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We have many pumpkin patch opportunities near us ranging from the stand by the side of the road to the big farms with all kinds of fun and activities for the little ones. We chose a farm about 45 minutes from our house. The weather was perfect.

Maddie started in the bouncy house, since she had just played in one the day before. She had a lot of fun, but we weren’t able to get any good photos of her jumping around.

Next up was the little kid maze. She was unsure at first until Daddy joined her in the maze.

Maddie spotted the playground structure next and had to go down the slide several times. Can’t find that in parks near our house for free!

Next up was the hay jump and hay tunnel. Maddie had a lot of fun jumping in the hay! She made friends with a boy about a year or two older than her. It was the sweetest thing as he helped her onto each hay bale and showed her the proper way to jump into the hay.

We spent some time looking at the rabbits and their rabbit houses. I was quite amused by the bunnies hanging out on their front porch. We walked over to what I called “The Cornbox.” It was like a sandbox but filled with corn kernels instead of sand. Maddie was unsure at first. I think she was then amused by all the corn.

I’m pretty sure that my child was the only one trying to get the corn kernels off of herself before she even left the cornbox.

Walking in the corn kernels is tricky.

After the cornbox, we did some gem mining. Maddie loves collecting rocks at school, so I thought she would enjoy getting some special rocks. We collected a few “gems.”

A trip to the pumpkin patch wouldn’t be complete without a hay ride! The hay ride was just the right length. I knew that Maddie would enjoy it because her favorite part of the festival a few weeks ago was the tractor that took us from the parking lot to the entrance of the festival. She was excited to “ride a tractor” again.

Cullen enjoyed hanging out in the sling while we experienced the pumpkin patch fun. He liked the wind blowing on his hair while riding the hay ride.

It was then time to select the perfect pumpkins. Maddie is fascinated by pumpkins and points them out on people’s porches constantly. She was very excited to be in a field of pumpkins. She is lovingly showing us a perfect pumpkin.

I tried to get a few photos of the kiddos.

Cullen seemed to enjoy sitting amongst the pumpkins!

We enjoyed our first pumpkin patch experience and plan to do it again next year! We may return to this farm or try another one of the great options in our area.

Something that makes me happy: Celebrating our wedding anniversary (four wonderful years and counting!).

Something I’m thinking: I think I ate too much dinner. We had meatloaf and potatoes in a crockpot. It was yummy, but it’s pretty dense.

Something happening around the house: We carved pumpkins today!

Something I’m reading: Still reading bits and pieces of Enchanted, Inc. here and there. I’m excited that Gabe has been reading The Hunger Games series. He will probably finish the trilogy before me.

Something I’m watching: We started watching Shutter Island last night, but we weren’t able to finish it. I hope we’ll finish watching it tonight after The Amazing Race.

Something tasty: We went out to dinner to Acme Food and Beverage Company for our anniversary. It was great!!! I especially loved my appetizer which included heirloom tomatoes (best tomatoes I’ve ever had!), mozzarella cheese (I made a rare exception to the no dairy as I didn’t feel I could pass up that appetizer!), deviled eggs, and pickled something…squash? regular pickles? I am not sure, but it was all very, very good.

Something Maddie is doing (32 months old): Maddie and I went to the fair with Shannon and Keira. I think the most memorable moment for Maddie was riding the pony. She was so scared while doing it that she was shaking, but then afterward she couldn’t stop talking about it. When we got home, she couldn’t wait to tell Daddy. This is a good season for Maddie as she’s very excited about pumpkins. Ever since we went to the pumpkin patch, Maddie loves pulling into the driveway and excitedly points out the pumpkins on our front porch. She thought the pumpkin carving was interesting today. I made the Pooh pumpkin just for her.

Something Cullen is doing (39 weeks old): Cullen turned 9 months old this week. He has his 9-month appointment this week. He has started crawling on his hands and knees a bit more, though still finds that he is faster doing the army crawl. He’s started resisting his antibiotic. This is particularly frustrating since we will be giving it to him every day for who knows how long. I hate that we’ll have to fight him daily to take it. He had some exciting new foods this week: saltine crackers, blueberry muffin, multigrain cheerios, and pancakes (technically, he had a little bit once before, but this time he had a bit more).

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I’m getting caught up on organizing my photos (not specifically listed on my goals, but still related to my goals). I’m also formulating a plan to run a 5k next year. I’m excited about the idea! I hope I can keep my motivation and complete it next year.

Something planned: Book club, play date, a trip to the museum, and Halloween fun!

Something captured: Keira, Cullen, and Maddie at a Halloween festival on Saturday.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: We had a wonderful weekend spent mostly outside enjoying the perfect weather.

