Apple picking!

We've been enjoying the fall activities/weather, even though I know that bare trees and cold weather are in store. The weather has been beautiful, and the leaves are truly amazing. I love looking out our kitchen window at the bright yellow tree, and seeing gorgeous red and orange trees on the way to preschool and various errands.

Last week Lucy and I went apple picking with some friends. Fresh-picked apples are so delicious- night and day different from even good store-bought kinds. We made delicious apple muffins the next day, and I'm looking forward to making more apple creations.

Here's Lucy sampling one of the apples. There were lots of low ones that were easy to pick.




A beautiful tree in the late afternoon light.


This orchard has some animals, including a llama!

The bountiful harvest.

We had fun picking up pretty leaves and leaf-crunching on a recent walk.

A friend recently loaned us a bassinette for kernel. Lucy wanted to see "how it worked" so I showed her how her dolls could sleep in it. She then started singing one of our usual lullabies (Guide Me Oh Thou Great Jehovah- the tune is welsh, and my grandmother often hums it as a lullaby) while patting the doll's tummy. She even put a shirt over the doll's eyes, which is how Matt and I sleep (Lucy often requests a shirt to put over her eyes too). I caught the end of her song in the video below.

Pumpkin adventures

This past weekend was gorgeous (after a week of pouring rain), and we were all excited to be outdoors. We headed to a local pumpkin patch with my extended family to pick pumpkins, and then celebrated my grandfather's birthday.

Lucy and I on the hayride.


A family picture with our pumpkins- you can see how my little pumpkin is really popping out!

Lucy and Grandma in the patch.

Lucy picked out her pumpkin- quite a cute one. It was funny watching her try to pick up some of the larger ones!

Lucy did a great job helping Grandpa blow out his candles.

And a bonus picture- we picked up a costume for Lucy since she'll be having a Halloween/dress up day at preschool later this month. She LOVES it. She calls it her butterfly costume, and is so excited that it has wings. Here she's doing an "attitude" (ballet position she learned from our summer nanny).

Dancing the night away

A few weeks ago my uncle organized a fun concert/benefit, with awesome music (he played the ukelele in one of the bands!). Lucy completely surprised me by dancing for almost an hour straight, even though a lot of the time she was the only one out on the floor. She'd dance for awhile and then run over to the table like a marathoner, grabbing a grape and a sip of water before racing back out. There are 2 videos below of her dancing moves.

Lucy's been asking more questions about the baby recently. "Can I help put on the baby's diaper?" "Will the baby roll over?" "Will the baby wear shoes?" She will ask if the baby is asleep or kicking, and the other day said, "I want to see her eyes." One time I suggested that she say night-night to baby (after she'd been doing her question asking), and she proceeded to sing all of the lullaby "Tender shepherd" to the baby while stroking my tummy. So precious.