Fall is in full swing at this house. We have started to bring out the jeans and hooded sweatshirts, the jackets have been cleaned and the hats and mittens are in an arms reach. This is my most favorite Season of all!
We have had a big Birthday in the past few weeks....Dylan turned 4!!! Oh my goodness where has the time gone?! Dylan took full advantage of his birthday, he has gotten the birthday deal figured out! We celebrated the Saturday before his birthday since Daddy would be gone, so Dylan was SO special and had 2 Birthday cakes!
We were so happy Dylan's preschool also celebrated his birthday! He got a special hat and was made 'king' for the day and he got a sticker to wear too. We took birthday treats to share with his friends and he came home having had such a great birthday! That was the best part... listening to how special his birthday celebration at school was!
So we celebrated two times and Dylan got lots of very nice gifts from near and far! Every gift he opened he took his sweet time and carefully peeled back each and every piece to reveal what was inside! Just this weekend we opened Dylans gift from the Eddins family! He was SO excited to have yet another birthday present that he ran and got his birthday hat, from his birthday, to wear, just to open the gift. Too cute!
Happy 4th Birthday Dylan... may all of your Birthday wishes come true!
Last week we had one, last, dose of Summer and it was very nice....but there is just something about having the windows cracked open, a Pumpkin Spice candle burning, Chili or Roast in the crock pot and being snuggled on the couch with my family. These are my most favorite things!
Yesterday it was rather rainy, chilly and just down right not a nice day. We have started swim lessons again and that is really something to look forward to every Saturday morning! The kids just LOVE it, Daddy & Danielle do the parent/baby class again with Mike and Lila and Dylan has his own lessons at the exact same time. It is perfect!!! We are SO happy to have friends that enjoy this also because it is really cute watching those darling little girls in the water swimming and singing songs with their daddy's. This week the whole class was daddy's and their kids, except the instructor who is a mommy with her son. It was really cute watching them all! So Saturday morning we hit up Swim lessons and then headed home to snuggle up for the day and watch football. Dylan is loving watching football with Daddy and just begs to turn it on. So we do, bring out the munchies and everyone in the house is happy! Thankfully the Hawkeyes pulled out another 'W', sort of a 'Redemption' day after last weekends loss in Arizona. We had a suprise visit from Uncle Tony, it was great for him to stop and Dylan to get in some play time with him. I think he got a good dose of what this crazy little man is all about! After our visit, we relaxed all day long. Brad has been gone the past two weeks, for work so the kids loved snuggling up with Daddy for the day.
Today we woke up and the sun was shining bright. We instantly knew it was going to be a great day! We had a late morning visit from Grandpa and Grandma Holub who brought some fun birthday gifts for Dylan! He loved every minute of opening more presents and getting lots of attention from Grandpa and Grandma. We chatted with them this morning, and then we were off for a afternoon of family fun. We headed off to Wilson's Apple Orchard in Iowa City. We were all excited to pick some fresh apples and enjoy the beautiful fall day. Danielle just wasn't feeling the best but she was happy to get in some snuggles as we ventured about.
Poor little peanut just relaxed and took a snooze. This cute little hat and puff my co-worker got for her, how adorable is it?! Wendy got Danielle a whole goodie bag of hair accessories from Polka Dots and Pixie Sticks! Thank you Wendy for the fun girlie hair pieces :)
The Orchard was very busy, there were a lot of family's enjoying the sunshine as well. That's okay though because there was over 25 acres of apple tree's so no area was crowded at all. We took a tractor ride over the valley and thru the Orchard. It was great! Dylan was SO excited to get a ride. The driver periodically stopped told stories and offered for people to get off and do some picking from way deep in the orchard, as well as we picked some up who had their baskets full of hand picked apples. We also went on the tractor right thru the stream in the middle of the Orchard. Everyone put their feet up as the tractor chugged right thru the water. The kids really thought that was the best part....and of course mommy didn't put her feet up high enough the first time and they got WET! Oh well, they quickly dried and I was smart enough to hike them up the next time around :)
After trompsing thru the Orchard for some fresh apples we found ourselves back at the barn standing in a LONG line for fresh apple turnovers and carmel apples. YUMMY!! They were SO delicious. The caramel was nice and sticky, the first big bite you took was ALL caramel, perfect!! The next big bite was more caramel and then a bit of apple. And then the last bites were fresh, juicy, crunchy delicious apple. And oh, the fresh Apple Turnovers were to die for. They were fresh out of the oven, lightly coated with sugar and brown sugar, they were so good. Dylan wasn't too fond of them, but that was just fine because it left more for Mom & Dad!!
We sat 0ut on the crates and looked at the beautiful valleys around us, apple tree after apple tree. We enjoyed the music and the giggles from other kids enjoying the beautiful fall day with their families. It was a wonderful afternoon and we soaked up every ounce of sunshine that we could.
Now it's back to another crazy busy work week! Dylan's pre-school Open House is this week... so much to look forward to and the weather is supposed to be beautiful. We are loving this full dose of Fall, after all what is better than bright sunshine and pumpkins and mums decorating the front steps and all of the yummy scents that come with this time of the year?! We LOVE every bit of it!~
