Appleumpkin Festival!!

Shortly after we moved here I signed up to receive the Pure Michigan e-mail updates. I wanted to know when there were cool things happening in our area (especially cool FREE things), so we could take the twins and check it out. I was really excited to get the update a couple weeks ago because it let me know about Appleumpkin! I was excited about this festival because it is held in the town where my friend is from (E's mom), so I knew we would have someone interested in joining us for the adventure. Adventures are always better with friends :)

At the flea market. I thought the twins would be afraid, but Allie actually giggled!

There was a flea market, Midway rides, a camel, tons of things to see and smell, but the things our children loved the most?? The library and the nursery at our friend's church!

Ryan immediately loved the dino chair.
They had a bunch of puppets and Elmo (Daddy) had Allie cracking up!
Ultimately, they all ended up coloring (shocking!). Coloring kept them enthralled for a pretty long time.

The nursery had the coolest playplace with a slide!

After the festival we went to E's Grandparents house where the 3 kids happily played in their fountain and sandbox - the longest all three of them have quietly played together (i.e. without fighting over a toy)!

What a fun day!

She's Here!!!

14 months ago, we welcomed (via blog) the twins' very first cousin to the family. We are so excited to finally be able to welcome cousin #2 the same way! Day after day we anxiously waited for the call saying she was on her way and Sunday it finally came! By Sunday evening she was here!

As is tradition, we made a special welcome banner for her. The twins carefully colored for their new cousin!

Because we lived in MA, we didn't get to meet Cousin Cuppycake until she was 3 months old :( But now that we live less than an hour away, we got to meet Cousin D (better nickname to follow) less than 24 hours after she was born! In fact, Lucas and I were the FIRST auntie and uncle to hold her!!!! (sorry for the blurry pictures. I didn't want to use a flash, but didn't take the time to put my camera on the proper setting)

Proud Uncle
Proud Auntie

The twins, having never seen a baby that small, were slightly curious...but really not that interested. I know that will change, she just doesn't make enough noise or movement yet to hold their attention!

Cuppycake loving on her new sis, and giving her a hug.

A Family of Four!!!

Welcome to the family, Cousin D!! We love you!!!

Let's Go Blue!

Where's Daddy? I don't know!

Maybe watching the football game?
Oh, yeah! Silly me! I can hear the fight song playing!

Oh, my head! Today is a big game! How could we forget? We ARE silly!

That's right. Today was the Michigan vs. Michigan State game, and since the Huskers played on Thursday we were able to all be united in our team apparel and support! Since I happened to be gone, daddy carefully dressed them in their Michigan gear. Unfortunately, we've done too good of a job teaching the twins to hold their hands up for touchdowns and cheer for our team because Ryan did it for everything - no matter which team! Also, unfortunately, our team lost despite our united front :( Oh, well. We can't win 'em all.

The only decent picture I was able to catch of them both. We are going to pretend that they are trying to hold hands...instead of pushing and pinching to be the first through the door!

Friday Fun with Family & Friends

Sorry for the title. I'm such a sucker for alliteration! But Friday we did have a lot of fun with family and friends! In the morning we decided on a spur of the moment trip to the zoo - where we were joined by Nana & Poppy! Sadly, I have no pictures to document this event because it was so spur of the moment that I rushed out of the house without my camera. Doh!

In the evening, we went to the local homecoming parade with our neighbor friends and their kids. This parade was full of hometown pride and charm with fire engines, theme floats, homecoming candidates in cool cars (or loaded pickups!), girl scouts, horses, and lots of candy! It was a blast!

Ryan riding to the parade on Papa's shoulders.

Ry-guy meets, and loves, the mascot.
Allie & E check out each other's flowers (passed out by the local florist!)

Sweet Girl.

After the parade we stopped at the local library. You may or may not have heard about my quest for a library. I had tried a couple of other ones in the bigger towns surrounding ours, but they charged for out of county/township cards! I wasn't willing to pay and decided to keep searching when someone mentioned this library (at most 10 minutes away)! It is small, but it has a great kids' area with:

beanbag chairs

and a small craft station!

They are connected to all of the Michigan libraries with an inter-library loan system - which means pretty much any resource I might desire is at my fingertips! It feels so good to have a supplier for free entertainment! They don't have any story hours, but my friend and I figure that between us (and a few other friends we might be able to talk into joining us...) we could start our own! It is definitely going to be a popular winter destination!

