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We went to the pumpkin patch with some friends last Saturday and had a lot of fun. First we checked out the animals in the petting zoo. Leah is still a bit nervous when it comes to animals but really enjoys petting them away from their face.

There was a really old tractor the kids could sit on that Leah enjoyed. We went on a hay ride over to a small corn maze which led to the pumpkin patch.

There were so many pumpkins to choose from. Leah would pick one up and then express her dislike for that pumpkin because it was dirty.

She did settle on this little pumpkin and was proud to take it home.

Leah got her first hair cut yesterday. I was a little nervous about it but I absolutely love how it turned out. Here are a few before pictures.

Leah got to sit in a cool pink car, watch a movie and play with some toys while cutting her hair cut. I think she was a little over stimulated at first though she did really well.

The end result.

Leah has some awesome (natural) streaks in her hair.

Today was such a warm, glorious day I didn’t do circle or art today with the kids in favour of spending two hours in the back yard. It was so warm I kept taking off layers off the kids. They played so well outside and enjoyed the sun just as much as I did. Here is Leah on the go.

I love seeing Leah all dressed up and still playing hard with Tonka trucks and running away from me with a tool box. The irony strikes me as funny. Also, a rare picture of me with my favourite girl. I seriously have to start changing that and getting more pictures of us together.

Last weekend my sister, Leah and I joined my mom on her lunch break. Leah loves going to visit Grandma, especially at her work. She even got some freshly made ice cream.

A few of my friends have had baby girls lately which has motivated me do to some sewing. Though I have been feeling quite busy and haven’t devoted much time at all to sewing, I do enjoy putting a cute, little dress together for a precious, new bundle of joy.

We are fully back in the routine of daycare so my days all look pretty similar. Indoor playtime, snack, circle, art, outdoor playtime, lunch, nap, snack and back outside if the weather is nice. I’m working longer days this year so weekends seem to fill up pretty quickly.

I try to prep dinner as much as possible during nap time or in the morning if I have time. The crock pot is very helpful as well as one pot oven dinners such as lasagna.

Last weekend we spent a couple of hours at Crescent beach with come friends enjoying the beautiful weather while it lasts. Leah enjoyed watching Morgan try to fly her kite at the beach and loved holding the strings once it was flying.

The weather is so unpredictable now. I’m used to doing a load of laundry every day and hanging it out to dry but now I often end up bringing it in once it starts to sprinkle or it doesn’t dry fully. Unless it looks gorgeous outside, I’ve resigned myself to using the dryer. I don’t feel it is worth the stress of line drying as much as I dislike using the dryer.

Thought it is raining more now, I still take the daycare kiddies out almost everyday. I’m so thankful for rain pants, even though when it is really wet outside or we go on our puddle jumping adventures I still end up changing their clothes. At least they stay a lot warmer and they are not totally soaked.

I am teaching the kids about fall time at circle. I love how much they are able to learn. Leah knows that the leaves fall off the trees and that they change colours. She almost has some of the little poems and rhymes memorized.

When we are in the car, Leah is such a chatterbox. She talks about everything she sees from red lights turning green to buses going by to diggers digging holes. It is very sweet.

September is here along with full time daycare which means during the week our house is bustling with small children playing, eating, creating and learning. For Leah it means she gets to spend lots of time with her ‘best’ friend and she couldn’t be happier. Until it is time for her to go home that is. After spending over eight straight hours together, side by side, I would think Leah would be okay with some time apart. Especially as she is going to come by on a regular basis. Her departure was marked with tears and Leah begging to go home with her. Thankfully, she got over it soon enough and was back to playing and waiting for tomorrow morning when she would arrive once again.

When we started our garden last Spring, there were a few obstacles we had against us. The ground was still covered in two layers of rocks and plastic with soil that was pretty infertile underneath it all. Once we cleared the rocks and plastic, the soil was still pretty hard and rocky. Bringing in loads and loads of topsoil was not in the budget so we tried to loosen up the soil by turning it with our shovel and clearing the rocks as they came into view.

I also devoured a gardening book specific to our growing climate and felt like I enrolled myself in Gardening 101. I learned a lot about different types of soils, fertilizers, seeds and growing methods. Armed with much information but not much experience I ordered seeds, made up a promising organic fertilizer and the phone calls to those more knowledgeable than I began.

The season got off to a slow start with a colder spring and I planted some of the vegetables a little later than planned but I started watering when necessary and hoping for the best. Unfortunately, the summer weather didn’t fully cooperate either but we got a small harvest last night. The potatoes are amazing though not plentiful, the onions that took did well, the carrots are small but looking promising, the snap peas taste great and the tomatoes are now plentiful but still mostly green.

I bought some broccoli and kidney bean seeds on a whim and though they haven’t produced anything yet as they were planted late, they are showing some signs of producing vegetables. Depending on our September weather, we may have a few more additions to our table from our garden.

Of special meaning to me is my rhubarb plant that has flourished well from a transplant from my Grandma’s garden. My late Grandfather was an avid gardener, starting up his own landscaping company as a new immigrant from Holland. Over the years he turned from landscaping into growing his own bedding plants for wholesale. Eventually he started growing peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers as well. In retirement he loved to manage his own large gardens adding another island every year or so to further extend his love. When his large property was sold, my mom was sure to save some of his rhubarb plants and transplant some into her garden and into my dad’s mom’s garden. When my mom turned her garden to grass, they lived on at my Grandma’s house. Now that I have my own garden, I got one of the new growths off one of the rhubarb plants and it is doing great.

On another side note, when we see some of the tomatoes from the nursery he started that have a sticker with my Grandfather’s likeness on them at the store, I always point it out to Leah that that is her Great Opa and was grown by her Uncle.

