This month has been full of baking adventures, canning tomatoes, consignment sales, photoshoots, Bradley classes (natural birth, here we come!), painting commissions, and lots and lots of tea parties. Alice's imagination is now in hyperdrive so we are always taking her babies for a stroll around our "park" (aka the living room couch which is a waterfall/slide/horsie combo), making tea party picnics on any piece of fabric available, and chattering to her "friends" (pretty much any human friend and Daniel Tiger/Little Bear character). She can put together 8-12 piece puzzles like a pro and she's obsessed with dragons, monsters, and Marty the Zebra from Madagascar. One such conversation we had the other morning while jumping on my bed:
Me: "Oh! Was it a nice dragon?"
Alice: "Yeah! It was blue and purple and I say 'silly dragon! You wan' some cookies and coffee?'"
Me: "Well, that was a very kind thing to offer him! Did you have a tea party then?"
Alice: "Yes! And Little Bear came, and Duck came, and Marty came..."
Fascinating stuff. She makes the best stories. And she has an uncanny ability to quote movie lines from ones she's watched a few too many times at The Farm. When eating lunch the other day (and squirming around ridiculously in her high chair), I finally said "Alice! Please sit forward and eat your lunch." You wanna know what her response was? "But Mama...I like to move it move it, I like to move it move it..." while smiling and dancing. Lord, help me. It was so funny, I had to laugh and let her dance while picking at her food. The kid's hilarious.
Here were a few snapshots from our September...
picking carrots from the garden
finally got my rocking chairs for the front porch :) thank you, hailstorm!
daddy's little helper
the front of the house is finally filling in - love my butterfly bushes
not sure what this beauty is, but I adore having butterflies flitting around our front yard
surf & turf
thanks, Josh, for bringing the protein! 'twas a fun evening of grilling out
picking raspberries
canning
ugh.
For all of those hours of boiling, blanching, peeling, coring, gutting, simmering, sanitizing, filling, and boiling again, I got the below:
3 8 oz jars of pizza sauce, 6 16 oz jars or tomato sauce, 2 16 oz + 2 8 oz jars of diced tomatoes, and 6 4 oz jars of tomato paste
(we've made 4 dozen of these in the last 2 weeks...kind of obsessed)
Alice kind of liked them :)
a mommy/Alice collaboration
kind of excited about fall in this house
scored some wooden legos at a consignment sale - $5!
a train depot for Thomas
Alice likes to call these "car washes"
one of our many picnic/tea parties with her friends
orange tea is her specialty
everything here was arranged by Alice
this awesome news made my year
dance party!!!
Congratulations to one of my best friends, Libby :D
grumpy face shenanigans with Aunt Lynnie
cuddles
got this "new" Baby Gap cable knit hat for a whole dollar at the MOPS consignment sale
(I love getting adorable and quality stuff for cheap. Don't worry - I washed it.)
someone had fun at the farm...Alice did, too ;)
Pretty sure my dad washed and waxed, like, 5 different tractors for this event
There will most certainly be a tractor calendar in the making soon...
this girl cannot be pried out of her boots -
unless...
...there is a sprinkler involved
Enjoying the last days of summer
She really was having fun, but every time I ask for a smile, this is the face I get
(do other photographers have this problem with their kids?)
sedum turning red
daddy brought home a candy apple treat from Super Bee Orchard the other night - huge hit!
who knew you could buy so much happiness for $3?
Speaking of caramel fall goodness, we bought this bag of sea salt caramels and fall spice caramels from the folks at Snowshoe Candy Co. at the Big Green Tomato Festival in Fort Calhoun last weekend. Another $3 bag of happiness :)
It's the little things.
bought myself a few other goodies this month, too :)
French lavender hand buttercream from 100% Pure, my new favorite shop for lotions, cosmetics, and cleansers (10 on Good Guide for Health!)
&
a gorgeously handcrafted wooden fountain pen from a local woodworker in Fort Calhoun I spied at a craft fair that my friend Libby brought me to. The pen was a splurge on a whim but I love a good pen. Here's to picking up calligraphy again! I'm a big proponent of hand-written notes so it'll certainly be in frequent use.
Also, (not shown) I bought the new Lindsey Stirling album, Shatter Me, and it is awesome! The perfect fall music for painting in the studio :)
spent some time with our friends at Super Bee Orchard this week
Alice and Quinn had a tickle fight with pine needles
they are rain boot buds :)
buzzy bees
from the imagination of me and skilled hands of my sister, Alice has a new cardigan for this fall!
Actually, I saw this idea on pinterest, but I did pick out the cardigan and material! Scored this Old Navy polka dotted cutie for $3 at Once Upon a Child and went "shopping" in Gramma Alice's fabric store. I mean, sewing room. Basically, if there was a fabric apocalypse, you would want to be in this woman's bunker. Fabric for a lifetime.
Fall is here!
Excited to make applesauce...