Happy Halloween!

Hello and Happy Halloween :)  This year the Bear went dressed up as Sheriff Woody from the Toy Story movies. She had a Toy Story themed third birthday party so I was able to reuse a few of the costume pieces I had bought or made for that (the vest, boots, and hat). It was actually a fairly easy costume to make and we got many compliments on it tonight. I made the holster from felt and foam craft, the belt buckle is painted cardboard, the jeans and yellow shirt were from Once Upon A Child and the red bandanna was left over from her birthday party. Unfortunately all three of us are pretty darn sick so we hit maybe a dozen houses. That still took us close to 45 minutes and it was getting pretty chilly when the sun went down. All in all though I'd say it was a successful Halloween and Bear seemed to really enjoy herself and filling her bucket.

Hiking at Red River Gorge in KY

This past weekend we went hiking with my father-in-law at the Red River Gorge in Kentucky (it's part of the Daniel Boone National Forest outside of Lexington.) According to the website, "...the Red River Gorge in Kentucky is one of the best places to explore arches, defined as geological formations which took millions of years to form." with Natural Bridge as the most famous one - "a particular sandstone rock bridge that is 65 feet in height and spans 78 feet in length."

We spent the night at a very nice bed and breakfast (the breakfast was delicious!) and then headed out to Gray's Arch. By the time we got to Natural Bridge the batteries in both our camera and in Dad's had died so I think we have 4 pictures from there (none of which are of the Bridge, of course.) It just means that we'll have to go back and stay at the Hemlock Lodge there so we can get some pictures ;)

We were lucky to get such beautiful Fall colors on our hike.

Hiking. Bottom right was one of our four pictures at Natural Bridge.

K was starting to get a bit tired at the end.

I love how the top left leaves are almost all red but not quite and the top right picture has all green leaves except one.
Bot lt: Mossy tree roots. Bot rt: Gray's Arch

The weather was absolutely beautiful as was the nature. It was a really great weekend :)

Harvest Jamboree and StoryWalk

This past weekend we had the pleasure of taking advantage of two very fun and FREE Fall events. First up was the Harvest Jamboree that consisted of pumpkin decorating, wagon rides, kiddie mover, games, storyteller and animals for petting. K really enjoyed all of the attractions. I was hoping maybe she'd do the pony ride but no dice. However, normally K is terrified of feeding goats (and I have to say I don't blame her. They have crazy bug eyes.) But they had the sweetest most docile billy goat there and she just loved him. I even petted him too and while you would think his coat would be coarse it was actually quite soft. Who knew?

Top lt: Sitting on a big ol' pumpkin. Top rt: After decorating her own pumpkin.
Bot lt: Riding in the Kiddie Mover. Bot rt: On the wagon hayride with Daddy.

Top lt: Petting Billy the Goat. Top rt: Jumping off a rock (she'll jump off anything if given the chance.)
Bot lt: Petting a duck. Bot rt: Somebody had too much fun but Daddy provides very comfy transportation.

The next fun event we did was called StoryWalk. The local Rec Center posted pages of a book along the walking path and K would listen as we read a page and then RUN to the next page and plop down on the ground waiting for us to catch up. Along the way there were rocks to jump off, giant hills to run down and Daddy showed K how to break open Locust seed pods and then throw the seeds into the pond.

Top lt: Oh how I love that mischievous face! Top rt: Jumping off rocks.
Bot lt: Waiting for us to catch up and read to her. Bot rt: Darting off to find the next page of the book.

Top lt: Finding her own stash of Locust seed pods to throw in the pond. Top rt: Throwing the seeds into the pond.
Bot lt: My two little peas (or seeds in this case) in a pod. Bot rt: Heading home with Daddy and her new Brobee.

I'm always very impressed with how many truly fun things this town offers for FREE if only you look for them (or have a Social Event Coordinator friend like Sandy ;)

Dampa's Birthday

This past Saturday we celebrated Dampa's (K's way of saying Grampa) birthday by going to a local MetroPark. We had such a great time! The weather could not have been better (lower 80's) and the gardens were absolutely beautiful.

Top Lt: Heading into the twig maze. Top Rt: Peeking around one of the many twists and turns.
Bot Lt: Working their way through the maze. Bot Rt: A cute and cuddly moment in a hiding spot.

