Falling For Autumn

Welcome, fall!  Last week, our patience was rewarded with the first cold front of the season.  Hurricane Sandy, in the Atlantic, brought us some very windy days and ultimately some much cooler weather.  For the first time, I was able to take you outdoors to play without mopping sweat off of your nose.  I have been spending the days taking you anywhere that resembles "fall" and not in front of my computer.  What I'm trying to tell you is that this post will be a tad photo-heavy.  I think we'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

Freedom Park, aka: my favorite local fall destination.

It was a chilly morning.  I made sure you dressed the part.

Peek a boo.

Shoe-less babe.  I brought them, you just won't wear them.

Fallen leaves and squirrel-eaten acorns.  It kinda resembles autumn around here.

Now that the birthday party is a memory, we have been able to focus on some fall traditions. The house is decked out in fall leaves.  We have visited pumpkin patches, painted mini pumpkins (disaster!), carved a jack-o-lantern, and made costumes.  The first batch of pumpkin bread was baked just the other day and the windows are wide open in the house.  It is officially fall.

Hot & sweaty pumpkin "patch" visit.

Too hot to cuddle.

Sydney, my fall buddy.

One is too young for pumpkin painting.  You literally ate a handful of paint.

Daddy decorated the house for Halloween.  You loooved the pumpkins!

Pumpkin Patch: Take Two

Today was actually supposed to be their annual fall carnival, or so I thought.

Turned out that they had it on Saturday this year (the day before we went). 

Syd was thrilled.  Not.

We hung out for a bit anyway because the weather was beautiful.

Never mind that this church is bordered by the jail and a homeless shelter, we've been customers for years.

And we had no place else to be.

I love spending my days with my girls.

Picking out more tiny pumpkins.

Breezy day.

We decided to picnic in a hidden and unlikely spot we've had our eye on for years.  Bad idea.  Fire ant central.

We did carve our pumpkin.  And Sydney actually got her hands dirty!

I still need to upload our Halloween photos, so that will have to wait.  But for now, I need to catch up on this latest change of seasons!  We have been spending almost every day outside.  Finally!  You have always been an outdoors-kind-of-girl, but Florida summers call for more indoor play than out.  Those days are over though, at least for now.  You've been strolling the sidewalks, riding on your Big Wheel bike that Pop-Pop brought over, eating leaves and exploring the grass.  

We took windy walks that required a blanket in the stroller.

You love a nice long walk.

Sydney was showing me her "new way of walking"...okay.

The trampoline is seeing regular visitors again now that it doesn't burn our feet.

We spent a Saturday morning at the Buddy Walk.

Some of us walked more than others...not naming names.

Some of us were happier about it than others.  Again,  no names mentioned.

Syd really enjoyed the inflatable obstacle course.

You were there, too.

This happened (!!!)

And we enjoyed a delicious outdoor lunch, as a family.

Now that I finally got somewhat caught up, I will get busy uploading and editing some Halloween pictures.  I should've known that a change in seasons would put this whole blogging gig even further behind.  But I'll find a way to fit it in.  Tomorrow's Daylight Savings...we gain an hour.  No excuse not to work on a Halloween post.  And I give up on editing.  I started out editing some of these photos and single-handedly crashed the site I use.  So, bad lighting and all, I will just throw them up here.  You get what you get sometimes.  Until then...happy fall!