Before Ted left for Thailand, we made a trip to a nearby Pumpkin Patch:
where Chase picked out our biggest pumpkin,
the boys met a turkey face to face for the first time,
Shailo had his first jumpy-house experience,
we survived and completed a .3 mile corn maze ;), giggled like crazy as we each flew down the bouncy slide, took silly photos and just had an all around good time as a family!
Sweet fall memory!
I am so that momma who prefers the painty mess to the gooey mess of pumpkin carving. The insides of pumpkins just really gross me out and we love to paint here, so what better way than to paint our pumpkins. We started this fun tradition last year and enjoyed it again this year.
This time Shailo was able to join in too! He was more interested in trying to {eat} the pumpkins, but of course.
Chase’s concentrating face cracks me up. :)
I went with chevron with mine, shocking I know. ;) It ended up reminding me of Charlie Brown, which I love!
(above photo taken with my iphone)
We ended up having the 4 little pumpkins stolen or taken. I really don’t know what happened to them. No sign whatsoever of where they went. One day I noticed 2 were missing, then one another day and then finally the last of the small pumpkins. Made me think it was maybe an animal? Yeah, no idea! I mean wouldn’t someone have stolen the decor too? Haha!
Chase was super bummed but I told him I thought a squirrel thought they needed them for his home. ;)
I don’t know about you, but I am just blown away by how fast this fall – this year – has flown by! I mean, it’s Thanksgiving week already?! Whew.
I realize this post is a little bit late in coming, for the DIY-ers out there but maybe this some of this can spark ideas for your Thanksgiving this week or just ideas for next year decor. Here are some simple fall DIYs:
I was asked to make centerpieces for a non-profit event. It was super fun to think of ideas! I went with simple, because of the quantity and picnic-like because of the setting. Mason jars and used cans (washed) wrapped in muslin. Coffee filter flowers. Little candles wrapped with twine. Super simple but cute!
Painted pumpkins, little owl from the $1 section at Target, felt leaves hung from twine and little clothespins. Rug $5 from IKEA and hand painted: so many possibilities!
Very simple DIY using nature, a wreath ($1 section at target), fabric scraps to make rolled flowers and a hot glue gun. This is my twist on an idea(found here via Pinterest) making a twig wreath. Chaseyboy even helped with this one.
Super simple and cute! I saw this cinnamon stick wreath idea not long ago on Pinterest that I might have to try out, since I love this one so much and will be sad to take it down!
I am SO anxious to get the ball rolling on Christmas decor! I have already pulled out our boxes of decor from last year and have begun creating new decor to add to this year. Favourite holiday of the year. And it’s even more fun now that Chase is so into helping out.
Anyone else excited about Christmas time?! The season and traditions?! The smells?! Hehe, can’t wait! Putting our decorations up this weekend you can guarantee.
Fun times crafting with “Friend Anthem” :) Egg cartons turned owls.
Many Zoo trips this fall. Fall is the PERFECT time to go to the zoo here in Colorado. It’s beautiful and not too hot/cold which means the animals are much more active.
Before Ted left for Thailand, we did our fall family tradition of visiting a pumpkin patch together and picked out our pumpkins. Shailo’s first pumpkin patch experience.
Mid October Ted left for an 18 day trip to Thailand (Blog on that soon) and I was sure to keep the boys and I busy. Almost TOO busy for my introverted spirit. WHEW. But it did make the time pass relatively quickly.
We visiting another Pumpkin Patch – the one that we’ve taken Chase too every year since he was born. I should dig up those photos and see how much he’s changed! We visited my family in Fort Collins for a bit and spent time soaking up the Fall sun and collecting Fall treasures. 
At the beginning of the year as we were watching The Incredibles as a family, we thought of how fun and fitting it would be to be The Incredibles this year. Chase as Dash, Shailo was perfect for baby Jack Jack, me as ElastaGirl, Ted as Mr. Incredible and our dear friend Chey as the daughter Voilet. What a fun idea, right? ;) 
Unfortunetely Ted’s trip to Thailand ended up falling around the time we would need him to be Mr. Incredible, but we still had a blast! You can’t really tell but Chey and I decided to opt out JUST wearing skin tight red tights and ended up making black tutus to cover our bums ;) Hehe.
I can’t take credit for the felt logo idea. I saw an idea (via pinterest) on a blog called Freshly Completed and went from there. Chase’s outfit was thrifted for $2, amazing! Shailo’s is actually a little red and black sweatsuit we had so I just made his logo much bigger than ours to cover the design on the front. I didn’t own one red t-shirt so I bought mine on clearance at Walmart and the felt is from Hobby Lobby for 4 for a $1 and it didn’t take much at all. The tulle was on sale at the time (Thanks to Halloween) The knee high black boots were borrowed. So all together, these were SUPER reasonably priced DIY costumes!
