pumpkin patch

 Yesterday I took Audrey to our favorite pumpkin patch at Schnepf Farms! We invited Jessica, Shane & Mila to join us. We all had a great time together.

Upon arrival, the kids had their faces painted. It was Audrey's first time. She chose a pumpkin!

We headed over to the play area that had tree houses, slides, giant tractor tires to climb through & peacocks!

Next was the giant "jumping pillow" which was instantly a favorite!

 they had too much fun!

After their 3 minutes of bounce time was up, we checked out the rides. Some of the rides for smaller children were not running so there weren't many to choose from. Luckily the plane ride was running, they really enjoyed it. Shane did a great job of keeping them up in the air the whole time. This was Audrey's first time on a ride without me so I was happy that Shane was there to go with her.

 

The kids {and adults} started to get hungry after all that play time so we walked over to the picnic area to have lunch. They had so many yummy things to choose from but not very vegetarian. I had packed a lunchbox of snacks for Audrey so she mostly ate that but she really enjoyed sharing a roasted corn on the cob with me. That's my favorite!

Near the picnic tables there was a stage with two young guys playing guitar & drums & singing. They played a good selection of songs & it wasn't long before the kids had the urge to get up & dance! I love how free spirited they both are. It's really cool to watch them in their own little world just enjoying the moment {& music}!

After lunch we went back over to the play area so that Shane could go down the giant slide. I wasn't planning on sending Audrey to go with only because I didn't think she would like it. It was an enclosed tube slide & was probably about 100 feet long. However once she saw Shane go up she wanted to go too, so I let her. I stood at the bottom with my camera ready to take their photos but when 5 minutes passed & Audrey still hadn't come down I started to panic. The top of the slide was on a steep hill & I couldn't see her from the bottom. I ran up the hill to find her & sure enough there she was ready to go down all by herself! I was able to capture one photo from the top. 

Sometimes I have to let go of the paranoid mom in me & let her be a kid. She is still little but very independent & has proven to be quite coordinated for her age. I guess I'm still coming to terms with the fact that she is quickly growing up! 

 these two make the best of friends

 Shane picked out the best pumpkins!

 it's hard work getting 3 kiddos to take a photo together.

 of all the pumpkins at the patch, I took home the cutest one!

Audrey is two!

Our little girl is TWO!

I can't believe it's true.

Birthday morning calls for pancakes!

October birthday means pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes.

Time for presents!

 she was so excited to get sparkle shoes!

 

After a {2.5 hr} nap it was time for a birthday dinner at Joe's Farm Grill!

 daddy & the birthday girl

 it was a beautiful day to sit outside

 "when is this thing going to buzz? I'm hungry!"

 she's  been practicing her one-handed "2"

 her infamous pose

 Audrey & Mommy

 yummy!

 dippin' with daddy

 birthday cake cupcake

 "Mmmmm that's good!"

it wouldn't be a party {or an outing} without a dance party with Audrey!

I'm pretty sure this girl had a great birthday! We certainly enjoyed celebrating our sweet girl.

dinner antics

We certainly have been blessed with a good eater!

First thing Audrey asks for when she wakes in the morning is "tato" tomato, "cheeez" cheese, "pikko" pickle & "joosch" juice. 

Apparently there are no breakfast foods in her world. However, she will eat breakfast foods (pancakes, cereal, yogurt&granola) if I serve it. Though if it were up to her, I believe she would eat tomatoes, cheese & pickles for every meal of the day! 

Tonight for dinner I was craving tacos & since Matt wouldn't be home to eat with us I contemplated going to get Mexican take out, to make things easy. While still deciding if that was the best decision, I looked in the fridge & sure enough we had everything to make quesadillas. Not just plain old cheese quesadillas, delicious veggie quesadillas! Complete with chunky guacamole & sour cream. MmmmMMmm! 

 Audrey normally loves quesadillas but for some reason tonight she decided she would just dig out the ingredients she wanted to eat. 

 silly girl!

I love that sweet smile.

Hope you're having a great week!

xoxo

toddler room

Now that Audrey is officially a toddler, it was time for a new room!

We decided to ditch the crib & transition her to a big girl toddler bed! I had still been rocking her to sleep up until she was about 16 months, which in my opinion was too long! I certainly enjoyed the time with her & a part of me wanted her to stay a baby forever but it was also hard as she was still attached to me "helping" her fall asleep & it also meant that daddy wasn't able to put her to sleep. So the time had come for her to put herself to sleep! I envisioned this transition to be a nightmare but to my surprise it was easy as pie! The first few nights were a little rough, Audrey would cry for 10-20 min & then just crash. The next few nights she'd cry for 5min, and the next 3min. So finally one night she cried for a few seconds & fell straight to sleep. I checked the monitor to make sure the sound was still on & it was, my baby had finally learned how to fall asleep by herself! We let her get used to that for a few weeks until we took down the crib & had her sleep on her mattress on the floor for a week. Then the toddler bed arrived & she's been doing pretty good ever since! Most nights she ends up sleeping on the floor, she still has to get used to the bed a little but no crying at all!

Since Audrey would have so much more space in her room without the crib & changing table I decided to redecorate her room that is more age appropriate! Matt liked this idea because it meant there would be more toys in her room & less in our living room. I wanted to redecorate with mostly things we already owned, since it would be a small budget. The only new things I ended up buying were her bed, a tent, some paper lanterns, a few frames, craft paper & a small shelf! These things added up to cost only $125! With a little creativity, spray paint & love I was able to change her entire room for under $200! I was pretty impressed. I still need to finish painting her bookshelf & make/hang curtains so that will cost about $25-30 dollars more. So with that said, here a few photos of what her room looks like now!

this awesome circus tent is from Ikea!

these are the paintings I did for her nursery

her big girl bed!

I made these hot air balloons out of paper lanterns. tutorial here

 

I repainted an old frame & made flag pendants with card stock. The letters are stickers & hung with hemp twine.

This one is cool! I made the letters out of magazine clippings & the "wood" is scrapbook paper!!

I had most of these frames laying around the house. I spray painted a few that I bought for .99 cents at Goodwill. The embroidery hoops are also from Goodwill & I stretched an old knit dress that I haven't worn in 3yrs! The Disney pictures are from old books I also found at Goodwill for .79 cents!

This shelf was one of my purchases. I taped "cloud" scrapbook paper to the back & on top of the shelf is the postcard invitation Matt designed for Audrey's first birthday party!

I am so happy with how it turned out & I know that Audrey likes it based on her excitement when she saw it for the first time! I can't wait to add the curtains & bookshelf & it's complete!