Our sunny weather is gone and we've been looking for ways to have some indoor fun the last couple of weeks. We've played with play-do, colored pictures, read stories, put together puzzles, refused to share toys, taken snacks away from each other, thrown tantrums, and. . . . . . well, you get the idea. There's only so much fun a toddler and preschooler can have inside without driving each other, and their parents, completely crazy! And so, our quest to go on indoor outings began :)
One of our stops last week was the Jump Around Fun Zone, where Hannah could bounce off the walls (literally) and Michael could practice his walking .
We've also made some trips to the mall to use the indoor play area there. Hannah has decided that her favorite game there is tag, which she now instigates with any little kid she meets. Michael loves the slide, but prefers to climb up the front (a habit we discourage, much to his dismay).
And now, a shot of Michael after being dressed up by Hannah ;) Because real men wear feather boas!
I have to apologize - - Most of you know that Michael has been pretty close to walking for a few months now, and we had every intention of announcing when he started walking. . . . . but it was such a process, that by the time I realized he was officially a "walker", he had actually been walking for almost a month! After taking those first few steps, Michael decided that crawling was still the faster way to go. It took a a few weeks of him walking "part-time", but now he seems to prefer it to crawling.
This year for halloween Hannah was super excited about dressing up as Tinkerbell (of course). We found a cute monkey suit for Michael :)
Hannah had fun painting a couple of pumpkins to decorate the front steps with.
She was not so excited about actually carving pumpkins, and absolutely refused to stick her hands into the gooey guts :)
Our finished pumpkins - Mommy and Daddy had fun carving!!
We had a fun party with some of Hannah and Micheal's friends. The kids dressed up, did crafts, ate a yummy lunch, and then we attempted to get that coveted group shot. . . . . please note that there is no group shot :) I was able to take a lot of cute pictures of individual kids, but somehow missed one that had all of them in it (without screaming or pouting). Overall, the kids had a great time!!
Hannah was SOOOO excited to go trick-or-treating! She couldn't be bothered with sitting for a picture, just grabbed her bucket and said "c'mon, Mom!" :) We went to houses up and down our short street and Hannah did a good job of knocking and saying "trick-or-treat".
Michael is 10 months old and growing up fast! He's not quite walking yet, but he can stand on his own, take 4-5 steps unassisted, and cruises around the house with his push toy almost as fast as he crawls. Our little monkey loves to climb and needs to be watched every second - - his favorite spots to stand and bounce on are Hannah's wooden chair and the baby bouncer. He is done with jarred baby food and has moved on to eating table food - Michael thinks it's fabulous that he can eat what we are eating for dinner! :) His favorite noise to make this week appears to be a roaring lion, although playing the "shrieking game" back and forth with Hannah is a close second! His other big accomplishment this month was joining Hannah in the big bath tub - they loved playing together in the water, and he did surprisingly well at sitting still long enough to be washed! He still loves his ducky tub, but it's become something to climb in while on dry land rather than in the tub.
Last week we went on a couple of different Fall/pumpkin picking outings. For our first trip we met up with some friends at Stoney Ridge Farm for a great day of feeding animals, eating yummy cider doughnuts, and of course, picking apples and pumpkins :)
Hannah and Mommy looking silly
We managed to get ALL of the kids sitting and looking in relatively the same direction for a group picture!!
Attempting to get a shot of Hannah and Michael together was a feat. . . . I didn't really succeed. . . .
Checking out the giant pumpkin
Picking apples
Picking pumpkins and gourds
She let me take her picture!!!!!!!
He, on the other hand, was much too interested in the corn and pumpkins to look at Mommy!
The kids led us through the corn maze - and we didn't get lost! :)
We only picked up a couple of small, pocket sized gourds at Stoney Ridge, so the next day I took the kids to the Birch Bay Farmer's Market to check out the Country Store. The lady running it was SO sweet and helped Hannah put her pumpkins in a wagon. She also gave us a sweetie pie pumpkin to make a pie out of (and gave me some easy directions on how to use it - I've only ever used canned pumpkins). Hannah and Michael both had fun playing with the stacks of pumkins and hay bales :)
Michael finally smiled for the camera!
Twice!
Hannah looked long and hard before carefully picking the very best pumpkins.
Both kids loved the gourds and we brought several more home to decorate the house with :)
Our last few days in MN was a whirlwind wedding weekend :) On Friday after the rehearsal, Mel and Ryan had all of us over for a BBQ at their house. Michael slept through most of it, but Hannah was the life of the party! She hung on to Uncle Ryan's pants and grinned up at him when she wanted something, she snuggled up to Uncle John during dinner and managed to melt his heart, and she lived up to her corn-loving reputation by eating he weight in corn on the cob (this really amused Ryan's dad, who called her the "corn kid" for the rest of the weekend). As we were packing up to leave for the night, Hannah grabbed a bag of Tostitos for the road :) On Saturday our good friend Alisson picked up both kids to keep overnight. She and her husband Jeff had fun with the kids at a park and at their house with their puppy Maisy (Hannah was concerned - she thought Maisy was just the mouse from her books!). The next morning they went to church and Hannah and Michael showed them how well kids can behave in church when it's part of their routine :) The kids had a great time with Auntie Alisson and Uncle Jeff and were sad to leave them! Meanwhile, back at the wedding, we had fun taking pictures and hanging out before the service. The ceremony was beautiful and the reception was so much FUN! Sunday, after picking up the kids, the family met back at Pam's house for the gift opening and tos ee the happy couple one last time before their honeymoon. The weekend was a great end to a great trip! Now, for some pictures:
