The Recycle Can

I was going to wait until Halloween to post these pics, but I couldn't do it. So for Halloween this year Alec INSISTED that he dress up as a recycle can. Matt and I tried to sway him a bit, suggesting that maybe he be the recycle truck driver or a trash man, but he would have none of it. So - here he is all dressed up as a recycle can. I was thrilled to find a small recycle can that matches the big ones we use at Home Depot for $6, so we cut off the bottom, added some suspenders, and voila. We also added an "I love garbage trucks" hat to the ensemble and our best attempt at a trash vest, I looked everywhere and couldn't find one. On Friday night the community center down the street had a Halloween party, so Alec got to unveil his costume. Here he is posing with his pumpkins and the bat cave we have set up on our fireplace. We worked on his new "cheese" face all day and we are pretty happy with the results.

A part of the Halloween party was a costume contest and we thought Alec looked so cute we figured what the heck.

Wearing his number and lining up for the judges

Waiting for the results, sitting in the can proved to be a little tough

And what do you know - Alec won a trophy!! There were probably over 100 kids in the contest, so we were super surprised that Alec won one of about 8 awards. He got an honorable mention trophy along with the honor of going up on stage with the other winners. The judges all loved that his saying this year is "trick or trash." As you can see, he was a little shocked by the whole thing, but now he LOVES the trophy.

With the other winners

After the contest we went outside to see all the trucks that were there for the kiddos to test drive. The trash truck was of course Alec's favorite, and the people in charge of it were so impressed with his costume that they gave Alec an official Veoila trash vest (looks like I didn't need to buy one after all.) What's especially funny is that Alec now wants to wear the trash vest whenever he plays with the trash cans in the back year, which is pretty much daily.

In heaven

Sporting his new vest and trophy

Of course we finished up the night with the trick or treat street, which Alec loved. He certainly understands the whole concept of getting candy for Halloween this year and was very happy with all his loot.

Posing with his buddy Sam, the ghost

All in all, a great night. Looks like Alec's recycle can wasn't such a bad idea after all.

Halloween Prep

We have had fun getting ready for Halloween this year - since we grew our own pumpkins we decided not to do the pumpkin patch, but we did head over to the little zoo by our house for some pumpkin photo opps.

Working on the new "cheese" face

We also decided to bake Halloween cookies - and had a little misstep with the mixer

Alec LOVED frosting the cookies, and probably sat with me at the table for an hour and half helping.

Evidence of some hard work

Fall Biking

The weather here has continued to be terrific and with all the trees now changing color, the fall is pretty spectacular. I never thought I would say that IL could compare with CO, but I have to say that the fall definitely gives it a run for its money. We decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather on Sat and headed over to a forest preserve a few miles from the house with Alec and his strider and Brody. Alec rides his strider like a professional these days, he can balance for minutes at a time while turning around corners and everything. It really is cool to watch and we are super excited to get him on a big boy bike next summer. We had a great time riding, walking and collecting leaves, a new fave activity for Alec. I think Alec ended up riding for over 3 miles, and he never complained once. Only downfall to the afternoon was Matt deciding to take Brody off his leash near the lake - the dirty westie immediately jumped in the water, then got stuck and had to be pulled out by his neck, and then rolled in enough leaves and mud to turn himself completely black. He provided great comic relief for everyone who passed us on the trail and then had to get an hour bath when we got home and an appt at the groomers for a shave b/c we can't even come close to getting him clean. Alec found the whole thing hilarious; he loved chasing Brody around in the dirt and then telling us over and over about how "filthy" he was.

Alec's new cheese face, it's terrible, but we can't get him to stop. I guess we may have to limit posed photos for awhile.

Brody stuck in the lake

what used to be a white dog

laughing at and chasing Brody

and one shot of the boys with their new hair-cuts. They went all by themselves, a big step for me, but they both came back looking good.

Fall in the Midwest

We have been thoroughly enjoying our first fall in the Midwest. August here was miserable, with all the heat, humidity and bugs, but the minute we hit September everything changed. The temps have been in the 70's for the last month, there is a wonderful cool night breeze every night about 6 o'clock and all of the trees are starting to change color, which makes everything look just beautiful. Neither Matt or I have ever been to an apple orchard before and there are a ton around here, so we decided to head out to one with Alec on Sat for a fun fall activity. The orchard was only about a 25 minute drive from our house (straight east) and we all LOVED it. We took a tractor ride out to the orchards and were then set free to pick and eat as many apples as we could. The trees had hundreds of apples, so we had no trouble filling our bags and the three of us looked a lot like kids in a candy shop the minute we sampled our first apple. They were absolutely incredible and it seemed like every new one we tasted we liked more than the last. I think we consumed about 6 apples before even leaving the orchard. Then on the way out we stopped in the shop that makes their own apple cider and apple cider donuts, which were to die for. We might have also left with some homemade peanut butter and some fudge. All in all, it was a fabulous trip and we will certainly visit this orchard again. And....we have a kitchen full of apples to enjoy for the next few weeks. Since Sat we have had apple cobbler and some apple parsnip soup - we'll see what else we come up with.

Outside the orchard

Waiting for the tractor

Apple picking paradise

Some joint sampling

In the shop on our way out...

And....Matt decided that he was going to grow pumpkins in our yard this year for Alec and they turned out really nice. We ended up with three good sized pumpkins that are all in great shape. Alec loved watching them grow and change color and was super excited to cut them and bring them in to the house this weekend. He has already assigned a pumpkin to himself, Matt and I and he assures us that he will share his with Brody.

The finished products