We seriously had to drag them away because the library was closing!

Go Big Red!

Every college football season there is at least one week where our teams don't play on the same day. This means that the whole family is able to be united (at least in clothing) in support for each team on their day. Thursday was the big day for the Huskers - made even more sweet by th presence of Papa & Gigi visiting FROM Nebraska!

Trying to get a decent picture of them in their outfits. This used to be so much easier!

Papa & Gigi wanted a picture with their Husker babies...the twins weren't so thrilled about the idea.
So we let them slide for a while...
...and cheered when they made it down!

In case you were wondering - Nebraska played Kansas State. Both teams were entering the game undefeated, and Nebraska was coming off of an off-week after a sloppy win. But Nebraska dominated, and won hands down! It was a great day to be a Husker fan!

Finally a winner!

Now we have Michigan vs. Michigan State to cheer for on Saturday!

Let's Go Blue!

Cousins go to Triple F

Okay, so I know it looks like we spend all our time at Flavor Fruit Farm. What can I say? It's close. It's simple fun. And it's free (unless you get sucked into buying goodies from the bakery or apple barn)! We decided to take Papa, Gigi, Nana, Poppy, Uncle Logi & Cousin Cuppycake to our new favorite haunt when they were all here Thursday!

The biggest surprise was baby piggies! They weren't there on Sunday so they were no more than 4 days old. We counted at least 10. The cutest little scrawny things!

Ry-guy says, "Look at me surrounded by girls! I'm the man!"
Allie was big into pumpkins - and trying to pick them up.

Ryan liked the new serpentine gourds - especially the one that acted like a scepter as he sat on his throne of hay.

Cuppycake LOVED the wago - especially when Daddy popped up to surprise her!

The cousins had a picnic. Yummy muffins!

Yummy bananas!

Yummy muffins AND bananas!

Then the cousins all played on the wagon again.

Cousins!

We are STILL waiting on the newest cousin addition (who is one-week overdue)! Although, I hear contractions have started coming more regularly, so maybe we'll get to meet her this weekend!!

Sunday at Triple F

This afternoon, we made another trip to Flavor Fruit Farms - a local hot spot. Sunday afternoons are big there with live music, a moon bounce, pony rides, first responder vehicles, and an elephant! We went to see the elephant...but got there too late. Unfortunately, the elephant is only there during their naptime. We still managed to have fun with what was there!

The twinners say "hello" to their old friend!

Note: the graham cracker in Ryan's hand was pig food within minutes!

Allie was happy to stay with the animals.
My favorite Allie moment of the day: We were looking at the chickens and I said, "Say, 'Hi, chickens!'" and she quickly and clearly yelled, "Hi, chickens!" I almost fell over!

Ryan desperately wanted to get over to check out the ambulance, police care, and fire engine!

Note: When Allie came to check out the ambulance (which Ryan was exploring), Ryan came over and gave her a shove. Had I not been there to catch her, she would have fallen out. It was the first instance of a very possessive patterm he showed throughout the day...

We found the pumpkins and the twins wanted to try picking them up.

Allie was upset because Daddy wouldn't let go!

Ryan was proud of his incredible strength.
Ryan decided to play in one of the pumpkin crates.
My favorite Ryan moment: When we loaded up to leave, there was a cat in our garage. It immediately ran away, and Ryan was torn between chasing the cat and listening to us tell him not to leave the garage. Seeing his struggle I said, "Are you looking for the cat?" he nodded his head yes (lately, he's only shaken it no for EVERYTHING, so this was big!). I asked, "Do you see it?" he shook his head no (with a very sad expression). Knowing this cat frequents our garage I told him, "I'm pretty sure she'll be back." He turned to me and held up his hands and shrugged his shoulders (which is usually what he does to say "where is it?" or "I don't know."). We had a conversation!

Allie runs through the pumpkins.

Allie checks out the flower beds by the farmhouse.

Okay, so actually she chased the peacock over there, and then didn't know what to do or where to go!

Ryan runs out toward the orchard.

He was actually running toward to boys playing football...he really wanted to get in on the game!

The best picture I caught of the two of them.

We have a big week ahead. Papa & Gigi are coming to visit. A new baby cousin should be arriving any minute! We're meeting Uncle Nic's girlfriend's parents...so much going on! I'm sure there will be many pictures and posts for the upcoming week!