Harvest Festival & Princesses...

I've been behind on things lately but wanted to share a few pictures from the last week...

Last week, Disney on Ice, "Dare to Dream", lots of skating princesses...

 We were fortunate to go with a couple of other little girl friends and moms, and the girls mostly looked like this the whole time...

 Our second carved pumpkin of the season...

 A winged cat, turned out pretty well we think, and more tasteful than ghosts, tombstones, skeletons or reapers in our case at least...

 H chose a princess costume for today's Halloween get together, same one we went to last year this time, it was a nice time for the little ones...

 Harvest Festival at Mount Vernon over the weekend, hay bale maze...

 H carding wool!

 Would have loved to have spent more time studying this...

 H listening to George W.'s speech...

 Apple roasting, followed by eating...

 Sheep!

 Old fashioned games...

If you give a girl a corn husk doll, chances are she'll ask for (at least) 2 more...

Hiking in fairy dust...

Went to Bull Run Conservancy this afternoon, it was a gorgeous sunny fall day and everything on the trail seemed to be sparkling, the rocks there add a shimmer to the soils as well as the adjacent foliage.

 Sparkly tree trunks...

 H enjoyed finding the pumpkins, they were marking the trail for a "Safari" night hike this weekend and next with non-scary folks in creature costumes informing the kids about local wildlife.

 This would be a lovely and enormous coat rack, if only grandpa could snag it for us...

 An example of the local rocks, and the reason why everything sparkles there...

 Family portrait in shadows...

Lots of birds were out hunting on the cliffs, managed a close shot of this one, which looked much closer in person...

Fires and tie-dye...

Daddy took H to a local Fire Department open house this morning, looked like she had fun...

 A little train ride they did in the parking lot...

 A cooking safety demo...

H at the wheel of the emergency vehicle...

Then afterwards she modeled the shirt and leggings she helped us tie-dye yesterday morning with a few friends...

 Pre-wash...

 Modeling...

Picking berries in the yard after park outing, while Daddy mowed...

Loudon Heritage Farm Museum

Busy week, we had a lot going on each day but Thursday morning's trip to the Loudon Heritage Farm Museum was where we took the most pictures, a fun place to visit and they even gave us a break on admission as a large group was coming in shortly after our arrival.  It was still a lot of fun for the kids, lots of hands on activities, small space but plenty to do for an hour or two for the walkers through preschool I think...

 Milking a cow, water actually sprays out!

 Tending to the chickens and collecting eggs (non-breakable)...

 Riding horses, with a hobby horsie in hand of course...

 Shopping at the general store, they have lots of plastic items to place in your basket, and shopping lists to use to check off your order...

 Puppet show, sheep takes a drink...

 A horse gets a drink too..

 After the large group came in at the museum we dashed over to the Dulles Town Center to catch Rocknocerous there (toddler rock band, songs about hand washing, good manners, etc.)...

 Riding the mall train after attentions spans waned at the concert...

Play time ended at the mall play area, airport themed at Dulles.

Columbus Day Weekend Up North...

Short jaunt up north this weekend to see family, not many pictures snapped but it was a busy weekend and it was good to see folks.  Here are a couple pics we managed...

 The pumpkin patch (Saturday)...

 A friend of grandpa's let H ride up front with him right next to King and Spike (the horses) to the patch and back...

 Hayride stop (Sunday), to see the cows...

 Gleaning the fields for more cow treats...

Grandma and H hug on the hayride...

A feast put on by C's Crew at the Ronald McDonald House of Western Michigan yesterday, the family up north has been doing these in honor of C for a couple of months now and we were fortunate to be up to help out for one, though I ended up burning the rice somehow (thank goodness for fast Chinese take out and helpful volunteers to pick up, dinner was still served on time)...

Clemyjontri...

We've been sick this week but today we were both feeling a bit better so we spent a couple hours at Clemyjontri as H has been requesting the dolphin.  Many more kids out today given the fantastic weather so fewer shots snapped, but here is one I managed:

After that we came home to make breakfast for dinner and H helped me make these with cookie cutters:

Pumpkins...

Today felt like Fall, cool and rainy and a perfect day to do an inside activity, so Daddy and H carved a pumpkin that was gifted to us during our trip to Maine last weekend.  We used the seeds as well, and those warm and toasty spiced seeds along with tomato soup and grilled cheese sammies for dipping made for a tasty cool day dinner reminiscent of our childhood rainy day comfort meals.