Carving a pumpkin!

We planned to finally carve our pumpkin this afternoon. Of course, the temp dropped throughout the day and the wind was insane by the time we all got home. We tried to work outside but ended up moving inside fairly quickly. Caed absolutely loved everything about the pumpkin, especially scooping out the seeds and the pulp. I posted lots of pics in an album in picasa- see link to the right. Roasting pumpkins seeds is on the agenda for tomorrow. Can I just say that I LOVE THE FALL!?!

Caed is turning 3!

I have finally finished the invitation for Caed's birthday party! When we asked him what kind of party that he wanted to have he said "bugs". So, bugs it is! Patrick came up with the idea for the trail of ants on the invitation and took the pic of Caed with a magnifying glass, but I wanted to design the invitation myself. I know he would have done a better job but oh well. It's done, complete with a re-mix of "The Ants are Marching"! Now on to the recipe for dirt cake and other bug-themed food. Any suggestions are welcome.....

Uncle Shuck's Take 2

We took Caed to Uncle Shuck's Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze last October. It's in Dawsonville, GA; about 1 hour from here. It's a 12 acre corn field cut into a 4 mile corn maze, and it is wonderful! We had the best time last year chasing Caed through the maze. There are also tons of pumpkins, a kid area (complete with a huge box full of corn kernels for kids to jump in), hay rides, and funnel cakes!

We had so much fun, that we went back this year. We took Grammie and Popa with us. This year the corn maze was cut in a huge donkey and elephant democratic/republican symbols. You can see arial photographs of the maze at Uncle Shuck's.com. We only attempted half of the 4 miles. Patrick was a master at reading the map and getting us through. I am including the album of pics from the day.

Child Labor

Caed has been hard at work around here. Most importantly, he helped me with Patrick's birthday on Friday. He made peanut butter balls for the "cake" and put his famous "dot marker" signature on the card. I love that he is old enough to help with things like this and gets so into it. It made the day even more special. Link to the picture album below...





Also, I put Caed to work making crafts that would do double duty as fall decorations around the house. Is that wrong??? Check out the cuteness below(fuzzy feather owl, newspaper sunflowers, pine cone owls, and leaf rubbings painted with watercolor) and then say this type of child labor is wrong!

Thanks Braves!

We took Caed to his first Braves game a few weeks ago. It was the last home game of their horrible season, but the boys pulled it out for us. Braves7-Mets6. We all had a great time! Check out pics in the link above.

The Great Toddler Challenge

Caed has been into games and puzzles and any other activity that gives him a challenge for quite some time. We are starting to learn that his behavior is directly related to being challenged. It seems that he has lots more "terrible twos" behavior on days that, to me, are wonderfully relaxing but to him, less engaging. So guess who is challenged now???? Patrick and I are making a much more direct effort to make sure we introduce new challenges to him every day, and he loves it! We've found tons of great ideas for crafts, games, and puzzles in blog land. I just have to remind myself, as I am on the couch, that I won't be able to enjoy that HGTV show anyway if he is screaming his head off :-) Most of the time that is enough motivation.
His latest favorite is sorting. We sort everything by shape, color, and any other attribute we can think of. The cool thing is that he suggests things to sort and ways to sort them that I would never think of. This parenting job really keeps you on your toes!

Did I mention bubble wrap....

a few posts back??? Something about wanting to wrap my Caed up in it to keep him safe???

Well, Patrick got in a shipment with massive amounts of bubble wrap included so we gave it a try. We also made a bubble wrap mountain to jump on, stomped and popped bubbles for hours, and did an art project- which actually turned out well. Caed painted the bumpy side of the bubble wrap, then we placed the paper on top like a stamp. Fun was had by all. You have got to love bubble wrap!!!!