Fall Heaven

Today was the start of pick-your-own apples at Patterson's, so we made the trek out there for apples and the Family Fun Fest. It was SO much more fun this year with Sydney since she was actually big enough to enjoy everything.

Family Photo

Sydney had fun helping us pick apples :)

We picked about 10 lbs.- I'm sure they'll be gone in like a week.

After we finished picking, we walked over to the Apple Barn to get tickets for the Family Fun Fest. I was trying to get Sydney to model by the pumpkins, but she was too distracted by the tractor to ever look at me.

Thank goodness we actually got to ride on the tractor, or she would have been devastated! The first thing we did when we got back there was the corn maze (which is more like a trail through the corn rather than an actual maze).

Sydney had fun walking through it for about 2 minutes.

Then she kept saying, "I want hold you Mommy!" over and over, so I carried her for most of it. It's not easy carrying an extra 27 lbs. around in your arms! She is getting heavy!

Every now and then Spencer would run ahead and hide, then try to scare us as we walked by. I was keeping my eye out for him, then turned to look behind us, and he was crouched down like this. Sydney thought it was pretty funny.

Farmer Suzy taking my little pumpkin for a ride.

Sydney liked riding this car, but it was a little tricky to push her on it because you steer with your feet, and she was obviously to small to do that. Spencer held her on his lap and I pushed them, and then we switched. I turned the wheels a little too sharply, and Sydney and I totally fell off!! How embarrassing! Spencer and I were both laughing pretty hard.

The highlight (at least for me) was this super long slide in the woods. It was the perfect speed for Sydney to go down by herself, but fast enough that it was still fun for me and Spencer to go down too. He stopped going down with her after some guy sarcastically said to him, "I think someone is having a little too much fun," so then I took the reigns and went with her about a hundred times (and enjoyed every minute of it!). And if other parents thought I was a weirdo for being the only parent up there, oh well. After all, Sydney was free and I was the one that had to pay $6 to get in. Might as well get my money's worth, right?

I think the highlight for Sydney was riding the big tire swing. She could have been in this all day and been a happy camper.

She didn't quite know what to make of the hay, though.

My & my Sydney.

Spencer wowed us with his skills on the stilts. He walked pretty far!

He cracked me up when he climbed in this tractor with Sydney. He couldn't even sit up straight, so he totally looked like a giant in it.

After all that, we drove to their market and got donuts. And what do you know, they had swings over there too. I think eating a donut while swinging must be the kind of thing this kid dreams about :)

Craft & Cutie Pie

Now that I painted my kitchen, the complete lack of color left it feeling a little drab. I bought some new dish towels (white with plaid stitching in red, blue, yellow, and green) and came up with a little art project to brighten up the room a bit.

So I took a sign that I already had, turned it over and painted it all white. With the design I wanted to put on it in mind (birds on tree branches), I put painter's tape in various places. I freehanded the tree branches, traced on the birds, then used a razor to cut out my pattern.

Painter's tape over the white background.

I painted over the whole thing in blue, then took the tape off the birds, painted them green and red, then peeled off the rest of the tape.

Voila: The finished project.

I'm going to hang it above the sink. I want to make another one with a yellow bird on it to hang above the doorway to the dining room.

I can't help but add these darling pictures of my Syd playing with Spencer's new phone last week.

Just chillin'.

I love love love her face (and slight double chin) in this picture.

And for the record, sometimes when I call her "cutie pie," she points to herself and says, "I cue pie!"

Labor Day in Lakeside

Hooray for long weekends! We got to spend Labor Day in Lakeside for our annual visit, and upgraded to a 3 night stay so we could pack in more fun.

On our way there, we were driving into the sun. When that happens, I usually grab the atlas we keep in the door and hold it up to keep the light out of Sydney's eyes. She wanted to hold it, so I gave it to her. When I turned around, this is what she was doing with it. Guess she thought she could just do it herself. Cracks me up!

We pulled up to find the gang on the porch at our cottage: Taneyhill.

On Saturday morning, we headed over to the park for Sydney's favorite thing in the world- the swings. She can easily sit in a swing for over an hour. We have a picture of her in these very swings in her room, and it is crazy to see how much she has grown since we last visited.

It was a super windy day, hence the jeans and long sleeves. We walked along the path by the lake and watched big waves crash into the pier (which they closed for the day), then meandered through the streets on the way back to the cottage. I was so excited to find out that there was a community wide yard sale that weekend, so we got to browse through stuff at a few houses. Right around the corner from our cottage, there was a yard sale with a bunch of antique furniture, and I was drooling. I literally tried to walk by that house every time we were going somewhere, because they kept bringing out new stuff throughout the day. On our way to lunch, I saw this big treasure-chest-like trunk, and I decided that it needed to be mine. So after a little wheeling and dealing, I got this baby for $20:

Come to find out, that covering is metal, so I basically bought a bunch of rust. But I'm sure it will look good when I'm done with it! Hooray for a new fun project!! But I digress...

