Apple Picking

You've probably noticed that we're big fans of the u-pick farms.  So far this year we've done strawberries, blueberries, peaches and now apples.  Karsten informed us that he would like to pick pineapples - we told him we'd have to go somewhere far away to do that.  He said 'okay, let's go!'

The apple orchard has ducks, including some baby ducks.  Liam just stood there for a bit and watched them swim around. I love this picture, I could just stare at it because he looks so mesmerized by the ducks.


After a short hayride out to the orchard, we were ready for apple picking.


Once Liam remembered that you could eat the fruit he picked, you wouldn't see him without an apple in his hand and/or mouth.


Karsten did a great job of finding apples to pick.


He enjoyed a few apples as well.


Taking a break under a tree and having an apple.  Liam eats the entire apple, even the core.  We tried to take it away from him and he yells NO and shoved it in his mouth.  Sigh - what a little stinker.




Checking out the ducks while enjoying another apple.


Almost done picking, we were just on our way to pick a different type of apples.  We had almost two bags of green apples and needed to get some red apples to balance things out.


I hope the boys keep enjoying the apples because we'll be eating them for a while! Looks like I need to get some apple recipes ready to go! Anyone have any favs to share?


Karsten was showing Liam that his apple was red.  He shouldn't get that too close to Liam or he might snatch it and eat it.


Liam was observing Scott pick red apples for us.


Before we left, we had to visit the ducks again.


Well hey there duck!


The boys backed up when the ducks got out of the water - they liked to watch them from a distance!


Kids were throwing apples at the ducks (not sure why their parents allowed that), so there were apples bobbing in the lake.  We didn't think the ducks liked the apples until this guy came up and started eating the partially eaten apple.  SO, perhaps ducks like apples but only if someone has already started it for them.

Sickie

I got the dreaded message from Gail today that said that Liam had a fever.  I picked him up and took him home and put him to bed.  Thankfully he napped for a few hours which will hopefully help him feel better.

When he woke up, he got to watch a little Daniel Tiger while I took a quick conference call for work.


We had all planned to go to a Sporting KC game tonight; however, this darn fever changed those plans.  We decided that Scott and Karsten would go ahead to the game without Liam and I. We had GA tickets and knew the games were really popular, so we assumed they needed to get there early to get good seats.  Turns out you don't need to get there quite so early.  They ended up getting spots right up front and having a lot of time to kill before the game.


Since it was just Liam and I for dinner, we decided to make smoothies to go with our leftovers.  Gail said he didn't eat much for lunch, so I assumed he probably wouldn't eat much at dinner either.  The boys love smoothies, so I thought it would be a good way to make sure he gets something nutritious for dinner.  He helped me make mixed berry smoothies with greek yogurt, kale and a splash of OJ to thin it out.  He drank his whole smoothie but didn't show much interest in the rest of his dinner - smoothie success!


After some Tylenol, he started to have some more energy and seem to feel better.  I put him to bed early so he would get a good night sleep and hopefully feel better tomorrow!

Wordless Wednesday - Pizza chef

Learning

Karsten is doing a great job at preschool.  He seems to be having fun and making lots of new friends.  When I dropped him off the other day, one of the teachers told me that he's become quite the helper for some of the younger girls.  One day someone took one of the toys away from a little girl and she was upset and crying.  Karsten held her hand and took her over to find a new toy - how sweet is that.

He came home a few days with blank worksheets that he hadn't tried to color or write his name on.  Scott asked his teacher when he picked Karsten up, and she said he kept saying he didn't know how to write his name or know how to color.  She said that it wasn't uncommon for boys his age to not be interested in coloring or writing.  We said we would work with him at home to get him more used to writing his name.  He's been doing it for a while when we outline it in dots; however, I think he just needs a confidence boost when doing it without dots.

Working together on holding the pencil right and writing his name.


Updated 10/4: I'm happy to report that he's now writing his name without dots and is coloring his papers again!

Fall is here!

It finally is starting to feel that fall has arrived - weather is getting cooler, pumpkins are appearing on doorsteps and days are getting shorter.  It's time to get out the fall decorations and put away spring and summer decorations.

I've pinned dozens of fall decorations on Pinterest that I'll get around to making someday (maybe); however, I decided to make a quick fall wreath.  I wrapped a straw wreath with yarn, then pinned some silk flowers to the wreath so I can swap out the flowers in the future when I get tired of these.  Thanks Pinterest!

End of a great day!

We ended our busy Saturday at a surprise birthday dinner for our friend Colleen.  Her sweet husband coordinated the dinner and managed to keep it a secret from Colleen.  That's no easy feat!

