Toddlers, Tractors, and an Apple Orchard

We were blessed to spend last Saturday picking apples at a beautiful orchard. Even better, the apples were free and we got to hang out with some awesome people!

The sun was out and we had a little breeze to cool us down. We couldn't have asked for better weather.

Michael giving directions.

We picked an assortment of apples including some I've never had before like Spartan and empire apples. It was fun to taste them as we picked to see what they were like.

 



Lucy watching her friend get an apple.

Lucy and the other kids were having a great time exploring. The branches of the trees were quite low and just the right height for them to fit under. This made for great adventures and difficult toddler chasing. They also loved that there were apples all over the ground. At first I tried to redirect Lucy from eating them off the ground, but later I found myself just hoping that she wouldn't pick up a rotting one. We also had to pick out a few from the basket that she wanted to keep.



There might have been some tasting going on.

We eventually stumbled upon a tractor and the toddlers thought is was a dream come true. It was hard to share, as always. So, then we all found ourselves in a shed filled with tractors and other farm equipment. I'm sure it was okay for us to be in there, I mean, there wasn't any signs or people to tell us otherwise.

All the two-year-olds on the tractor.

We then headed a town over and stopped for lunch. We squeezed  eight adults and four kids around a six person table in the middle of a very busy café. I loved it.

 



Lunchtime!

We left the café to explore the museum next door and an antique shop down the street. By the time we were done, all the little ones needed naps.

Checking out the Newspaper and Printing Museum.

Luckily, Lucy fell asleep on the way home and we were able to get her from the car seat to her bed. She napped for two and a half hours. She must have been exhausted from all the fun.

Welcoming Fall

We welcomed autumn today by making some cinnamon play dough. It smells amazing! We used this recipe, but omitted the essential oil.

We're pretty excited for the rest of the leaves to change color. They've started, but just barely. Campus is so beautiful in the fall.

The fall festivities are right around the corner! We're apple picking this weekend and next weekend we're going to the fall harvest festival at WSU's organic farm.

Shortly after I took these pictures she insisted she need more "tools".  A couple pumpkin cookie cutters, a wooden spoon, a fork, two canning jar lids, and a small bowl later... she is content.

Happy autumn everyone!

A Plethora of Pumpkins

We finally carved our pumpkins tonight. It was really really messy, but fun for all three of us.

I had originally put down a tablecloth to (hopefully) contain the mess, but decided to just mop afterwards instead. I'm still not sure if that was a good idea.

 

We ended up with more pumpkins than we planned on having this year, but that's okay. We only paid for two of them. One of the big pumpkins we got for free because we entered the community pumpkin carving contest. It is the pumpkin Lucy is sitting on in the above picture. It is a quirky pumpkin and has to lay on its side. We loved it.

 

She is dressed well for pumpkin carving. Jack-o-lantern shirt, coverless snappied prefold diaper, and purple socks.



Lucy got to play with this little pumpkin that the organic farm gave us for free. She loves it, but it is so ugly. It isn't even dirty in the picture. It just has a lovely rough, gray-brown quality to it that won't rinse off.

She didn't like touching the guts with her hands. I had to keep on helping her get it off because it was sticky and freaked her out a bit.

I used the Dremel to carve the contest pumpkin and wrote happy Halloween on it. I was covered with sticky pumpkin dust when I was done, but it was worth it. :)

The final product! We had to stick an LED light in it so it was bright enough to show through the pumpkin flesh.

Here are all the pumpkins on our steps! Our neighbors are from Iran and have only been in the US for a couple months now... I wonder what they'll think of them when they see them in the morning.

In the tall pumpkin and Lucy's little pumpkin we just drilled holes in them. Then we stuck clear green marbles in some of the holes. They look cooler in person than they do in the picture. :)

I just typed pumpkin about a hundred times. Sorry about that. Hope you are all enjoying the season!

Autumn has Arrived

Autumn has finally arrived on the Palouse and the weather has, thankfully, followed suit. We are definitely enjoying the cooler temperatures. It is perfect walking weather, so I've been throwing on the Ergo and strolling around campus whenever I get a chance. Lucy loves to feel the leaves and the pine needles and I love getting some fresh air.

Michael just returned from an last minute trip to Missouri, to attend a funeral. A group that Michael deployed with, 4th Platoon, suffered an unexpected and immensely sad loss last week. There is a widow with a sweet baby boy in Missouri right now who could use your thoughts and prayers.

Michael's first month of school has been so extremely busy. He has quite the course load and started working with a research team in August. Which is enough to fill his schedule, when you consider studying and family time, but he has even more on his plate right now. He recently was accepted into a nuclear reactor operator course on campus. It was very competitive and only a handful of students were accepted. While the course is a blessing, I'm a little sad that he'll be away from Lucy and I even more during the week. I know he is too. His Monday class for the course starts at the exact same time as swimming lessons end, so that should be interesting.

Lucy has been enjoying swimming lessons, but she is so skinny and the "heated" pool is so cold that she is always left shivering and a lovely shade a purple by the end of class. She loves the water, so we didn't want to remove her from the class  (although we've had to take her out of the pool a bit early a few times), we did the only logical thing and purchased a wetsuit for her. Okay, we're crazy about that baby girl and we made an impulsive purchase to keep her warmer in the water. Today will be her first class with her new getup.

