All things fall.

Fall. Outside of Christmas, this is my favorite time of year. Especially when the weather cooperates like it has this year.
Last weekend we spent Saturday at the Boone County Arboretum. It's one of my favorite places to begin with, so add a beautiful fall day, two happy and compliant children, and a lovely husband and this gal was in heaven. The kids played on the playground for a long while, and then we went on a nature walk.
There are paved and unpaved trails, but we stuck mostly to the easy terrain. We carried Warner's backpack to collect treasures the kids found. They found quite a few (imagine that). Later we arranged the leaves/sticks/pine needles/etc. they found between two pieces of clear contact paper. Viola! The kids now have their own special fall placemats.
Another fall staple is (lots of) apples. Unfortunately we haven't gotten to an apple orchard, so I improvised. Meijer had their apples on sale for .50/lb. last week so I bought 12 pounds. Ha! The kids were happy to help peel, core, and slice them with our little apple gadget. In fact, they could both pretty much operate it by themselves this year.
We made applesauce with about half the apples and froze the rest. Although I'm pretty sure I'll be thawing some as early as this week because apple cobbler has been calling my name lately.
We also went to "Farm Frenzy" this year. It's a program that the Cooperative Extension puts together, primarily for school groups to learn about agriculture. During the evenings they open it to the public. It's a free event, so obviously I was all over it.
Plus, there is a hayride too. Well, it's in a parking lot, so it's not quite the whole experience, but it worked for the kids.
Of course fall is not complete without a trip to the pumpkin patch. We checked that off our list this morning. I'll post pictures of that adventure soon.

Pumpkins

Kevin is out of town all week, so I've been extra intentional about planning activities for the kids to keep us busy. We're busy most mornings with preschool three days a week and Bible study on Thursdays. But the post naptime through bedtime stretch can get tricky. Today we had a pumpkin afternoon.First we made pumpkin pie. I had to go to two grocery stores to find canned pumpkin earlier this week. I realize it's not October yet, but really people? In my humble opinion, Kroger should carry pumpkin year round. It's too good to only be offered seasonally. Walmart gets a gold star for carrying the canned pumpkin before Kroger this year. Go figure.
Maren was diagnosed with an allergy to raw eggs a few weeks ago (after a nasty reaction the last time we made muffins), so she gets to help up until the eggs are added. Warner loves this because it means he gets to crack all of the eggs and not share the job with his sister. While the pie was baking, we moved on to our next endeavor. Using paper plates, construction paper, and glue sticks, we made pumpkin face masks.Both kids did really well with the glue and construction paper. And the whole project took about 20 minutes from start to finish so I was impressed with their attention spans too.The finished products.Of course it takes a pumpkin pie about an hour to bake so once the craft was finished we still had 40 minutes to kill. We played outside while Warner asked me twenty times if the pie was ready yet. He asked me twenty more times during dinner if the pie was cool enough to eat.After enthusiastically eating their vegetables at dinner with the promise of pie for dessert, they were finally able to enjoy the fruits of their labor. And enjoy they did. The bad news is I'm out of activities for tomorrow with the kids. So now I'm off to scour the internet for some ideas.

Look Mom, No Paci!

Maren has been attached to her pacifier since day one. Warner never took a paci or sucked his thumb, so this was new territory for us. Once we realized Maren really liked pacifiers, it was just so easy for us. I'd dump four or more pacifiers in Maren's crib at night and she would happily sleep until morning. Or, on car rides when quiet was desperately needed, all I'd have to do is give Maren her paci and blanket and - poof! - there was silence. And silence is a welcome addition to my otherwise noisy days.

As Maren grew older, the promises of breaking her of her paci habit began. Kevin and I finally swore that when she turned two, that would be the end pacifiers. July 29, 2011 came and went and still I was putting Maren to bed along with her favorite pink pacifier. We did begin talking to Maren about how she is a big girl now and big girls don't have paci's, but she was not interested in discussing the issue. And again, seeing as quiet is often my goal, I ignored Kevin's suggestions to work on the "paci issue".

Two nights ago as we were getting the kids ready for bed, we suggested (for the hundredth time) that Maren sleep without her paci that night. We quickly added that she could get a prize if she slept without her paci. She was intrigued. We asked her what she wanted for her prize, and after some deliberation, she decided on a new Bob and Larry (read: Veggietales) movie. And so the plan was in place. As I put her in her crib for bed, she cried and asked for her "pink bappi". I reminded her of our deal and, like magic, she went to sleep.
Two days and one Veggietales movie later, she is still going strong without her beloved pink pacifier. Whew. Let's hope it continues.