This golf cart made for some good entertainment. Sydney loved trying to buckle and unbuckle herself, and Benji had fun climbing in an out of it. They were also very entertained with the little rocks at the front of the house. Thank goodness we brought our bucket and shovels :)

Later that day, we took another visit to the swings, this time with cousins. I think James was telling Sydney, "Get out of my bathtub."

Coming back from lunch: Spencer, me, Shauna, Pat, Jean, Melissa.

The owner of our cottage was outside a lot and chatted with us pretty regularly. He told us about this old car he had, a 1933 Ford with a V8 engine (the same kind that Bonnie & Clyde used for all of their bank robberies) and offered to take everyone for a ride. He was the second owner of it, and it only had like 70,000 miles on it!

Spencer and the Gusty's going for a ride. From what Shauna told me, they got slightly high on engine fumes.

One of the highlights of the day for me was renting bikes and cruising around town. I loved seeing Sydney wear her cute little helmet.

It felt like I hadn't been on a bike in years, but it was so much fun.

Even Sydney liked it- check out that smile!

We rode down to the lake, climbed down the rocks (in our flip-flops), and threw some rocks in the water.

When we got back, we found Nonnie and James riding around on this low-rider. We took turns taking it for a spin. Later that night we went to watch fireworks that were part of Lakeside's end-of-summer festivities. Sydney was in HEAVEN, and not even scared one bit.

On Monday morning, Sydney pounded her breakfast. After she ate her "breakfast casserole" and about 1/2 a cantaloupe, she also wanted a donut. Uncle Dan bought some with sprinkles for the kids, and instead of just biting into it, she picked off the sprinkles and just ate those.

After packing up the car, I was going to park it in a lot and hitch a ride back to the house with Spencer in the golf cart. We were stopped at a stop sign, and all of a sudden this guy wearing stilts walks by with his kids. How random is that?

My cutie pie.

James and Sydney. Love his forced smile.

The whole crew: Jay, Pat, Jim, Jean, Melissa, Shauna, Benji, Dan, James, Sydney, & Spencer

We also had a great time playing shuffleboard, Eucre, Catch Phrase, and just chatting with everyone. Hopefully we'll be back for Memorial Day 2011!

Back to School

Today was my first day back, which was kind of sad. Thankfully, Sydney wasn't even sad to see me go when I dropped her off at Addie's this morning. That made me not feel so guilty about working (is it weird that I still feel kind of guilty about it?).

Anyway, it was a long day. I got to work at 8:30 am, and I just got home at 8:30 pm because we had a mandatory open house from 6-8 pm. I'm pretty sure I talked to 3 parents in that entire 2 hours, so it's a good thing I was there. It was extra painful because I forgot my wallet this morning, so I couldn't buy anything for dinner when I had some down time .

Sydney was asleep when I got home. I saw her for a total of 10 minutes today when I got her up this morning. What the heck?

Although the day had its drawbacks, I have to admit I'm excited to get to actually start a school year. I've started every other job in the middle of the year, so I've just had to jump in and try to catch up with everyone else. Today I got to arrange my room just how I want it, and put up my own little decorations. It looks A BILLION times better than it did last year!

What We Do For Fun

For one of Spencer's last days of break, we went to the splash park with the Heaton's. We were hoping to enjoy a nice day in the sun, but it ended up being pretty cloudy with a slight breeze.

There was a good span of time when we were the only ones there. While the kids were snacking, we (the adults) decided to make up an obstacle course and time each other to see who could do it the fastest. This is what we came up with:

For the record, I won (yes!! Haha). It was all about the timing on those buckets at the end. We didn't record our first attempts, so the video is from round 2.

Newport

We wanted to start day 4 of our trip by canoeing in the Charles since that didn't pan out the day before, but we woke up to a serious downpour of rain. So we checked out of our hotel and got an early start on our drive to Newport, RI. After our arrival, we ate lunch and then stopped at the NEX and commissary on base. Then Sydney fell asleep in the car, so we took her to the hotel and spent the rest of the evening there so she could catch up on her zzz's.

On Friday morning, we were ready to step back into tourist mode. We started by doing a self-guided tour of the Breakers, the ginormous Vanderbuilt mansion. It was gaudy to a tee, but just the size was so impressive. I loved hearing that despite home's grandeur, it was still a family friendly place, and the little Vanderbuilt kids would ride their tricycles around in the great hall. I was shocked to learn that Mrs. Vanderbuilt had like 4 gigantic closets because a woman of her standing would change outfits up to 7 times a day! I would not want to be the maid in charge of laundry in that house...

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but I snuck this shot of Spencer and Sydney from the upper balcony. Such an incredible view!

This is the back of the house. We only got to tour the first two floors- the top two floors were servants quarters!

After our tour, we admired the other beautiful mansions on the cliffwalk. My favorite is still this one:

I think it's called Angelica's Place, and I was practically drooling every time it was within view. We would have loved to tour that one, but it's a private residence (those lucky ducks).