Something I’m thinking: I’m thinking about all the photos we took this weekend with our visit to the Life and Science museum, neighborhood block party, and the pumpkin patch today. Whew, big weekend!

Something I’m hoping: I hope the weather continues to be nice at least through Tuesday when I’m taking Maddie to the State Fair!

Something happening around the house: It’s very convenient that the neighborhood block party happens right in front of our house!

Something I’m reading: I started reading Enchanted, Inc by Katie Chandler. I wanted to read something light before starting the next book club book, The Secret History. I haven’t been allowing myself much time to read lately.

Something I’m watching: We are giving The Event a try and thinking about dropping some shows (potentially including that one since we haven’t invested much into it yet!). We’re keeping up pretty well with Glee and Amazing Race. Somehow, I can also keep up with 90210. We’re behind on most of our shows, though.

Something I’m playing: A little Carcassonne on the iPhone and a little Angry Birds. Not much else.

Something tasty: We had some purple sweet potatoes, though Gabe and Maddie didn’t think they were tasty without a load of brown sugar. Cullen and I thought they were good.

Something Maddie is doing (31 months old): Maddie did great this week with her dinners. We have been putting all sorts of foods in front of her for a long time. She has often refused foods outside of her comfort zone which includes most fruits, almost anything with cheese, and nearly any junk food. She does eat peas, but this week she really gobbled them up when I referred to them as a “special treat” and called them “pea pops.” Neat trick. We had pot roast this week, and she ate carrots, potatoes, celery, and even a little bit of beef. That same night, she had some fresh applesauce (made specially by Mommy!). For dessert, she had pureed pumpkin. She was interested in tasting what I made for Cullen. She ate a whole bowl of pumpkin “sauce!” I was very impressed. Tonight, she ate purple sweet potatoes, though she protested until Daddy added enough brown sugar for her liking. She actually ate pork chops which was very unusual for her. I have to admit that I initially bribed her with a marshmallow. I try not to do that often, but what can I say? It worked, and she ate more pork without bribing. I think the trick is to get her to try tasty things and the rest is easy. When I asked her how she liked the pork, she said, “it tastes like chicken!” I swear, I haven’t taught her to say that. So funny! Maddie’s favorite part of the museum on Saturday was the butterfly house. Her favorite part of the block party was the toddler bounce house. It’s hard to say what her favorite part of the pumpkin patch was, but I would say it might be a toss up between the hay jump, the “cornbox” (like a sandbox but with corn instead), the hay ride, and selecting pumpkins. Big weekend for a little girl!

Something Cullen is doing (38 weeks old): He started his daily antibiotic for his kidney reflux this week. He’s been taking it well, which is a relief since he’ll be taking it for at least a year or much longer. Cullen enjoyed some new foods this week: peas, pumpkin, and purple sweet potatoes. Unfortunately, I accidentally consumed dairy for lunch on Saturday and Cullen spit up several hours later. This is the 4th time that this has happened, though I wasn’t 100% sure at first that my lunch contained dairy. I called the restaurant to confirm and my salmon cake indeed had heavy cream. Darn! I was hoping that he had outgrown the dairy sensitivity by now. I guess we’ll hold off on giving him dairy directly for a little while longer! Little Man has been crawling on his hands and knees a little but still prefers the army crawl. He’s been waving more, too.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I recently worked a little on our 2010 photobooks. I marked off some of my goals that I had already completed but forgot to mark.

Something I learned: Despite their constant resistance, both of my kids need naps. Ok, so this isn’t completely new to me, but lately Maddie has been resisting her naps. This weekend showed me that she still needs her nap, regardless of what she might think about it.

Something I’m looking forward to: The State Fair with Maddie, a Halloween festival, and our anniversary.

Something random: The State Fair this year has a new food item: a burger that uses two Krispy Kreme doughnuts as the bun. I think that the original KK burger used one doughnut instead of two, but a photo that I saw of the fair burger looks like it contains a doughnut on each side of the burger. I did a little research, and I’m seeing that the KK burger started at a minor league baseball club. While I will admit it probably doesn’t taste as bad as it sounds, I will be skipping this at the fair (or anywhere else). No thanks!

Something captured: Cullen and Maddie at the pumpkin patch today.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

It’s time for another letter to Maddie! As usual, I have a lot to say about my little girl. I’m sure many of you are shocked.
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I’ve posted the Halloween photos! Maddie wore her costume to daycare on Friday, and we went trick or treating with her best friend, Keira, on Saturday. We had a family sleepover (the “spooooooky sleepover”) at their house Saturday night. It was a great Halloween weekend! Click on the photo to see the rest of the album.

Something that made me happy this week: A wonderful weekend with great friends!

