October

October is for fall, and pumpkins, and hay rides.......  and celebrating that Mike is 2 months and 8 days older than me!

Mike's parents came for a short visit for Mike's birthday weekend, and we had a nice time.  Nonna got lots of hugs.  

We enjoyed a nice dinner sans children (relaxing!)

A couple weekends ago we headed down to Bog Hollow, which is a cranberry farm in Kingston.  It was the most gorgeous warm weekend I think we've had since July/August during the summer.  It couldn't have been a nicer day to spend outdoors, with the sunshine and blue sky.  The farm hosted a family weekend with activities of hay rides, face painting, train rides, pumpkin picking, etc...

Off to the pumpkin patch!

Nothing like a train going around in small circles to make kids happy, Vince was ecstatic

Zoë's meltdown in the pumpkin patch, love it!

let's play on the giant pumpkin! 

The farm also had a giant pile of sand, which was the main attraction for the kids.  They came home with enough sand in their pants to add to our sand box.

A neat old firetruck that the kids could play around on

Mike got into the spirit of Halloween

 

Vince got to try out an old broken down tractor

A List of Firsts....

A few first time events that have been going on around the house, backed up on my blogging to do list for at least a couple months of course.

Vince and Ramona had their first ice cream truck adventure at the playground.  We parents broke down and allowed them to get consumed in the music, bells, and whistles of the truck as it screamed into the playground parking lot.  This of course created a blanket of kids that ran over to the fence and plastered themselves to the chain links... staring at the truck while their friends ordered ice cream treats.   So we decided they could go over and pick an ice cream from one of the pictures on the side of the truck.  Ramona picked the head of Dora the Explorer, and Vince picked the head of Shrek, both were truly bizarre and complete with creepy, glaring gumball eyes.  I bit the ear off Vince's Shrek head and although it looked like ice cream and melted like ice cream, it had the distinct flavor of a sour apple lollipop... totally gross when you think it's going to be creamy.

To make a long story short, Vince's poor Shrek head didn't fare very well in the mid day sun, and in the end his head was a melted mess on the playground grass, complete with a melting face that reminded me of that scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark.... when the Nazi's wouldn't close their eyes when they opened the Ark.  With Vince's hands, arms (down to his elbows), and shirt now stained a bright green apple color, the departure from the playground included a screaming little boy desperately clutching a green head that looked like Frankenstein.  So ends the first ice cream truck adventure

first fort built in our living room to commemorate the loss of electricity during hurricane Irene

Vince's first work badge, complete with space shuttle icon

Zoë's first hike in the woods

And my personal favorite, and definitely the most exciting news to come out of our house since getting air conditioning.... Vince now eats sandwiches!  Yes, here's the proof, a picture of his first jelly sandwich that he tried and ate happily.  This is seriously a landmark event, as this boy is so picky and we constantly struggle with him on food we want him to eat vs. what he'll eat.  He never would agree to eat sandwiches, but now that's all in the past.  

Flashback to Labor Day

This past Labor Day weekend we were able to take an adventure up to Maine, as our friends Jill and JP got married along the beautiful rocky shores of Chamberlain. It was the perfect weekend to have their wedding, the weather was gorgeous... and they just missed the hurricane by a hair.

Jill has my kind of taste! She rolled up in an old Jeep that her Uncle was driving... and dropped her off to walk down the rocky aisle with her Dad

Mike missed the whole ceremony due to the kids deciding to nap right before we got to the place. He stayed in the car while they slept.... and off I went to the ceremony on my own. But after wards the kids didn't waste any time exploring the rocky point where the ceremony took place.

We taught Zoë how to perform a proper toast... even if it was with her bottle (soo cute!!)

The next day we had fun exploring some tide pools that were near by

Vince was very excited to find periwinkle snail shells, and little crabs and such

He was super tuckered out after the tide pool fun. Little did I know the blueberry chap stick on his finger was actually smeared all over his hands and face while he slept.

After the wedding, we headed back down to MA and stopped in Rockport for a night, as Mike was going to run the 25K Cape Ann race the next day! We enjoyed the little town, had some good dinner that night so Mike could do a little carbo loading, and the next morning we went out to cheer him on as he started his race! By the time I got back to the hotel and cleaned up the kids and packed up everything, it was time to head back so we could be at the finish line to cheer him on as he crossed the finish line. Here he is, go Dad! He finished the 25 kilometer race in just under 2.5 hours!

They are Growing up Fast...

Things around here are moving too fast for me to keep up with anything, let alone the blog. Vince started preschool this week on Monday! Below is my little man getting his backpack (Thomas Train, nothing else). He filled it with only essentials of course: his blue bear blanket, sippy cup, and toy story band aids. I just had to add a few non essentials (like change of clothes, hat, etc). The first day's report consisted of hearing that he didn't want to do the arts and crafts for the day, but that he was very polite about it, saying "no thank you" every time they asked. He fell asleep on the way home, and when I took his shoes off there was enough playground sand in them to fill up my own sand box! No doubt he had a good time.

This morning we had to get Vince ready for show and tell, and that was a circus... with him not being able to figure out what to pick. He ended with his blue bear blanket again, but reports from the day include that he didn't want to take out his show and tell because he was afraid the other kids would take it! So yes.... we have to work on show and tell a little bit.

He barely even said goodbye when dropping him off, that was my and Zoë's que to get the heck outta there fast ;) Here he is overwhelmed with trying to decide what to do first

Meanwhile, little sweet Zoë is growing up so fast too. She's walking all over the place now, choosing to walk over crawling. So what if her walk resembles that of Frankenstein!
Here she is with long hair! (growing up so fast haha)

Zoë also got to meet the midwife that helped bring her into the world! Now that baby #3 is brewing, we have the chances for reunions like this....

Notice the New Ticker On Our Blog?

Introducing..... our newest little developing Silvestro! Yes, we are adding to our family, and we got our first look ultrasound last week so I have the initial portraits, so cute! It's amazing how we could see the fingers so clearly, considering it's the size of a lime this week (according to baby center). I do love how baby center always compares the size to fruits and vegetables, I always look forward to the weekly email. We don't know if it's a boy or girl yet, we will find out at the 18 week ultrasound (if baby co-operates). Yes I want to find out! How else am I going to fulfill my OCD nature by preparing everything ahead of time, and figure out who will share rooms and such?