...so much so that we actually brought them into the house halloween morning. in the end, only for leo to play around with]. I suppose we could still carve them, those pumpkin seeds were pretty tasty last year...
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| that ring stacker...in leo's mind it's a baseball bat - watch out! |
Sunday night finally came and it was time to go trick or treating/hand out candy. Drew was so excited this year...it was super cute. Leo and I hopped on the trailer for a couple houses and then headed back home to hand out candy. I so should have waited to take Leo out until after the rush - he was hooked after just one house and wanted to keep going and going!! He could not be contained by the house either and we had to be outside on the porch or in the yard where all the action was going on. What a curious little monkey!!
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| ready for action |
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| lookin' both ways - my spiderman & his witch friends |
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| leo's first house |
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| checking out the treat |
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| mad dash! |
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| waiting for our next customers |
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| just a little excited about all his yummy treats |
After we put the boys to bed Halloween night, it really hit us that this was our first holiday with Leo....Leo's first holiday with us. That totally explained why the night felt so much fuller...more exciting...more fun. There was the excitement in Drew's voice and step and there was also the joy and eagerness in Leo's actions throughout the night...together our boys gave us just the most incredible feeling of love and happiness. They also gave us the simple reminder that we truly are all accounted four and how great that feels!
And now we rest until the end of November when we count all our blessings and celebrate Thanksgiving. Tradition would have us traveling to Michigan to be with family, introduce Leo to so many (eager/patient) friends & family, heading to America's Thanksgiving Day Parade in Detroit (love it!!) and enjoying the most delicious Thanksgiving dinner (turkey, stuffing, fresh polish sausage, mashed potatoes, pies...yum yum). But, unfortunately, I go back to work the Monday after Thanksgiving - didn't think it'd be such a good idea to have Leo start "school" the day after a big trip. So, we'll be creating some new traditions...and giving thanks for so very much.
Until next time...it's a big week!
7 comments:
Wow! How beautiful! I love your pictures. I have to say that Ben would gladly join Drew in reading the Jack and Annie books, they are wildly popular in our house. :)
So exciting to have Leo with you! Hurray! So glad Drew is enjoying being a big brother - what a blessing for both of them to have each other to grow up with.
Sigh. This is wonderful:) I love your beautiful family. It looks like everything is going so well!
I laughed at the picture of Leo trapped by all the pumpkins! And the drool! Oh man, we had a LOT of that.
Glad to hear you had a wonderful first holiday with your family of 4!!
What an awesome fall you guys are having as a family of four. The photos are great! We should get our two monkeys together :) Sue, I love how thankful you are to have Leo join your family. I think we adoptive parents all feel that way, but you do such a wonderful job of expressing it. Your attitude is contagious!
What a wonderful month full of such fun festivities! I love all of your fall traditions! Kelly is right, your beautiful attitude is very contagious! Thank you for reminding us all about how lucky we really are, and that we have so much to be thankful for! xoxo
P.S. I chuckled out loud at the photo of leo's foot when he's sitting in the pumpkins...umm, huge! :)
This is such a great post! I love everything about it... but especially the fact that we aren't the only family not to carve pumpkins! In fact, I scoop out the seeds and still don't carve it... sad, huh?!
So many wonderful photos! But my absolute favorite is the wheat one - such beautiful fall colors!
I did get a picture of you in your '70s dress - unfortunately, it was such a terrible picture of one of our other neighbors that Debbie made me delete it! I'll see if I can do some selective cropping and send it to you.
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