dynda pumpkin patch

we've had some fun halloween adventures over the past few days, and today was the icing on the cake ... trick-or-treating!

first, we started our day off with a halloween parade at the library during story hour. wouldnt ya know it, my camera died (boooo!). had quite the collection of costumed babes, everything from buzz lightyear to batman to a cow to nemo to a skeleton to a fisherman and everything in between. top it off with a few good books read to us by miss linda and some donut holes to snack on, yup, it was delightful.

which brings us to tonight ... the DYNDA PUMPKIN PATCH!! the weather kept us close to home (we only hit up 2 houses), but we still had fun. von, the cutest pumpkin in our patch, decided to trick-or-treat out of our trick-or-treat bowl and had a little halloween party of his own here at the house.

already talking about next year's costumes :) happy halloween!!

the bird feeder

ma & pa gave von a bird feeder for halloween ... and he LOVES it!! ask him where his bird feeder is, he takes you by the finger and runs to the window or sliding door to call/point at the birds.

* important to note that von may now think squirrels are birds since they are attempting to dominate the bird feeder. cute *

anyways, the feeder is a hit with the neighborhood wildlife. thus far, we've had deer, chickadees, birds we can't identify, and squirrels galore at our feeder. we're refilling it about every two days and assume we'll be responsible for some pretty overweight animals come spring. look closely at the pictures and you'll see birds in the grass, flying to/from the feeder, and possibly even catch a glimpse of a quarrel (the feeder has absolutely caused some tiffs between our hungry friends).

boo bash

we headed to the ymca last night for 'boo bash'. it was good family fun for a friday night. there was a costume parade, some bouncy houses, and an activity center filled with halloween fun. von burned off all sorts of energy and was ready for bed when we got home (after getting a squeaky clean bath).

today was more halloween fun for the baby group (no pics, sorry), and we still have 2 more festivities to go. hooray for our little pumpkin!!

it's beginning to look a lot like ...

... Christmas?!??!

october 27, 2011 marked the first time that von was allowed to 'play in the snow'. he walked around just looking up like 'what is this stuff' and kept throwing his arms up trying to catch a snowflake. fun fun :)

the baileys

today was a sad day .... we had to say goodbye to amber & airivai :( the bailey family is moving to maryland tomorrow and we will miss them greatly. we managed to squeeze in one more play-date, while enjoying some tastas pizza and good conversation for the mamas. hoping our paths will cross again, that or a roadtrip can happen in the near future :)

slippity slide

had to bring the great outdoors inside. nonetheless, von still loves his jungle gym.

it's gonna be a long winter

end of october means we're spending a lot more time indoors than we're used to. here are some candid pictures of von being von around the house ...

pumpkinville

our first trip to pumpkinville was a success! how could it not be though, with a little boy who loves tractors as much as von does? :)

we checked out the animals, hung out in the tipi, snagged a few indian-chief-photo-ops, played on the train, took a hayride, picked out a pumpkin, and then sat on a really huge pumpkin. we had a little boy who didnt want to leave, but mama and dada thought that von's little fingers and nose could use a break from the cooler weather.

glad we went though, it was an adorable afternoon!

mcintosh

~ although these pictures could fall under the 'pumpkinville' post, i felt this experience warranted it's own spotlight ....

VON RODE THE COW TRAIN ALL BY HIMSELF!!

oh geeze, only a mother would be this excited about it, but sorry, i have to gush/share ...

of course von loved the tractor from the start. we watched a few trips and decided to walk around a bit, seeing if von would remember/still be intrigued with all of the other commotion. um, he did. so i purchased him a ticket and we headed back over to the cow train. we gave the nice lady our ticket and picked out a sturdy cow to sit in. her name was mcintosh. we buckled our big boy in and he was ecstatic. (this is also where i started going picture crazy). von waved and said bye, stared ahead at the tractor and just waited for that engine to start. and when it did, he squealed with delight! first loop around the track went pretty well (i cried, not him). there were a few screams on the second loop, but he calmed right back down and enjoyed his ride. when they pulled into the 'depot', big boy von was all smiles.

thank you, mcintosh! we will for sure see you again next autumn!!