Tag Archives: tilly

fall festivals

AppleTrain
AppleTrain

we love fall festivals. always have, always will. it's such a beautiful time of year to be outside (although we think every day is perfect here in paradise).

this weekend we took Tilly and a friend to Grand Junction for an apple festival at a historic farm there. they had a wonderful day – riding the kiddie train, petting the pigs and cows, chasing the chickens, helping make apple cider, and playing tons of kids games.

AppleBobbing
AppleBobbing

the best had to be the 'apple bobbing'. they have a version there with apples hanging on strings. the kids try to grab the apple in their mouth without using their hands. it's so funny and charming and perfectly fall.

we did end up eating chuck e cheese pizza for lunch which was a little sad for us adults but the girls had the best time!

fall evening

FallWalk
FallWalk

tilly and i and a few neighbor kids walked up to the store for hot cocoa tonight. it was beautiful out – although the air was really chill – we could have had some more clothes on.

today was picture day at school. jeremy took the shots this year. i helped. you know – shooting little kids is hard! he did a great job though. tilly is still wearing her photo day sweater (although a different dress). of course, her hair looked cuter all day than it did in the pic. the plight of a mom!

on my usual food note: jeremy made some excellent wax beans and a corn pudding tonight that was outstanding!

saturday

Caterpillar
Caterpillar

this morning was farmer's market – we bought everything of course. we are having some friends over for an all 'local' dinner tomorrow night. jeremy has been cooking on and off today and there's still food in the oven (it's 11:30pm). i'm excited! he even made a tomato dish I like – that's a miracle.

after the market we took tilly and a friend out for a walk. tilly wanted to go on a 'nature hike' with these small journals we made so she could glue stuff in. it's funny to watch the things she looks for vs. the things i look for. i spend time looking for perfect yellow aspen leaves. she finds a half eaten green leaf and can't wait to glue it into her book. they both glued in snail shells too – using a glue stick. we''ll see how well that holds up.

Caterpillar2
Caterpillar2

their favorite part of the hike was the caterpillar. we found a black fuzzy caterpillar that ali named gabriella. they carried it all the way out of the woods and to a playground we went to visit. they took continuous turns handing it back and forth. i was really just thrilled that they were excited to play with it (and not grossed out at all by the 'bug').

new friend

Bunny
Bunny
it feels like we have a lot going on right now – even though I can definitely feel the more relaxed days of fall. it's so cool out today and the leaves are really starting to turn. this is my favorite season.

TillyAndBunny
TillyAndBunny

so the main new big thing is that we got a bunny – or I should say that Tilly got a much belated birthday bunny. she's a Netherland Dwarf. she's really beautiful, small and super soft. Tilly is absolutely in love with her. She wraps her in a blankie and pushes her around in her baby doll stroller.

when we asked her what she wanted to name the bunny – without missing a beat – she said 'Catcher' – which is the nickname of the cat we lost a year ago to a coyote. it was the sweetest moment  – i thought we were all going to cry. i know she's my kid – but she's a pretty amazing kid.   

swimming!

Swimming2
Swimming1
so the other amazing thing that happened the past couple weeks is that tilly taught herself how to swim just by watching her friend kendall. It's been amazing watching her diver for rings and throw herself into the water. she's been having the most fun!

still summer

RodeoGroup
RodeoGroup
Tilly and I got free tickets to the Rodeo tonight. (Jeremy had a sunset photoshoot he had to do.) It was kind of nice to put our jeans and boots on. It always feels kind of good late in the summer.

Tilly was so excited to do the calf scramble. She ran out there brave as anything with all the big kids and never even looked back for me. She was so fun to watch!

new favorite super hero…

UnderdogSweater
UnderdogSweater
There's no need to fear Underdog is here!

Tilly is in love with Underdog. So we ordered this red sweater to stitch a big white "U" on. (She's thinking about being Underdog for Halloween – or a princess mermaid butterfly.)

Looks pretty good since she seems to have a bad guy on the TV waiting for her super powers!  

new favorite thing!

