I {Heart} Pumpkins

First off, thanks to Licia and Nana for the wonderful comments. I love hearing back from you guys so I know who's reading our ponderings. So thank you guys for taking the time to post. I love reading those little tidbits!

Now onto the business...

Anyone who knows me knows that I love fall and LOVE Halloween. So then you also know my love of pumpkins. On Saturday, we had the 2nd Annual Rogers Hall-O-Weenie Roast. Aside from eating, one of the big activities we do every year is pumpkin carving. I just love having lots of beautiful pumpkins and we always get tons of comments on them. This year, we carved 5 pumpkins and they are super cute. New to our pumpkin family this year are two white pumpkins and I just love the way they look. So without further delay, here are some pictures of the Pumpkin Carving section of the Rogers' Hall-O-Weenie Roast.

As you can see, Ava is kind of partial to the white ones as well.

"Here Mommy, I brought you this stem."

Ava with her giant coloring book and toddler crayons. She successfully ate 2 of the 3!

She did eventually get her head stuck and Grammy had to pull it out.

Joe carving the ole pumpkin.
The first picture of booger picking.
Talking to Gramps.
Exploring with Grammy.

My Dumbo pumpkin

Peyton and Joe
A pumpkin artist at work.

Ava is mesmerized by badminton rackets.

Anne and Joe carving away
The grand prize winner - My Dad and the skeleton pumpkin
My mom
Ava is helping out. That's my girl loving the pumpkins!
I swear, it took Bradley forever to cut into his pumpkin and he broke several little saws trying to get into it. The rind was super thick!

My mom and her rose from Beauty and the Beast
Anne with Donald Duck
Peyton with the castle that she and Bethany carved.
Two cuties

I will post more pictures probably on Thursday, so stay tuned.

DCHS Fall Fest

I have lots of catching up to do, so be looking for posts over the next couple of days to catch up on the happenings at the Rogers' House.

Last Thursday was DCHS's Annual Fall Fest. We were excited to take Ava to her first Fall Festival. Last year she was just too little so we skipped. This year, Ava was still too little to really enjoy it, but we had a pretty good time. Each club sponsors a booth and charges a different number of tickets to play or purchase items. Tickets are 25 cents each and we bought Ava $5 worth. It is very overwhelming when you go in because it is so crowded. Tons of the high schoolers show up and it tends to really put a damper on things for the kids. They just come to hang out and run wild for a couple of hours and makes it hard for the little ones to enjoy things. But anyway, that's just my opinion.

Ava started off at the booth where you paint a pumpkin. I wrote her name on it and she put a couple of stickers on it (which she later tried to eat). We did the duck pond next and Ava kept picking up ducks, sticking them in her mouth, and putting them back. Gross. She ended up winning a little orange bead necklace (which she later cried about when we took it off). She did the bean bag toss with Ms. Ann (one of the special ed assistants) and she really enjoyed that. She had a good time people watching and seeing all the other kids. She didn't cry at any of the costumes, though I am not sure if she even noticed. After that, I put a bid in at the silent auction, Ava and I got our picture made, and then we headed home.

So, it was pretty uneventful. Next year, I hope we can make it to one of the elementary school's Fall Fests because I think that would be more of our speed.

I am super busy downloading pictures from this weekend because I took almost 200. Check back tomorrow for pictures from our 2nd Annual Hall-o-Weenie Roast.

Here are some pics from Saturday morning. The ladybug costume is one my mom picked up on sale at Wal-Mart years ago. Ladybugs were my sorority's mascot and she picked this up for me. It has hung in a closet for about 8 years so I decided to put it on Ava. It is a 0 - 12 month size and it was so small on Ava. She laughed when she saw the head and enjoyed it until she tried to bend over and the crotch was so tight she would fall on her head. That is when the fun wore off and we had to really work to get this thing off of her!

