All the Leaves are Fallin...

I just had to share these pictures of my boys enjoying the fall leaves.  My boys LOVE to be outside.  Pretty much all day.  So sometimes we get a little tired of doing the same ole thing outside that we do almost everyday.  One afternoon after I picked Braden up from school, we were playing outside, as usual, and I noticed how many leaves were in the yard.  I told Braden we should probably rake all the leaves and he thought that was a great idea!  He loved using the big rake.  We collected all the leaves into a big pile and let them play.  It is amazing how much joy a big pile of leaves can bring!  I only hope it can be this joyful when they get older and have to do it for real!

Making his pile

Ready...  Set...  Go!

Let the rolling begin!

I think this one is going to have to be blown up.  Might be one of my favorite pictures.  You can just see how much fun he is having!

Those blue eyes...

Sweet brothers

This one might have to get framed too!

I kind of wish it could be Fall all year.  Love the changing leaves, all the colors, and the beautiful weather.  Get outside and enjoy it!

Pumpkin Bird Feeder

I love Fall.  I love pumpkin everything.  I love pumpkin patches.  And I love that they give you a cute little free pumpkin.  

One day a few weeks ago, I stumbled upon an article on Martha Stewart about what to do with the seeds from your pumpkin.  One of the ideas was to make this super cute bird feeder.  

Braden really loved carving pumpkins this year so I knew this would be a project he would enjoy.  So one afternoon while baby brother was napping, we picked out one of the pumpkins we took home from the pumpkin patch and got to work.  

We started out by cutting the pumpkin in half and pulling out all the insides.

Then, we made a ridge around the rim to add the seeds for some decoration.  We also found a couple little sticks to add for a place for the bids to land on.  To hang the feeder, we found some twine that I had already and cut 2 equal strands and attach them to the bottom with a thumbtack and tied the ends together at the top.

Braden was so proud of his little feeder!  

He had to get up in the tree and admire it.

And just because he's so cute....my little pumpkin patch buddy.

 Picking out his pumpkin

Happy Fall and Happy Pumpkins!

A Pirate-y Halloween...

I have never really been a big fan of Halloween.  I remember dressing up as a kid to go trick-or-treating but I don't ever remember just loving it.  This year Braden was ALL. ABOUT. IT.  He has pretty much talked about what he wanted to be since this summer.  He wanted to decorate the house with bats and spiders (um, no.)  He is really enjoying all the dressing up lately and very into pretend play.

So back in August after we went to this awesome pirate show in Myrtle Beach, SC on our family vacation, he kept telling me he wanted to dress up like a pirate for Halloween.  I found him a cute costume online at Target and went ahead and ordered it.  He pretty much wanted to wear it everyday!  Then I decided that Cooper could be a parrot to go along with Braden's pirate costume.  

About a month ago, Braden started saying how he HAD to have a ship for Halloween.  Oh boy.  How the heck do we get a ship for Halloween??  I tried putting it off for a few days but he was NOT having it.  SO I put my thinking cap on and came up with an idea.  We will use the wagon!  I had just bought his new car seat and had this giant box sitting in the garage.  I went out and set it on top of the wagon and low and behold, it was just the right size!  Hallelujah!  We cut one side off of it and a hole on the other side and it slid right over the top of the wagon.  We painted it black and added port holes made from cardstock to the sides.  I thought this was good and he would be satisfied with his wagon/pirate ship.  OH no.  We HAVE to have a sail!  Of course we do.  So we headed over to Hobby Lobby to see what we could come up with.  I ended up buying 3 dowel rods, one that was pretty thick and the other 2 a little thinner.  We also bought some canvas.  I had some twine left over at home.  We painted the dowel rods black and constructed our sail.  Then added his pirate flag to the top.  Wow.  I have to say....it was pretty fun!  And pretty easy too!  And it definitely made trick-or-treating fun having the wagon to tote our little parrot in!

And I give you....Captain Braden and his parrot in their awesome ship...

Braden had a great time trick-or-treating and loved all of his loot!

Cooper was just along for the ride but always loves riding in the wagon, err, ship!

Who knows what we will come with next year.  Braden already has ideas.  Batman, a fireman, a cowboy.  He is just full of imagination these days!