RidingTogether
RidingTogether
So in our extra summery last two weeks we also purchased a trail-a-bike for Tilly. I was fairly sure that we were going to return it – she hated going fast on her tricycle, she's not very big for her age, blah, blah, blah – but SHE LOVES IT!

And we love it. We have the most fun riding together.

Tilly and I ride back and forth to school most days. We go for family rides to the park, pool, just downhill anywhere. Pulling an extra 60 pounds (Tilly plus the trailer) up and down our hills can be lung-burning, but it's SO WORTH IT!

(Tonight was the first night we had the extra bracket for Jeremy's bike so now he can join in the uphill fun!)

small crafts

Backpacks
Backpacks
forever ago – like 3 months – Tilly turned 4 years old. For her birthday we took Tilly and her two best friends on an all day adventure. Instead of traditional goody bags, as a way to collect their stuff over the day, Tilly and I made each of them a monogrammed backpack. These were so easy and fun to make. It was a great project for the two of us. The girls were so thrilled that day to put all their goodies in their bags (and it made for a little less chaos in the car).

tea

TeaParty
TeaParty
we love tea parties at our house. (i think the pots of tea and cupcakes every night over the winter may explain why my summer jeans don't fit like last year.)

Tilly had Charlie over for tea party today. She moved the table herself, got the rug in place – everything to make a nice spot for tea. I bet they drank and ate for 30 minutes…It was so sweet (until it all fell apart into our usual chaos – cheetos in the tea for brew, milk dripping off her forehead and chasing and whooping around the table in circles…i assume this is much more typical 4 year old behavior)

camping

Camping
Camping
There's Tilly in the tent. We took her camping for the first time last night. Who knows why it really took us so long.

The funny thing about where we live is that we were only about 25 minutes from our house. She can get car sick and we thought for the first time we didn't want to make the trip about driving (and possibly puking).

So, like camping goes, it rained most of the time. The evening talk was cancelled and we couldn't start a fire. I brought way too much food so we ate and colored in the tent all night. We had a great time. Now she wants to go for two nights!  

summer nights

Sugar
Sugar2
Maze
this was a summer night spent indoors but still summery. i think tilly might have allergies or a cold so we tried to take it easy. we did run up to the center to get some treats – dibs ice cream, lik-a-stik candy and a new coloring book. it all made for a pretty happy baby and with a bath she was really looking pretty good before bed. (although i would have brushed her teeth twice after that candy if she would have let me!)

kid craft

ShoeCraft
Shoes
today we made tiny shoes. tilly was pretty tired from yesterday (ballet, swimming, the hard life…) so we hung out around the house. she found these princess slippers to decorate in some craft book so i spent most of the day making small shoes while she painted and jeweled.

pizza

Pizza
Pizza

as on most nights this summer we had two of the nerighbor kids over. tilly is so happy to have friends over and include them in whatever she's doing.

we were making homemade pizza for dinner so we set-up a pizza station for everybody. a ball of dough, a bowl of tomato paste, a bowl of cheese – all on a plastic cutting board with a plastic knife. it keeps them happy for a little bit and then they're pretty excited when each of their own little pizzas comes out of the oven.

thank goodness for my kitchen aid stand mixer. i would never make homemade dough it if it wasn't for that.

summer

ToPool
ToPool

I love summer. Tilly and I spent all day at the pool. (Yes, we have a good life.) We strolled there and back which was so relaxing and summery. It's kind of a long walk so Tilly took her KidzBop headphones which we usually save for trips and she listened to music part of the way. She looked fabulous this morning!

And when we got home we had a bunch of neighbor kids over and we made root beer floats – like it was hot like summer in the midwest.

hiking at our house

DonutGirls
DonutGirls
tilly's neighbor friends Ali and Sydney were over today and the girls had tons of energy (too much?). so we all walked up to the store – right around dinner time – and for their treat they each decided they wanted a donut. i felt so good about getting them out for a walk before that…

but they were so happy!