Maren

Maren has grown up overnight. Gone are the days of me worrying about her speech development. This girl is talking and is pretty chatty at that. She has never met a stranger but now she will often speak to random people we see, striking up a conversation with "Hi. I two". Really, that's about all you need to know about her.She loves to color and asks to do it nearly every day. This is actually a very nice thing because it's a quiet, non-messy activity that keeps her occupied for a very long time. Warner was never a huge fan of coloring but since Maren has taken to it, he wants to color whenever she does. Pink is her favorite color so primarily her pictures are colored with varying shades of pink. She throws in purple every now and then along with green, since that's Warner's favorite color.

And when it comes to Warner, Maren thinks he's the coolest. They play together extremely well, given their ages. Maren's first question in the morning is usually "Mommy, where's Norner?" (the way she pronounces Warner is the absolute best). Warner thinks Maren's pretty cool too. When they play, he usually calls the shots, telling her where to put a toy, how to play with it, where to go, etc. Maren generally replies "o-tay, Norner" and does whatever he's told her to do. Maren wants to do everything Warner does, including wear a hat. Makes sense, right? Here she is in her Super-girl hat.
Other than coloring, reading is Maren's other favorite activity. She is constantly asking me to "deed boops" to her. She could sit and listen to me read forever. Right now she's into Clifford and Curious George, but still enjoys board books too. Here she is with Warner in their book corner in the living room. The bottom shelf of the bookcase is filled with their books, and Maren takes nearly every one off the shelf each day to read. They also like to "hide" in this corner, if you're wondering about the umbrellas.Maren is not as compliant as Warner (that's putting it nicely), so getting her to do things requires either reverse psychology or bribery. Her main punishment is for me to take books away from her, since she loves them so much. Unfortunately, she goes to bed without bedtime stories quite often because she will refuse to clean up toys before bathtime, or other similar offenses. But despite her defiance, she is the sweetest, most loving, and affectionate kid I've ever been around. She hugs, snuggles, and gives kisses with abandon.
I often will say "Maren, will you promise to always be Mommy's baby?", to which she'll respond with either a big hug or a simple "yes". For a while she would then tell me and Kevin "I Mommy's baby" and was quite adamant that she wasn't Daddy's anything. Kevin told her she could be Mommy's baby and Daddy's girl, and she seemed to like that idea. So now she says "I Mommy's baby ... and Daddy's girl".

Regardless of if she's a Mommy's or Daddy's girl, Maren is definitely her own person. She's funny and smart and loving and silly. And I'm so glad she's a part of our family.

Another Saturday, another festival

We headed out to Potter's Ranch yesterday morning on a whim after hearing about their anniversary event that was going on during the day. We had never been there and didn't know what to expect. We were blown away! The ranch sits on over 300 acres in southern Boone county in the midst of stunning beauty. They have cabins, horse stables and trails, zip lines, ropes courses, paddle boats, wave runners ... you get the idea. Talk about a cool place. I'm sort of jealous of the kids who get to go to Church camp there.

Since the property is so large, the parking area was very far from where the activities were. So we had a hayride up to the top of the hill. It was pretty great but I'm the sort of gal who likes to sing songs while going on a hayride. I wasn't comfortable asking the strangers around us to join me in song, so it was a quiet ride. But still fun.They had three giant inflatables for the kids. Honestly, if this were the only attraction my kids would have been more than satisfied. They jumped and climbed and bounced for a good 20 minutes before we moved on to see other stuff.By the time we decided to grab lunch, everyone else had the same idea. The kids drank pop while we waited in line for food. Pretty great stuff for a 2 and 4 year-old.Lunch was hot dogs and pretzels with cheese. Also great stuff for 2 and 4 year-olds.After eating we visited the animals at the petting zoo. Warner even held this snake. Yuck.Snakes are not for me but goats I can handle. They also had a llama, pony, donkeys, and the largest rabbits I've ever seen. True story. They were enormous.

Because our days are still dictated largely by the kids' moods and naptimes, we had to leave before exploring the rest of the event. They had trail rides on horses, paintball, crafts for the kids, paddle boat rides, etc. etc. And, seeing as this was all basically free (and I love free), I believe we will be marking our calendars for this again next year.