Something I’m thinking: The weekend really should be at least 3 days.

Something I’m hoping: To finish the cruise photobook sometime soon. I started on it this week and have made quite a bit of progress.

Something happening around the house: I did a little more work on the mural this weekend. Slowly but surely, I’m going to finish this thing. Then we will have to work on the big transition from Maddie’s crib to the big girl bed.

Something I’m reading: I don’t think that I did any reading this week. The Help has been postponed for book club until March. I’ll hopefully get back to reading Loving Frank this week. Loving Frank is the book club selection for November/December.

Something tasty I ate this week: I made Ginger Snaps for the Halloween festivities this weekend. YUM!!!

Something Maddie did this week: She started calling Gabe, “Daddy.” She also went trick-or-treating for the first time, though she didn’t quite seem to understand what we were doing. She’s talking more than ever and using complete sentences fairly often now.

Something happening with the pregnancy: I’m officially in my third trimester, wow!

Something I struggled with this week: We had some struggles this week with what to name the new baby. We’ll figure it out eventually (hopefully before the baby is born!!!).

Something I’m doing towards my goals: Other than the usual ongoing stuff, nothing much.

Something I learned this week: I learned that scone pans are difficult to clean. This fact will prevent Gabe from ever letting me own one.

Something I’m looking forward to next week: The Mothers & More open house, dinner with friends, and Maddie’s swimming lesson.

Something random: Gabe and I have been playing too much Cafe World on Facebook.

Something I captured: Maddie and Mommy while trick-or-treating.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that made me happy this week: Seeing our baby boy on the ultrasound.

Something I’m thinking: It’s just a little over two months until Christmas – yikes! I have been thinking about some of our gifts, at least…of course, most people probably haven’t given any of it much thought. What can I say, I like to plan ahead.

Something I’m hoping: Same as last week…I’m still hoping to get the trip reports done for our cruise. Once I get those and the photos done on the website, I can get started on the photobook. I promised my family that I’d put together the photobook for everyone.

Something happening around the house: Gabe painted Maddie’s room! He isn’t quite finished with the deck, but he went ahead and painted her room so that I’ll be able to get started on her mural. I traced the patterns today and need to get some paints soon.

Something I’m reading: I’m still not reading. Maybe this week.

Something tasty I ate this week: I made pancakes for my family yesterday morning. Yummy! Maddie loves them (and so do we!).

Something Maddie did this week: She added a new tooth for a grand total of 6 teeth. Her teeth are taking forever to come in!! She may have one or two more, but she won’t let me feel around her gums to see. She’s definitely still teething.

Something happening with the pregnancy: We had our level II ultrasound! Unfortunately, our baby boy wasn’t cooperating and wasn’t too photogenic. We only got a few photos and none of the typical profile shots. Oh well.

Something I struggled with this week: This isn’t a struggle exactly, but I’m coming to the conclusion that Maddie has definitely regressed with her sleeping. Since our trip, I think she’s only slept through the night in her crib once or twice at most. She has been sleeping at least several hours in our bed each night (and lately more than that). Teething or adjusting from our vacation could be to blame? It is very sweet to cuddle with her in the bed. I wonder what changes we might have when we transition her to the big girl bed or stop using the pacifier at night.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I went to a new dentist and made an appointment for a new ob/gyn (well, that’s not one of my goals). I still have one more prenatal appointment with my current doctor.

Something I learned this week: Jim and Pam got married on The Office (and maybe are having a baby?). I gathered this from Facebook updates and blogs. We loved the show but had to drop it last year as we just don’t have time for all the shows we want to watch. We’ll catch up on Netflix one of these days…

Something I’m looking forward to next week: Games “night!”

Something random: Gabe and I shouldn’t be allowed to buy Halloween candy over 3 weeks early. We’ve both been eating a bit of it each day, and I’m pretty sure that we won’t have any left by Halloween.

Something I captured: Our son’s little feet.

Happy 9 months, Madeline! Time for another letter to Maddie. (more…)

Maddie was disappointed that she couldn’t wear her Super Girl costume to daycare today, so I let her wear her costume around the house this morning. Poor girl. She’s a Super Hero…fighting villains viruses with fevers of 104! Look at those sad sick little eyes. How could you not give this little one some candy big hugs and kisses?

Maddie was feeling ok long enough this morning for me to snap a few cute photos of her in her Halloween outfit. Hopefully, she will feel well enough tomorrow to let me take some photos of her in her costume. In the meantime, enjoy these photos of Maddie playing with the candy (don’t worry, every piece she touched was put into a separate pile for us to eat so we won’t pass her germs out to the neighborhood! Oh darn, more candy for us!).