Punkin Pickin'

This past Thursday, I took Bella and Austin to pick out pumpkins. We all had a great time. Austin enjoyed wandering around trying to pick up all the pumpkins. Bella enjoyed looking around trying to find the perfect one. And although having 2 kids in an open outdoor space by myself feels a lot like herding cats, I had fun as well.

Austin headed straight for a pallet of small pumpkins. He really enjoyed taking them all off the pallet and putting them on the ground. I enjoyed getting to put them all back on the pallet when he lost interest and walked away.

And here's Bella with her small pumpkin.

Decisions, decisions...

Examining the pumpkin closely to be sure it's worthy of sitting on our front porch.

I really wanted a good picture of Bella and Austin together. This was the best I got. It is almost impossible to get them to both look and smile at the camera.

A decent shot of the two of them, although it looks like Bella's got Austin in a choke hold.

Bella's signature picture pose: smiling, but looking just to the right or left of the camera.

My handsome fella.

"Hey Mommy, I think this is the one I want."

"What are these things? They don't look like the rest of the pumpkins here..."

"Put the camera down and let's go!"

Austin wanted to push the wheelbarrow.

"I think I'll take this one." And, I might add, this was right before his little foot got wedged in the slats of the pallet and I thought for sure he had broken his leg. Luckily, once I freed his foot (with the help of the man working at the pumpkin patch) he was fine.

While I was frantically working to free Austin's foot, Bella amused herself with a game of jack-o-lantern cornhole.

We enjoyed our pumpkin patch adventure. Austin is fine (except for a few bruises around his ankle) and our pumpkins are proudly displayed on our front porch! Up next- I think I'm going to let Bella and Austin paint their pumpkins- should be fun and messy!

Rainy Days

Last week it rained. And rained. And rained. And when we couldn't stand it anymore, it rained some more. It rained for 4 days straight. I'm not talking a little drizzle either. It was a downpour with flooding and all. I can't remember the specific total, but it was over 22 inches of rain, which I think was some sort of record. Even beat out a hurricane. So, when Thursday rolled around (rain day #4), I decided why not try and make the most of it. I decided we should all stay home together as a family and just have a cozy day inside. The plan was to bake cupcakes, watch movies and just make the most of a blah day. Bella even stayed in her pajamas all day. Austin would have, but his pajamas have footies which makes walking difficult on the wood floor.

Here's just a little of the water that was standing in our yard. The rain almost washed all the dirt away from my little gardenias.

Our cupcakes. Bella was a great helper. Of course we had to make her favorite- chocolate cupcakes with strawberry icing.

Everybody thought they were delicious!

What's better than cupcakes? Getting to eat the leftover icing!

You know they had to be good- she ended up with crumbs by her eye!

Austin decided to chill in the highchair as if it were a lazy boy recliner...

And this is what a 3 year old girl's bedroom looks like at the end of a day stuck inside...

Finally, around 4pm, it stopped raining. It was way too soggy to go in the yard, so we all huddled on the porch, just to get the feeling of being outside. We all had to leave our wet footprints on the only dry part of the porch. Austin's are the 2 on the left, then it's Bella's, mine and Scott's...

We enjoyed our rainy day inside, but were certainly glad when it stopped. Cabin fever was certainly beginning to set in! It's now 5 days later, and our yard is still not dried out. At least we've saved money on having to run the sprinklers!

A long goodbye...

The calendar says it's been fall for almost a week, but the weather last weekend said that summer was holding on for dear life. And I'm okay with that because I'm a girl of summer. I love summer. I love everything about summer. I love the beach, popsicles on the porch, being barefoot in the yard and the fact that the sun stays out longer. When Labor day rolls around, I always get this slight feeling of dread. Dread of the cold, dreary days of winter that are just around the corner. And the dread of saying goodbye to my beloved summer. Don't get me wrong, I like the coolness of a fall morning when I go for my run. And I LOVE college football. Honestly, if it weren't for football, I might just ball up in the fetal position after Labor day.

So, since it was still warm enough last Saturday, I decided we should have a beach day. After all, it could be the last until next year! It was icing on the cake that my parents came down for the day to join us. We packed up, all crammed into our car, and set out to enjoy one last hoorah in the sand.

One last sandcastle...

One more chance to try and teach our baby brother how to build a sandcastle...

One more hunt for the perfect shell...

One more game of "can you guess what I'm making out of sand?"...

One more day of beach bumming...

One more time to watch the kite surfers...

One more stroll...

One more- well, I'm not really sure...

One more chance for Bella to see who's faster- her or the wave...

One more chance to play in the sand with Daddy...

One more time to bury our feet in the sand...

One more frolic in the ocean...

Goodbye summer, see you next year! We'll miss you for sure!

Arboretum

Sunday afternoon Scott and I took Bella and Austin to the Arboretum. It's a fun place to go and explore. I enjoy seeing the different plants and getting ideas for our yard. Bella enjoys scouting out butterflies and feeding the goldfish. Austin just loves being outside. And the best part is- it's free! We only spent 25 cents for some fish food. Talk about cheap entertainment! We spent a good while meandering around the grounds. It was a little hot, but we still had a good time!

Here's Bella in the butterfly garden. It seemed like there were hundreds of butterflies on these little pink flowers!

While Bella was on the search for butterflies, Austin enjoyed playing with the gate leading into the butterfly garden. I think he would've stayed there opening and closing the gate for hours...

There's a children's garden that has a little playhouse. It's always one of Bella's favorite parts of the arboretum.

Still at the gate...

Relaxing in the little chairs behind the playhouse.

Bella was eager to feed the fish...

Those were some of the biggest goldfish I've ever seen!

I think this is my favorite picture of the day...

Austin is walking more and more- but you can tell by his dirty knees, he still crawls from time to time!

We enjoyed our outing to the arboretum. It's a beautiful little piece of land right in the middle of Wilmington and we don't make it out there as often as I'd like. Next time we'll remember to take more quarters for the fish food machine. Bella was convinced the fish were still hungry when it was time for us to go home.