Fall Thrill

Matthew looks forward to the day he's allowed to help rake the leaves each fall.

Hopefully he feels the same way about the chore when he's a teenager.

But for now - it's the thrill of the season.

The little rake, the big pile of leaves, the cool weather - the perfect mix.

Of course helping with the leaves wouldn't be nearly as fun if not for the jumping in the piles.

Tomorrow night "Frankenstorm" is due to come our way. Hopefully we don't get much more than a few more leaves on our lawn from it! We're prepared for it - and we enjoyed the nice weather we had today, knowing that the next few days are going to be rough. Hopefully we can squeeze in a few hours of fun tomorrow before the weather shifts. Stay safe east coasters!!

Let the insanity begin...

The Toys R Us Holiday catalog arrived yesterday.

Matthew took his time going through it - pointing out all the toys he's going to ask Santa for this year.

It's a thick catalog. A long list. Santa is going to need some backup.

Me & The Boys

 Matt went down to DC for his 25th high school reunion, leaving me and the boys on our own for the weekend. Luckily we had lots to do to keep us busy.

After we hit up a few tag sales on Saturday morning, I loaded up the boys in the red wagon and we headed to a fall fair that was taking place at the school that we live next door to (as in, literally, our driveway ends where the school driveway begins).

 Our first stop was the face painter. Matthew asked for a bat (shocking!).

 There were a lot of local school PTAs represented, as well as child and town safety groups. A very kid-friendly affair.

 Matthew got to decorate yet another pumpkin (that makes 4 little pumpkins on our porch).

There were bouncy houses and slides at this fair too - they seem to be "the" entertainment at all these fairs we've been to.

Matthew would have jumped and slid all day if I let him.

There were also booths with Matthew's all time favorite fair game - the spinny wheel. He won his choice of a little toy from a prize bucket. He chose a whistle (you know, because we need more noise in our life).

After we walked home, the boys sat on the front porch to eat their Halloween cookies (yummy and messy).

And after making a mess of themselves with their treats, Matthew tried to teach Noah how to use the whistle. It was cute and quite disgusting at the same time (lots of cookie slobber).

Sunday morning we got up, got dressed and started our day. After breakfast, Noah went on the attack (playfully of course).

He had Matthew pinned for quite some time (Matthew plays along).

The laughter coming out of these two was insane.

After Matt got home, we laid low for the rest of the day. Playing in boxes...

...and dressing up as superheroes.

Using Matt's shirt and a few blankets, both boys were happy with their make-shift capes.

So happy that they agreed to pose for a picture together.

Then it was bath, book and bed. The weekend flew by. I had a blast hanging out with my boys, but we're all glad daddy is home!

More Fall Fun

We hit up another fall festival this weekend. This one was at Adams Fair Fairacre Farms in Poughkeepsie. Grandma, Pop Pop and Maryann joined in on the fun.

Our first stop at the fair was the pony rides. Matthew LOVES pony rides.

As does his sidekick.

Noah is a tad bit too young yet for pony rides, but he was happy with the balloon he got while Matthew and Maryann rode.

After ponies, it was time to decorate pumpkin cookies.

Icing, sprinkles and candy corn - Matthew dreams about this stuff!

The highlight for young Matthew was the jumpy bounce houses they had set up.

He went on every one at least twice.

It was tough getting him to walk away from all this fun.

Again, Noah was a little too little to participate in the bouncy fun, but he didn't mind - he ate Matthew's cookie while he waited for his brother to be done.

After the bouncy houses, it was time for an early lunch. Hot dogs and chips - doesn't get better than that for this group.

There was a live band playing at the food tent, so, after eating, Matthew and Noah burned some energy cutting a rug.

Mickey and Minne were at the fair.

As was Elmo (and I don't know why Matt thought he was hiding - like we're all going to think "Hey, look how high Noah can jump on his own")

On the way out of the fair we made a stop at the fire trucks where all the kiddos got hats, coloring books and pencils.

Add in some apple cider donuts, a nice drive through the NY fall foliage, and great temps, and it's a recipe for an awesome weekend. And to add to the fun, me and the boys are going to hit up another fair next weekend. Matthew is hoping they'll have bouncy houses there. I'm hoping they'll have cider donuts! That's really not a good "dieting" thing to say - but we're headed into sweater weather anyway, so I have time to work it off!

A concert, the town fair and some cookies

On Saturday we were able to score tickets to the event of the season...

Little People Palooza! at The New York Botanical Gardens.

Both boys lost their mind.

And when the Little People said "put on your sunglasses" (from the coveted goodie bag), both boys put on their sunglasses.

Yes, even Noah.

There was much singing and dancing.

And after the concert, we had a beautiful day to enjoy the rest of the gardens.

There's an awesome kid's garden that had a lot of Halloween events going on.

Including games and treats as you walked the paths.

There were lots of kid-friendly performances by things like skeletons, goblins, and bears. I thought Matthew would be scared, but he joined right in with them.

Of course we had to get our face painted at the bat exhibit.

After all, Matthew is Batman.

On our way out of the gardens we ran into the cast of The Little People.

Matthew was ecstatic to be in the midst of such celebrities.

Sunday brought us much cooler temps, and the local town street fair. First stop, cider donuts from a local church.

A lot of the vendors were handing out candy - nothing like a sticky lollipop at 10:30 in the morning!

There were a lot of things to see at the fair.

Including the awesome fire trucks.

There were also crafts, games, bouncy houses, and lots of stuff to eat. We brought home quite a few bags filled with goodies.

To continue the long-weekend fun, we met up with the girls for some Halloween cookie making at grandma's house.

Matthew made sure to load up his creations with as many sprinkles and chocolate chips as he could.

I tried to fool Noah into thinking that some Teddy Grahams on his tray was the same thing. He wasn't fooled.

And in the end, we got to take home a tray full of sprinkles and chocolate chips.

Not a bad weekend if I do say so myself!