Fabulous Fall Fun

Another great fall weekend.  For the last few weekends I have tried to get outside and enjoy every bit of the beautiful weather, worried that this weekend would be the last nice one of the year.  Thankfully, every weekend for the last month has proved me wrong!
Friday I picked up Ava from daycare and we headed over for our first Loose Park outing.  Beautiful!  It was simply gorgeous.  And even better - there were still some roses in the rose garden!  It smelled just wonderful.

Ducks!!

First stop, the pond and the ducks.  Of course Ava loved the ducks, and boy were they friendly!  I probably should have kept her in her stroller - the second I took her out she ran straight to the pond.  This child has no fear, and I chased after her for the next hour to make sure she did not jump right in the water.  I think she was ready to swim with the ducks, too.

Please forgive the less-than-cute outfit: of course, she got very messy eating macaroni with meat sauce at school that day.  I used to remember to bring a cute outfit if we were going somewhere afterwards...this time I forgot.  Oh well, at least everyone knows that she loves her daddy.... :)

 She ran back and forth across the bridge, stopping to check out the ducks swimming around in the pond.

 Next stop, the park.  Swings, slides, and lots of room to run. 

Next we were off to eat dinner at Chik-fil-a.  I LOVE that place - the perfect place to eat with a little one.  They are so friendly no matter which location we are at - they bring our food to us and even bring us a highchair.  Ava ate 2 chicken strips by herself and split the large fruit cup with me.  (I think we might be hitting another growth spurt.)  And even better, there is room to run and play when dinner is over!
Ava and I then spent some time picking out baby gifts for the multiple baby showers coming up.  They had little shopping carts for the kids, and Ava ran all over the store, pushing the cart and filling her basket.  So cute, and I can't believe that I didn't get a picture of it!  Darn!
Since we were in the neighborhood, we decided to surprise daddy at his football game.  Ava's little eyes lit up watching the band march and play, and the cheerleaders perform.  In fact, she couldn't keep her eyes off of those girls!  She clapped her hands right along with them, squealing with delight. 

Ready to head home from the game after a very long (and fun!) evening.

Whew, we packed it all into our Friday night....and Saturday we woke up and we were ready to go again!  The KC Pumpkin patch was calling our name.  The weather was perfect, and Ava was rested and ready to go.  We spent almost three hours there enjoying all it had to offer.  Hope you enjoy the pictures and feel like you were there, too!

After walking around for awhile and checking out all the fun activities, we headed over to the barn with the fun things for the smaller kids.  Once she found the white slide, we barely left the barn.  She was LOVED it!!

The corn box...

The super fun and exciting slide.

It was so much fun, let's do it again!

Jumping up after sliding down....

...and climbing back up....

....and ready to slide down it again!  And repeat!

Swinging

Found a sweet girl that wanted to go down the slide over, and over again.

The fun wooden train.

Playing on the playground equipment.

Going down yet another slide.

Petting zoo....she has her mama in her - fun to look but not to touch!

Off to check out the pumpkins.  She found four small ones that she didn't want to let go.  She finally decided on one before we left....

4 perfect little pumpkins...how will I ever decide?

I will take one of each, please...

...or this big one!

We spent the rest of our Saturday with dad.....

And today, Sunday, our day started out bright and early.  We had blueberry pancakes (an Ava fave) and eggs before heading to church.  After taking a two-and-a-half hour nap (!!!!!!), we headed to the Steffens house to celebrate the new Whetstine baby that should be here in about six weeks!  Another beautiful night, and wonderful friends to celebrate, too.  Ava wore her Halloween costume (sneak peek) - but I'm sad to say I forgot about pictures when it was time to eat dinner and then chase Ava all over the back yard! 

Beautiful, beautiful fall day at the Steffen home....