Celebrating baby Penny

My brother and his wife Lauren are happily expecting my first niece, Penelope Louise or Penny Lou, in mid-December. The girls and I attended her baby shower hosted by Lauren's mom and other sis-in-law, Ilene this weekend in Agua Dulce. The shower, just like Penny's room, was red white and blue themed. Avery had a great time playing with Ilene's twins Olivia and Emma, and just generally loving all the attention she was getting from the ladies. She "helped" Auntie Lauren open some gifts and dispose of the tissue paper (which, as Lauren recognized, drove me crazy since I love to save tissue paper like the true psycho that I am, haha!) Avery even won a prize in the onesie decorating contest for "most Picasso-ish" (I neglected to get a picture of it, but you can just imagine)!

While we were there, Corey, Alex, my dad and some of Corey's buddies had a "Diapers and Beer" shower at Corey and Lauren's new townhome, which consisted pretty much of lots of beer drinking, football watching and eating of the yummy food Lauren made for them that morning.

Corey and Lauren are going to make the most amazing parents and got a little practice in playing with Avery and Harper for two days. We always love visiting with them and we CANNOT WAIT to meet baby Penny when she arrives in 2 short months!!
As always, enjoy the photos.

 

 

 

We also enjoyed spending a few hours with my BFF and her family, Courtney Coleman. She made a delish dinner for us as well as the kiddos. The girls are having more fun playing together the older they get, it is so cute to see. At the end of the night we put them in their pj's and put on a movie so we could drink wine talk. Had a great time and the visit was not long enough, as always! xoxo

 

Sweet Ressie girl was already in bed, so we missed her in this pic.

 

Pumpkin Patch

We went to Bates Nut Farm out in Valley Center this weekend to get the requisite "adorable kids unnaturally posed in a field of pumpkins" shots for the season (along with seemingly everyone on my Facebook feed!)
Bates is a really neat place with fields of pumpkins actually growing in the ground and TONS of great photo ops with wheelbarrows, cornstalks, hay bales and of course, pumpkins (but no nuts?? Hmm...) They also have lots of activities for kids such as pony rides, inflatables, face painting, hay rides, a hay bale maze and a petting corral.
Last year, I was newly pregnant with Harper and I remember not feeling that great and it being super hot but Avery enjoyed climbing all around the pumpkins and we let her ride the pony.

 

This year, we met up with our pals the Filipovitchs. Their little boy Connor is Avery's BFF (along with Aubrie, who was there for a little bit) and Megan and I feel like we have been friends for years though it has only been a year since we have known them. We had a great time posing the kids and taking a hay ride and letting the kids jump in the bounce house. It was not nearly as hot this year though just as crowded.

 

 

 

Every year these traditions get more fun as Avery grows, and next year we look forward to chasing 2 kids running around the fields of pumpkins.

Fall??

I am not sure when the next season will decide to grace us with its presence, but that didn't stop us from taking a few pics of the girls in a fall-ish setting! Amongst pumpkins and hay bales, we pretended we weren't sweating profusely and dying to head to the beach, as we set up our babes for a little photo shoot.
These were taken at Armstrongs Garden Center by the outlets so it isn't really a pumpkin patch. We do plan to head to Bates Nut Farm again as we did last year with Avery, when I was newly pregnant with Harper. Now, Avery is old enough to enjoy the bounce house and might even get to push her sister in a wheel barrow (yipee! Do I smell an adorable photo op?!)
While you enjoy these fall-ish pics of our cuties...I am off to find matching fall outfits for the real pumpkin patch excursion yet to come (don't tell Alex, heehee!)