we made our pumpkin pie! And ate it (and shared it too)

Sunday was a rainy day, so we stayed in while Daddy went to work in the morning and made pumpkin pie. It was fun and came out perfectly!! (thanks, mom). When Ava woke up from her nap it was cooled enough to have it for a snack with a cold glass of milk. yum. She talked our ears off!! You can see that in the video :)

Yum yum yum, in our tum tum tummies!! 

if you were a fly on the wall at our house at meal time....

this video is almost 7 minutes long, but it's exactly what we experience every evening we share a family dinner. It such a good example of where she is at. She wants to be in control of who talks when, experiments with testing us (what are they gonna do when if I play with my food or don't?), and her imagination is soaring (especially with all the halloween decorations around these days)!
Enjoy sharing a piece of pumpkin pie with this little monkey! we did! :)

pumpkin carving

I debated whether or not to carve a pumpkin with Ava this year. I wondered if she would be interested. I wondered if we had time, but she really wanted to do it, so we bought our pumpkin at whole foods--picked it out in the drizzle together, climbing the built-in hay stacks to make sure we picked the best one, and I lugged this ridiculously heavy pumpkin up the stairs. Ava insisted on a scary face pumpkin and waited SO patiently while I cute the top open. She was interested in what it looked like inside, but when she found out it was goopy and slimey she wouldn't touch it. Such a dainty little girl, my gosh! I told her, as I scooped out mounds of pumpkin flesh and seeds that this was my favorite part as a kid. Brad heard me saying that and proceeded to shove his hand in and take goop out, saying "me too!, try Ava!" But she wouldn't. 

 She took a good look inside though

 And then decided that she would try to touch it...."daddy! are you weady? come see me. I'm gonna touch it!" we gathered around her and this is what she did: With the tip of her finger she touched a seed! (I had her re-inact for the photo). Again, can you say dainty?! :)

 But we sure did carve a cute (I mean scary) jack-o-lantern! 

 It was so fun to watch her in awe of it. How did a plain old pumpkin change to this in a half hour? Spooooooky!

I'm so glad we carved the pumpkin. It made life feel normal and calm, when right now it feels full and chaotic. I think I'm going to stop putting off making my pumpkin pie too. I'm gonna make time to make it because what would fall be without pumpkin pie? And after all, that is my nickname that my mom calls me, and she dug through her recipes to send me just the one she always makes for me, so it's settled. 

Fall (for California)

Playing at this park never gets old. Sometimes on our walk down i'll think to myself "here we go, back to Vasona..." but i'm always grateful once we get there. I always see something different, whether it's a beautifully elegant crane walking through the fields, or the light streaking through the trees, or a new angle to shoot from, it's just a really beautiful place to play, photograph, watch Ava learn and grow....She's been coming to this park weekly since she was 2 weeks old. We had a mother's day picnic with my mom by the reservoir.

So, fall is here in California. At least it feels like it, but I know my east coast family would laugh at me if they were here. The leaves are turning shades of yellow and the air is cooler. The sun is setting earlier and I smell people having fires in fireplaces at night. (I love that smell). It's almost the end of October. The seasons here are mild, but still felt. Maybe you can feel fall a little through these pictures. Just thought I would share a good combo: my favorite season with my favorite girl.

I can't wait to bring her back east someday at this time of year. There is just nothing like it. I miss you, East Coast, but I love you California. 

Pumpkin time!!

It was my fantasy to drive over the hill to santa cruz and take the girls to a simple little pumpkin farm by the ocean, have them pick out their pumpkins while we breathe in the salty air, but Brad had another idea! How about we take the girls to that pumpkin patch on Saratoga Ave, right next to the freeway, so we can get home to watch the Giants?! "wow, that sounds.......um, not like my idea at all", but truth be told, the idea was more about me enjoying the salty sea air and open fields. The girls didn't know the difference, AT ALL. They had a blast at the pumpkin patch on the side of the road! So there, Cass. They were SO excited. Aren't they cute together? 

So we get there, jump in a cart and Ava says "wook! dere's er-su-ya!" (you, know, Ursula, the sea witch, from The Little Mermaid). When we saw what she was talking about Brad and I looked at each other like "why the heck is Ursula at the pumpkin patch?!", but that's why!! For little Miss Ava to get all super excited and have her picture taken with her. That's why! Who knew?

there were also little unhappy animals trapped in cages for children to poke. Poor little animals. Ava and Hailey were so sweet and gentle with them though

We even caught Ava trying to kiss the goat, and the goat trying to kiss her back. Without completely freaking out, we interrupted this and gently told Ava that it's kind of yucky to kiss a goat, but a thoughtful thing to think of doing

here's another idea I would never have thought of in creating a pumpkin farm: pumpkin head horses! Weird. But again, the girls loved them!! Giddy-up pumpkin head horsie!

cuteness when I ask them to smile! 

   

 Hailey asked me to take her photo with every one of these pumpkin head people!!

I caught Ava looking up at one, like, what is this? Is she real? Why is Hailey having her picture taken with these things? :) 

time to go home. thank goodness the girls picked out small pumpkins. I couldn't find a nice large pumpkin on the whole lot! But again, this wasn't for me. 

Thank you daddy for taking us to the pumpkin patch.

we love you. And you love baseball (and us too) :)