Fall festivities

I might need the pictures to jog my brain on this post.  Not sure if it is baby brain or what, but seems like its been a while since I posted and I know that a lot has gone on.  I also know my maternity leave is basically over.  Humpf.

After Ellie's birthday we started on some fun fall activities.  I had it in my head that we were going to go apple picking this year, but alas, it just didn't happen.  I suppose the apples will be there next year.

Our first adventure was to the American Museum of Natural History.  We hadn't taken Ellie into the city to do a museum yet and got her all excited about the dinosaurs.  She actually enjoyed the museum probably more and less than we thought.  Hard to remember that the attention span of a 3 year old is not what yours is.  Although she did like the stuffed animals in all of the different landscapes.  Probably because you can get really close to them and they look real.  Hell, she doesn't care if they move or not, she just wants to recognize them.  Needless to say it was a successful family outing and we now have a membership there (if anyone wants to come visit!)

T-Rex.  She referred to this as the "big mean one" and would give a good ROAR! after saying that.

This was one big tree. 

After that I got sick for a few days which busted a bunch of plans for us.  I had to cancel visits from two friends that we were trying to catch up with, which sucked a lot.  But I was really not feeling well and in no position to entertain.  Especially since I can't just have people over without scouring the house and planning elaborate menus.  By Sunday I was desperate to get out of the house and do something, so we went on a make shift pumpkin patch outing.  It was a local little farm, no pumpkin patch but did have a hay ride and cider doughnuts (which were not up to Mike's standards, and I am convinced that there was not going to be a doughnut in the whole NY/NE area that was going to live up to what is in Mike's brain).  The hay ride was weak at best, but it was a gorgeous day out and we got pumpkins so it's just going to have to do.

So much bigger than she was last year!

The following weekend I went away for a night to a meeting, and Tee Tee came down to help Mike out with the kids.  They went to "Boo at the Zoo" which apparently was just as crowded as could be.  But at least a good outing and I wasn't there to suffer the crowd!

I must say I am impressed by the donning of the holiday shirt (which would be her only Halloween shirt)

Tee Tee and Ellie

 Upon my return it was yet another gorgeous Sunday so we decided it would be a great time to carve our pumpkins.  Which is a one up from the year before where we bought the pumpkins but never got to carving them.  Not that activities involving sharp objects are ideal with impatient 3 year olds, but Ellie enjoyed picking out her pattern and the whole activity.

She didn't like the guts so much

Getting dirty with Daddy

That was Ellie's pumpkin in the foreground.  She wanted a happy face.

We snagged a bike for her from a tag sale of one of our neighbors.

Drove straight into the plants.  Maybe we need some practice.

Might be hard to tell, but we did actually also decorate the outside of our house for Halloween.  Yet another step forward for me in being a domestic mom.

We still need to get lights for them since I guess it isn't kosher anymore to put candles in pumpkins.  When did that go out of vogue??

Unfortunately we are going to miss out on our invitation to a Halloween party since we have to go up North to try and buy a car (yes a third car.  Amazing how you can go from 1 to 3 in such a short time frame).  Our new nanny starts Monday!  That's a whole other blog though.  I also realized that we only had one picture on our real camera of Zack from the month of October.  Man, does suck to be a second child!  Although I have about a billion on my phone and you have to scroll back a while to get one of Ellie on there.