Outdoors in October

Fall is by far my favorite season.  While I love apple picking and cider and apple cider donuts and foliage and pumpkins and leaves and crisp cool mornings... well, I could go on... All things I've loved about fall since I can remember, I now also love playgrounds in the fall.  Spring can be to wet and summer is too hot, but fall is a really enjoyable playground season. I have to say, I never imagined how many hours I would spend at a playground once I had a toddler, but I love to watch her have fun.

MiniM.E. kept wanting me to take her picture as she came out of the slide

swinging like a big kid!

Our new favorite place to visit in the fall is Ellm's Farm.  We have been there twice since our first visit.  I thought maybe we'd get bored the second time... or the third... but I'm pretty sure MiniM.E. could spend all day, every day there for at least a week.

on the zip line!

MooMooChooChoo!!

bounce-a-bounce 

woo! roller coaster!

 The third time we went we went on a "Flex Day" with our "preschool group" of toddlers and moms.  Just as good.  PLUS, we got free cider and donuts and a pumpkin for each of our kids!

MiniM.E. as a spider

choosing a pumpkin

What A Year!

As it gets closer to MiniM.E.'s birthday, I can't believe how much has happened this year. Or even the past couple months.  Or even just yesterday.

Since she turned one MiniM.E. is running and jumping and talking in sentences and singing songs and drawing pictures.  She's weaned and loves quinoa, avocado and broccoli.  She is potty trained and picks out her own outfits down to the underwear and socks EVERY DAY.  And now this:

I wasn't so sad about weaning because seriously, it was time.  I definitely wasn't sad about the potty training.  Is anybody sad?  But the toddler bed almost brought tears to my eyes.  My little baby is growing up.  AND can now ransack her room at night.  Definitely sad-worthy.  But oh so cute!

Two Weeks Until Two!!

And just as one cold is waning, I have come down with another.  My list of things to do to prepare for MiniM.E.'s 2nd birthday is quite extensive.  Yet I think I'll take a break... write a blog post, and who knows, maybe even take a quick nap!

We had a most exciting and spontaneous weekend where I dragged my still-dragging behind (who am I kidding, I was thrilled to go) to a beer festival while my mom watched MiniM.E.  Then Sunday my mom drove us to Albany Med to visit our neighbor who just had surgery, and we left from there to drive to CT to see my cousins 6-week old baby.  Sound crazy?  It was.  We didn't even get there until 4pm.  But some socializing, baby-holding, and a dinner out later, we'd had a good time meeting BabyL. and got back in the car to drive home.  It was a ton of driving (fortunately MiniM.E. slept through most of it), but a fun adventure.

aw...

Monday and Tuesday we went to our usual activities and my mom helped with MiniM.E. while I got stuff done around the house.

And today I am fighting cold #2 and MiniM.E. is a wreck, but we managed to make our first visit of the season to Sunnyside Gardens.

MiniM.E. was happy to be out of the house and really enjoyed the train ride, the pumpkin patch and the hayride.  We'll definitely be visiting again before the end of the season.

We even recreated this photo from last year:

they look just about as happy to be sharing a wagon as last year...

Cold, Cold, Go Away

Not the temperature kind, the sick kind...

MiniM.E just got over her double ear infection when a nasty cold hit.  Add in some 2-year molars and we've got a bundle of fun over here.  (Actually, she's been a pretty good sport).  Mommy, on the other hand, came down with the cold yesterday and is a hot mess.

Here's some photos from our week so far:

Congress Park

Bowman Orchards

A Busy Weekend in Saratoga: Ellm's Family Farm

To top of a great weekend, we spent Sunday afternoon at Ellm's Family Farm.  OMG. BEST. PLACE. FOR. KIDS. EVER.  We will be going back every weekend until they close. 

They had two kids roller coasters set up on a hill so kids went fast and far:

This was a two story tube slide.  We probably did it 15 times:

The MooChoo Train was too cute:

 Especially when MiniM.E. went by herself:

And of course, they had a great sandbox:

There was also a corn maze we never made it into, a zip line that MiniM.E. went on (and hung on to) the whole way down, a couple other slides, some cannons, a hayride, duck racing, tricycles and a corn box.  We were there for about 3 hours and were the last ones to leave.  MiniM.E. could have stayed all day.  So glad we found it on the opening weekend!!

A Busy Weekend in Saratoga: Malta Community Day

Last Saturday was Malta Community Day.  We thought, "Why not?"  Petting zoo, pony rides and a bounce house?  Sounded great.  I painted MiniM.E.'s face BEFORE we went since most face painters won't paint kids under three.  She was a cat.  I got so many comments I may have to start a face painting business!  It was definitely a family friendly event and we'll put it on the calendar for next year.

There was a petting zoo...

MiniM.E.'s first pony ride...

seriously? cutest thing EVER.

And MiniM.E. had a great time being her silly self.

Later we went to the Horse Expo.  Looked like it was going to offer the same types of things, but you can't have too many bounce houses or pony rides... Except when we got there, there were neither.  So MiniM.E. pet a cow and hung out in the corn box.

MiniM.E. had a good time, but I don't think we'll try this one again...