Autumn sunrise

It seemed like when we left for Florida we were still in the tail end of summer, but when we returned it was full-fledged Fall.  We now have crisp mornings, leaves changing and all the fun Fall activities starting.  As much as I love summer, Fall is really awesome, too.  Love this time of year!

Going for a hike the Sunday after we returned home

Luke rode his balance bike on the trails.  He is so good at it and seems like such a big kid!

Off-roading

We were stopped at a bench to feed Claire a bottle and look over at Luke to see him peeing!  This kid will drop his pants anywhere!

Getting ready to catch baby Claire

Clap clap clap!

Kisses

Good pup.  Was great to see him after a week away- although he loved his doggie hotel.

On Thursday I accompanied Luke on his preschool's train field trip.  We rode the Metra commuter train from Lake Forest to Deerfield to go to a local park.  He LOVED the train and I was so glad I could experience it with him.

Note that Luke is the only kid who wouldn't sit for storytime..a Grandma who was there with her grandson leaned over and said "I like his independence!".  Oh is that what we're calling it?  I just thought he wasn't very good at listening/doing what he's asked to do.

Claire is learning to drink from a sippy cup.  Not too sure about this yet.

Birthday party for Luke's friend Joey from preschool on Saturday

It turns out my friend from jury duty, Becca, is also friends with Joey's parents.  Its a small world in Lake Forest (as well as at Disney World)!

A real fire truck came to his party - it was so cool!

Sunday we went to Didier Farms with the Bullock's and the Meyer's.  It was a gorgeous day and the place was mobbed with young families.

Didier Farms is a local pumpkin/apple/etc. farmstand with tons of kid's activities, too.

I missed the memo about the tongues out.  

Sir, put the gourd down.

Hopping on the pumpkins surely isn't allowed.  Hey, don't call me Shirley.

Look at this pumpkin we found.  I want this one!

We stopped at a local park with Nicki, Andy and Olivia after the farm.

We used to have to help him navigate this kind of big-kid equipment and now he is totally independent.

Olivia is such a cutie.  

Our festive pumpkin decorations - soon to be adorned with pumpkin lights (after a quick trip to Walgreens - seasonal merchandise plug).  Our little secret is that we didn't even buy our pumpkins from Didier Farms because the line was so long and they were so expensive.  I got all three of these pumpkins for $12 total at the grocery store - pretty savvy huh?

Open Lands for Spumoni/Mom bonding time during the kid's nap times.

In kid development and general update news, we are continuing to experience an interesting phase with Luke that he sticks his fingers in his ears when he is scared or upset or nervous.  When we were on the train field trip he stuck his fingers in his ears for much more of the time than could be attributed to just blocking out the loud train sounds.  He also did it when the fire truck came to Joey's birthday party.  Both instances we thought he would love to experience those things, same thing with meeting Goofy come to think of it.  Maybe he feels like there's too much pressure on him to LOVE the experience he's about to have and he just doesn't want to deal with it.  I don't know, I think it is just a Luke quirk!  Kind of like how he still hates the "Happy Birthday" song, or really any organized singing in harmony, as well as clapping.  That has been consistent almost since birth.

Luke has one of those turtle night lights where you turn on different colors and it projects stars and a moon on his ceiling.  Green is the brightest and projects the shapes the best on his ceiling, then blue, then gold which is so light you can hardly see the stars.  He has it on every night, and lately he and I have been doing this little exchange where he says "I like gold!" and then I say "WHAAAT??  Gold is the worst!  Green is the best!", then I tickle him.  He absolutely loves it.  It got to the point that now throughout the whole day he comes up to me and says "I don't like green!" or "Gold is the best!" and then braces himself to get tickled.  Such a random thing, but I love these types of "inside jokes" with my little guy.

Claire has been really upping her game on the clapping and waving front.  She can do both on command now and is very proud of herself for her new skill set.  Here is a video of her clapping.  Adorableness.

Finally, a little business update.  In September Matt officially sold his first house since starting his real estate investment career.  Congrats to him on the beautiful house he made out of a foreclosed mess, and the nice profit that it resulted in! Here are a few before and after shots to give you an idea of the work he did.