Quintessential Fall Weekend

A last minute cancellation of guests last weekend and left us with two unplanned days of family bonding and pure autumnal glory.  I'm happy to report that the trees I were beginning to think were either "evergreen" or "turn brown and die" in our neighborhood have begun showing hints of red and gold.  We really miss those beach sunsets, but how I love getting my foliage back!

Our yard has been transformed by recent rain and cooler temperatures.  The soft green grass has been perfect for some soccer, Jack's newest sport.  It's been interesting trying to teach him that "soccer balls go on the ground, footballs go in the air, and neither go in the house!"

Jack was also an excellent helper to his Daddy, who was raking leaves. 

Jude and I took it all in from the sidelines.

Jude's still not sitting up, so my dreams of a fun fall photo shoot are still on hold.  I decided to go ahead and try it out with Jack supporting Jude.  Well, I snapped one picture, one not so good picture that is, before Jack flung Jude off his lap and into the leaves.  It's a good thing Daddy was there to catch him or this could have been disasterous.

After the event Jude was not too keen on photo shoots ... or leaves.  He doesn't say much, but his face makes his sentiments quite clear.

But Jack loves the leaves.  He loves to jump in them, throw them, bury himself, bury his toys, put them in his hair...  He really seems to like autumn.  I wonder where he gets that from?

The weather was simply perfect.  I decided it would be a good time to finish off my garden.  And by finish off I mean clean 'er out.  So the whole gardening thing wasn't too successful, I'll admit.  But I did have fun.  And I got a bounty of tomatoes and one heck of a pesto out of it.  I was pretty excited about the two little peppers I spotted a few weeks ago, until I caught Jack carrying them around.  My poor produce didn't stand a chance with that kid in town. 

Of course, he blamed it all on Jude.

I guess I just didn't realize how much time it would involve, or at least how little time I'd have as a mom of two this summer.  We'll probably take a break next summer since we may end up moving again, so I should be ready to give it a go again after that.

Of course, Jack had no problem helping Mommy rip the old plants out of the garden, since he's been doing that for the past few months.  He also enjoyed free rides in the wheelbarrow.

Sunday night was jack 'o lantern night!  Daddy lit a bonfire and went to work on the pumpkins we got on our trip to the farm.  Of course, by the time I finished feeding Jude, putting him to bed and doing all the dishes it was pitch black outside.  Jack was over the whole pumpkin carving thing, and Jon was already finished with his pumpkin.  And since I don't get a whole lot of opportunities to really express my artistic abilities, I decided to do something a little different than your typical toothy faced jack 'o.  My mistake.  Two hours later and I was still trying to get my carving "just right."  I eventually gave up, and set it out as is. 

Can you guess which one is mine?  Can you guess what mine is supposed to be?  Hubby couldn't.  I just want to say, it looked totally awesome in my head.

And it wouldn't be fall without some harvesty eating.  I fell in love with these Pumpkin Honey Wheat muffins and we tried out our friend Julie's Pumpkin Lasagna, also a winner!  And of course, we roasted all our pumpkin seeds. 

Oddly enough, Jack likes pumpkin seeds.  But he chews them like gum ... all day.  I made him spit out a mouthful before his nap the other day because I was quite positive he would wake up still chewing them.  He thought it was totally cool that Mommy let him spit something into the toilet.  I really need to think before I suggest these things, I fear I may have started something.

So we're discovering that fall in Maryland isn't too bad.  But it's still got nothing on Pennsylvania.  Thankfully we've got a trip on the books.  And it can't come soon enough.  This mama is ready for a break only grandparents know how to provide!!

Old Friends, New Adventures

This past weekend our childhood friends N and J came to visit. We had a fun time hanging out on the beach and reminiscing about growing up together. I especially enjoyed the stories about Handsome Coastie beating up N, and N removing HC's name from a list of friends he had carved in a tree. Or J and I being the only girls on the sidelines during "friend skates" at Church Camp. Or laughing about how HC's closet was just as organized 15 years ago as it is today.

When sitting out on the beach all day got old, we decided to visit the Cape Henry Lighthouse. Much to our delight, we arrived to find out that that day, and that day only, they had specially opened the NEW lighthouse for visitors to check out - for free! This lighthouse is much taller than the OLD lighthouse, so Baby J was definitely in for a trip. And although he won't remember us pointing out the spot on the beach below the lighthouse where Daddy professed his undying love for Mommy and gave her a beautiful, sparkling diamond to set this whole ride in motion ... I'm sure he enjoyed being carried up all those hundreds of steps and getting his share of the ocean breeze!

Of course, I must admit that the hubby and I had an ulterior motive in inviting this couple to visit. Seeing how many fond memories we shared with N and J, it's only natural that we would want our kids to have the same wonderful experiences. So our plan was to convince them to have a baby ASAP and join us in this adventure called parenthood. Either Hubby and I aren't very convincing or N and J have wills of steel (I think it's the latter) but we weren't very effective in our endeavours. So Handsome Coastie, who won't go down without a fight, snuck a "Virginia is for Lovers" bumper sticker on the back of their car and sent them the whole way back to New Jersey without mentioning a word. It's good to know hubby is still young at heart. :)