October 11

Abe's Aunt Sandy and Uncle Chuck are in town this week! Since Riley's school was closed today for Columbus Day, we took them to Philadelphia to see some of the sights (and eat cheesesteaks for lunch!).

October 10

Nanny and Poppop came over for dinner tonight and Riley got Poppop to look through a new train book with him, while Jonah settled in for some snuggles with Nanny!

October 8

We headed to Abe's favorite ski store today for their annual sale. We took Riley's boots with us to make sure that they still fit properly (they did). He did score a new ski jacket and pants while we were there though... he's ready to hit the slopes this winter!

October 7

Riley made this picture today... he used wine corks to stamp the leaves!

October 6

One of Riley's favorite things to do this days is to build gates, whether it's out of blocks, pillows, garbage cans and large toys, or himself!

October 5

This afternoon we headed to Savidge Farm in Mertztown to meet some friends. Such a fun trip! The farm had a corn box for the kids to play in, an old tractor that they could climb in and then slide down, other fun activities and a pumpkin patch.

Jonah thought he was too cool for the corn box...

October 3

I couldn't believe how grown up these boys looked today!

October 2

We had dinner at Nanny & Poppop's house to enjoy some party foods leftovers. Riley and I had made "J" cookies with green sprinkles (since they're Poppop's favorite color). I think our dentist would have a heart attack if she saw this picture!

October 1

My mom threw my dad a great surprise birthday party today! Everyone was asked to bring old family photos and stories about him. I don't have "vintage" pictures of him, but I went through every photo I've taken in the last 3 1/2 years and printed all of the ones of my dad with the boys and put them into an album.

Riley and his cousins blowing bubbles in the yard.

Aunt Pat wrote a poem about dad and had a matching gift (a box of candy - as a kid he had a very specific method for figuring out what was inside of each piece of an assorted box!)

 Who doesn't love a good party hat?

September 30

We hit the Philadelphia Zoo this morning with some of our playgroup friends. Everyone loves climbing on the monkey!

September 29

Happy Birthday, Poppop!

After I picked up Riley from school, we headed to Shady Maple for a late lunch! Jonah decided that playing peek-a-boo with the table cloth was much more fun than eating!

September 26

Today we started a special project for Poppop's birthday...

I apparently forgot to take a picture of the finished product, but I drew flames on the top of each of his fingerprints and a plate underneath and his hand became a birthday cake!

September 25

Riley got his first homework assignment at school - each child was given a piece of scrapbook paper and asked to put 3 pictures on it about his or her family and then decorate it as they wished. Riley and I worked on his this afternoon, and I had him practice what he was going to tell his class about the pictures.He was so proud of his project!

September 24

This morning we visited our local firehouse for some fun & games!

September 23

We hosted a little playdate this morning... as usual I didn't take many pictures, but everyone had fun!

September 22

I found some cute tracing sheets online to help Riley how to learn to write the letters of the alphabet, so I started by just printing the letters of his name to start and he did pretty well!

September 21

I always love when I can get a quick great picture of the two boys!

September 20

Jonah loves bananas, and today for the first time I gave him one still in the peel. Apparently it takes some time to master pulling the peel down as you're eating.

After naptime we headed to the boys' friends house... Gwen & Cole (and their new baby brother Reid) got a new playset which everyone enjoyed!

Riley was a surprisingly good kiddie golfer!

But Jonah needs a little work as a caddy!

September 18

Aunt Sandy and Uncle Chuck came to spend the weekend also, so we had to get a few family pictures.

Uncle Zach didn't thing playing with Riley was as much fun as Riley did!

Jonah was obsessed with the remote  in our motel room all weekend long.

The final event of the weekend is a big parade! Riley and Abe waited for it to start and I showed off my race medal (less impressive when you find out that everyone got one!)

And only in Wisconsin would there be cows in a parade!