Hello Kitty

Hello Kitty just never goes out of style. She is just as big now as she was when I was in grade school. When I went to a consignment sale this weekend, I found this hat. It doesn't really have a size, but the note attached to it said it would fit a 5 or a 7 year old. I paid my $1 for it and figured I could put it up for Ava and she could wear it later since I am sure Hello Kitty will still be in style.

When I was going through her stuff, she spotted the hat and was dying for me to put it on her. Of course, it fits even a 1 year old and how dang cute is she in it!

Just been busy...

Sorry it has been so long. We have been very busy and just haven't had time or really anything to post about. I haven't taken very many pictures lately, but I am gearing up for this weekend and our Hall-o-weenie Roast. We also have our Fall Festival this week at the high school so I am sure I will take lots of pics at that. Ava was too little to go last year, but I am looking forward to this year.

Anyway, as promised here are some pics of Ava after eating like a big girl.

And here's Ava's Mommy Has The Camera Out Smile

Doing Big Girl Things

Golly, Ava is just getting too big for her little britches and boy does she want to be the center of attention. Tonight as we were watching Pushing Daisies (one of my new favorite shows), Bradley said, "What is it between the hours of 7 and 8 that makes Ava so annoying?" She's just an attention hound and wants us to keep our eyes glued to her. It is funny, but exhausting and annoying at times. She is just such an attention hound.

Yesterday I came home from school and this is what greeted me when I walked in. Talk about big girl! She is climbing on everything and just a monkey.

Before I left for school yesterday morning I kissed Ava and Said, "I love you," and without taking her eyes off Dora, she said, "Wuv Ew." My cup runneth over. Such a sweet thing to hear. She's throwing kisses, pestering the dog, and just changing constantly. That is the only thing that is constant is the change. She also knows that shoes go on the feet and is constantly trying to put her foot in any shoe that she finds and she is very unsuccessful. The other night she got ahold of her boots and cried until I put them on. They didn't stay on, but she wore them for a little while.

On Saturday we did our first successful coloring and held off on eating a crayon until the very end. Poor yellow, he didn't fare very well. Speaking of yellow and colors, on Noggin instead of commercials they run these little education segments that feature Moose and Zee (a bird). They have one that involves a pattern of blue and yellow buses. They run it several times a day and the other day when Moose asked what came next, Ava said "boo" and it was time for a blue bus. She does it every time it comes on. Now I know she is just repeating what she has heard a zillion times, but man my baby is a genius!

Bradley made the comment tonight that he is ready for Ava to get to the stage where she is just so tired she lays down in the floor and goes to sleep. I said, "Honey she did that on Sunday."


Anyway, as you can see our Little Ava is growing like a weed. Have a great rest of the week and if I get a chance I will post some eating pics tomorrow!

Pumpkin Patch Movie

Just a short movie of Ava and JonThomas at the Pumpkin Patch.

Back to Work/Pumpkin Patch

Back to the grind today and boy did I miss my little girl. I have been so spoiled having these last two weeks with her! I just missed her terribly today. I have had a hard time making final selections of Kori's pictures, but it has to be done. Bradley is dropping off the order tomorrow morning and I can't wait to get them back now.

Last night we went over to our friends' house, Stacy and Jonathan, and Ava's friend JonThomas. They had a chili supper and man did Ava wear herself out. She ran circles around that house and had the biggest time showing out for her new audience. She was just so cute. While we were there she said, "Ball, and "Tank Who" (Thank You) and it was so stinking cute. She will bring you something and then say Tank Who. Adorable!

Anyway, not a lot of plans this week. Just laying low and starting to prepare for our Annual Halloweenie Roast which is less than 2 weeks away. Lots of preparations to make and stuff to plan. Looking forward to a great time and I've got to get Ava's costume finished!

Here are the rest of the Pumpkin Patch pictures that I have played with in Photoshop.

I just cropped this one in closer.

This is a collage I made for a scrapbook page I am working on. I love the dreamy tints.