Fall fun!

Who doesn't love fall? We have been taking in these gorgeous days in fistfuls with abundant walks, hours spent at the park, and wheeling our stroller through every stretch of this town. Here is some of what we love:

Marin plays "tea set" (tea party) and invites all her friends. She sets a place for each of them, and always matches the plate to the bowl to the spoon exactly. Her guests are always served soup and we almost always sing happy birthday.


Recently, GG gave Marin an antique tea set that Marin calls her "fragile fancy tea set". Marin adores it! You can see that she asks to play with it pretty much first thing in the morning.


At the park Marin climbs and hangs and jumps, squealing with the delight. She loves to steal my glasses and I chase her until I catch her and we crash into the grass with a tickle fight. I usually try to time trips to the park so that they coincide with Emilie's nap, and she sleeps peacefully in her bassinet stroller.


The best part of fall might be leg warmers. Or is it curling up with your sister on the couch?


Sometimes we just sit around and crack each other up!


We take two walks every day at the very least, and stop to find many treasures along the way.


Marin loves to stop and see the fishies and sometimes makes a wish in this pond. (Not sure you're supposed to do that, but one time she saw some pennies in there and asked me why there was money in there, and from then on, we've been throwing wishes on in.)


The three of us have a grand time stopping to pick up leaves, acorns (once we gathered enough to have an acorn party!), flowers and sticks- which Marin uses to conduct a pretend symphony.


Today is Norah's 7th birthday. (That's right; she was born out of wedlock- how very modern of her) We love our Norries and we love a birthday!


Sometimes we have lunch dates with Grandma. These are especially fun, and a great time to snuggle.

A few weeks ago we went to the Sandwich Fair with my parents and grandparents. (Sandwich is the town, its not a fair with only sandwiches.) It's an enormous fair and has as many exhibits as I have memories of going there as a child to see if my grandma won a ribbon for her flowers, or pies. It was especially special that at 91 and 93, my grandparents could go- they have been going for 90 years! But because of its size, we borrowed two wheelchairs and my parents pushed them. We had to take a picture of our two wheelchairs, and double stroller. Quite the site- but so fun to have four generations together at the fair!


A few weeks after the fair, we headed to Champaign for our first football game of the season! It was a night game against ASU (and a victory), so Emilie stayed with Great Aunt Vee and Great Uncle Bob, and the rest of us sat under the lights at that game while Marin cheered, "Go Illini!" and sang the fight song like her blood ran orange and blue. By the time we made it back to Emilie, Marin was fast asleep, gripping her stuffed football and her ticket.

Meet Me At The Fair!

Jason and I took Marin to the State Fair in Springfield this weekend. But first, we stopping in to see Marin's Great Grandpa Hinrichs, Great Aunt Vee and Great Uncle Bob and even caught a moment with Neal and Nicole.

First stop: Jason's Grandpa's. Marin was grateful for Great Grandpa and Daddy's August birthdays, because that meant that one of the first orders of business after we arrived in central Illinois, was cake and ice cream!! Marin wasted no time digging into her share, dribbling some down the front of her dress in the process. Then she ran off her excess energy in the courtyard. Other highlights included a ride on Great Grandpa's fancy walker, becoming reacquainted with his tupperware cabinet, visiting with the neighbors and drinking from Great Grandpa's small cups just her size!

From there we headed to the farm for a sleepover at Great Aunt Vee and Great Uncle Bob's house! We had dinner together, Marin ran and ran and ran in the big yard, ate more cake and ice cream, and watched Marin play with Neal and Natalie's old toys that brought us all back. The next day Marin played the piano, helped Great Aunt Vee make homemade muffins, met their kitties, sat in all kinds of tractors and took a ride with Great Uncle Bob and Daddy on the gator.




We were sad to leave the farm, but excited to meet Jon and Ben at the State Fair. After a quick stop to visit with Neal and Nicole for a minute, we hit the road for Springfield. Once we arrived, we had lots of fun. We saw a cow made out of butter, met a Llama named Queen Bee, oinked like the pigs, pet baby goats and a donkey, milked a cow, caught an up-close look at the Stanley Cup and danced in the beer tents.



The State Fair seems to specialize in all things fried, and as the saying goes; when in rome... We threw Marin's normal mostly organic healthy diet to the wind and decided to act as the romans do. Jon came up with a little adult entertainment of State Fair Bingo where squares named items like "tramp stamp", "NASCAR t-shirt", "mullet", "male with shirt sleeves ripped off", and you ticked them off out loud when you spotted them. We might be going straight to hell, but it sure was funny! I wouldn't have done the Fair any other way.


When we were all thoroughly greasified and had stepped in enough manure to fertilize a football field, we headed to Ben's house. Ben and his girlfriend, Marissa live in Springfield so it was a quick trip. Marin was thrilled that they had a kitten, and a neighbor who was just about her size. She chased him around the back yard for a little while and after a bath, was asleep in about 30 seconds. What a long day!

After Marin was asleep the adults enjoyed a delicious dinner featuring grilled steaks and rice crispy treats for dessert (I almost ate the entire pan). The next morning we had breakfast at a Springfield favorite, Charlie Parker's. Charlie Parker's was features on The Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and is known for the locals favorite "horseshoe" (basically the whole menu on one plate on top of each other) and pancakes as big as a pizza. Delicious.

After yet another feast we drove home with stomach aches from the collective gluttony that we willingly engaged in over the course of the weekend. We invited Grandma and Grandpa over for salads that night.

Another great weekend with friends, family and "moooooo" cows.