FALL

Have I ever mentioned how much I love Fall?? Well I do. ALOT. Here's why:

1. Oktoberfest- the official kick off to fall activities. This used to be a favorite adult holiday spent in Soulard with lots of pumpkin beer. Das Boots!!  Funny how things change with a child in the picture. This year we ventured to the "family friendly" event in St Charles.  Charlie spent the day cutting a rug on the dance floor. Overall it was a beautiful day with family, friends, great music, and a responisble amount of pumpkin beer. ;)

 2. Pumpkin Patch. We spent the following day at the most perfect lil' pumpkin patch out in Foristell. I have done the larger more commercial pumpkin patches, and I have to say they have nothing on this place.  We pretty much had the entire place to ourselves. Which meant that I did not have to worry about chasing Charlie through crowds of people. Hallelujah!  They had farm animals, a hay barn, a hayride, and a train. What was even more special about this day was that we had all the grandkids together to celebrate PawPaw's Birthday.

Happy Birthday Dad! Hope you had as much fun as we did!!

 

3. Play Off Season.  What an intense month of baseball! I found myself on the edge of my seat, peaking through my fingers for most of the games. So close Cardinals...So close.

 

We did get to enjoy one last game this year with our friends- Scott, Erin, Dan, and Sarah. Love our city folk!

4. Leaves. My FAVORITE part of fall has to be the changing leaves. My LEAST favorite part....is raking them up. UGH! And we don't even have one single tree in our yard!! But thanks to our neighbors, I spend every other weekend in the month of October and November raking the darn things up! Luckily we have the convenience of dumping them in the compost bins in the alley (neener neener neener!) instead of bagging them up and setting them out for pick up. But it still takes me several hours and numerous trips to the alley.  Charlotte has been very helpful with this chore, as well as my trusty leaf blower. Sure we play in them first. But then she helps me scoop em up and walk em to the bins.

 



 5. Halloween. First, I need to give a huge THANK YOU to Grandma for yet again another perfect costume! Her creative talents never cease to amaze me. You are the BEST!  Charlotte was the rootinest, tootinest, shootinest, hootinest cowgirl around. "Gitty up hoooorse!"



Charlotte had plenty of chances this year to show off her awesome costume. First stop was Boo at the Zoo. This is one of my favorite Halloween events. I mean who wouldn't have fun seeing cool animals and getting candy at the same time?! By the time we got back to the car, poor Charlotte couldn't even keep her eyes open to enjoy her sucker.  Later that night, she got to spend the evening with Gma at party. And then on Halloween I took her to a Trunk Or Treat at a local church, followed by some door to door trick or treating at a few homes in the neighborhood. OR as Charlotte calls it "treat treat".



 

There you have it. One month all wrapped into one large blog post. I know I said I was going to try and blog every week, but its just not happening. :) Other non-fall-related topics:

 

Potty Training- still working on this...mainly at home. I am still a little nervous about leaving the house without a diaper, but we will get there. Eventually.

Funny story...Last Friday, I was doing my normal heavy duty cleaning (I know my weekends are just soo exciting!) when I noticed Charlotte grab the pasta strainer out of the kitchen cabinet and walk into the bathroom. I thought....hmmm, that doesn't seem right. Sure enough I walk into the bathroom (that I just cleaned!) and Charlotte is sitting on the strainer lettin' it rip through the strainer and onto my rug. Not sure why she thought it was a good idea to pee in the strainer when she is sitting right next to a toilet?? As angry as I was, it was really hard not to laugh!

 

Speech- Charlotte has been picking up a lot of new words lately, but still behind. We have gone through few evaluations and I am happy to report that she officially starts speech therapy this week. She is a smart girl and I just know she is going to pick it up real fast. So look out!

This months favorite Charlie quotes:
Charlie- "I tooooted" followed by a cute/evil lil laugh.
Mom- "whats your name?" Charlie- "I Char-lie!!"
Charlie- "Giddy up hooooorse" & "treat treat"
 

BRING ON THE HOLIDAYS!!