A wonderful fall weekend!!

It's Sunday night and Doug and I are exhausted after a fun-filled weekend!  Hopefully the boys enjoyed it as much as we did!!  Yesterday morning the boys had their regular Saturday morning activities, Marta took Carter to swim class and Doug took Oliver to soccer.  After naps, we hit the road to Berryville, a cute little town, about 35 miles west of us.  I had purchased a Groupon for apple picking at a farm out there.  It was a 45 minute drive and we arrived right after 4.  The woman told us that the only apples left for picking were pink lady.  We headed out to the orchard, only to find that the only pink ladies were WAAAY to high up to reach.  We bagged that idea and headed to the corn maze.  They estimate that it takes about an hour to get through it, but Doug, as if in training for The Amazing Race, got us through in just 20 minutes.  I still think it was the promise of ice cream back at the restaurant at the farm that pushed him through.  :)  I don't think that the boys really knew what to make of the maze, they just trucked along...

After the maze, we headed back to the store/restaurant for apple and pumpkin frozen yogurt.  Oliver enjoyed his!  He ate the whole thing!!

Today was the open house at the Ashburn Fire Station.  We got there early since it was from 12-3 and we wanted to ride on the fire trucks before naps.  Once again, we rode inside the truck.  There wasn't a peep from either of the boys...They were entranced!

After naps we played outside for a while, Oliver played basketball and rode his new scooter, a bday gift from Mimi.  Carter threw rocks in the firepit, his favorite outdoor past-time, and Crosby lounged with Cooper on the couch on the deck, Cooper's favorite past-time.  :) 

Later, we ran to a nursery about 5 minutes from our house to get potted mums for the front steps of the house.  We also wanted to get our pumpkins that will turn into our jack-o-lanterns in a few short weeks.  The bonus of the nursery is that they had a slide and a moonbounce, which Oliver LOVED.  We will be heading back there at least one more time this month.

By the time we took this picture, Oliver couldn't WAIT to get back into the moonbounce, after being forced to ride in the wagon and "help" pick out pumpkins...

Another weekend in the books, and what an amazing one it was!  So much to get done in the next 3 days before we leave for Vegas on Thursday...

Fun times at the farm!

Plans changed a bit for yesterday afternoon.  Marta and I decided to take the kids to Ticonderoga Farms in Chantilly.  It was a gorgeous afternoon to be outside and the boys had a BLAST!!  There were slides, even Carter went down one twice, and a hay ride where we got to choose our own pumpkin, and lots of room for running around.  Carter's favorite part was watching the older kids chase the chickens around and he even ran a bit himself!  Oliver probably loved the slides the best but the hayride was a close second.  He's becoming a bit of a daredevil!  We will try to get back there one more afternoon before Halloween.  They have a weekday afternoon special, $5pp, from 3-6pm.

The best part for me was when we drove up and I realized that we had been there before but I'd forgotten the name...October 10th, 2009, Oliver was 3 weeks old.  I remember leaving there bummed out b/c Carter wasn't walking and he wasn't able to have as much fun as I "thought" he should.  Well, I'm happy to report that he made up for it this time!!  I'm reminded of all of the progress that he's made, we are so blessed.  :)

Here we are almost 2 years ago to the day, hard to believe that those are Oliver's little feet peeking out of the Ergo...

Here's Doug hiding behind Carter b/c we didn't trust that he was strong enough to sit up on the hay bale by himself...

And here are the boys yesterday...It was Crosby AND Marta's 1st hayride!  And they were both pretty happy!  :)

Carter, my poser, on the hayride

The tractor, named for Oliver, which is SO fitting since he LOVES tractors!

Oliver coming out of his favorite slide

Oliver crossing the shaky bridge...

And the boys loving the chickens.  :)

Time is FLYING!!

I can't believe that it's been over two weeks since I've posted!  We've been busy, busy, busy!  Here's a recap...

Oliver had his 2-year appt at the pediatrician.  He's 27lbs, 6oz (50th percentile) and 35" (90th percentile).  He was a good boy, bribing him with a lollipop helped!  He had to get one shot and the nasal mist flu vaccination. 

My mom arrived on 9/22 to celebrate Oliver's birthday.  She's lost a total of just over 50lbs since beginning her diet approx. 2 weeks before Crosby was born.  I can't even begin to say how proud I am of her.  She didn't cheat ONCE and her hard work has certainly paid off!! 

