fall in northern Michigan.

Since our summer vacation plans to go up north with Grandma went awry, we took a long weekend up north in October instead. Her friend, Allene, graciously offered her cabin to us for the weekend. The weather was less than stellar: 40-degrees and rainy all weekend. The pic below is of the cabin on the morning we left...the one time it wasn't raining!



And here is the lake looking very serene.



We spent the majority of the weekend inside the cabin, with just a couple of outings. It's a good thing Allene is a grandma, too, because she keeps the cabin stocked with all sorts of toys for the kids to play with. Lincoln had a ball exploring all of the toys! Here we are playing Don't Spill the Beans with Cassie cheering us on.


Here, Grandma and Lincoln are enjoying a Thomas book.



Lincoln's bedroom had bunk beds with a couple of very cute stuffed bear skin rugs. Here are Linc and the two bears peeking over the rail of the top bunk.




And because I just loved the bear skin rugs, I pulled them into the family room for a photo session. Here are the best pics I got...

This bear is no match for Cassie-the-destroyer. She will eat the bear!

To get ourselves out of the house for a bit, we drove to Gaylord for the afternoon one day and went to the Call of the Wild museum. Lincoln got to learn all about animals that live in the wild. Here he is listening to a blurb on ducks.

Dad got in on the action as well.

Here are Linc and myself, well, just posing for the camera!

And here, Linc and Grandma are working hard on checking off items on the treasure hunt list. Linc got a special prize (a sticker!) because he found everything on the checklist!

Finally, here are Linc & Cass modeling some fuzzy hats!

half-staff.

Yesterday, Linc & I were in the car on the way home from daycare while dad was home with Cassie, who has been sick all week. Linc sees a few flags at half-staff and asks why they are that way. We've actually had this discussion a number of times. I tell him it's to honor someone who has died, etc. Because I wasn't in the mood for another long discussion about it, I just kind of say, "I'm not sure why they're that way today." Linc's response was priceless: "Maybe it's because Cassie has a fever." At least he's sort of getting the concept.

Boo!

Happy Halloween, 2009! This year we had a superhero named Super Why! and a buzzing bumble bee in our house. We bought costumes pretty early in October. Matt had mentioned Spiderman one day and Linc immediately decided that that's who he wanted to be for Halloween. We went to the costume store to try a Spiderman costume on, complete with the puffy muscles, and Linc's first question: "Does it shoot webs, mom?" I about died from the cuteness but was sad to tell him that the costume did not shoot webs. Rats. He still liked the costume well enough but as we looked at other options he spotted a Super Why costume. For those who don't know (if you don't have a preschooler, I wouldn't expect you to), Super Why is a show on PBS that is actually quite cute. It's about 4 friends who solve everyday problems by transforming themselves into superheros and entering classic fairy tales. It's all about reading, the alphabet, etc. Totally nerdy and cute. The costume even has a book on the front - perfect. After spotting the Super Why costume, Linc was sold. Here's a pic of the character as well a couple of Linc.





Note that since we brought the Super Why costume, Linc has mentioned numerous times that he wanted to be Snow White for Halloween. I'm not sure that this would've gone over well with Matt. But I have to say that the kid loves dresses for some reason and since Snow White wears a yellow dress (yellow being his favorite color), Linc seems particularly drawn to her.


Since Cassie is too young to choose her own costume, I settled on a bumble bee for her. Thinking practically, it was a warm costume and was something that she could crawl in without being too uncomfortable. Unfortunately, Cass has a fever today so she won't be trick-or-treating. We did get her into her costume for a bit today though and she got to wear it at her Halloween party at daycare. See our little queen bee below.





Halloween morning was spent carving pumpkins. Here are dad and Linc pulling the guts out of one of the pumpkins. Linc is kind of a neat freak (yes, I am working hard to pass this this trait onto my kids) so we were curious to see if he'd help de-gut the pumpkins. He actually did a pretty good job of it. While he didn't exactly have pumpkin guts up to his elbows, he did help to get a few handfuls out.




And here is the end result. On the left is Linc's. He requested a scary face. On the right is Cassie's. She was napping while we did the carving, so Matt made an executive decision to make a face that had boogers coming out of the nose and its tongue sticking out.



Linc did a good job trick-or-treating this year. He was shy at first but got better and better at shouting "Trick or Treat" at each house. We did keep having to remind him about his thank you's though. I don't know how many times we said, "What do you say?" and Linc would shyly respond, "thank you". Here he is showing off his loot at the end of the night.



And finally, here is Super Why waiting patiently at the door for kids to come and say "Trick or Treat" so that he could hand out some candy.

it's the Great Pumpkin.

This year I thought it would be fun to go on a hayride and let Linc choose his own pumpkin. Below is the one he chose...

Just kidding...he didn't have enough money in his piggy bank to pay for that one!

Instead, we took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch. Of course we were there in freezing cold weather. Brrrr. Here are dad and Cassidy on the hayride.

And here is the pumpkin that Linc really did choose. He was looking for a tall one and he sure found a great one. Can't wait to see him try to clean that sucker out.

After we got our pumpkins, we enjoyed some hot cider and donuts. Yum. And then Linc checked out all of the cool kid stuff outside.

First, he rode the cool John Deere tricycles.

And then he tested out a big tractor!

And he played on the wooden train. Not sure what he's thinking about here, but I like the pondering look on his face.

Finally, here are Dad and son making their way back to the car. Time to warm up! Brrrr...

new tricks.

Like any parent, I am proud of the new things Cassie is learning. Here are just a few:

Pulling herself to stand. Up next: walking.


Playing peekaboo in the curtains.


Doing the babble babble thing with her lips.


Sticking her tongue out. She thinks this is hilarious.

And last but not least, eating table food. Spaghetti is always a fun one for mom and dad to clean up!

Our baby girl is growing so fast. Sob, sob.

downward dog.

Apparently Cassie is into yoga. See the pics below. On top is a demonstration of the "downward dog" pose, on bottom is Cassie doing it quite successfully. Her positioning needs a bit of refinement, but I think she's on her way to a successful union of the mind, body, and spirit. Go Cass!

thumbs and pillows.

Lincoln has been a thumbsucker since he was about 6-weeks old. Personally, I don't mind that he does this. His thumb is always with him when he needs comfort (unlike Cassie, who uses a paci - yep, that rhymed). I don't expect that Linc will still be sucking his thumb when he's 20 so I'm not worried about him quitting. He'll grow out of it. I, too, was a thumbsucker. I remember doing it so I must've been at least 5 or 6 before I quit because with my crappy memory I don't recall much before the age of 5.

Anyway, I snapped some pics of Linc in his comfy state: thumb in mouth, hand on pillow corner.

He must have a pillow with a pillow case. Couch pillows are no good. The corners are not appropriate for rubbing.