Fall Fun

Another busy weekend with lots of fun activities...

Friday evening we took Will to see his buddy Griffin play soccer. It was at an indoor arena in Rossford with a group called Lil' Kickers. Griffin is 5 and comes from a family of talented athletes so it was fun to see him play - and he is good! Griffin's dad Lester was there and he brought Will out onto a little side field area to kick around some balls. Will had a blast! It was so cute to see him out there and he basically ran for 45 minutes straight. He kept coming up to the glass wall and yelling "I'm playing soccer, mommy! I'm playing soccer!" And then going to the sidelines of Griff's game and yelling "Go Griff! Yay Griff!"

I had no idea Will was going to have the opportunity to play out there so he wasn't really dressed appropriately and the funny thing about Will is that once he's wearing a sweatshirt or jacket, he never wants to take it off, even when it's warm out. So after awhile I had to MAKE him take the vest and hat off. Just wait till you see how sweaty he'd gotten!






And look at this one - I hardly recognize my sweaty, little boy! And isn't Griff cute with his little surfer boy hair? :)


Much-needed water break:




When I see how much fun he's having out there, I think it would be cool to get Will involved in something low-key for his age group. But then I'm torn because he's only two, and he's away from us all day during the week. So between coming home to take a load off, getting dinner and a bath, and getting to bed by 8... I hesitate to add extra-curricular activities that will make for more chaos. That's inevitable in the future anyway. Do I really want to start it so young when having dinner together as a family is probably more important? Hmm... decisions, decisions. It hadn't really occurred to me that we'd be thinking about this so soon.

In the meantime, Craig went out and bought Will a Nike soccer ball today to kick around the house. Craig & I both hold the value of sports (and being part of a team) pretty high, so it's fun to see Will taking an interest. We hope both our kids are active in sports. But it makes me laugh that it only takes the mention of Will's interest in a particular sport to make Craig rush out and get him the ball to facilitate that interest. Craig is more of a football/basketball kind of guy, so he said tonight "I don't know much about soccer, but this looks like a pretty sweet ball!" :)

Saturday was a "hang-around-the-house" sort of day. There's so much I want to do with the kids, but if we don't take time to relax, we're going to burn out. And we had Sunday pretty well packed with activities. So Saturday we did laundry, cooked a nice meal, rented a movie and had a slow day.


Getting ready for bath. Sophie LOVES her feet. :)









Sunday morning, the kids and I were up and out the door by 8 a.m. for the annual Susan Komen Walk for the Cure. My mom and I do it every year and I love including the kids now. This is Will's 3rd year. He always rides along in a carrier and now that he's nearing 30#... I'm pretty sure this was his last year of that. Strollers are just ridiculous at the race amidst 18,000+ people (another new record this year!) so I think next year we may do a little "training camp" and see if he can't do the 1-mile family fun walk instead. It would be a dream for me to one day participate in running road races with my kids. I'd love that! So anyway, I carried Will on my back and mom carried Soph.






After all his "hard work", Will has to stretch it out before we head home. :)





He even got a cheese stick at one of the booths to "refuel". :)

Okay, so we headed home, got lunch, Will went down for an early nap while Sophie and I cuddled up for a nap too. Then we headed out to MacQueen Orchards in early afternoon to check out the "apple farm". Nana gave Will a pre-K Weekly Reader from her school that was all about apples. So he did a little research on the way out to the orchard.



What a BEAUTIFUL property they have out there! With rolling hills surrounding the house, a farmers market and gift shop that smell like apple fritters and cider, a vast orchard and activites for the kids... it was a fun little trip. With Will still so young, we opted not to actually pick our own apples, but we did walk through the orchard and check out the trees. Then on the way out, we just purchased some honeycrisp apples and cider.

One of the first things Will saw upon arrival were the ponies for the kids to ride. He immediately wanted to go see them, said he wanted to ride them, stood by that statement as we waited in line for our turn and paid the nice lady... then promptly changed his mind as soon as Craig placed him in the little saddle. Craig did his best to reassure him that he'd walk right beside him, but in the end there was no pony riding to be had. One day maybe...

Instead, Will opted for something a little less scary... the little, colorful "train" that drove us for a few loops through the trees.

Then we took a stroll through the orchard...

My favorites:

Leaving the orchard, we stopped home to pick up a dish for the dinner we were headed to. Will immediately spotted the combine in the field and HAD to get out and watch it for awhile.

