Adventures of the Running Fairy Princess and her Bunny

Our Halloween adventures started with a trip to Thies Farm for "Pumpkinland". We had to go fairly late in the season because of temperatures in the 80s during much of October (global warming - still scaring me!!). The low heat tolerance of #1 (as Kevin and I call Reiley doing "code-talk") kept us away until the weekend before Halloween, but we enjoyed a beautiful, blustery fall day at the farm. Here they are proudly toting their pumpkins.
We carved them outside and Ainsley enjoyed mixing the pumpkin goop around with the spoon and trying to eat it. Reiley is sporting a nightgown, which she wore to preschool for their Halloween party.
The long-anticipated night arrived, and our little ladies morphed into a "Running Fairy Princess" and a bunny. Reiley said that she wanted to be a fairy who runs, not flies, because "Mom, I can't really fly in the air". Ainsley even wore her little bunny hood, which I think makes her face look even rounder and more squeezable:-).
Ainsley literally lunging for chocolate at Grammi's house (hey, I completely understand the feeling).
Reveling in the chocolate coma - Ainsley chose my favorite, Snickers!
Another Halloween is over, but we are zooming ahead into the rest of the Holiday season (need I say again how much I love the fall!!)

Go Ainsley Go!

Ainsley started crawling this week! Being the crazy camera-toting Mom I am, I have been wearing my camera on my hip because I saw it coming, and I caught it on tape. True to herself, it was not a toy, but food that lured Ainsley into crawling (that girl loves to eat!).

Over the River and Through the Woods

We had some more fall fun a few weekends ago in Central Illinois visiting my parents. It was a beautiful day (though still more like summer than fall - global warming is scary!!). We took a trip to the Henson Robinson Zoo in Springfield, which was the perfect zoo for my kids. Yes, we love our expansive St. Louis Zoo with all its thrills, but Springfield's Zoo was small, very walkable, quiet, and relaxing. There was a cute little playground that the girls loved, and Reiley (formerly slide-shy) went down the "Huge slide, Mommy!" for 15 minutes straight.

After Zooing, we Grandpa and Reiley had a jam session. My parents got Reiley a guitar for her birthday and has been enjoying playing, but her strokes are much more confident after carefully watching Grandpa's technique. You can scroll down and watch a Live and Uncut version of Old McDonald.
We also played at a playground close to my parents' house, where Ainsley was WAY excited to be sliding right next to Reiley (over and over again).
I wanted to include a classic picture of Petersburg (my hometown). Kevin, being the city boy he is, insisted that he take the girls walking through the corn (because that's apparently what people who grow up in the country do with their days - walk aimlessly through corn). Though corn walking was a huge hit with Reiley, who exclaimed "I want to walk through the corn all day long!"