Pumpkin hunting in New Jersey

What a lovely weekend we had up in New Jersey with Bebe and Popi. First stop on Saturday was a local farm for an ol' fashioned hayride. Along the way to the pumpkin patch we saw many cows, some giant hogs, and goats. Bebe and Evie enjoy the ride above - Evie's favorite part of the hayride was "the bumps!"


Ellie really wanted to go to sleep, but she came along for the ride anyway.

Evie had tons of fun running through the pumpkin patch, looking for the perfect pumpkin. Her first stop was to pick one out for little Ellie - so sweet!

Mommy and Evie are all smiles on their pumpkin thrones!

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Evie says. "Time to find a pumpkin before we go on the hayride."


That night we had a delicious dinner of spaghetti and meatballs, joined by Aunt Casey, Julianna and Stan. The girls were all smiles! After dinner it was fun to see them play with their baby Ellie's.


Stan loved his spaghetti and meatballs - he showed Uncle Marc how it was done!
Whee! The girls had a great time! Thanks Bebe and Popi!

And the smallest girl was named Madeline... I mean Evie!

Evie is loving her ballet classes! Every week they dress up as a different character and this week it was Madeline. Tres bien!

"Pooh, pooh," says Evie to the tiger in the zoo (that is a favorite line from the book). Actually, today Evie said "Saute!" (a dance move).

Mommy got to stop by before heading back to work - she missed her girls too much to stay away. Ellie is her own little star of the waiting room and is admired by many moms in Ba's fancy outfits.

The October birthdays come to a close with Ba's Birthday

Ba stands proudly before the Happy Birthday banner painted by Mommy and Evie - Evie did the "Happy" and "Ba" in a rainbow of colors. We had fun stamping, gluing, and making some paper lanterns to brighten the festivities.


Opa and Ba pose with the two girls in their matching pink dresses.



We all help blow out the candles for Ba's strawberry ice cream cake.

Even little Ellie gets her first taste of ice cream cake - and she loves it. She will probably soon be eating pizza too.

At the end of the night, Ellie models her new fancy hat. Ba looks like she had a good time and enjoyed the evening!

Rocking Oktoberfest Family-Style

The family headed over to neighborhood joint Rustico to partake in the Oktoberfest-ivities. Ellie was snug as a bug in Daddy's Baby Bjorn.


Evie tried the moonbounce and got her hand painted, but enjoyed the lemonade and cupcake the most (icing only, of course).

Mommy and Evie (and Evie's Baby Ellie) take a break.

Next to the parking lot was a train track, and Evie said she was going on a hike!


What an adventure - she and Daddy found a real railroad spike.

Daddy is special today!

Ellie is excited because October 9 is a special day in the Foelsche-McDonald household - it's Daddy's birthday! As you can see, our little girl is getting really good at sitting up - here she is in her lounging position on the Boppy.


After scones from Firehook, we headed to the waterfront to see the Godspeed, a replica merchant schooner in town from Yorktown.

Evie rings the bell. She liked pretending she was a pirate - a captain, of course.


She pumps water and takes a break from "swabbing the deck clean" (from a pirate song on her favorite CD).


Later that night, Evie assisted with opening Dad's gifts. Here is a present from the girls - Evie picked this out because she loves Olivia and Dad loves the circus.

The family is all smiles!

Evie helps Daddy blow out the candles of his pumpkin cheesecake.


Now the whole family pitches in!



Ellie has been trying all weekend to taste her toes - looks like she finally succeeded Sunday night!

Fun at the Fire Station

This Saturday we celebrated Levi's birthday at the Centreville Fire Station - Levi is a huge fan of fire trucks. Here, Mommy and the girls get a close look at one of the fire trucks.


Evie got to walk through the actual fire truck and look at the backpacks, airtanks, flashlights and helmets. Later we also saw a fireman get dressed in his uniform and learned that it's better to sleep with your door closed.

Evie turns her face up to the sky as the firemen demonstrate the "deck gun" by pumping water into the sky, all by remote control. Bet Evie wish she could get her hands on that remote!

This expression says it all. At the end, we got sprinkled with water mist - luckily it was a warm day.


Evie checks out the spinning lights on the front of the fire truck.

A fun weekend around the neighborhood

The family enjoyed themselves immensely at the Meeting House Coop Preschool picnic on Saturday. Here Evie and her friend Bryn look at the cute owls.

Evie put some extra eyes on her owl and called it "Four Eyes!"

Evie enjoyed her chicken tenders, biscuits and mac n cheese, but loved the cake the most.
Ellie slept through most of the picnic, but proudly wore her Yankees cap.

Later that day we bundled up the kids with Ba and Opa to take them to the Art on the Avenue festival in Del Ray. Ba was in heaven and even Evie got into the buying action, coming home with a wooden frog and a special surprise gift for Dad's birthday. Among one of the surreal views of the day, a band playing Eric Clapton's "Cocaine" while 10 or so kids danced in front of the bandstand. Ellie must have been soothed as well because she slept through most of the afternoon, including the pumpkin frozen custard.

Instead of sidewalk chalk, they had a fun activity we had never seen - painting with colored sand! Evie got a brush and gave it a try. It was a perfect activity for her given she really likes to mix colors.