Our fall bucket list.

Leaf printing. I just got Wugs her own art journal, can't wait to watch it take shape!
Make spooky glowing cloud dough.
Cork and q-tip painting to make fall trees.
Make a fall nature mobile: acorns, fall leaves...
Surprise Mila with a fall leaf crown. See pictures of it here.
Pick apples. Pictures here!
Make applesauce. We made ours in the crockpot, it turned out great!
Go bobbing for apples.
Go indoor apple picking.
Make shaving cream painted fall leaves.
Apple stamping.
Surprise Mila with a giant yarn spiderweb she has to crawl/climb her way through.
Paint pumpkins.
Visit a pumpkin patch. Pictures here!
Make apple cider pancakes.
Go on nighttime walks when it starts getting dark at five pm (I love this idea for a lantern to guide our way).
Bake apples in the crockpot.
Make pumpkin spice donuts.
Make cinnamon apple spice play dough with Wugs.  We did this the other day, look at those pretty fall colors!
Make fall-colored sugar cookies in the shape of fall leaves.
Wrap Mila up like a mummy (she is gonna love this--you mean I can use all the toilet paper?!)
Make caramel lollipops.
Visit a corn maze.
Talk about and write down what we're thankful for (we plan on adding this book to our collection).
Make our Halloween costumes.
Paint with fizzing paint on the sidewalk. 
Play in pumpkin guts while being blindfolded. I've tried this so many times; Wugs wants nothing to do with it. She'll paint her skin all day long if you let her but touch pumpkin guts? Go figure.
Make apple cider.
Paint with acorns.
Hang up preserved fall leaves--we did this last year...magical for Wugs and I, although the taller people in this household were grumbling about constantly walking into leaves :)
Do bubbly science experiments. (We made our jack-o-lantern erupt.)
Make apple pie.
Make pumpkin gingersnap parfaits.
Make a spooky ice bath for Wugs.
Glow-in-the-dark painting with Wugs.
Make a cornhusk doll for my girl. I got the instructions here.
Put on a shadow puppet show.
Make apple playdough.
Make leaf animals (via ParentMap).
Apple roll painting.
Side by side apple taste testing.

To be added and updated. Welcome fall (but indian summer, you're welcome to stay a little longer too!)

Aaaaaaand some other things we did that weren't on the original list: Make a Wugs-sized scarecrow. Climb a pumpkin 'mountain' at a local grocery store one evening. Make apple cake after reading this lovely book. Decorated gourds with feathers and googly eyes. Did crayon drip art on a pumpkin. Make shrunken apple heads (these grew mold and I had to throw them away before being able to decorate with 'em.). Had 'dinner in a pumpkin' one night.

 

Mila's Birthday (Part Two)

For Mila's birthday adventure we wanted to do something she had never experienced before BUT have it also be something she liked, so that she was sure to enjoy it. Oxymoron, right? We were racking our brains.

And then my brilliant mom suggested...a horseback ride! After all, three months later Mila still talks about Mama Sealy and Baby Stormy, her Hawaii besties--and once at a farmer's market we had put her on a 10-second pony walk where we practically had to drag her away afterwards. Horses were the way to go for Mila's big day. We finally found a great stable out in Point Reyes that allows toddlers to go on a guided horseback ride, as long as someone would be holding onto her (duh). On the drive over I told Mila we were going to ride horses and she got SO EXCITED. I think she car-napped with a smile on her face.

And the experience did not disappoint--not for Mila and not for us from her reaction to it. When it came time to climb onto Ginger the horse, she was so calm and focused, so fiercely determined, she seemed twice her age. She was ready. I was amazed--and so proud.

p.s. The aspect about the whole birthday adventure that Mila is still talking about? How on our way out we came across one of the horses peeing. Onto the ground. Not on the potty.

Oh, and this is also where I post a million pics of Mila eating her birthday cake. And by cake I mean frosting. She could have cared less about the fluffy yellow stuff beneath all that chocolate goodness.

Lots of pictures. Thanks for letting me indulge! And Mila, thanks again for being you.

"If we didn’t have birthdays,
you wouldn’t be you.
If you’d never been born,
well then what would you do?
If you’d never been born,
well then what would you be? ...

Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive...

...who is you-er than you! -from one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books, Happy Birthday to You!

Mila's Birthday (Part One)

‘a cake to share with those who are close to us, a candle on the cake, greetings, blessings or gifts from family or friends. nothing more is required, everything else – flowers, decorations, games, dancing, entertainment – are loving elaborations of these three essentials which are needed to feed the whole of ourselves, our body, soul and spirit. everyone requires nourishment on these three levels if they are to grow, thrive and fulfill their destiny.’ -found on The Littlest, taken from this book which I plan to get very soon.

