Fall Bucket List & Free Toddler Scavenger Hunt Printout
Fall is here and with it cooler temperatures. Living in Florida means we’re still going swimming, but we’re no longer swimming in humidity. <Okay, okay, no more bad jokes> Just because our fall weather looks a little different than what we’re used to, we’re still planning on having a lot of fun this season! Here’s a peek at what’s on our Florida Fall Bucket List:
Collect pine-cones
Decorate for Halloween
Wear boots!
Pick out a pumpkin at a ‘pumpkin patch’
Visit a farm
Go to the fair
Carve a pumpkin
Roast pumpkin seeds
Go trick-or-treating
Have a fall scavenger hunt
Drink apple cider
Eat apple pie
Go camping
Do a fall-inspired craft
Have an outdoor fire
We have already started checking off things on our list, and some activities we’ll be checking off again and again. (Apple cider anyone? Yum!) What’s on your fall bucket list?
Don’t forget to download your very own Autumn Scavenger Hunt for Toddlers to join in on our fun!
Touché Karma, Touché
Have you guys seen this floating around the internet? This Dad texts his wife after his son projectile vomits in the car, and hilarity ensues. In case you missed it:
Anyway, I retell this hysterical tale to the Hubster yesterday morning, hardly getting through it due to my laughing fits. Our day continues on. I pack up Emerson in the car between downpours and we head out to the MVA to get my car’s emissions test done. We make it there and Emerson starts whining a bit in the back seat. No big deal, it’s about the point where she’s probably getting hungry. I hand her back a juice box to occupy her for a few minutes as we wait in line.
The car ahead of me is now going. Then it happens. Emerson coughs, and then she gags, and then she throws up. I slowly turn around asking, “are you….” and trail off because I’m met with a scene that could have rivaled The Exorcist. “okaaaaaaayyyy…?” Sigh. Oh Boy.
I hop out into the pouring rain and silently pray, thanking the universe that I grabbed a full pack of wipes at the last second. I run around and open up her door. I make eye contact with the service man who is now calling me in since it’s my turn. A couple of cars wait behind me. Oh, and I decided it was the perfect day to wear a white tee shirt.
I yell over, “HANG ON, I’ve got a situation! I’ll be right there!” I quickly wipe Emerson’s mouth and face and hands, and hop back in to drive the car up. I hop back out and breathlessly explain:
“I’m so sorry, she just, all of a sudden… BOOM! I… I… I’m really sorry. I can continue to clean her up right? I don’t have to just stand here?” *points to an “x” on the ground where the driver usually stands.*
I get the go ahead from the service man who is probably holding his breath and I reopen her door. It takes every ounce of my will power and strength to not throw up on Emerson, in front of this service man, as I reach for the wipes again.
My car passes, and we’re on our way again. I pull over into the first parking lot I can see and hang out in the downpour as I clean up the backseat the best I can, dry heaving now and then. Soaked in my white tee, with my daughter dressed in some way-too-small, but clean clothes I found in the trunk, we finally head home.
Touché, Karma, touché.
Our Valentines Day
Our Valentine’s Day was a nice, sweet relaxing Sunday. Hubby went off to blacksmith for the morning while Emerson and I had a little “galentines day” celebration. We decked ourselves out in matching pink t-shirts, gave each other pedicures and baked cupcakes together. We read our Valentine’s books, drank milk from our pink cups, and had lots of snuggle time!
I think it’s safe to say baking was Emmie’s favorite part of the day. She woke up this morning and immediately asked to bake something. She was not happy when I told her we were not going to be baking something today. She settled for pretend cooking.
I hope everyone’s valentines day was filled with snuggles, love and loads of pink frosting!
Happy New Year!
Hey. Remember me? I know, I know. I haven’t written in almost two months?! Whaaaat? Well, see we went on vacation and then I never got back into the swing of things. But, as payment for being so patient with me, here’s a photo dump of said vacation.
Holly & Jolly
We’ve been decking the halls over here at the Overdeep abode. Our Christmas tree went up, and I crammed holiday cheer into every nook and cranny I could find. This is my first time using real greenery in my decor and I have been loving it.
When Kyle and I had our first apartment I was thrilled to finally have my own space to decorate as I saw fit. Our first Christmas in the apartment I went with a winter wonderland theme and did icy blue with sparkly white. Kyle walked in and asked why our apartment was decorated for Hanukkah… It’s something to this day he still brings up, every single Christmas. Since then I’ve stuck to traditional colors, like red, white, green, silvers, golds, etc. Every year my tastes gets a little more defined. I like a very muted holiday palette for my decor. Especially on my tree. We love our long icicles and I adore my pops of glittery gold baubles. I do own my grandmothers Christmas ornaments, but with a toddler on the loose there was no way they were creeping their way into the tree this year.
Perhaps one of my favorite things about the holiday decor is our staircase. I strung up some pine garland and plopped a few big red bows on it, but every time Emmie walks up the stairs she stops and pokes her little face into the rails to smell the pine. Less is definitely more here. And let’s face it smelling the pine certainly beats her trying to eat the raw cranberries that serve as decoration on our table. Yes, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
Leaf it to me!
Over the weekend, Kyle and I bundled up and raked all the leaves in our yard. Since that’s a rather tiny area, it didn’t take too long. The vacant house across from us, however, has a huge yard with, you guessed it, lots and lots of leaves.