Somehow, among all the busyness in our life right now, we were able to make it home to experience the Washington State Fair (or as I will always call it The Puyallup fair). We went the weekend before last, and I'm so sorry that we didn't really get to visit with anyone, it was a really short trip.

We're excited to continue this tradition of going to the fair with Lucy. Sort of an end of the summer and beginning of fall celebration.

She LOVED all the animals.

Llamas and cows and sheep, oh my!

All I wanted to see were the piglets and they were precious.

 

 Michael had some fun playing the games, trying to win prizes for his girls.

Fall is finally here!

Fall is finally here in NC. The weather has cooled down significantly and even allows for a jacket on most days. I love it. The trees in my yard are losing all of their leaves and the days are shorter. I love this time of year. Summer just isn't my season.

So, I kind of of put off getting a pumpkin. I really wasn't feeling like getting one when it was still WA-summer-like temperatures outside.When it did, in fact, finally cool down, it was only a couple days before Halloween and the pumpkin selection was pretty limited. I wasn't going to go the whole pumpkin patch route all on my lonesome, so I went to the store. Walmart was out, but on my way home I stopped at the Food Lion. They had one of those huge cardboard boxes that grocery stores put pumpkins in. It was down to one layer, about seven pumpkins at the bottom of the box. My choice was easy, there was only one pumpkin left with a stem and luckily it wasn't discolored or deformed or rotting.

I don't know why it was among the last picked. Poor pumpkin. As I rolled my mini cart away from the pumpkin box, a family with kids approached it and whined with disappointment. So, I might have picked the last decent pumpkin... but according to my mother, this was a good thing. At least the children wouldn't fight over who got the good pumpkin.

Then I really waited until the last minute to carve it. It wasn't done until Halloween day. At 3 pm.

But I think it turned out nicely. :)

Aren't the miniature pumpkins cute? I cut the tops off of them and pushed a tea light into the middle. A toddler that trick-or-treated at my house was quite perplexed by them.

"What are those?" He said, and then after being told they were little pumpkins by his mother he was still confused, "Where are their faces?" Ha. Kids are so funny.

My pumpkin wasn't very Halloweenish, but I really liked how Washington state turned out. Accompanied by trees, of course.

And I had to hand out candy in my Halloween sweatshirt that my mother made me well over ten years ago, but who's counting?

I had a visit from a new plumbing company today. They were just assessing the plumbing situation, but it didn't seem like they are going to just put holes in the foundation outside anymore. They want to completely replace most of the plumbing and evidently that means cutting holes in the walls and fun stuff like that. Sounds exciting, no? Ha. This is a bummer for the owners, but hey this is one of the perks of being a renter. All I have to do is change light bulbs.

A Perfect Fall Day!

Today is the first day in a while that is hasn't rained. Not that I have anything against the rain. I love the rain, but it made for a perfect fall day of browsing through antique stores and making a trip to the pumpkin patch with Meagan.

My find of the day was this awesome scarf! It was only four dollars and I absolutely love it! I can't wait to wash it and start wearing it. :)


After shopping, Meagan convinced me to go to the pumpkin patch with her. It took A LOT of convincing on her part, but I'm glad we went! I wish I would have had my rain boots though; it was pretty muddy.


Meagan got a wheelbarrow, the shopping cart of the pumpkin patch. She even threw her purse in it to make searching easier. Haha.


She ended up getting a little white pumpkin too. I was loving all the cinderella pumpkins they had scattered around! I wish I would have gotten one, maybe later!


It was a successful trip!


Meagan was so kind to share her caramel corn while we loaded the pumpkins into my car. So yummy! :)


When we got them home Meagan started out with the big orange one...


And I gutted the little white one. Did you know that white pumpkins have green guts?


It is kind of gross...


While Meagan carved away, I picked the seed out of the bowl of guts. Then I used this recipe and got them into the oven. They made the house smell great!


Meagan's pumpkins were so adorable when she was done!


And the pumpkin seeds were delicious!


At the end of the night we set the pumpkins on the front steps.


And lit them up...

Beautiful!

Big News and a Dinner Party in the Making!

I know, I KNOW, it has been forever since I've posted. Not too much has been happening in the life of Kelsey, mostly just school and work and chilling in Meagan's garage (literally CHILLing -- we're still working on temperature control out there.)

Michael has big news though... he's being promoted to corporal in November!


I'm a little biased, but I think it is a really big deal! :) He is now going to be a non-commissioned officer. Along with the promotion, he gets his blood stripes (the red stripe on his dress pants, shown below) and can get a sword. Who doesn't want a sword?



I'm so proud of him getting this much-deserved promotion! I'm always proud of Michael, though. (And congrats to his good friend, Kyle, as well. They'll be picking up corporal at the same time! Very cool!)

Alright, moving on... why have I been spending so much time in Meagan's garage? Meagan and I are hosting a dinner party next month, which is going to be adorable and loads of fun! We finished up the invites yesterday and got them in the mail. Check them out!

They are 100% handmade, right down to the envelope liners!

They are all handwritten, thanks to Meagan and her beautiful penmanship.


I just love how they turned out!