20 Months! Goodnight Moon (and dolphin)

Girls Weekend!

So last weekend, Nick decided to road trip with some friends to Penn State for the Illinois vs. PSU game. Which Illinois won! So it was me and Ellie for the weekend.

We had a great start to the weekend with a couple of packages from her grandparents. Despite the goodies (including cookies and stickers) she thought the boxes were awesome! However, she did recognize the cookies from Great-Grandma Dolly right away and had the ziploc bag open within a minute of me opening of the package. She then watched me and figured out where I put the rest of the cookies and dug in for some more.

We also completed a little sticker art with stickers from Gma and Gpa Harrer. Everything was worthy of stickers, the paper, me, Baby, Ellie...we are still finding stickers on things!

Ellie even helped me make some of my own pumpkin puree. I bought some sugar pumpkins and while I was busy getting them ready for the oven, Ellie played with the insides on the floor. She didn't seem too keen on having her hands be dirty, but it was an entertaining activity for a few minutes. And then, with the fresh puree, she helped me make pumpkin muffins by putting paper liners into the muffin tin for me.

On Sunday, Aunt Susie joined us on a trip down to the Children's Museum. As usual, Ellie ran to the "bubble water" to show Aunt Susie how to make bubbles. Well...Aunt Susie was able to put Ellie inside of a bubble, that was exciting!

We had a blast on our girl's only weekend. Of course, hanging out with Aunt Susie, and presents from the grandparents, and boxes (which in the end she helped me put in the recycling bin), made what was going to be a good weekend, a great weekend.

Daddy has a boo boo!!

Last weekend, Nick broke his hand. His right hand. He's right handed.

So now he has a massive cast thingie. Ellie calls it Daddy's owie and tries to kiss it to make it better.

Apple Picking - Part Deux

Last weekend, when we started to feel the chill in the air and we had finished all of our apples we had picked previously, we headed back to the orchard for some more. "We" is defined as Aunt Susie, Ellie and me. It was a girls' afternoon out! This time the pumpkins were also out!

Ellie, now the master apple picker, did a great job maneuvering through branches to find apples at her height to pick. She also munched through a few herself! She really loved the trip to the orchard and seeing the animals again. As a side note, she also has become quite the cuddly little girl.

We opted to splurge and get a bushel of apples, previously we had only gotten a peck. Well, a bushel of apples (minus the ones Aunt Susie took home) for a family of three, is A LOT of apples. So I'm scouring my cookbooks for recipes involving apples!

Happy 60th Birthday Grandpa!

Practice makes perfect...maybe next year I'll be able to play "Happy Birthday" for you.

19 Months!

This month...Ellie wanted Baby to ride on the dolphin and join in the photo shoot!

Apple Picking!

This past weekend, with the very slightest hint of a chill in the air, we all headed out to the orchard (about 20 miles out of the city) for an afternoon fun of apple picking. Due to the weird weather of the New England this summer (drought followed by very heavy rains) the apple season was moved up a few weeks. So, without sweaters on, we headed out to pick our peck of apples!

The orchard was a lot of fun. Besides the Gala, Cortland, and Mcintosh apples ripe for picking, the farm also offered cider donuts, cider, hayrides, hay maze, and a petting zoo. Ellie adored the goats, sheep, and llama and couldn't get enough of them. However, she was a little too little and young for the hayride and maze.

We also discovered that Ellie can and loves to eat her own apples. She actually ate two (!) by herself while we were at the orchard.

Since we got to go apple picking so early this year and Aunt Susie missed the visit, we are hoping to get out there again for some Red Delicious, or Yellow Delicious, or to pick our pumpkin!