Monday, November 7, 2011

Curious George

We spent Halloween in Waterford in the neighborhood where our friends Blain, Sarah, and Trevor live. Their neighborhood is really great for Trick or Treating because most families hang out in their driveway with a fire in a firebox going while they pass out candy, so there is a really neat community feel.

Brandon has been obsessed with Curious George books and the Curious George 2 movie lately, so we thought he would enjoy being a monkey again this year. We even had him wear the same costume from last year. It was a little small but worked out just fine.

And Krzysztof was the Man in the Yellow Hat!

I just put a pumpkin on my belly for my costume. What else can you be with a huge belly sticking out?

Christian (A.K.A. Buzz Lightyear) loved pulling Brandon around the neighborhood in the wagon. Sometimes Trevor rode too.
It didn't take long for Brandon to get the Trick or Treating thing down. He even told everyone "Thank You."
I love that monkey tail hanging out!

In addition to asking for "Donuts and apple juice" everyday, Brandon now asks for candy quite frequently. The other unfortunate consequence of trick or treating is that he can now recognize that all those little packages near store check outs are candy. I guess he was bound to find out eventually! It was a fun Halloween despite those outcomes!

Fall Fun

Here are some pictures of some fun things we have done throughout the fall:

In September we went to Frankenmuth for a night (to use up a free Marriott stay).

We of course went to Zenders for the famous chicken dinner. Fried chicken just tastes better when you are pregnant. :-)

Brandon had fun at Zenders, but our picky eater didn't eat any of their food. He doesn't know what he's missing!
If you seen other recent blog postings, you know Brandon likes to wear our shoes. Well, high heels are included.

The weather was so nice the weekend we were up here, so we walked around the shops a little, and we went to the Cheese Haus, of course.

After Frankenmuth we went up to Au Gres, MI to our friends Mark and Julie's lake house.
It was so beautiful there! The sand was really fine like in South Carolina. And the position on the lake front makes the water really calm and shallow. It was a little chilly for swimming, though.
It almost looks like the Lowcountry of SC to me.
Here are Julie and I with our baby bumps. Julie and Mark have a little girl Chloe who was 10 months old at this time, and she is due with another baby girl 6 weeks after me.
Mark and Krzysztof with one of their dogs Porter. Mark is a fellow homebrewer and has also recently gotten into smoking meat (which KZ is pretty obsessed with lately), so with those interests and having our second babies so close together, we'll probably be seeing a lot of each other.
My mom (Brandon's Mimi) got to visit a couple of times this fall. The weekend she was here in October, the weather was in the high 70's the whole time and sunny! We had a great day at the zoo. Brandon got to ride the brand new carousel at the zoo.
The leaves were at their peak while my mom was here.
Brandon loved reading books and playing with Mimi, which freed me up to get some projects done around the house.
One of the cider mills we have been going to has several little playhouses outside, and Brandon loves to play in them! This led me to search for one on Craigslist, which I found!
He loves to pretend he is cooking inside. He'll bring us all kinds of food that he's cooked.
We had a couple of parties at our house to hang out with our friends before the craziness sets in after the baby is born. One of them was during a Michigan State game. Here are Brandon (Big Brandon...not ours!), Stephanie, and their 2 boys Christian and Tobey.
In order to confuse you a little more, here is Krzysztof with our Brandon and KZ's friend John with his son Brandon. Ready for more craziness? John also has a little girl whose name is Brooke, which is what our baby girl will be named. At this particular party, there was another family there with a son named Brandon, so we had 4 Brandons at one point. We're not trying to name our kids after our friends kids. This was all unintentional by all families!
This is on a hay ride at Three Cedars Farm. It was chilly, but Brandon loved it!
He loved looking at the big wheels on the tractor that pulled us.
Happy Fall!

Friday, November 4, 2011

"Donuts and Apple Juice"

If you ask Brandon what he wants to eat lately, chances are he will reply "Donuts and Apple Juice." Great parenting, huh? Our child at 2 years old knows what donuts are and asks for them daily. We'll it's not as bad as you think. We have been spending a ton of time visiting cider mills in the past 2 months. There are so many cider mills in the Detroit area, and several are just a short drive from our new house. When you visit a cider mill, you get apple cider, of course, but you also have to get a cinnamon sugar donut or 2 to go with it. I'll let Brandon tell you about some of the pictures we've taken at the 2 cider mills we've visited the most often.

This is at Parmenter's Cider Mill in Northville. I'm pretty good at drinking out of a regular cup now!
I love donuts!
Yum!

They have fun things to play on here!

One time my friends came to the cider mill with me! Here I am with Trevor, Tobey, and Christian.
This is at farm that is also a cider mill called Three Cedars Farm.
I really liked milking the pretend cow!
Mimi came with us to the farm while she was here.
They had lots of pumpkins there!


Enough of these pictures! Where are the donuts and apple juice?