Leah loves to help with all the canning and preserving. She was very keen on making sure no stems made it into our winter blueberry stash. The second picture is our harvest from last night.

It’s amazing to me how the tomato plants, which some are taller than me (and my friend, Katherine) started from just a small seed.

The weather is cooling and it has started to rain. Not just a light sprinkle but the kind of rain that can get you drenched from walking to your house to your car outside. The kind of rain that makes you want to light the fireplace and dig up that hot chocolate that you put at the bottom of the cupboard five months ago.

I love that I live in a place where we experience all the four seasons in their varying beauty. I don’t think I would appreciate the warm sun without the coolness of winter or the flowers budding in spring without a period of months with no colour peaking from the garden. Winter has it’s own beauty bringing family and friends closer together indoors with children ecstatic over any snowflakes fluttering to the ground.

All that to say, we enjoyed one of the last days of summer with great friends at the beach. Leah kept us on a slow, leisurely pace so we could enjoy the ocean breeze and appreciate the wonderful place in which we love.

This past Saturday Morgan and I packed up the bikes and the bike trailer and off we went to find a trail that was highlighted in the newspaper a few weeks back. Leah thought it was pretty funny that the bikes went on the back of the car on the bike rack.

The trail is wide, pretty smooth and flat with great scenery, often bringing you to the ocean’s side while passing manicured farms, forest and brush. The park is located very close to the highway whose sounds can heard all along the trail which I found an interesting juxtaposition to the nature surrounding us at every turn.

After biking for about half an hour, we stopped on a little grassy patch along the trail to have a snack and let Leah stretch her legs. Once we had refueled with some snacks we ventured back to the car with Leah loving every minute in the bike trailer. We got back to the car and watched a train up close boom by us before heading back to town to do some errands.

One of my good friends had a little girl recently and Leah has become totally enamored with her sweet babe, Katelyn. They came to visit us once and we went to visit them once and then all of a sudden one of Leah’s babies was named Katelyn. We’ve never named any of her babies or stuffed animals just calling them baby or dog or whatever (boring I know) except for those with given names like Elmo.

I didn’t realize what an impact the visits had on Leah. She was excited to see a little baby but was also excited to check out all of her baby toys and play with her own as well. Now she walks around with her ‘Katelyn’ patting her on the back saying “I know Katelyn, I know” and “poor Katelyn, poor Katelyn”. She also thinks it funny sometimes to hold her upside down. Leah can be so maternal and yet she has so far to go.

Today we were able to squeeze in another visit before our lives get much busier with full time daycare. Leah was so excited to give Katelyn her dress that she watched me make. Katelyn even modeled it for us. I got to hold Katelyn for quite awhile after she was fed. It reminded me of when Leah was a babe. First we tried to get a few good burps, then changed a poopy diaper that didn’t make me wince before doing the sway dance while shushing and patting her back to keep her happy.

Once she was a bit calmer, I let Leah hold Katelyn. Leah was so excited. Unfortunately Katelyn did not share her sentiments and was wondering why the sway dance, shushing and patting had stopped. So we alternated. I got Katelyn calm and settled then I would let Leah hold her for a few seconds until she got upset again then repeat. We only tried that a few times and then diverted Leah’s attention to giving her kisses on the head instead. Then they both were happy.

Leah loves to visit her Grandma at work. It does help that her work is a pretty cool place to go with lots to look at. First we generally say hi and see what is going on in the kitchen that day. My mom shows Leah around while introducing her to everyone.

Leah has a special stool she can sit or stand on to see all the action. Almost everything in the kitchen is huge. Leah could fit inside that mixer bowl with no problem.

After hanging out in the kitchen, we usually check out the horses, pig, bunnies, sheep and goats and take a walk by the fruit fields. After going for a walk around the fields we end up back in the kitchen, observing and helping when possible.

Morgan was away this past weekend so Leah and I were on are own. I took advantage of this to serve very easy, simple meals that didn’t require much cooking or work. We also kept ourselves busy to help pass the time.

On Friday we hung out at home, ate dinner on the couch and watched some of Leah’s shows when she was getting tired and cranky. Saturday morning we treated ourselves to some homemade waffles and went off to the local blueberry festival. We saw a BMX stunt show, went on a trolley ride (and promptly got off at the first stop as Leah was almost in tears), saw a gal spinning llama wool with her two llamas and admired lots of old and unique cars. I really wanted to see Cinemazoo but Leah’s fear of the trolley, even though she loves seeing buses and trolley buses, caused us to not go to that part of the festival. When it was getting hot and Leah was tiring of walking, we visited the library, read some books and borrowed a few.

On Saturday afternoon a friend came over to dip her feet in Leah’s kiddie pool and have a nice chat. We laid low after that, eating dinner outside as it was cooler than inside.

On Sunday we went to the Farmer’s Market. It was a special day at the market for kids as there was a clown making balloons and face painting. I was more excited about the festivities than she was. Leah said no to face painting and balloons so we bought a cinnamon, sat in the shade and indulged.

After church we went to see Uncle David and Auntie Andrea for lunch and then us three girls went shopping. Leah loved riding in the mall stroller and wanted to touch every rack of clothing we went by. I tried to steer away from anything overly fancy or white.

That evening while having dinner, Morgan came home and all were happy to be reunited again. Leah was so excited to see him as was I. He wasn’t gone that long but usually he is always around so it was an adjustment. We usually have lunch and dinner as a family every day and Morgan spends lots of time with us in the evenings. I’m glad he had a great weekend at a buddy’s wedding and am also glad he is now home.