This Fall is Beautiful!

Ok, here we are in the midwest and the temperatures have been up in the 80's this past week! What's up with this??? I don't know but I'll take it!

So Maddie and I headed out to a local park for some playtime and a nature walk to enjoy the beautiful weather.

I got some cute pics of her playing in the tall grass.

She looks like a little chipmunk here, love it!

Show Us Your Life Fridays - Parents of Single Children

Today on Kelly's Korner is Show Us Your Life Friday and the subject this week is families of single children so I decided to link up....

Being a single child myself I had always hoped to have two or more children. It was a bit lonely being a single child growing up but it did have several advantages...here are just a few:

1) It made me super independent
2) I always had all of the attention
3) Never had to share my toys with siblings
4) I got to be in lots of extracurricular activities when I was young
5) Had friends over all the time
6) To this day I have a very close relationship with my mother

I did always wish I had siblings though and still do now as an adult.

Madeline is going to be a single child as well. Not really by our choice but after many years of infertility and going through IVF two times to conceive her and pregnancy complications that forced me to deliver her at just 29 weeks a second pregnancy is just not in the books for us.

I decided to stay at home with Maddie until she is school-aged. Since she doesn't have built in playmates I do my best to socialize her as much as possible. She has been in a parents day out program for two years where she goes to "school" one full day a week. We're also in a large playgroup who meets up a couple times per week for activities. And though she isn't in anything now she has been in Gymboree classes and gymnastics in the past. We do outings regularly since it's so easy to get out with just one child. We usually keep busy every day of the work week.

I've been enjoying our time together so much. I feel so lucky to stay at home with her and know that we will both have wonderful memories of this time in our lives!

Worlds of Fun is SUPER FUN!!!

Madeline and I went to Worlds of Fun over this past weekend. I hadn't been there in years and it was Maddie's first time. We went with my sister-in-law and her two youngest Ava and Abram. We all just had a blast! I wish I could have gone on a couple big kid rides but I rode on plenty of rides with the little ones in Camp Snoopy!

Maddie and her cousins in a rare moment of sitting still.

Maddie and Abram riding on the airplanes.

The kids with one of the Peanuts characters.

Way up high on a ride with Mama.

A view of Camp Snoopy from above.

Another snapshot...boy was I hankering to go on that big roller coaster in the background!

More Peanuts characters. The kids really liked these!

On the swings.

Abram too!

Maddie and Ava riding a bug!

And going for a cruise.

Me with my little pumpkin.

"The Littles" after a long hard day!

Fun Day at the Farm!

On Monday Madeline and I went to a local pumpkin patch. This was our third year to the Faulkner Ranch so I guess you could say it's a yearly tradition.

I thought this was pretty with the flowers.

Cute fall display.

When we got there we couldn't find our group at first so we played around for awhile. Maddie likes the cornbox.

And I'm sure I've posted pics before of these cute horsey tire swings.

Maddie on the rocking horse. You can tell she was having a blast!

After we met up with our friends we went out to the pumpkin patch to find the perfect pumpkin. The girls loved checking them all out.

Ooooh, I think I found the one Mama!

The girls with the local scarecrow.

My Maddie loved climbing the bails of hay of course.

Madeline, Makaylee, and Alyssa in a rare moment of all semi-looking at the camera. Getting these girls in a picture together was like hearding cats!

Maddie and Makaylee.

I sure enjoyed our trip to the patch even though we did get rained on. What a fun way to spend my birthday!

A Few October Randoms

We've been keeping busy this month with playdates and going to the park with the nice Indian Summer weather we've been having in October. So far almost no rain this month and temperatures in the 80's!

During a recent trip to a park with one of our friends Madeline had her first experience on a big girl bike with training wheels - she loved it! I'm thinking Christmas!!!

My little tomboy loves being up in the trees - I'm seeing lots of tree climbing in our future...

Looking happy and not wanting to get down...

Another day we went to a family fun day at a local community center where we got to play and do some crafts.

I made Maddie this ghost which she then blinged out for me!

This weekend we stopped by the Maple Leaf Festival in Baldwin, KS on the way to see Grandma and Grandpa where they were camping.

Maddie rode her first "kiddie" roller coaster - and LOVED it!

Whoo hoo!

She also HAD to have her face painted. She gave up riding rides for this (we ran out of time) and gave away 6 ride tickets so she could get the painting done!

I just had to throw in these funny pics - my nephew is going to kill me for this one day....he had to put on Maddie's pink poodle Halloween costume on a recent visit.

Oh yes, I will be pulling out these to show his girlfriends in High School! Hee hee hee...

Friday we attended a "decorate your own" cupcake and cookie playdate with some friends.

"Little girls" playing with Madeline's kitty. Maddie with Makaylee and Alyssa.

Run, run, run...

And playing in the gravel...tons of fun...

By far the funniest part of the day was Alyssa and Maddie getting tackled and tickled by their 2-year old friend who could knock both girls down at once...little boys are so silly!

A Couple Fall Pics

Maddie had a very "fall-ish" outfit on today so I had to take a couple pics as we're getting into the fall season. I think the temp got down into the mid- or low- 40's last night, brrr...

I love fall but not sure I'm ready for the cold weather that's just around the corner.

I've also noticed the color in the trees changing in the past week as well so hopefully some pretty fall foliage pics are in our near future!

My girl posing...

Playing in the backyard.

With Josie who is chewing on some sort of animal bone...scared to think of where she got that...

Madeline and her doggy.

Giving Josie some love...

Happy Fall everyone!