The trail wasn't very stroller friendly, so we were only able to go as far as the dark tunnel just past this Chinese Tea House that's on the Marble House property. We had a good time making loud noises in it to entertain Sydney (she requested to go back in it a second time), and laughed when we saw other people were coming in and could totally hear us.

We also had fun walking on the boulders when the trail wasn't a paved path.

Then we got in the car and did the Ocean Drive while Sydney napped in her car seat. It was gorgeous- and fun to see more modern mansions along the way. On our way back, Sydney woke up right as we were passing Brenton Point, where at least 15 people were flying kites. It was the perfect place to entertain a toddler.

We were all a little mesmerized with this display. It made me want to buy one of the little $20 kites just to join the fun (but we didn't).

Instead we walked across the street to climb on more rocks. A family asked me to take their picture, and the Dad told us about these little crabs you can find under the small rocks at the edge of the water. He said his daughter loved them when she was little, so he thought Sydney might like them.

Spencer found a bunch for us. I held one for a second, but it felt like holding a spider so it kind of freaked me out. Even Sydney was brave enough to hold one, but it didn't last long.

Spencer had fun helping Sydney make the big jumps from boulder to boulder.

Me & Sydney

Later that evening, we had fun walking along the shops in downtown Newport.

I had hopes of going to do something fun the next morning too before starting our 11 hour drive home, but after breakfast Spencer was just itching to get on the road. Like the drive to Boston, Sydney did great. She had us laughing with these new tricks she picked up:

The car seat splits (with diaper hanging out one side),

and two binks.

Our trip home did take longer that we were expecting, mostly because we had to stop a billion times due to stinky diapers. I think one time we stopped and I changed her bum, and then like 20 minutes later she pooped again (and that time it leaked onto the inside of her shorts...sick).

We got home safely, and were excited to be able to put Sydney to sleep in her own bed! The only bad thing is that now whenever we go somewhere (e.g. a 15 minute drive to Costco), she requests a movie, her bink, or fruit snacks for the ride :)

Boston: Fenway Park , Harvard, & China Town

On Wednesday, we started our day with a tour of Fenway Park. It was kind of weird walking there from the T station, because it wasn't super easy to spot. We were just walking and all of a sudden there were Red Sox flags hanging from a building, and we were like, "Oh, this is the stadium."

Spencer & Sydney outside Fenway Park.

We learned some fun facts about the curse of the Bambino, the Green Monster, and the single red seat in a sea of green seats (where a napping Yankee's fan was hit in the head with a fly ball).

Sydney the blue chairs, and the seat flipped up and set her off kilter. She started screaming, so we gave her fruit snacks (which she requested about every 15 minutes on this trip) to cheer her up. Totally worked.

After lunch, we took the T to Harvard. Spencer was holding Sydney, and her tired little eyes just slowly started closing. When we got there, she was dead to the world.

Luckily they had these chairs all over Harvard Yard, so we snagged a few and took a little nap.

When she woke up, she had a stinky diaper. We walked into a random building and found the bathrooms in the basement, but of course there wasn't a changing station. She was cracking me up that whenever she saw someone walk into the bathroom she'd ask me, "A change a bum?" I took her into the hallway to try to find a secluded area, but I only found a table by the vending machines. We didn't see another soul until I started wiping her poopy bum, and then a maintenance man walked by us. Naturally.

We walked around the campus a bit, then did a student guided tour, which we ended up bailing on prematurely. But we did have a genius Harvard student define big words for us on the tour, you know, words like "co-ed" (inside joke).

Then we attempted to go canoeing on the Charles river, but that didn't work out. So we just opted for a picture by the water, and decided to head to Chinatown.

Our only previous experience with Chinatown was in San Francisco, which is totally awesome. So I had to laugh at the short conversation Spencer had with a lady when we emerged from the T and saw only regular looking buildings all around us:

Spencer: "Um, excuse me. Where's Chinatown?"

Lady: (looking confused) "You're in it."

Turns out Chinatown in Boston is like two dirty side streets that smell like garbage, with a bunch of restaurants scattered throughout. After walking through the entire thing (in like 3 minutes), we decided to have dinner at a place called Empire Garden. After going inside, we walked up some stairs, and for a second I felt like I was in the movie Big Trouble in Little China. When we met the hostess at the top of the stairs, she took us into a massive theater-turned-restaurant (like Playhouse Square style theater with the ornate ceiling and everything). And we were the only people there. Although we were a little nervous about the place being completely empty, we actually ended up having a pretty good meal. Plus, I didn't feel too pressured to keep Sydney quiet.

When we were leaving, we decided to take the elevator back downstairs. We got in, pushed the button, and then the doors shut. We heard a few weird sounds, then doors opened to the same floor. We had already been giggling about what a bizarre experience it was to eat there, but we laughed even harder as we tried to slyly get out of the elevator and take the stairs instead without the hostess noticing.
We ended the night watching a free orchestra concert at the Hatch Shell right along the river. They were supposed to be playing Beethoven's 5th symphony, but the first 30 minutes or so were arias that didn't really hold our interest. Never really been a fan of opera... so we walked along the river and let Sydney run around before heading back to our hotel.