Fall Fun

We are having gorgeous fall weather this week.  So, as always, we spend our days outside.

Some fun with leaves....

I like to call this one "payback" :)

Little imitator...

Tree Climbing....

 Bug hunting in the garden...

Phone Dump Part 1

I realized my phone is full of photos from the last couple of months - so I will slowly but surely be uploading them to the blog.....

Lawnmower rides...

Eric's company had their annual picnic at Tate Farms...

Pumpkin carving.  Brodie thought he was so big using his plastic knife to carve like Alex :)

 Trampoline static hair ;)

 Leaf jumping...

 A friend of Eric's sent us some MSU hand me down's.  Alex was THRILLED.  He wears this jersey everyday and insists that Eric put his on too when he gets home from work so they match ;).

Grandma's Visit

My mom came to visit the past week and we packed as much as we could into a week!

She arrived on Saturday and after nap we took Alex to Free Museum Day at the Space and Rocket Center.    He enjoyed looking at all the rockets and astronauts, but the kids play area and this ride were by far his favorite.  At first he did not want to go on the ride, but after playing for a little bit and watching the other kids, he decided to try it.  He LOVED it and we could not get him to do anything else.  He would just get off the ride and run to get back in line and do it again.

Video of the ride....

The rest of the week was a busy week of appointments and catching up on errands while Grandma watched the boys.  Thankfully we had great weather and we spent all of our time outside. Grandma did a lot of gardening, weeding, bug identifying, chasing, tackling, hockey, tag, trampoline jumping,  etc.!! She walked Brodie every morning to the construction site to watch the diggers and other machines.  Grandma may need a chiropractor visit after all the miles she pushed Brodie on the Cozy Coupe and scooter!

Alex always associates Grandma's visits with weeding, so before she can even bring her suitcase in the house he has her out in the garden weeding.  He found a lot of various nasty bugs in the garden!

 Pumpking carving...

Trampoline jumping!


 Leaf jumping! Nothing like jumping in the leaves when the temperatures are in the upper 80's!

 Lots of walks....

Thank You for all of your help and love.  We always love having Grandma visit and are sad to see her leave!

Field Trip!

Alex had his first field trip this week. All the 4's classes at school went to Tate Farms.  We had a lot of fun and it was cute to see him interact with his friends from school.

Hayride to the pumpkin patch was first.  So many choices!  So hard to decide!

 Perfect One!

 Getting some serious air on the jumping pillow!

 Pure joy in the corn bins!

 Huge slide!

 Big Tires!

 Petting bunnies!

A very fun morning!  Grandma was in town to watch Brodie, and Alex loved being able to do something special with just Mommy!

The Boys...

We are enjoying some nice warm weather here.  We always love our local Botanical Gardens, but Alex really loves it in the Fall when the scarecrow exhibit is out.  He loves to lead us through the gardens exploring and trying to find all the scarecrows.  

A little break for some hammock fun...Brodie was a little unsure and never really relaxed, while Alex wanted me to push him as high as I could get the hammock to go.


Bert and Ernie..

 It is still warm enough that a cool off at the pond is needed after all the walking and exploring....

 The boys are playing better and better together, especially outside.  They love to ride their bikes and cars around and around and chase each other or play hunting (Grampy will be proud!).

 A little picnic fun...

 Sometimes they just insist on doing everything together=snack in the same chair.

 Fort fun....I hosted Bunco at our house last night so the card table was still up this morning and it quickly became a fort.

I haven't been as faithful with my monthly updates on Brodie, but I wanted to document a few things on the blog about what he is up to these days:

*His favorite phrases are "I see" and "want some".  Whenever we are cooking or there is anything interesting going on out of his reach he will say, "I see" and insists on being picked up to observe whatever is going on.  Whenever we have any sort of food, does not matter what it is and he doesn't even have to see what it is, Brodie will say 'want some" and insist on trying a bite of what we have.  

*He is very into shoes and uses them as his conversation starter :).  One time we were at Publix and Alex had received some new shoes and he showed the bagger his new shoes when we were checking out, so now every single time we are at Publix, Brodie will lift up his shoes and say "shoes" to the bagger and has to show off his shoes. 

*He is starting to sit by Alex on the couch for a little bit in the morning when Alex watches his morning tv show and Brodie will ask for "cereal milk" just like Alex.  It is so cute how he says it because there is no "and" it's just "cereal milk" like it is one word.

*Still obsessed with diggers and lawn mowers.  He watches for them whenever we are in the car and spots them constantly. 

*Whenever he sees something he likes - a dog, a butterfly, a bug, etc., Brodie will say "I touch?" and if I say no touch he will say "wave hi" and will say hi to whatever it is - apparently the alternative to touching :).  

*He amazes me in how much he picks up by imitating Alex (good and BAD!).  Alex likes to walk on the curbs and try to not fall off (into the "water").  So now Brodie walks on them and will say "no water!", even if Alex isn't around. 

*Brodie is starting to show a little toddler independence - not wanting to stop something or leave somewhere, etc.  But overall he is just the happiest, sweetest little boy, except when he is yelling "NOOOOOO" at the top of his lungs at his brother.  

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Nobody loves birthdays more than kids.  And when it comes to Alex, he doesn't care if it is his birthday or not because birthdays are just fun!

Alex was so excited about Eric's birthday.  I asked him what kind of cake we should make Eric and he said "a Phil cake because daddy likes Phil (Michelson)."  Well I didn't think I could pull off a Phil cake - so we settled on a golf course cake.  Alex was so excited and he did a lot of the frosting himself - he make the water and crushed crackers and filled the sand trap.

We went to the dollar store and got Monster Truck decorations (because Daddy likes those too) :).  Alex helped wrap and hide Eric's presents.  Before Eric could even make it in the door from work Alex was going a mile a minute  - showing Eric the cake and telling him to find his presents - "or actually Daddy I will just find them for you".  So within a minute Alex found all the presents he had hid for Eric and unwrapped them.:)

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Back to School

Alex is attending MMO again this year.  He is in the 4's class and will be going three mornings a week.  Yesterday was his first day.  He was a little anxious the night before (like at midnight the night before ;)).  He was nervous about having a new teacher.  After a little reassuring chat and a reminder that he had a new Spiderman backpack to bring, he was good to go and all smiles when he went to school.  When I picked him up he said he had "really super lots of fun at school".


A little first day of school celebration.  He wanted "fuzzy" to drink (Izze juice).