happy halloween!

i'm looking forward to celebrating halloween with noah today!  he has a fun little halloween party at school today and then after school we will come home and hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters!

have a very happy halloween!

love, laurie 

noah runs the "big shows"

lots of time at the "big show" for noah since mom and dad have had a lot going on in the theatres recently.

love, laurie

a moment of calm

this kid is always running around like a nutcase.  i was elated to get him to play calmly for a moment with his magic water book.  a small victory.

love, laurie

mr. noah

waiting at mom's big show for the grandmas to arrive for playtime.  1990s toy phone in hand.  oh, noah!

love, laurie

morning shenanigans

some mornings he's happy, some mornings he's cranky.  the other day he woke up full of vim and vigor.  what a character!

love, laurie

mama + noah time!

noah and i had a good time together picking apples on sunday morning.  after we loaded up our bag with apples we had a good time playing together at lakeland!

love, laurie

more apple picking!

after picking a bunch of honeycrisp apples with dada and grandma on saturday, noah and i headed back to lakeland on sunday morning.  dada was working a concert, so it was just the two of us.  we had some more apple picking passes to use up so we went and picked some rosalee apples.

since i was alone, i got one of the red wagons to help me haul both noah and the apples.  he was just too stinkin' cute in that wagon.  the rosalee apples were much lower on the trees, so we were able to pick them without needing to use the big stick.  noah was a great help and we came home with a bunch of apples!

love, laurie

october apple picking with grandma!

the last time we picked apples at lakeland was labor day weekend.  we wanted to be sure to pick some more before the season ended and lakeland closed, so we headed up to lakeland on saturday morning with grandma to pick some apples.

noah enjoyed picking the honeycrisp apples and he liked the big stick we had to use since they were so high up on the trees!

love, laurie

back at roba's

we were happy to be able to visit roba family farms again on wednesday after school/work since we have been so busy and haven't been able to go in a couple of weeks.

there were some new things for us to check out and we had a good time, despite the fact that we were soooooo cold!

love, laurie

preschool snapshots

a few recent snapshots from preschool . . . snack time, pretending to be a firefighter putting out a fire, noah's construction paper candy corn collage, and circle time.

love, laurie

happy 45th wedding anniversary, mom and dad!

this has always been one of my favorite pictures of my mom and dad (taken back in 1979, one year before they were married).  

today is their 45th wedding anniversary!  i'm blessed to have two amazing parents who are such wonderful role models, and i'm so grateful that noah has them as such incredible grandparents!

happy anniversary, mom and dad!

love, laurie

some recent preschool snapshots

playing outside on the playground, dressing up in a safety vest for construction-themed week, and gluing pumpkin seeds onto paper pumpkins . . . i'm always grateful to get photos from preschool to see what mr. noah is up to each day!

love, laurie

missing lakeland and robas

we have been sooooo busy with shows in the theatres lately that we haven't been to lakeland or robas in a bit and we're all missing it.  fingers crossed that we will be able to go again soon to ride the bee ride and the cow ride, visit our tractors, and give those halloween skeletons more rides on the kubotas.

love, laurie

hard worker

this guy is such a hard worker.  he is strong too!  he makes picking up that leaf blower and clearing the yard look easy.

love, laurie

leko and baby leko

we have had this stuffed orange cat since we started dating in 2004 and i can't believe this thing is over 20 years old now.  we bought it in nyc and we've loved it ever since.  it was ironic that 6 years after buying it we adopted leko who looks just like it.  

noah lovingly calls it "baby leko" since it looks just like leko.  it usually hangs out in our bedroom and recently i was able to snap a picture of the rare occasion when leko was co-existing with it.

love, laurie

school pictures

noah had his first-ever school photos.  we weren't too sure if he was going to cooperate for the teachers to get his picture taken so we didn't put any pressure on him.  we dressed him in a cute but comfortable cardigan, snapped a few cute pictures before we left the house for school, and hoped for the best.

we were pleasantly surprised to find out he cooperated for the photos and they turned out cute . . .

love, laurie

fall play

it has been a very warm fall here in our area and we're not complaining one bit about it.  noah is loving the "second summer" weather to play outside!

love, laurie

big help

noah was a big help as we prepared for "the cherry orchard" play. he helped me sew costumes, he tried on this hat, he supervised, he entertained the cast/crew . . . he did it all.

love, laurie

my grocery store helper/negotiator

noah helps me grocery shop.  he especially likes stores that have drivable shoping carts like wegman's.

wegman's carries a brand of organic peanut butter flavored cereal that noah loves for a special treat for snacking.  when he discovered that there were other flavors in the aisle we were not going to be leaving the store without the chocolate one.  he held on tight to that box all through the store and the entire way home.

love, laurie