From our house to yours - Happy Halloween!

Well, I started this post this afternoon when Halloween Trick -or Treating had not occurred but I am finishing it now after we are home and Lyla is in bed, so I can share with you some photos from Lyla's 1st Trick or Treating Adventure.

Lyla and I picked out her Bee costume about 2 months ago. Let me say it has been well worn as she has worn it a lot during her play time and dance time. Here are some outside pictures of Lyla in her Halloween costume 'The Bee". Now here is a look back at where we were a year ago. Lyla was 5 1/2 months old here. She had just sat up on her own the day before. It was a beautiful warm, sunny day and we were able to take some pictures outside. Her first Halloween - our little pumpkin!

Here is my bee one year later. I took some outdoor pictures earlier this week and I was glad I did it than rather than today. Today was a cool day with a very strong wind. Luckily the wind did subside for tonight. Look at how she has changed in a year!!Here is the bee ready to go. She wanted to get going to the front of the yard to investigate the porch. She loves to get up on the front porch and check out my pots and look in the mailbox.Here we are tonight. We carved 3 pumpkins - one for Ryan, one for Me and one for Lyla - can you guess who is who?? I was trying to get a picture with Lyla and her pumpkins. She said 'Hi Pies' and called them 'Pretty'.Here is our little trickster. We visited 8 houses and Lyla got a variety of treats from chocolate, to pretzels to a Snowman toy and a bunch of balloons. She had a tight grip on our fingers and was shy to people. That is unless they had a dog and then she would have gone right into their homes. She giggled and got excited when other kids ran by her. She just went with the flow and seemed to know what to do. By the time we got back she understood to take candy from our bowl and put it in her basket. She wasn't scared for the haunted hause/ chainsaw noises that were down the street. She had a great time and so did we! She also enjoyed watching the kids come to our door for candy. I think she enjoyed that as much as anything. Here she is waiting with Daddy for more kids to come. She would giggle and come right to the door when the kids came.

I will leave you with our Halloween family portrait... Happy Halloween!!

Our trip to get a 'Pie'

Last Sunday I was fortunate enough to get low census at work and was able to leave 4 hours early. This was so exciting for us as a family, as we had not had a day together since Labor day. Ryan was going to take a day off from work so we could enjoy a pumpkin patch day, so this was a bonus. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and we decided to race up to our Pumpkin Patch where the fall festivities were taking place. There was lots to see and do there. Animals to visit, Hayrides to find our perfect pumpkin, a train ride and of course more time in the barn to see the animals again.
We had to end the visit with some sweet and lovely apple cider and of course some cinnamon donuts for the ride home.
Here are some pictures to chronicle of our visit to the farm.

After visiting the animals in the barn we got in line for the hay ride. Here is Lyla and I on our hayride to the pumpkin patch. Oh the excitement when we got to the patch. She was so excited, pointing at all the 'pies' which is pumpkins in Lyla lingo. Here she is on the hunt for the perfect pumpkin. She would run up to a pumpkin and point at it and tell me about it. I would then say, something like 'this one has too much green. Lets go find another.' Lyla would reply as 'OK! OK! OK!' and run off to look at another pumpkin. She was so excited and had so much fun in the pumpkin patch.
Here she is on the hunt for the pumpkin..




Daddy and Lyla in the pumpkin patch.

The next 7 photos I have entitled. 'Finding the one - Lyla's Pie Celebration'

After a long search Lyla found the One! You first have to get down low and give it a pat and see if it meets your standards..It is perfect!! Yes!! So do a little dance...
And jump up and down!Don't forget to clap your hands! Doing this while you dance adds to the excitement!
Put is all together and boogie down and you have got the one! The Pumpkin Celebration!

After the pumpkin patch adventure we hopped back on our hayride and headed up to the front of the farm. Lyla quickly spotted the train and we were a little apprehensive on taking her on the train after our last train ride at the zoo. Lyla was a champ and we were lucky, because this was like a 15 minute train ride around the entire farm. I think we saw every acre, so we are lucky she didn't freak out as it would be a long ride.

Here is Lyla and Daddy with the train!

We headed back up to the farm and revisited all the animals. I have more videos on this part of our trip so I will only share with you one picture.

And check out this 'crow' aka scarecrow. He was just massive.

Lyla picked out this ity-bity pumpkin to be her pumpkin. She was so proud of it. She held on to it the whole way home and ate dinner with it and everything.

We had a great time at the pumpkin patch and already we are planning next years trip. It was great as Lyla is so into pumpkins and animals right now.

Bus

I am a product of the Fisher Price 'Little People'. I grew up with these toys and I have been wanting to get one for Lyla for a while but I have been holding off for the right time. About 2 weeks ago Lyla had a vaccine and this was the perfect time for Lyla to get her bus. Whenever we would look at them in the store she always seemed most interested in the bus. My trusty Kohl's was having a sale and I had a coupon so I got the bus for a steal. Here is Lyla playing with her bus after getting home from her shots.

Everybody in!

Now here is an example of how Miss Lyla stuffed her bus full of everything that she could find. From one extreme to the other.

Everybody out!

About a week or so ago Lyla's big deal was to completely empty her bins of toys. It was pretty funny to watch as she took everything out including the bins and then tried to figure out how she was going to get out of this mess!

Pictures of Fall in my neck of the woods..

Fall is here and winter is around the corner. Yikes! I spent some of my afternoon outside preparing and here are some pictures as fall starts to creep into my yard...

