PEPS Fall 2011

Recently we have enjoyed some fun fall PEPS events with the moms and toddlers in my PEPS group. We took a trip up to The Farm at Swan's Trail on a beautiful fall day. The kids loved the animals, the 4 little pigs story (where they tell the story and have real pigs run around), a hay ride and playing in the pumpkins.

Pictures on the hayride. They lasted like this for about 2 seconds

What a good looking group!

One of my favorite moments of the day was watching Aidan and David playing on the grass. Aidan was putting grass on David's head and they were both just giggling away. They sat here together for a long time just having a great time. I am so glad Aidan enjoys time with his buddy David.












Another annual PEPS event is the Halloween Party. Meg does such a great job with this and even had creative Halloween themed food for the kids. She hosted the party at my house this year and I was thrilled to have her bring over decorations, goodies and games. We realized that as the kids get older they are harder to contain and harder to keep in costume. We didn't get a group shot of all the kids by themselves but here's a look at last year...

And now this year...notice most of them stayed in their costumes for about 3 minutes.

Sure looks like they are having fun

Thanks for a fun party Meg!

My little chicken

Bean bags are so much fun!

Pumpkins and Apples

Saturday we went up to Bellingham to join our friends Rachel & Phil for a fun fall day. We went to Stoney Ridge Farms and enjoyed looking at pumpkins, picking apples, eating apples, watching the goats, eating donuts and spending time in the sunshine. After Stoney Ridge we went to Bellewood Acres, an apple orchard nearby. We got to do some apple tasting and bought delicious apple cider and sparkling cider. It was a beautiful fall day!

Picking apples! We brought home over 20 lbs

Aidan loves goats. He may not look like he's having a good time but believe me he had been saying "goat, goat" over and over.

Aidan and Katheryn

Baby

In preparation for Aidan having a new sibling we decided to get him a baby doll. Keep in mind that despite my efforts to help him attach to something Aidan has never taken to a binkie, blanket or stuffed animal. Much to our surprise he loves his baby, asks for it and knows how to take care of it. Lately he has been obsessed with putting a new diaper on the baby. He and his baby go to sleep at the same time and we hear him reading in his crib. I like to think he's preparing for when he gets to be a big brother. I find it sweet to see him be so caring and gentle towards something when I feel like I spend a lot of time policing and trying to teach him not to hit or push other kids.

Feeding the baby

Another favorite new toy....a stroller!

 Speaking of babies....we find out on Thursday if baby #2 is a boy or a girl! Can't wait!

Aquarium

Yesterday surprisingly turned out to be a beautiful day! 

Great day for a bus adventure and to meet friends at the Seattle Aquarium. 

Aidan enjoyed the fish and seals and sea otters but might have gotten just as much enjoyment from running around pushing the stroller (or rather his buddy David's stroller) and keeping tabs on his friends. Just before we left we got to see the diver feeding the fish and he was pretty mesmerized by that. Overall a great day!

A picture post

A playdate with Aidan's best bud David. They both were confused why there was no water in the pool. Sorry boys, this mama was lazy (and it wasn't that warm outside)

Despite Aidan's desire to constantly tackle him, David seems to still like hanging out with us. Sorry buddy!

Aidan sitting with Papaw at our most recent Leavenworth visit.

Spending time in the Wenatchee river. It was not very deep. Perfect for a curious toddler!

Playing in the sand

Finally we took a picture of my growing belly. Despite what you think I am bigger than I was before, even if I don't look it. I am 18 weeks along now and can't wait for our 20 wk ultrasound when we get to find out the gender of our baby.

Have I mentioned that Aidan LOVES broccoli? Here he is shoveling it in with two hands.

Our tomatoes are producing so much right now! We have 2 Roma plants and 2 cherry tomato plants and they are providing us with plenty of fresh tomatoes.

You Go Girl!

Unfortunately I have misplaced my camera so I can't upload or take pictures right now. This is why I've been slacking on the blog posts lately. Thanks to my friend Meg I have some pictures (that I stole directly from her blog) of a 10k that we ran yesterday. 

We woke up early and drove down to Tacoma for the You Go Girl 10K/Half Marathon. We were wondering how it would go since we have been barely running lately. Instead we've been exercising at the gym by taking Zumba, BodyPump and Step classes. We signed up for this race a long time ago and just had to push ourselves to not just walk after the first few miles.

Meg 24 weeks pregnant and me 17 weeks

We finished in under 12 minute miles (yes our pace was 11:59 to be exact) and therefore our overall time was 1:14. We were very proud of ourselves! Not bad for 2 pregnant ladies who haven't been running much! This race reminded me that its sometimes nice to push yourself past your comfort zone to see what you are capable of doing. We are stronger than we think!

At the finish!

Afterwards we met up with Meg's husband Chris, David, Meg's family friends who also ran and their husbands and went out for lunch. It was a perfect end to the race and we drove home exhausted, stuffed and ready for a nice hot shower.

The group (Meg's family friends who told us about this race in the first place)

Labor Day Weekend

We had a really good three day weekend that involved haircuts for Aidan and David, a family trip to the swimming pool with ice cream afterwards, good food, beautiful weather, the zoo with friends, Red Mill Burgers, the park with Bekky and Juston and their cute puppy Maggie and a trip to Jetty Island. 

It is good to finally have summer!

I'm pretty sure this is Aidan's third piece of corn

Yum!

Aidan helping me water the flowers

 Our friends Rachel and Phil came down from Bellingham for the day and we went to the zoo with our kiddos. Katheryn and Aidan are almost exactly 1 year apart and we hope that soon enough they will be good friends.

Hmm....maybe puppies eat woodchips

Here you go Maggie

We decided to go to Jetty Island on Monday which is a man-made island in Everett. The ferry is free but we had to wait a long time since it was a holiday and the last day of the season. It was worth the wait though and we had a great time playing in the sand.