Fall in New England

I'm a California girl. Fall never really meant much to me. Nothing really fell. Sure, it got a little cooler and some of the trees would drop their leaves, but I went trick-or-treating in spaghetti straps and tutus. I didn't own a winter coat until I moved out here. Scarfs and mittens, ha!, I didn't know anything about them. We'd go get our apples and pumpkins from the grocery store or "pumpkin patch" which was like a Christmas tree lot, but with pumpkins. I love that my kids get to experience what fall really means.

 

It's cable knit tights and knee high boots, rows of pumpkins that you get from the farm where they grew, apples hand-picked from the tree and turned into warm pie, tractor rides and corn mazes, and so much more. 

I  love this time of year when the leaves change to golden yellow, warm orange, and fiery red as the trees prepare to sleep the winter away.

 

I'm not a fan of winter here, but I truly LOVE the fall!

 

Jack-o-lantern Spectacular

Last night we went to the Jack-o-lantern spectacular at Roger Williams Park Zoo. We went with my friend Joelle, her hubby (his parents and brother) and Natey's bestie, Tyler. We picked a Wednesday night, when no other special events were happening to try to avoid the crowds. Yeah, that kinda backfired! After a little hoopla getting extra tickets for the parents (we already had ours) we didn't get in to the park until after 7. The line just to get to the pumpkins was about 40 minutes more from there. Trying to keep my very active child entertained for that 40 minutes was very irritating for this irritable mommy, but we finally made it to the main event! My irritation melted away when I saw the awesomeness and artistry of these jack-o-lanterns! They were amazing. Each one was carved with a different scene and many were grouped in themes. They were carved and then contrast was made on them by shading with sharpie, so when the light shone through the images were detailed and extremely intricate! (Click on any collage to see them in more detail.)

Natey's favorite was the Spiderman pumpkin of course. I loved the one that depicted "Where the Wild Things Are".

The big picture shows a huge grouping of typical jack-o-lanterns. The big one weighed in at 1187 pounds if you can believe that!! They had an awesome grouping of Sesame Street pumpkins that Natey got excited about. He loves cookie monster!

One of my favorite sets was the Alice in Wonderland pumpkins. They were really cool and had so much detail!

They had some of the biggest pumpkins I have ever seen in person. The one Nate and Tyler sat on was over 1,000 pounds too! As you can tell, the boys had a great time, even if they were up way past their bedtime. Mommy finally came around and had fun too. I only had a minor melt-down before we got to the action. I swear, sometimes pregnant me is worse than any toddler. I'll have to, ahem, work on that.

A Walk in the Park

This weekend I wanted to get out of the house and enjoy as much of the outdoors as possible before it gets too cold here. Unfortunately is was raining on and off Saturday, but Sunday was gorgeous. Saturday night we took Nathan to the Armenian festival. This is his 3rd time going! His first time was in the womb. I got sick and wasn't sure if it was from the food or if it was my one and only bout of morning sickness! Hmm, you decide. Last year he was 5 months old and was happily passed around to my MIL's friends and relatives. The poor kid's cheeks were all pinched out after that experience. This year (at 16 months) he got to sample some of the food. He ate up the shish kebab and rice pilaf and of course he loved the sweets! He tried baklava and kataifi (chopped nuts inside shredded wheat soaked in honey). It took a while for my hubby to get back with the food and the only thing that kept Natey busy was the stupid Boobah book I had bought him and the old lady that was sitting next to us had a cane he was very intrigued with. Luckily he managed to not freak out because he was hungry and held captive in his stroller until the food arrived.

After we ate, I let him run me around for a little while. His complete lack of stranger anxiety is amazing to me. He took off running and probably had no idea that I was following close behind him the whole time. I wonder what he would have done if I hid and he turned around and I wasn't there. I'd like to think he would be a little scared, but I doubt it. He'd probably just find the closest lady and hop right up in her lap. I can see it now...

"Are you my mother??"

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On Sunday I made it a point to get us all out of the house and let my border collie-esk son run around to expend a little of his energy. We went to Roger Williams park and I was so excited to see they had completely re-done the playground! Hasbro is located in Pawtucket, RI and they fund a playground inside the park. It was in a state of minor disrepair so they closed it for a month and now it is all brand new. Nathan ran amok inside and tried to go on all of the equipment that was way too big for him. He has no fear. We went down the highest slide and he "weeee-d" all the way down and then shouted "gen!" (again) when we were finished. He had a lot of fun and it will be so much more fun for me him once he is big enough to climb everything by himself.

After we finished up at the playground, we headed over to where the geese and ducks were hanging out. I hate birds. They are pretty much the grossest creatures in my eyes; right up there with rats. In fact, I think I would rather have a rat for a pet than a bird. I digress. So another kid's dad gave us some bread to feed to the birds with {thanks friendly guy, now my kid's going to get pecked to death}! Nathan couldn't seem to throw it far enough away from him and the geese kept getting too close. I was prepared to kick one if need be, but I decided to cut that part of the activity short instead and move along to the carousel.