Both my brothers have September birthdays, so we celebrated with a family dinner for both of them. Steak and twice baked potatoes - mmm! Will ate a good size chunk of steak and 3 servings of broccoli, cauliflower and carrots.

Their gift from mom and dad was a set of hand-painted Notre Dame cornhole boards for each of them.

Casey with Stella, Amanda with Mya, and Grandma with Sophia

Silly Sophie :)

Stella & Mya will be 4 months this Friday!

For awhile now, I've been meaning to get a picture of my grandma with both my kids. My grandma is very important and close to me and I love this picture with Will looking at her and Sophie in her arms.

Dessert - "Mud pudding". Happy Birthday Zach and Taylor!

Welcome Autumn!

Do you smell that? Fall is here!!!

...Okay so it's 80 degrees and muggy but at least the calendar is promising a cool down soon.

My very favorite time of year with so much to do and so many wonderful things to tempt all the senses. I'm excited to share my love of this perfect season with my children too. This fall I am looking forward to apple picking, pumpkin shopping, cooking and baking A LOT, talking to Will about the changes we see outside, introducing solid foods to Sophia with all the yummy fall produce, celebrating my wedding anniversary and Craig's birthday, etc. etc.

Hope you all enjoy this autumn as well!

Sophia is 5 months old!

Of course, I did another photo shoot on the glider chair because I love to see the changes month to month.



Big brother is still in jammies.




Sophie leaned in for a "kiss"... or to try to eat his face, but whatever.


Right back at ya, babe!


We practiced sitting some more. Don't get excited - this was only for a couple seconds... hence the fuzzy picture. :)




We'll keep the Boppy around awhile longer. It makes for a nice, cushy, landing pad.


Sophie had a follow up appointment with the pediatrician on Thursday. Craig took her again and all is well. She weighed 15#9oz! So she had a little growth spurt in the last 3 weeks, up almost a pound and a half from her 4 month well check. In the last few weeks, she has really increased her ability to move around. Though she's not crawling yet, she rolls and scoots all over the floor in an effort to reach various toys when I put her down to play. She's also recently regressed a little bit with sleep habits, needing a little more help getting to sleep than she used to and waking occasionally and not being able to soothe herself back to sleep. I'm chalking it up to learning a new skill and/or possibly teething? (Though I haven't felt any teeth "on the brink" yet when I wipe her gums.) Hope that passes quickly!

On Friday night, we went out to see the Comets defeat the Wildcats on the football field. It is almost ridiculous how much better Genoa is than the competition this year! Will loved cheering for Genoa's quarterback "Moose" and watching the game with daddy & Big Papa (Riedeman).




On Saturday, Sophie and I went to check out the street fair in town. It was just okay. Not much real exciting. Meanwhile, Craig took Will over to the farm to see the animals again and the progress on Kelly & Steve's new house. I met them over there and got the tour. The house is just enormous!!! Something like 5500 square feet! Wow!

In the afternoon, I attended Craig's cousin's outdoor wedding while Craig stayed home with the kids. Then in the evening, Will went to a fish fry at our babysitters house down the street while Craig, Sophie & I attended the wedding reception. Will had a great time eating "fishy" and we had a little more relaxed evening with just our baby girl. The first slow dance that they invited everyone to the dance floor happened to be our wedding song (The Way You Look Tonight) so, with Sophie asleep on my shoulder, the 3 of us shared a dance. It brought back memories of Will's first wedding (at 3 weeks old) when all the mothers and sons were asked to join the groom and his mother on the dance floor for a special dance. I love to dance with my sleeping babes. Later that evening we came home to Will sound asleep in his bed and put Sophie down too before having friends over for our monthly UFC night. Busy day!

Here's the kiddos as we were getting ready to leave that evening. Sophie's in her party dress and Will's wearing... wait for it... his Ohio State jersey... again. (Shocker - Craig dressed him.)

And here's the three of us at the wedding:

Today, Craig and I took turns napping to catch up on sleep and then we had another dinner guest in the evening. (I love having dinner guests on weekends.) Craig's cousin Megan is in town from Prague for a few months so she came over to visit. We had big salads with chicken and white beans for dinner. Bruschetta to go with, and apple crisp for dessert. Megan taught Will to say hello and goodnight in Czech.