Toddler Tales Week 16: Holla Atcha

Being a "new family" Eric and I have talked a lot over the past couple of years about the traditions that were important to us growing up and the traditions that we want to be a part of our family.  As I've shared in the past, this new phase of our life together allows us to study the special moments throughout the year, picking and choosing those that we would like to continue.  Being a Midwesterner also allows us to do something that many others in this country cannot.  We have the advantage to fully experience and enjoy all four seasons.  While I will admit that I am not a huge fan of the cold months of the year and Fall has always bummed me out a little because it means that Winter is just around the corner, there are many advantages to the season.  Fall brings the opportunity to snuggle up with oversized sweaters and sweatshirts and large multi-layered fleece blankets (thanks Erika!).  It also has the beauty of the autumn colors, which brings the opportunities for leaf-jumping and Fall color watching.  The crisp air makes it a perfect time to start grilling less and bring out the pots for simmering soups, stews and chili on the stove.  There are apples galore, providing pies, turnovers, hot cups of cider and of course apple sauce to hoard for the rest of the year (my personal favorite!)....AND of course there is always football.

Anyway...as I said Eric and I have the opportunity to pick and choose the things that we would like to become our family traditions.  For the Fall there are already things that we like to do that we will continue, like carving pumpkins, playing in the leaves and exploring the sites at Jerry Smith's Pumpkin Farm.  There are other new things that we will start (or have started) with Asher, like costumes and trick-or-treating.  One local place that I suggested to Eric that we should check out now that we have a child is Apple Holler.  This is an apple orchard between Kenosha and Racine that is pretty much always packed during the weeks of Fall.  We had no idea what you could do there (other than picking apples of course, which we didn't want to do because my mom was going to bring us free apples this weekend), but thought that we would check it out.  Since, we didn't want to deal with the crowds of people we've seen going there in the past, we decided to go on my day off.  Thus, this Wednesday Eric took off work early and once Asher was awake from his nap, we headed in that direction.  It was a cool day (in the low 50's) and unfortunately started to rain just before we got there.  It wasn't raining hard enough to prevent us from going, but it was enough to make the cold feel even colder.

On a positive note, since it was cold and wet there was almost no one there, and it was nice to be able to look at things at our slow (toddler-led) pace.  On a negative note, it was cold and wet and a farm, which meant DIRTY!  As a germ-a-phobe mom, I was not impressed.  It probably would have been better had Asher been about a year or more older, but walking around outside in the mud, playing on wet hay bales, petting stinky animals and doing my very best to keep things out of Asher's mouth (like the rotting apples on the ground that he desperately wanted to eat), including his germ-ridden hands was not as fun as I'd hoped.  I tried my best to have fun, but all I really wanted to do was go home and sterilize my family.  We spent about an hour to hour and a half there and then were ready to head out.  I can't say that we have started a new family tradition, as I'm not sure I care to go back, but I was happy to have some quality time with my favorite boys.

Before we left, I had promised Asher (who was pointing at the bakery goods when we purchased our tickets to go in) earlier that we would share an Apple Cider Donut when we were done.  We bought our donut and gotten buckled up in the van to go enjoy a family dinner together.  Then I sat in the back with Asher as Eric drove and we shared our donut.  It was the highlight of the outing for both of us.  When I gave Asher his first piece he quietly moved it around in his mouth for a few seconds and then got a gigantic smile!  :)  That smile (& the delicious donut) made the trip totally worth while!

Eric & Asher checking out the goats.  Asher was very curious about them, but wasn't interested in letting them get too close.

Asher & I in the corn maze.  We started out by letting Asher pick where we should go.  When he started just wanting to play with all the corn, Eric and I started to make the decisions, but we couldn't find our way and eventually just gave up and went back the way we came.

Eric and I tried to get Asher to climb through this tunnel, but he wasn't having it. 

As soon as Asher saw this, he immediately pointed and said, "Doo Doo" (aka Choo Choo)! :)

Eric & Asher feeding the bunnies grass.

Asher licking his fingers after eating our donut!

Dinner at Georgie Porgie's...who wouldn't want to eat in a treefort?!

Other fun moments from our week:

Video: Asher Playing in the Leaves

Eric measured an old medical office building this week and came home with a stethoscope.  After sterilizing it with the dishwasher & bleach, we tested it out.  If you're curious, Emma's heart rate does go up when you say "squirrel!"

Asher having an "Urkle Moment" thanks to Daddy...if you're not an 80's child like us, you might not get it!  ;)