On a whim, we decided to rake them all into a massive pile for all the neighborhood kids to play in. Nothing beats playing in the leaves on a chilly fall day. Kids and adults alike all had a blast running, jumping and crunching through our massive pile of leaves. Personally I think one of the very best things about playing outside in the chilly air is finally going inside where the house feels warm & snug. Fuzzy socks and a hot cup of cocoa is the perfect way to end a picturesque fall day.
Fall
I grew up about a mile away from an apple orchard. Don’t let that last sentence fool you… if your mind is anything like mine you just pictured rolling hills and cows getting loose. Nope. I grew up in your basic suburban neighborhood; small to mid-sized ranches, enough of a yard to play but not so much that you couldn’t see directly into your neighbors house once the lights were on. Yes, it was your average middle class neighborhood that just so happened to be down the road from an apple orchard.
Anyway, one of my favorite memories about the fall, and perhaps the truest signal that the glorious days of summer were indeed gone, was the air’s aroma. Come late September when the leaves glowed crimson, the ground turned damp and apples were abundant, the air would smell like cider. It was subtle, mixed alongside the earthy wetness, of dewy grass and crisping leaves… but there were certain undertones of apples and cider. That, to me, is fall.
While the air certainly doesn’t smell like cider here in Baltimore, it surely hasn’t let me down this fall. We’ve packed our days full of festive activities. We’ve run through hay mazes, jumped in a corn box, pet various farm animals, and even spoiled ourselves with some apple cider donuts – we may or may not have eaten half a dozen right after we bought them… just sayin’.
Yes, city life certainly has advantages over a quiet suburban town. In my ideal world I’d have it all; amazing foliage, apple cider in the air, a plethora of fun activities… but still warm enough not to need a coat! (A girl can dream right?) Well, until that day, I think I’ll just have to settle for turning up the heat and eating another donut.
Vacation
The soft lap of the waves, the way the air clings to my skin, humidity amplifying the curls my hair usually suppresses by the burden of length. The feeling of cool tile beneath bare feet. The ease of slipping on a simple dress and feeling put together. I sit here out on the balcony, warm and calm, appreciating the stillness of nap time.
White puffy clouds are rolling in with hints of grey, teasing us with questions of rain. And this. This is inner peace. My life is full, my heart is happy, my soul is calm. This vacation is one of little plans. We plan to enjoy the pool and each other’s company. We plan to eat good food and sip our drinks. We plan to explore wherever or travels take us. We planned to not plan and it has been liberating.
Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
You may have noticed some changes happening around here on the blog! Besides working my hardest to learn some new CSS coding (aye aye aye!) and some bigger, better pictures…. you’ll start to notice some content change as well.
When I first started this blog, it was mainly to keep family updated throughout my pregnancy. Now that that time has come and gone, I’m looking to take the blog in a new direction. I’m slowly going to be adding in more posts that you’d find in a generalized lifestyle blog. Recipes, fashion, and home decor just to name a few. Don’t worry, Emerson will still be making plenty of appearances.
I hope you still follow along, and I thank you for your patience as we work out the kinks of the site.
Hiking Fail
As our weather has gotten cooler, so have our weekends! We pack up our snacks, harness up the pup, and off we go for some outdoor adventures. We’ve been hiking these past few weekends. Perfect hiking weather; cloudy, cool and slightly breezy.
This past trip was somewhat of a doozy. Emmie was content to hang out in the back-pack and commune in her own special way with nature, and Oliver was thrilled to be zipping in and out of bushes. We snacked on Cliff bars, and sipped our waters. We ventured on the off-beaten paths for hours, literally!
Finally exhausted, and way past nap time, we head back towards the car. We let Emerson out so she can hike and stretch her legs, and while we were stopped took a picture or two. I then simply passed her off to her Daddy so I could fiddle with the camera when it happened! My decades of bragging, “I have only ever been stung by a bee once,” ended.
At first I through I accidentally smacked a thorn bush, but as the intense pain started radiating through my hand I realized what had happened.
Me: “I was stung! Something got me! OH MY GOSH I WAS STUNG BY A BEE!”
Hubby: “I see it. It’s a little bee… it’s flying towards me. Oh sh*t it’s on my faaaa—” And then there were a few f bombs as the bee proceeded to sting the hubster on the chin.
Me: “Save the baby! Don’t let her get stung! oh, my god, it hurts so much! Run! Run! Keep Emmie safe!!!”
The shouting and swearing (hubby should’ve been a sailor) continued as our hands and faces throbbed and we sprinted down the rocky trail. And what was our dear, dear daughter doing all this time? Oh, that sly devil was laughing hysterically! I mean, full on roaring. We were quite the sight when we stumbled back onto the main path. We hadn’t realized how close we were when we started all the racket. I mean, I might have been a little bit quieter when I shouted out behind me, “The poop! The poop! GRAB THE POOP!” Because in the mess of it all, the poop bag had been dropped.
We got quite a few looks as we stumbled out cursing, waving our hands filled with poop bags, as our off leash dog padded about and our child, hidden almost completely (good job Daddy!), laughed like a maniac.
I may not be able to brag that I haven’t been stung in two decades, but at least my bee sting came with a good story. That’s all we can hope for in life, good stories. Although, I wouldn’t mind waiting another 2 decades for my next sting, those little buggers hurt!