Nathan loved the carousel. He has been on it 2 other times, but this is the first time he has shown any real interest or delight at being on the ride. He "e-haw'd" until the ride came to a stop. It only took Aaron about 10 times around to get a decent picture of the boy. I almost wanted to snatch the camera as we whizzed by so I could do it myself. Oh, I'm sorry, did I say that out loud?
After we got home from the park we all desperately needed a nap, so nap we did! We had a great weekend and I really hope the weather holds out a little longer. I'm not ready for snow boots and scarves just yet!

Nowhere Near Wordless Wednesday

I know that Wednesdays are usually wordless for me,

but it took me too long to get this post put together not to put it up! So if you came for WW just look at the first photo and ignore the rest!

Thank God for beautiful fall days! Living in California for most of my life, I really missed out on simple things like seasons! I was used to hot and not-so-hot as the two seasons, who knew there were actually four?! We have lived out here for 3 years now (Aaron grew up here, moved away to find me and then moved back) and each year I fall more and more in love with Fall! I'm pretty sure that if the summers weren't so beautifully green and the falls weren't so many other glorious colors, I would never be able to make it through the cold and stark months that are winter in New England. I know, to all of you who have grown up here or in other cold places, I'm such a whiner, but did I mention I'm from sunny Southern California...oh yeah and lived in Nevada for 3 years after that??!!

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We took Nathan to Roger Williams park over the holiday weekend and he had so much fun running around, eating dirt and playing in the leaves. I swear this kid never wants to walk anywhere. He always needs to run. This, of course, leads to a lot of falling down. He takes it all in stride though and barely even fusses after he eats it!

He fell right on his face and didn't even make a peep!

Poor kid, hopefully he'll learn to slow down just a little!Happy Natey found a leaf. It lasted only long enough to take

this picture...and then he tried to eat it.

This is the face you get when you tell him to say "cheese" for a picture! I was laughing behind the tree at the intensity with which he yelled it!

Is it impossible to make a toddler smile on cue?? At least he was cute and holding my face. :o)
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We also went to the Columbus day parade on Federal Hill with Aaron's Aunt, Uncle and 2 youngest cousins. I wasn't sure how it was going to go since Nathan can't sit still for 5 seconds, let alone long enough for a whole parade to happen. It went pretty well despite my doubts. Of course the reason I got about 20 minutes of focus out of the boy was that Aaron's uncle let him have a lollipop! Most of you who know me know that I don't let my 16 month old baby have things like candy and excessive sweets, but he sure did sit and focus for a while so I guess this once it was worth it!

WTF?? What does this thing have to do with Columbus??
Natey got all excited when the fire trucks came by and blew their horns!

All in all, this was the most packed weekend we have had in a long time! Pumpkin patch, apple picking, parade, fall fun in the park, family & friends over for dinner on Monday (12 of us total). Whew, I am tired just thinking about it.

Apples, Pumpkins and Monkeys?

It's fall in New England and, to me, that means picking apples from the orchard and torturing my child by sticking him in a costume and taking pictures in the pumpkin patch! My friend Joelle and I planned a dual family outing to Jaswell's farm in Smithfield. It was basically an excuse for a photo opp as well as a chance to get some fresh apples for goodies like pie and homemade apple sauce. I, for one, am looking very forward to the pie part!

We let the boys play for a while in the pumpkin patch before we stuck them in their costumes. Tyler isn't walking just yet, but they were having a good time checking each other and the pumpkins out. Nathan ran around like a mad man (as usual), but we managed to get some photos of the boys together before Nathan took off to explore!

I bought Nathan a Monkey costume this year and Aaron's aunt bought the same costume for her daughter last year, but she never got to wear it. I saw this as a super cute opportunity to get the boys in (almost) matching monkey suits!! I did mention torture, right? Well, it was a beautiful 70 degrees out today and, of course the costumes are meant for the arctic, so we tried to get the shots we wanted as quickly as possible.

Like I said, we tried to make the costume part relatively quick due to the heat. We stripped them back down to their outfits and moved along to the orchard to pick some apples.

I got some cute shots of the boys and a huge bag of apples! Nathan grabbed a rotten apple and went straight for the mouth with it. I was so grossed out, but he didn't seem to care in the least. I just cleaned him up and tried to forget about it. I gave him a good apple to deter him from grabbing another nasty one. Being the good sharing soul that he is Nathan wanted to feed Tyler again, but they weren't very successful at getting much of a bite.

The boys started to get a little cranky, one was tired and the other hungry, so we called it a day. We had a great time on our outing, and I only feel mildly guilty for sticking them in those outfits and messing with their schedules to get in a little family and photo time! I love hanging out with Joelle. I am very thankful for the bond we have through our boys and just being kindred spirits. We are happy that we can foster a friendship so early in the life of our boys and we'll make sure to show them all of the embarrassing pictures when they are about 15! Stay tuned for a report on the pie!