This Fall

Apple picking, pumpkin picking and Halloween are all reasons why I LOVE Fall time in the US... not to mention I may have celebrated a birthday in between it all and got dragged into my upper 20's.

As soon as the air gets crisp and the leaves start to change, all I want to do is drive upstate. We celebrated my birthday by going apple picking (perhaps a sign of old age?) and proceeded to get rained poured on. Needless to say it was not the exact vision of fruit picking perfection I had imagined especially since Zoey spent most of the time wrapped up in her car seat and then proceeded to catch a cold. BUT we did have a lot of fun and came home with a bountiful harvest which I later turned into baby food.

Next up on the Fall to-do list was of course, pumpkin picking. Zoey put on her pumpkin hat made beautifully by my blogger friend Amber (she just opened an Etsy shop) and off we went in search of the perfect pumpkin. This was not only Zoey's first time picking out a pumpkin, but mine too! We ended up spending a good amount of time travelling from patch to patch to find the perfect pumpkin to represent each member of our family while sipping on pumpkin lattes and warm apple cider.

Of course, we then had to carve up our prised pumpkins. We spent an entire night scooping guts, carving flesh and roasting seeds before finally lighting up our beauties and setting them outside our front door.

Before we knew it, it was Halloween weekend. Mike and I enjoyed our first baby-free night out in a very long time and headed over to his work colleague's costume party as Red Riding Hood and The Big Bad Werewolf. As a South African who never got to have an authentic "American" Halloween growing up, I get VERY excited this time of year. We realised that this year was the first time we have ever dressed up as a couple or even celebrated Halloween together (last year I was pregnant during a Halloween snowstorm and we can't even remember what we were doing the year before that-fail!)

As for Zoey's first Halloween... sadly it was a little bit of a failure. I had been planning her chicken costume for so long but had barely begun working on it (I was determined to hand make ALL of our costumes this year) before the storm hit. Luckily, I stumbled upon a rouge chicken cap that had lost the rest of it's outfit at the store so I scooped that up as a backup plan. Zoey had also caught a cold, which made her miserable and I decided that taking her to the children's parade on a very windy day (1 day before Hurricane Sandy) would not be the smartest parenting decision. On Halloween day I dressed her up barely long enough for the above pictures to be taken. A tantrum then ensued.

How did you celebrate the Fall?

What did you/your little one wear this Halloween?