An Apple Picking We Will Go...

Since the start of September, I've been craving caramel apples, apple pie, and my favorite-- apple crisp.  I pinky swore we were going to find time to go apple picking, and last week, we finally had a chance to do it...not just by ourselves but with some of my friends' families too.

It was a warm, sticky day (definitely more July like than Autumn like), which made us feel pretty exhausted all around.  Still, my little guy had a chance to really pick the apples off the trees (and take a few bites of one too!)

This week the apples have been sitting on my counter, a daily reminder that I now need to do something with them.  If all goes well today, the goal is to make apple crisp.  I'll peel and slice the apples, and I'll let little guy arrange the apples in the pan and put on the crumb topping.  I can't promise that some of the crumb topping won't get eaten along the way...I guess I'll have to see how it all works out...

Here's some pictures from our apple picking excursion:

"Give me a high five!"

"I'm ready Mommy!"

"An apple picking, we will go..."

"There's one!"

"Thanks for the lift Daddy!"

"Don't drop me!"

Yay for friends!

"Time to rest!"

"This is the life."

All in all, it ended up being a short trip for us, but I still enjoyed being outside in the orchards.  If I get to making apple crisp today, then my September will be complete!

It's Fair Time!

When I think of September, I think of apple picking, apple cider, and my favorite--country fairs!  So far we've been to at least three of them, and everyone in the family seems to have their preference.  My husband loves the food (especially the "bad" stuff like fried mushrooms, fried oreos, and onion rings galore).  Little Lewie loves the rides (especially the cars and the merry-go-round).  My mom loves crafts, and I love the animals.  (Actually, I love it all, which is the reason why if my husband doesn't want to go, I invite my mom and vice versa.)

While I've taken Little Lewie to country fairs before, this year is the first time he's really "understanding" them.  In the past, we kept him in the stroller, and he had a chance to "observe" the animals, the crafts, and the fair happenings.  This time, for the most part, we let him run the show, and he had a great time getting his first "tattoo", visiting the animals, going on a few rides, and enjoying the food.  The pictures below capture a few highlights of the past three weekends.

"Look Mommy, I'm gonna get a real tattoo like Daddy has..."

"I'm still being brave Mommy."

"Check out my tatt!"

Daddy and Lewie at the Slurpee Station.

"This is awesome Mommy!"

This pumpkin weighed a mere 521 lbs.

My little boy and me.

"Say cheese with Daddy..."

"Ice cream too?  This is my lucky day!"

"Yum!!!"

Let the rides begin...

"Check me out on my Harley!"

"Just wanted to let you know how much fun I'm having Mommy."

Just chillin'.

My mom and Lewie.

Lewie and his "cake pop"!  (Yes, cake on a popsicle.)  Can you tell that over three weekends
we went from shorts and tank tops to sweatshirts and pants?

We're going to try to squeeze in a few more country fairs over the next few weekends, but by mid October, the season will have ended... Time just flies...

First Amusement Park Adventure

My local mommy friends spent all summer long encouraging me to take Little Lewie to a small, local amusement park called Quassy.  To be honest, I considered it, but I thought the rides would be too advanced for my little guy, and the tickets would be too expensive.  After all, my first trip to Quassy Amusement Park (yes, it's been around that long) didn't happen until I was seven years-old.  Let me repeat...seven.

"Did you take him yet?" My friends would ask impatiently.  "I'm telling you...he's the perfect age.  He's gonna love it!"

Well, it turns out that my mommy friends DO know what they're talking about.  After getting five gushing reviews about the place and how much their toddlers loved it, I decided maybe it wouldn't hurt if we checked it out before the summer ended.  My husband took a half day on Friday, and so we went during the week, when most children have already started back to school, and got to share the amusement park with only a few dozen people; it was great!

Having not been to the amusement park in quite some time, I was elated to see some of the old rides from my childhood and surprised to see some of the new rides.  Indeed, if the park seemed amateurish when I was a kid, the park looks like a "real" amusement park now with a "real" gated entrance, a "real" roller coaster, and a "real" map/layout of all the rides.

While there were definitely more advanced rides to satisfy the elementary school, middle school, and even high school crowd, there were also a dozen rides or more that were perfect for a three year-old.  It didn't take long for Little Lewie to remember riding the carousel or the little cars from experiences before, so when he saw both of these rides this time, he was tickled pink.   Even more, since we had the park mostly to ourselves, Little Lewie could choose to go on the same rides over and over again without even having to get off and wait in line.  We were spoiled--big time.

Here's a chronicle of some of the rides Little Lewie went on for his first amusement park adventure.  If he didn't exactly know what it meant to "go on rides" before, he certainly knows the phrase now.  I may have been seven years-old for my first amusement park experience but what can I say?  Three is the new seven.

The new, updated entrance gate to Quassy.

Lewie's first ride at the park.  I have to admit...the stairs made me nervous.

"Again Daddy.  Again!"

"Look.  I'm a sea captain!"

"Don't you love my shark torpedo!"