Top Lt: Playing in the sand table. Top Rt: K with two of her main men, Dampa and Daddy.
Bot Lt: JAK (love the faces on K & Daddy). Bot Rt: Soaking wet K after playing in the sprinklers.

Some of the flowers from the gardens and a Ginkgo Tree.

We have had the most amazing sunsets the past few nights. Here are two different nights taken in our backyard.

So what do you guys think of the new layout? Do you like the collage photos or single photos better? As always, thanks for looking :)

Fall Fun

The past few days, K and I have had the opportunity to enjoy some incredibly beautiful weather by getting out and doing some fun Fall activities.

On Thursday we met our Buddy Pal and his Mom at one of the MetroParks near downtown and after playing at the playground, K and I walked around this beautiful park for at least another hour. We met a very friendly squirrel who really enjoyed looking at K and she certainly enjoyed the attention. We also collected tons of leaves and sticks to throw over the edge of a beautiful red bridge so we could run to the other side and watch them float out below us. I couldn't resist taking some pictures of the changing leaves. I love Fall :)

Top left: bridge at the MetroPark. Top right: pretty tree at the park.
Bottom left: yellow trees along a street downtown. Bottom right: trees across the street from our house.

Along with the 80 degree days, we've had some beautiful sunsets and lots of quality time with Daddy.

Top left: sunset. Top right: the streamers on the playroom door casting a rainbow along the hallway.
Bottom left: Playing guitar with Daddy. Bottom right: collecting sticks to throw off the bridge.

Left: wearing Daddy's shoes on the bathroom scale. Middle: watching the sticks float back out. Right: tree by our house.

Our next door neighbor has a beautiful garden right outside her front door and it attracts these very cute white/yellow butterflies that K absolutely loves. She wants one to land on her so badly! She chases them around the flowers and tries to put her hand out for them to land on. My Mom has a book that K really enjoys and this happens to the main character. I think she really wants to reenact that scene.

On Friday we went with our other Buddies to an exotic animal ranch. It was ...interesting. Not bad or anything but smaller and more tightly packed than I expected for the price (not that it was super expensive but more than I realized it was going to be.)

Top left: the butterfly she was chasing. Top right: holding out her hand for the butterfly to land on her.
Bottom two: kangaroo and mountain lion from the exotic animal ranch.

Top left: miniature horse. Top right: coyote. Bottom left: camel. Bottom right: giraffe.

Top left: pot belly pig. Top right: deer. Bottom left: elephant. Bottom right: horses.

Top left: Highland cow (on my gosh, I loved this guy. I really wanted to take him home). Top right: donkeys for my Sis.
Bottom left: She is going to make a wonderful big sister. Bottom right: I was the only one brave enough to ride the pony.

Sorry for all of the pictures but like I said, we've had some very fun Fall days lately =D

JAK's Fall Family Fun Day

On Saturday we had Fall Family Fun Day which involved going out to breakfast, picking out pumpkins, Daddy making gingerbread cookies, Mommy making oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and decorating/carving the pumpkins. We were going to make caramel apples too but ended up running out of time. Maybe tomorrow...

K-Bear did really great this year. Like last year we let her use permanent markers to draw on her pumpkin but UNLIKE last year, I put the markers away immediately after she was done with them. To fill in anyone who didn't hear the story of the permanent markers from last year, I failed to put them away after she was done decorating and the next day, while A and I were upstairs hanging curtains, she managed to get the red Sharpie off the table and drew all over her face, hands, Lilly (her once-white stuffed lamb), a changing table we had disassembled to donate, and of course, the flat screen TV. Thank goodness baby wipes and dry erase markers get permanent marker off almost any non-cloth surface. It was almost a heart attack moment but like I said, thankfully we were able to get it off of pretty much everything. But this year I made sure not to repeat that mistake!

She also did much better this year at using the safety carver and actually doing a bit of carving on her pumpkin herself. She started by just making holes but then after Daddy carved some eyes and a nice toothy grin for her, she decided that I was the tooth fairy and she hacked out all of the teeth with the carving saw. I was having flash backs to Steve Martin as the Dentist in Little Shop of Horrors. I tried making my pumpkin a bit more scary this year because I always have the cute happy one but my pumpkin is nothing compared to the hacked out mouth of K's! Lol =D

Seriously concentrating on her work

Daddy adding a few drawings of his own.

Adding stickers.

She was very happy and proud of her pumpkin.

Daddy's, K's and my pumpkins.

With no flash to see their true nature.