So with that in mind, we tried to keep things as simple and loving as possible with lots of magical surprises coming her way on August 29th. I love establishing these little traditions with our family, some borrowed from when we were little, some new, all trying to keep in the spirit of her special day.

When Mila got out of her bath on her Birthday Eve, there was a new nightgown laid out sewn from a thrifted pillowcase that I had started a long time ago and Marmee sweetly finished since I lost the gumption. Then in her crib lay new sheets (lots of pink which she loves, and LELLO which I love), a non-matching pillowcase (LELLO AND WHITE as she had requested a few weeks ago when I told her a new Mila pillow was in order--Steve finally gets his huggy pillow back). And a matching pint-size pillow for Baa, of course, made by Marmousch.

The next morning there was a rose-petal*-and-balloon** trail leading from the bedroom into the living room, where Mila's new play kitchen stood, stocked with felt food and ready to go. There was a crepe paper streamer "tent" hanging over her place at the breakfast table with a felted flower crown waiting on her plate. Of course, Mila was most interested in the balloons in that moment. Oh to be two.

(The play kitchen came out SO cute and I can't wait to show pictures of it with all the felt food and other little touches. Thanks to my parents for that special present. Now that balloons aren't competing for Mila's attention, she loves it ;)

Marmousch had made Mila the stunning tutu from this book (this was our second project from there--we made the art smock last spring...I love and miss sewing with my Marm! It's nowhere near as fun when you sew alone.) A simple white tank, some ballet slippers I had bought ages ago because, well, I knew she'd fit into them eventually, and the flower crown she wouldn't keep on for very long (ha!) completed her outfit. Oh, and a matching tutu for Baa. Or whomever. Another surprise.

We went out for a few hours on her Birthday adventure where we had cake and lemonade shared with Mila's closest friend. That chunk of the day is going to warrant a post of its own. Much too much pictures for just one post! When we came back to our apartment there were new teeny Schleich animals waiting for Mila on the stairs, ready in their party bows. It made my heart melt to watch Mila pick each one up as she climbed the stairs, exclaiming what animal it was. COCCADILE! HIPPO! SHAMMY! HORSEY! and so on.

After lazing around for a little bit, Steve snuck outside with Gymbo the clown. Papa's special present for his little girl. (Without a doubt I think Gymbo is Mila's favorite thing about the Gymboree classes we took here and there this summer.) We had the Gymbo music playing when Steve knocked on the door and came inside wearing Gymbo strapped to his feet and hands, the way they do in the classes. I think Mila might have been on the verge of crying...all she could say was HOLD 'IM! HOLD 'IM! and when Steve turned that little weirdo clown over to her she flopped on him in disbelief. It was a great reaction and I loved that it was towards something Steve had put all that thought into.

There was one more surprise, one not orchestrated by us--a life-sized plush Chamois showed up at the door shortly after. It was from family of mine in New Jersey and could not have been more perfect. More near tears of joy and bewilderment. Surely Baa and Elmo were shaking in the boots at the sight of not just Gymbo but then Chamois eclipsing their fame (remember Llama? Poor, poor Llama.) and you know what? Turns out there's room in Mila's heart for all of them.

See, I told you two was awesome.

*Who else but your mother would go with you to steal roses off the park bushes at 10:30 pm the night before your daughter's birthday? She's simply the best. **And major love to my husband who got off a 12-hour shift and raced to a party store just minutes before closing time to get some helium balloons filled and then fit them into his little clown car. Then when he got home I put him to work plucking rose petals and taping up streamers. You know you're blessed when both your mom and husband stay up late into the night with you the night before helping to ready everything.

Happy Birthday, Wugs. Thank you so much for being born. You may never grasp how powerfully and profoundly it changed us but we'll spend every day trying to show you.

September and TWO.

 It's September already. I think I posted something like two times during the month of August. Scusa Simona! August just seemed to run away from me with Mila's Birthday and doing all kinds of crazy/fun/overboard/handmade things to get ready for it. And in the end it was wonderful. I'll be posting pictures of that soon; they're just too good not to share. For now, here's a couple photos from last night's belated Birthday Glow Bath. I came across the idea from Growing a Jeweled Rose via Sew Liberated and knew Mila would love it since she still talks about her glowstick bath from July 4th. All evening long I had been telling her we would have a Surprise Bath and before she was even undressed, not having seen anything yet, she was already saying TANK WU MAMA FOR SUHPRISE BAFF!

That's what two has been like for us so far. I know we're only four days in, but I quite like them already. Every two year-old nap so far has involved me wrapping my arms tightly around Mila and holding her close in order for her to fall asleep, and I'm surely not complaining (my arm does, though, when it starts to get all pins and needles on me). The two's so far are full of TANK WU's, even more mischief and silliness, even more insights into things I never dreamed she'd be grasping so soon, fiercer hugs, gentler kisses. I just love them. And her. My two year-old.