Lewie's first "big" ride and all by himself too!  (We weighed too much to go with him.)

"I guess that was fun.  Can I go on the cars again?"

On the choo-choo train.  We each had our own seat!

"Watch me drive!"

The three Muskateers.

Pure fun!

We definitely had a beautiful, fun-filled day at the park.  Probably my favorite experience, which I was having too much fun to capture on camera, was all of us going on the carousel together.  Each of us took a horse and hung on because this ride was fast!  The carousel is one of the original rides that existed when my husband and I were kids.  It definitely felt as if we went back in time.  Thank you for the advice mommy friends...we had the best time ever!

Little Lewie's First Day of Pre-School...(Yikes!)

Last Monday was Little Lewie's first official day of "Pre-School."  His days of daycare are now long gone.  While it's exciting to start him in a "school readiness" program, it's also a little bit intimidating...not for him...but for me.  The week before, we had an orientation, and I was already told that he would need to wear full blown underpants.  (No more pull-ups.)  Even more, besides getting him fully potty-trained, the pressure's on to get him better acquainted with his numbers and letters.  I'm proud that my little boy can count to thirty and, more or less, knows how to sing at least some of the alphabet song.  Still, now it's "GO" time.  Mommy is expected to work with him at home. 

So, the big first item on my agenda is to get my little guy potty trained.  While he's good about going pee pee on the potty, he's still shying away from the other.  He also still prefers going in his pull-up instead of telling me that he has to go...which means that both the ladies at pre-school and my family have to bring him into the bathroom at least every 20 minutes or so to make sure he stays dry.  I've bought a couple of cool aids (a book, DVD, and potty chart) to help me with the training.  I can't wait for them to arrive...

Yes, the milestones keep on coming...Last week was his first day of pre-school and his first time wearing big-boy underpants.  Who knows what this week will bring?!  I'll just work on trying to keep up with it all!

Little Lewie's first day of school--the day after Hurricane Irene. 
We had no power and were still picking up branches.

"Common Mommy"

"Cheese!"

"I'm growing up."

"Ready when you are..."  (Of course, I'm not ready...Oh, I'm still not ready.)

Still No Power after Hurricane Irene!

Hi Everyone,

I'm happy to report that we finally do have power after Hurricane Irene!  A crew from New Jersey hooked us up on Friday, and another gentleman from AT&T got our U-verse running on Saturday.  I wrote a blog entry during the week on another computer but was unable to post.  It was difficult to be without power.  I didn't mind not watching TV for the week, but I didn't realize how 'addicted' or 'dependent' I'd become on using the internet!  It was tough not to be able to blog, answer work emails from home, or even get updates from friends and family.  I LOVE my computer, and even more, I LOVE my electricity and internet access.  I'll never take these for granted again.  Anyways, here is my mid-week rant about having no electricity and another tree falling in our yard (we had one fall on the house only a few months before)--the tree mess is still yet to be cleaned up!

As many of you know, Hurricane Irene "visited" the East coast last weekend and caused quite a bit of destruction.  For Connecticut, we had lots of  beach erosion, fallen trees, and knocked down power lines.  While we don't live anywhere near the beach, we did have another tree come down in your yard.  Fortunately, it missed the house, but as it fell on the side of our house, it took down our power lines and the pole on our house that attaches the power lines to our meter.  After hearing a large thud in the afternoon, we looked out our window only to see the mess--the scariest part is that even with the power lines being knocked down and entangled in the tree, we still had power.

To be safe, we called our town's emergency number.  After they came in record time to survey the damage, they decided we needed to shut our power off to avoid a fire.  Now, here it is...day five after the hurricane, and we are still without power.  We've been told it might not be restored for another ten days...  The frequent trips to my in-laws to take showers, the visits to the laundromat, or the daily trips to get ice haven't been my idea of fun, but it certainly has made life interesting this week...  At the same time, this week was Little Lewie's first day of pre-school.  Not only is he trying to get adjusted to a brand new classroom and brand new teachers, but he's also trying to make sense of our lifestyle change--no lights, no TV, no baths, and even no cooked meals, to name a few.  He's been telling everyone..."Fall down tree and no TT."  The translation is "our tree fell down in our yard, and now we can't watch TV."

Finally, Little Lewie has been a little traumatized by other changes.  I tried to give him a bath this week at my in-law's house and he screamed bloody murder.  With his strength and persistence, there was no way I could get him in the tub.  He still wouldn't go in after we put toys and bubble bath in the tub either.  Then, today, I took him to a laundromat for the first time.  Once we stuffed everything into the dryer and left to go back to the house, Little Lewie started to sob hysterically.  "Clothes Mommy.  Clothes!"  I guess he thought we were leaving our clothes behind for good.  Poor thing.  I do hope things improve next week...

Here are some pictures of our "fall down tree":

We're very lucky the tree didn't hit the house!

It's hard to tell in this photo, but we have at least three other trees that are ready to fall down too!

The glorious pole to our meter that came down with the wires.