Oliver's construction truck birthday party was a huge success.  September was an awful month for rain and it did rain the morning of the party but luckily, the rain held off for the rest of the day and we were even able to be outside for a good portion of the party.  That was a treat b/c we were really feeling like prisoners with all of the rain we've had.  Oliver got some great gifts and we had more delicious and gorgeously decorated cupcakes courtesy of Donna of Cake Bliss.  :)  My mom and I (and Marta) tried making cake pops for the first time.  They came out pretty good!  There were supposed to be orange ones too but the orange melties just weren't the right consistency for dipping.  I didn't take a whole lot of pics at the party but my uncle did so I'm hoping to get some from him soon...Here are the cupcakes and the cake pops and the best pic I could snap of Oliver, drinking out of his "cone" cup...

Carter's been doing really well at school and private therapy.  On Thursdays, he has 3 hours of back-to-back therapy - ST, PT and OT.  It kicks his butt.  So much so that today at lunch, he fell asleep.  THAT was a first.  :)  Carter had an AMAZING session at horseback riding on Monday.  His therapist, Catherine, sent me this email (Marta takes him to ride):

Dear Lisa,

Carter was phenomenal yesterday!
Walked in confidently, saying he was coming to ride Peppermint. Stood waiting as I put the helmet on. Then did not use my hand to walk into the sand arena, walked straight to Pep through the deep sand. I asked him if he was ready to get up on Pep, to which he answered right away: yes. I put him on Pep, and he sat right up saying, "Let's go see the lights!. As you know, he has been fascinated by the windows(the lights) in the big arena, and now considers Pep his vehicle to go "see the lights".
He sang and told Pep where to go the whole time, not one "all done" the whole session. So I decided to try changing positions by turning him backwards. He was a little apprehensive but trusted me to turn him on the horse, and sat right back up when he was backward, singing and asking Pep to go see the lights again. When turned back to his original position, the same small apprehension, but an amazing willingness to try something so new and potentially scary, trusting me implicitly.
When we got off the horse, he said a confident thank you to everybody and walked out of the arena.
It is a real pleasure to see him turn into a confident young man!


Oliver's doing better at school.  Today he didn't cry at all when I picked him up, that is a BIG deal!  He had a field trip to the pumpkin patch at Great Country Farms on Tuesday.  It was a fun time but it was SO muddy b/c of all of the rain that we've had.  Shortly after we arrived, the guides were telling us about apples and all the varieties and then the kids were invited up to get an apple to enjoy.  Oliver LOVES apples.  The bees at the farm also love apples.  We were all gathered around, listening to the instructions on feeding the goats and sheep when Oliver started to act funny.  He was wiping at his face and it seemed to take him a long time to swallow his bite of apple.  I asked him to spit out what was in his mouth and my hunch was confirmed.  He had "eaten" a bee that was on his apple, he spit it out but it had stung him.  The poor kid was such a trooper.  He never cried.   It was his 1st sting but luckily we found out that he's not allergic.  I took him to the ped yesterday b/c his eye almost looked like it was going back and blue but he got a clean bill of health and with her light we could see where the bee got him, inside his lip on the upper left side.  Here is a pic when the swelling was at it's peak.

Crosby is...Crosby.  He's eating like a horse and still getting up in the night.  He wants to stand ALL of the time.  He is such a monkey.  He wants to be around his brothers all of the time.  They constantly make him laugh.  We had a dance party in Oliver's room tonight after baths and Crosby was cracking up watching the boys dance.  It won't be long before he's up there, dancing with them!

A couple of weeks ago, we had professional pics taken of the boys.  We got a "sneak peek" tonight and they came out amazing!  I was leery about going with anyone else b/c Bev has been our photographer since I was pregnant with Carter but since she's not currently taking pics, we had to go elsewhere.  She suggested Stephanie with The Hip Studio and she didn't lead us astray.  I am THRILLED with the pics!  Here is a link to the blog-post on Stephanie's website - http://thehipstudio.com/children/brothers-ashburn-virginia-child-photographer/

That's about it from here...Tomorrow Marta and I are taking the boys apple picking.  I bought a Groupon that's good thru this month and with the amazing weather forecast this weekend, I want to get out tomorrow before things get picked over this weekend...Pics to follow.  :)