Apple/Pumpkin Picking

The fall wouldn't be the fall without some good old fashioned apple and pumpkin picking.  The boys loved both places and, I must say, I loved it too!!!!

Who doesn't love an apple cider donut?

Look how cute they are.  I can't stand it.

This was our first time apple picking and it was so fun.

Ryan just loved carrying an empty bag!

Yeah, Mom and Dad were there too.

And we ended up with 15 pounds of apples!  The Staymen variety were the best.

Now onto pumpkin picking.

Ryan wasn't scared of the spiders...but Nathan was.

He stayed near the pumpkins instead.

Daddy and his boys.

Mommy and her munchkins.

Too cute to pass up this one.

It was time to take care of the leaves.  As we put them into a pile, the boys destroyed the pile.

As you can tell, we love the fall season.  Next post you'll see from us will be for Halloween!!

My Soccer Maniacs!

Ryan and Nathan are both soccer superstars this season.  Ryan just finished his first season of Little Kicks and Nathan is in the middle of his first real season with the township league.

Ryan's soccer practices are a little free form.  We tried to focus on getting him to kick the ball with his feet instead of throwing it with his hands.

We aren't sure what this teaches...but we went along with it.

Here is Ryan receiving a patch at the end of class.  He liked that part of it.

Now on to our pro player.  We aren't sure where Nathan got his soccer skills, but he sure has taken an interest in soccer.  That kid behind him doesn't even have a chance!

Here is Nathan practicing his drills.  

Look at that kick!!!  And yes, that is a ref in the background.  The ref checks their equipment to make sure it's legal.  We are waiting for the doping test!

And Nathan just isn't an killer offensive player.  He also has a great defensive game.  Such focus!

Ryan is 2!!

We had all the family and some of our friends over to celebrate Ryan's birthday.  The theme was...what else, but Elmo!

Ryan loved his Elmo cake.

He was so excited to dig into it that he didn't want to wait for us to sing.

Who writes a birthday cake in all lowercase letters?

Amelia went first at "Place the Nose on Elmo."

Everyone was able to get the nose on perfectly.

...except for Ryan.

Nathan was a super helpful big brother by assisting in the gift opening...and gift playing.  

He must have known that he was my present :)

Ryan is wondering why Nathan is playing with more of the toys than he is.

Ryan was practicing on his new plasmacar.

After the party, there was a hardcore game of Sorry going on.

Then on Ryan's actual birthday, we had cupcakes and sang...again.  

Niagara/Toronto Vacation!

We just returned from our summer vacation.  This year we went to Niagara Falls and Toronto.  We made a quick stop along the way in Ithaca.  You can see all of our pictures via the slideshow on the right side of the screen.  

I had to post one video here though.  It is of our last night in Toronto.  We stayed at the Skydome hotel and our room looked directly into the Blue Jays stadium.  So cool!

Video from the Skydome Hotel