Empty flower beds....still waiting on the leaves to change color.. Lyla's tree starting to change colors..

These flowers, which I have just forgotten the name of, never bloomed until this year. So nice to see them so pretty, thanks to the yard man Duke for moving them..

Our scarecrows - or as Lyla refers to them 'crows!'

My blushing bride hydrangea - it has this pretty hue of red right now..

Here is our Halloween cat blowing in the fall wind...

How does fall look to all of you?

Dancing and Grooving!

Dance to the music!!

At some time in our day there is a dance party. There is no set time for this dance party, rather it just occurs when the urge hits us. It may be first thing in the morning, after lunch or before bed but whenever it is it sure is a lot of fun.

Here are some step by step directions on how to get the most out of your own dance parties...

1. Grab 2 buckets, put them on your wrists and get into 1st position. (For all of you non ballerinas; Lyla is demonstrating the first position with her feet.)

2. Feel the music and start to groove it. Feel the beat in your knees..

3. Sing out loud at the top of your lungs!

4. Take a walk, keep those buckets up and act like you have better places to be, but you know that you don't because...

5. Because once you check yourself out in a mirror you know you got to..

6.You got to move it, move it!!!

Hope you all take some time for a free dance today!

Cake

Yes, Lyla has it. She got it from me and it isn't going to stop. It is her love of sweets. Specifically mint and chocolate cake. Here she is enjoying her Mint Chocolate cake. When I make anything in the oven she peers in the window and you may hear her saying 'cake or cookie'. I taught her well.... Oh yeh - she does also say 'hot' too, but that is after we find out what is cook'n!

Swimming!

We all know that Lyla Water baby! This fall we enrolled her in swimming lessons at the community center and it has been a big hit. It has been an event that we can do as a family as we go at night so Daddy can come along. Which has actually turned out good as Ryan has more guts than me and I don't know if I could 'dunk' Lyla as they want us to do once a lesson.

Anyways.. Lyla has been loving the swimming lessons. She is very excited to go to the 'Pool' and she know when I show her her 'Suit' that we are going to be going swimming. We will probably continue this through the winter as she is enjoying it so much.

I swear she knows when she wakes up from her nap on swimming day that it is time to go to the pool, it seems she always asks about the pool on that day. She also knows that after swimming we routinely get a pizza and bread because when I loaded her in the car last week after swimming she promptly asked me for her 'bun' which is the bread that goes with the pizza. I don't know how she knows this stuff but she does...

Here are some pictures of our water baby!

Memories

We, as people, are a culmination of our memories. The stories we share with are friends and families are rooted in memories. The experiences that mould us are our memories. Therefore, memories are an integral part of ones life. And with that I wonder - What will I remember when I am old and gray?

Lately, I have been spending a lot of time wondering will I remember this?? Will I remember that?? I don't know why this has become a focus of mine. Is it that I realize just how small we are in the grand scheme of things. How quickly time passes and how those memories fade as time marches on.

Just yesterday I was trying to tell a once funny story to my sister about a memory of Ryan and I in which we went on a haunted tour of Kingston which ended up disastrous with our bus stuck at Fort Henry on Halloween night. That once funny story was foggy to recall and events have dropped out of my memory making me sad that I couldn't remember the details. Thus making me wonder yet again - what will I remember when I am nearing the end of my life.

I hope that I will always remember the night in which Ryan first kissed me. The night that Ryan proposed and the day of our wedding. These are memories that are still quite vivid in my mind. But there are every day events that fade so quickly that I want to remember too...

Then I think about Lyla. There is so much that I don't want to forget. Will I remember how she yells my name even when I am standing right bedside her. Her signature 'Ma-Ma!' I don't think I could ever forget that. Will I remember how she how she reads her storybooks to me? How she wants to do somersaults? How she loves to dance? How Ryan and her cheer for football together? How she dances to music? How she giggles and screams as she plays? How she loves to be outside? And how she cries when we come inside? How she loves her teddy? And how she loves her Mama and her Daddy and gives us kisses and hugs now? These are all things I wonder if they will to become foggy... I sure hope not.

My answer is to start blogging again more, to help me preserve my memories. So, when I am 90 and my memories are foggy my granddaughter can bring me her computer and show me my stories so I can remember my memories...

Lyla's Fall Must Haves

When ever we go outside there are 3 things that Lyla needs to enjoy this fall weather. These include her coat, which she asks for as she hugs her stomach. Her pumpkin hat, which I was going to return because I figured there was no way that she would keep this on, let alone ask for it all the time. And the third item in her new shoes. I bought her a pair of new running shoes a week ago which she will bring to me and ask to put them on even when we aren't going outside. Yesterday I had her ready to go to Gymboree Music class in her SeeKai Run shoes and she would not leave until we changed shoes.
Anyways, here is Lyla in her outfit. And there may soon be 4 must have items as the coat has matching mittens which she put on yesterday and thought they were a huge hit. The coat I got off line at CocoBons in the summer and it is super cute.
Yesterday at music class Lyla went in in her coat and hat. I took both off and she promptly asked for both of them to be put back on. So she wore her coat and hat for a bit of the class. As a wise woman once told me, you have to choose your battle and this was not a battle to fight as she would have been heart broken and she just wanted to show her teacher and classmates her coat and her hat.

Here is Lyla playing outside yesterday... showing off her attire..

Loving those mitts.