I HEART FALL

A Pick'n We Will Go

When Fall begins, it means one of many things... picking your own apples! We visited Gizdich Ranch in Watsonville and picked strawberries and apples. It felt very invigorating to pick our own fruit. I felt very organic! The girls each had their own little bucket to put their freshly picked strawberries. Gracie had a great eye for the ready-to-be-picked strawberries. Where as for Emily, she picked whatever she could get her little hands on... green or red!



There was a sign posted that said we may "sample" the fruit, but not "graze". Unfortunately, I don't think Emily got that message. I think she had more strawberries go into her mouth than the bucket.

Some mommy and Emily time :)

Is she still eating those strawberries??

Off to pick some apples.

It was enjoyable picking the apples too. We had to help the girls somewhat to reach by holding onto them and allowing them to stretch their little arms. The girls had that proud look on their faces when picking their fruit; like they grew it themselves and were picking their prizes!

Here's Gracie showing off her beautiful strawberries.

If you look closely you can see all the strawberry residue on Emily's mouth. She LOVED the strawberries!

We will for sure do this again next year. Hopefully Emily will be able to control herself and not eat all the strawberries before paying for them! Happy picking!

Off to the Mid-West

We went to the Mid-West to visit Jim's family over Labor Day weekend; which was a really long time ago! Traveling with two little ones is always interesting. We had long days, off nap/bedtime schedules and a few tantrums. But it was of course all worth it. We had a really nice time. While there we went to an apple farm called Apple Holler and Lincoln Park Zoo. The girls really enjoyed themselves.

Gracie was brave enough to feed the goats!

Gracie picking an apple, which technically we didn't pay for :)

We went through a corn maze.. which if it were me alone, I'd probably still be there!

This pretty much says it all...

This was really cool. We got to see the polar bear under water. The girls got a kick out of this!

Chicago

See you again, Chicago!

School Days

The day finally came where Gracie started preschool. Jim and I have always thought that we'd start Gracie in preschool when she turned three, but the night before she started we began to think maybe not. Not because she isn't ready (because believe you me, I know she it) but because she's our "baby girl"! The time with these kids goes by so incredibly fast. While you're going through the everydayness of things, it seems to go by slowly. But then you blink or take a deep breath and all of a sudden 6 months have passed.

Gracie had a wonderful, fun-filled day! She loved her teacher Miss Megan and recited what she said pretty much all afternoon. Which, as a teacher myself, makes me a little nervous about what my students have repeated at home!
Gracie wanted us to call her Miss Megan and she continued to ramble about going to the bathroom, listening ears, secrets, singing some songs that I don't quite recognize yet, and timers. The good news is she is looking forward to going back next week. The following are some pictures of this big First Day of School.

Gracie eating breakfast before this big day!

And we can't forget about Miss Emily. While Gracie is in school I get to hang out with my precious little Emily. I really enjoyed this one on one time with her that I don't usually get!

Ready or not, here we come!

Gracie is to find an apple with her name on it and take it over to a tree to hang it.

Here is the tree where she is to hang it, except she's too busy looking at someone else's apple!

I think Emily is ready to start school too!

Last hugs good-bye! We love you Gracie, have a great day!!

Inspiration

Inspiration is a funny thing. I can feel so inspired one minute and then it's completely gone the next. I got inspired by a woman who writes a blog, that I actually got through my sister and mom. She seems to enjoy life to the absolute fullest and appears to enjoy every second with her children. I read one of her stories and felt so inspired to be the very best mom I can possibly be and to really enjoy my time off with my girls. This lasted about 2 days. And most everyday after that I try really hard to think about those couple of days and try to relive them. I honestly want to be the best mom I can be, have as much fun with my girls as I can because I know there will become a time when the won't want to hang onto mommy's leg anymore. Below (and above because I can't figure out how to write above the picture) are some of my inspired times. I hope to continue to do fun things with my girls and to stay motivated and inspired because they truly are my everything and I want nothing but for them to know how much I love them and how much they mean to me.

This picture (and the one on top) is from a family hike we took with the girls' Tee-tee, Uncle Rob and cousin Charlie.




The picture below is from a scavenger hunt we went on near my sister's house. The girls had a great time looking for their "treasures" and putting them into their cute purses. And yes, Gracie decided she wanted to wear her Sleeping Beauty dress while looking for her things!

This is Gracie having fun hair-do day. She says she's Dorothy from Wizard of Oz!


Where there's inspiration there's got to be paint!


Another scavenger hunt picture.


We picked this rose to put into one of Gracie's princess vases to have a tea party.

Here we are at Community Park feeding the ducks. Which, by the way they are NOT shy at all! The ducks that is!

Gracie in her dance class :) She's always looking at herself in the mirror while dancing by. Hmmm.. wonder where she got that??


That concludes my inspiration moments for now... hopefully I'll be posting some more good times!