Fall Ketchup

I wanted to write this post awhile ago. After all, I was planning on at least an extra two days before baby came... but now that I have a spare 10 minutes so it is time to play a little catch-up.

This fall was a very special time for us. We had some unseasonably warm weather and tried to get out of the house as much as possible in between the numerous projects we scheduled.  We wanted to spend some special alone time with just Ellie before adding to the mix. It was such a weird feeling to know the family dynamic was going to change just around the corner.

We took a lot of walks and visits to the park. Sometimes we picked up grandma after she got out of work and took her along with us. It was nice to have the extra set of hands when it was getting hard for me to wrestle the skinny 2-year old through her tantrums.

Me? Tantrum? Say What?

We went to Binder Park Zoo which was a very fun trip! Ellie loved feeding the giraffes and riding on the train. She also had a chat with the kangaroos and almost got attacked by a flying monkey.

A highlight was a fall visit to Klackles orchard. I've never seen such a crazy fall oriented place. We picked apples, ate amazing donuts, went to the petting zoo, pet a snake, rode on a fire truck, played on ginormous inflatables, played in a giant sandbox, sat in a school bus, spun around in a giant apple... you know, the usual...

Scott and I carved pumpkins while drinking cider and eating even more donuts. We haven't included Ellie in this tradition yet.

Final touches on Ellie's new big girl room!

Trick or treating was especially fun this year. Scott stayed home and passed out candy while I took the strawberry out. She was not digging  the experience at the first house, but as soon as she got her treat, she opened her eyes wide and screamed "I GOT CANDY!" and the rest of the trip was no problem. Everyone thought she was adorable and gave her handfuls of candy (I ate most of it). She said "thank you" all sweetly and they gave her more (which I also ate). After every few houses, I took handfuls of candy out of her basket and stuffed it in my coat pocket so she could carry her basket without dragging it. The beautiful weather combined with her stellar attitude had us treating for over an hour. One couple thought she was so cute they asked me if they could take her picture. Another fun loving family got out the hose in case I went into labor on their driveway. Awesome!

Well, I think that's it. I can't believe next year we'll be toting 2 little spookies around the neighborhood!