Oktoberfest

We decided to check out Covington's Oktoberfest this afternoon with the kids. Perhaps you are questioning why we would take our kids to a beer festival. Well in our defense it was quite family friendly, and I only had one beer. So there.The kids got balloon hats that they wore for about 2 minutes and then were bored with. Maren's interest was piqued again when she saw herself in the bathroom mirror with the hat on. She thought it was pretty cool so she wore it for another two minutes after that. There were so many food choices. It was a little overwhelming, really. We got the kids a pretzel with cheese that they enjoyed. Sadly, the kids faded fast so we didn't get the chance to try anything else. Bummer. The Bavarian eclairs looked especially divine.Warner has wanted his face painted for a while now. They offer it at the Zoo but I've been too cheap to let him have it done. Today we were in a festive mood and it was only $5, so Warner was transformed into Spiderman for a couple of hours. He thought it was the coolest thing ever. He saw the finished product in a mirror at the face painting booth and was very pleased with the outcome. Then he wanted to see it again so we had to hunt down another mirror at a different booth for him to take a second look. He was all about it. The fountain. Not really an Oktoberfest thing, but exciting for kids just the same.The cotton candy was perhaps the highlight of the evening. Maren was delighted with the combination of pink and sugar. They were both sticky messes when it was all said and done. And really tired. I am confident we will all sleep well tonight.

First Day of Preschool

Today was the kids' first day of preschool for the year, and they were beyond excited to go. Warner is in a Monday, Wednesday, Friday three year-old class with Mrs. Kemp.
Maren is in a Wednesday only two year-old class with Mrs. Krebs.Here is Warner with his new Cars backpack. I'm not sure what it is with kids and backpacks - perhaps it's my kids' ages - but they are so very excited about their backpacks.Maren's backpack is about as big as her. It's pink and right now Maren is thrilled with all things pink, so this only adds to her love for her backpack. She wore it around the house for an hour before we left for preschool this morning. She even tried wearing it at the table for breakfast but it was a bit much so she agreed to take it off while she ate.Both kids walked into their classrooms confidently and happily. We're excited for another great year at Lakeside Presbyterian Preschool!

Gatlinburg

We visited Gatlinburg last weekend with Kevin's family. It was a great trip that included my favorite activity (shopping), and the kids' favorite activities (swimming, rides, playing with cousins, staying up late, and eating junk food). I'm pretty sure Kevin's favorite activities were not included in the weekend, but he was a good sport nonetheless.We had an absolute blast at the amusement park Saturday morning. Warner was just tall enough to drive the go-carts but unfortunately not coordinated enough to really get the hang of it. He tried so hard and really did well for a three year old little man.Maren loved each ride she went on. I am confident she will be our daredevil. There was a small roller-coaster that both kids rode with Kevin and me. Honestly I'm not sure Maren was tall enough to ride but they let her on. She screamed with the other kids and giggled the rest of the time. Warner wanted to ride it over and over again, and after his first trip announced: "I've been wanting to ride a roller-coaster forever!". Sunday morning before we left we played putt-putt with the kids. It was the first time they had played with putters of their own. Warner sort of chased his ball across the course and wanted to play each hole about three times. Thankfully there was no one playing behind us.Maren swung the putter a few times but then learned that she could just walk to the hole and drop the ball in. Once the ball was in the hole she'd turn around and announce "I did it!". Whatever. She was happy. Thanks for a great weekend, Nanny and Grandaddy!

Haircut

I'm not sure why we waited so long to cut Maren's hair. I think I was scared that her curls would go away, and also enjoyed the ease of pulling her hair into a ponytail when she wasn't in the mood for me to mess with her hair. In any case, Maren was beginning to sport a mullet so to the Kiddie Kastle we went for her first haircut.I sell bows at the Kiddie Kastle so the kids have been there a hundred times, but never for Maren's hair to be cut. This did not phase her. She marched right up to her chair of choice - the "back orse" (read: black horse) and was ready to go.The only thing that bothered her was the hair that got stuck to her hands.The finished product. Doesn't she look old? And in case you were wondering, her curls are still there. Yay!

Boone County Fair

I love the fair. Really. My heart is happy and suddenly I'm a kid again when we're walking through the fairgrounds, smelling fried food, watching rides spin around, and listening to the tractor pull in the distance. This might make me a redneck, but I really don't care. In my opinion, the fair is good, old-fashioned family fun.Of course the best part of the fair now is watching the kids enjoy the festivities. For a two and almost four year-old, the rides are just as fun as any amusement park.And what's better than funnel cake for dessert on a hot August night?
We stayed out until well past dark, the kids were exhausted, and filthy, and full of sugar by the time we left. And I can't think of a better way to spend a summer evening.