wario & toad

Every year we go the Harleween party—no it's not a typo—thrown by our friends the Harlemans, in honor of their anniversary. This year's theme was video games so Alden and Tula dressed up as Wario and Toad from the Mario Brothers games. Patrick and I usually go all out on our costumes, but we decided that we'd take a year off. Click here if you'd like to see our costumes from previous parties.

We almost didn't make it to the party this year because our whole family has been really sick, but we managed to pull ourselves together for the evening. We just couldn't miss one!

the farm

I love fall! One of my favorite things about fall is going to the pumpkin patch and this year we returned to The Farm for an afternoon of tractors, the "corn box," and of course pumpkins. It was such a nice weekend, and quite possibly one of the last dry ones for a long time. Alden's favorite part was the kids play area. They had a great hill piled with sand and John Deere tractors (Alden's favorite kind), a hay maze, John Deere tricycles, and—as previously mentioned—the corn box, which is an enclosed area filled with about two feet of corn kernals.


The farm has a great bakery, and I think I mentioned their fabulous cheesecake on Alden's blog last year, but it's so good it's worth writing about again. They have a pumpkin cheesecake with a gingerbread crust topped with caramel. Mmmmm.... so rich, but so good. Unfortunately, little Tula is allergic to dairy, so I had to pass this year... so sad. Pumpkin is one of my favorite flavors, and I'm a little bummed that I won't be filling up on pumpkin pie any time soon, but I did find a great substitute at Trader Joe's. It's pumpkin butter (much like apple butter) that is dairy-free. Alden likes it too; now I just need to figure out how to make a big batch of it myself! Anyway, here are some more pictures of the Farm.

finally... a picture together

After much persuasion, Alden decided it would be okay to hold Tula long enough for a few pictures. I think what finally tipped the scales was a picture that I showed him of himself holding his baby cousin Eila (click here to see the photo). Maybe he realized that it wouldn't be that bad after all. Thankfully, Tula kept the contents of her little tummy in place, and Alden remained dry for the duration of the photo session. Hopefully there will be more sibling hugs in the future.

all that hair

I've been dying to put a barrette in Tula's hair since she was about two hours old. I finally got this one to stay in, but it grabbed her hair so tightly that when I tried to take it out, a few strands came with it. I suppose I'll wait a few more weeks until her hair is a bit longer and try again with a different barrette. It's still cute though!

as close as he gets

We've been trying for weeks to get Alden to hold his little sister, but he always refuses. This is actually the only picture we have of the two of them together. I couldn't figure it out... he seems interested in her and sings sweet little songs to her, he just won't hold her. Finally, the other day he told me why. He's afraid she's going to spit up on him, or as he says "I don't want Tula to puke on me." I've tried to reassure him that it won't happen, but in all reality it probably will. She has reflux, so she spits up all the time. I think that he's been traumatized because a few weeks ago he was sitting next to me while I was holding her and she puked out of her nose. I'm not talking about just a little trickle of spit up... I mean two streams of projectile puke came shooting out of her nostrils and splashed on Alden's arm. It took a wet washcloth and some big hugs to calm him down after that.