I met Colleen 13 years ago when I started at my first job after college.  Hard to believe it's been that long - even though we don't work together anymore or see each other as often as we would like, when we get together, it's like no time has passed!


The Plaza art fair was gong on, so we walked around a bit before we headed to dinner.  Its such a cool way to see Kansas City with big crowds enjoying beautiful fall weather and art from artists across the country.  Don't mind the partial nude statue photo bombing this picture of us.

Stop Two - Soccer

We had a busy Saturday planned - Eden's birthday party, Karsten's soccer game, then Scott and I were meeting friends for dinner.

I packed all of the soccer stuff and got Karsten changed at Jenn's house before we left.  Our plan had been to stop for lunch on the way to the soccer game.  Unfortunately, it took a bit longer than planned to round up our pirates, so we were in a time crunch.  We had to pick up Popsicles as treats for the soccer game, so we grabbed food to eat in the car.  Oops!

Liam was apparently still hungry when we got to the game and after he spotted snacks in my bag, he plopped down in the wagon and started eating.


After his snack, he was ready to go play.  He wasn't so happy when we told him he had to stay off the field.  We showed him a big area behind us to run around in; however, that was NOT where Karsten was running, so Liam wanted none of it.


Here's what was going on behind Liam.


Check it out - he got to kick the ball!


The popsicles were a hit.  I wanted to bring something a bit more healthy for the snack, so I thought all fruit popscicles would be a good choice.  The kids loved them!


Luckily I had enough popsicles so all of the siblings of Karsten's team mates could have one.  

Arrr - Pirate Party

Karsten was excited to help Eden celebrate her 6th birthday.  When he heard it was going to be a pirate party, he was thrilled!

Jenn had these adorable bandannas, eye patches, swords and hooks for the kids.  Once the kids made the transition to pirates, we got the group picture below.  Apparently the eye patch makes Karsten make this funny face.  I love how Elam is getting into the pirate theme.


Liam had no interest in pirate gear or being in the picture, but look at adorable little Robbie who made a cameo in this picture.


Jenn had a treasure hunt in a mud pit of balloons.  She said that Eden was very specific about what she wanted for her party, Jenn was just executing on Eden's vision!  Regardless who came up with it - the balloon 'mud' put was a hit and the kids had a great time finding necklaces and coins!


Jenn's family loves Legos, so what could be a better centerpiece than this cool pirate ship.


Wonder what she wished for?  The kids got to decorate their own cupcake and they were loaded with sprinkles!


Karsten enjoyed the cupcakes - frosting is the best part!


After cupcakes, my boys headed straight for the mud pit again.  Liam just liked throwing the balloons out and Karsten tried to smack each one with his pirate sword.


See Eden hiding in the balloons?


The best part of birthdays - opening presents!  Eden had lots of helpers close at hand.


Liam was happy to have the mud pit all to himself while everyone else watched the present opening.


After the kids were sugared up, we headed outside to run off some of that energy.


This is quite the band of pirates!


Arrr matey!


Liam wasn't having any of the pirate costume - no bandanna or eye patch for him.  He was partial to the sword but kept throwing it off the swing set and laughing.


Karsten and Elam had fun on the tire swing - swords and hooks included, of course.


Aren't they an adorable family?  Thanks for including us in your great pirate party, Eden!

Thanks Mom!

Check out this beautiful Halloween table quilt (is that a term?) that my mom made for us.  I love the design, the adorable Halloween fabric and the octogon shape!

Laughing Liam

Liam is developing such a little personality.  He's starting to talk more and is doing a great job.  So far, he has mastered mommy, daddy, papa, ahma (grandma), ee ee (monkey), whoa, yay, hi, bye, futbol (football), turtle, ball (seeing a trend?), tah (truck), up, hhha (help), daisy (Gail's dog), teve (Steve), darden (Karsten), mo (more), ni-nite, yay, NO, mine, me, uh-uh - I'm sure there are more that I'm forgetting.  He's doing so much better than he was just a few short months ago.  We're working to gain new words and hopefully start to combine words.

When Karsten does something he doesn't like, he'll stick his tongue out at him.  He's tried that on us a few times and ended up in time out.  Hopefully it's a short lived trend.

Sometimes he'll say 'mine, mine, mine, mine' when he wants something and doesn't have it or can't get it.  When he does this, he sounds like the flock of seagulls in Finding Nemo.  You're welcome - I'm guessing that's playing over and over in your head now.

And now for some cuteness.  I wear my sunglasses on my head for most of the summer, and when I took them off and put them on the table at dinner, Liam decided that he needed to wear them.


Perhaps I should surrender these to him - he looks pretty cute!