I watched two sets of twins (same family) during all my high school years and ever since I’ve wanted a set of twins. Until recently I always thought you “had to” have twins or girls to do matchy-matchy. HAHA, this is super ridiculous, I know, but I LOVE dressing them alike. And Chase absolutely loves it too. I don’t do it every day but they now have 5 sets of shirts that match, so at least once a week, expect it ;)
We did our little “tradition” of making a CARS character out of our car on the first snow of the season. This time Shailo enjoyed it as well.
Thanks for popping by. Fall photos from our actual camera coming soon. :)
he tilts his head and makes a silly face when concentrating.
{adore}
handsome cheese.
This years pumpkin masterpiece. Next year we’ll be doing two! :)
P.S. just {2 weeks} from today until Boy S arrives!
Can you tell I’m trying to cram in as much as possible on the blog before Boy S comes?!
Each fall since Chase was just 3 months old, we’ve traveled to a nearby pumpkin patch called Harvest Farm. The past 2 years we’ve taken the same photos in the same spots. I just love things like that ;) However, this year we drove out to the Harvest Farm to find it had closed (for that day). So we ventured to another pumpkin patch because Chase was excited to pick our a “punkin” to paint this year. We’re planning on heading to the Harvest Farm by the end of this week and this time with Ted! But I still wanted to share some from the pumpkin patch trip last week with “MiMi”.
Chase met a Llama for the first time.
Petting the “neigh” which later bit MiMi
Bouncy house fun. I seriously almost, ahem, wet my prego self laughing when my mom fell in between an obstacle and the jumpy house itself. Seriously wish I would have captured that on camera!
Chaser-Boy really wanted to join in with the big kids on the pedal bikes. Maybe next year buddy!
Trying to get a photo of momma and Chase. Attempt One: Windy and Chase refusing to look at the camera. Attempt Two: Distracted by a lady bug.
Attempt 3: Chase decided he needed to fix my hair for the photo. Attempt 4: Finally a smile from Chase (and an extra cheesy one from momma).
Chase picked out what he called his “baby punkin’”.
Then lined up different colour and textured “punkins” to count them. 
We had a good time and he has proudly shown many family members his “baby punkin”.
Hopefully we’ll be able to make it to the Harvest Farm for more fall fun before Boy S comes :)
Today starts the beginning of “a handmade Thanksgiving” as I’m calling it. I will be posting simple and affordable DIY projects over the next few weeks. I hope you feel inspired.
I thought this would be a great place to start; a creative idea which inspires us to remember to be thankful and grateful. As I researched quotes for this post, I found myself suddenly aware of how much I have to be thankful for. I am truly blessed. I can guarantee you are too. Of course there are things I wish could be different however when I paused and look inside and around me… I realized, even despite our loss, we are so blessed. We were are blessed to even get the honour of knowing our Eisley-girl and the time we had with her. Tonight, I feel overwhelmed as I realize how blessed we truly are.
I found this really inspiring idea (on Country Living) to write each guest (which could just be family, depending on your plans) a quote relating to thankfulness, gratefulness, etc and have each guest read aloud their quote (or just keep it). Use creative writing to write the quote on a thin strip of paper and then use double-sided take to tape it to their glass. Or make a little card and place it on their plate.
Here are some quotes I found that I really liked and you might too;
For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving. ~W.T. Purkiser
If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness. It will change your life mightily. ~Gerald Good
“As each day comes to us refreshed and anew, so does my gratitude renew itself daily. The breaking of the sun over the horizon is my grateful heart dawning upon a blessed world. ” — Adabella Radici
Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul. ~Henry Ward Beecher
Seeds of discouragement will not grow in the thankful heart.–Anonymous
Stayed tuned for a lot more DIY projects coming soon; centerpieces, garland, place settings, etc, etc, etc!
I am really enjoying this inspirational- crafty- artsy-momma over here at The Paper Mama. She does photo challenges and I decided I wanted to join in this time around.
This weeks challenge is fall, so I chose this one I took just last week;
Chase {loves} his dinosaur outfit. It was originally for halloween but he likes it so much, it’s become apart of his wardrobe. In fact, today he wore it while we ran errands and roared (a friendly roar) at strangers in the line at King Soopers. I feel so blessed to have such a cute little dinosaur :)
