Julia and Mommy went together to the annual Barn Dance and Chili Dinner. Julia was so excited to go! She picked out her boots to wear and wore her hat around all afternoon. When we first got there, it was a new place with lots of people so she was shy again. Once she found her friends and a space to run she was her friendly little self. After running around the dance floor and eating, we went out to check out the farm. She loved sitting on the tractors, and was curious about the pigs, roosters, and hens. The rooster talked to her and Julia found it quite startling, but got used to it. By far her favorite thing to do was run around the dance floor with her friends. When it was time to go home she gave kisses to all the babies, hugs to the bigger kids, and blew kisses to the other mamas. Sweet times!

There is nothing better than going out to play in unexpected places on beautiful days. Fall is a perfect time to find hidden corners of gardens to play in. The girls played with their friends Elena and Maeve at the Knoxville Botanical Garden for a morning play date. There were trails to follow, stone buildings to discover, bushes to hide between, and sweet faces to be photographed. I think Ashley and my favorite thing about the gardens were the stone walls that gave our girls a safe and fun place to run around in. The garden volunteers were planting bulbs for the spring flower beds and they offered for the girls to help them with the planting. Emily and Elena both volunteered to help. Next spring we will have to go back and see the Narcissa that they helped plant. We will return for more play dates on warm days. There are so many more places I want to go and see in the garden.

This is a classic pose for Julia these days. While she doesn’t have many words she choose to share with us, she does say our names. She loves to put her hands to the side of her mouth and yell a persons name to have them come and play. This time she was yelling for “Eeeeee” to come her way.

We were able to fit a camping weekend into our busy fall. We spent a beautiful weekend among falling temperatures and leaves. Our days were warm, but evenings cool. This spring we got a new tent and this was our first chance to use it. The old one was a little small for us since we added a fourth member of our family. This one is tall enough for Robby to stand in.

We all finished the weekend with rosy cheeks from the sunshine.

We were joined on the weekend with friends. The little people loved having friends just one campsite away. Our site was next to a playground and sunny field which made for fun play times. Elena enjoyed mothering Julia. Julia also seemed to like the attention from the big girl. The girls enjoyed a hike, throwing rocks in the river, playing at the playground, afternoon naps, getting dirty, and visiting horses. Our girls didn’t eat real well and were not interested in trying different foods. Fire roasted marshmallow were turned down by our girls, but the hot chocolate was a hit with Emily.

Our nights were near freezing, so I spent the night waking up to re-cover or pull the girls back into their sleeping bags. At some point each night both girls ended up in our sleeping bags with us because of the cold. Julia was the funniest, she woke me up, just as the sun was coming up, with the box with her extra pacifier in it. I gave her the pacifier and then she proceeded to move all of her precious sleeping things from her sleeping bag to our bag. When she was done she was slipped into a warm comfy spot to continue her slumber. When I woke up later, her sweet little face was just resting next to mine at complete peace. So sweet. No more camping this fall for us, but hopefully in the spring we can make another trip.

It is so sweet to watch the Julia and Maeve together. Ashely and I call them the “littles” or “little girls”. Julia is expressing herself so much more and her interaction with the world is fascinating. The littles like to play near each other, but it is a lot of parallel play. Being willing to hold hands was adorable.

We had a play date with our friends at a bounce play house. I loved playing with the kids in the bouncy equiptment. Emily and Elena were busy playing on everything. Julia liked playing, but needed a lot of help. Her favorite was sliding. Aiden went through with Julia and I on one adventure and wasn’t sure if he wanted to continue or go back when we reached the mid-point. He finished it out, honestly I wasn’t sure that I could get out going backwards. All the kids enjoyed checking on baby Natalie.

Joy, joy, joy – Blueberries!

Blueberries are little round blue wonders of so much joy. These four girls just ate and ate blueberries. They ate them from their buckets, from the bushes, and probably from the ground. They also picked a few blackberries. Emily had blackberry juice stains on her chin, shirt, fingers, and legs. The pig-tailed girls all enjoyed being out in the sun on a pleasant sunny afternoon and being together.