Brandywine Falls

On October 18th we headed out to Brandywine Falls to take a hike, see the waterfall and get some fall photos with the beautiful leaves. We went with our friends John, Cinnamon and Millie's buddy Jade. It was a beautiful day out, just a bit chilly, but the colors of the leaves and the waterfall were great. We will definitely have to go back again next year. We found a nice little secluded trail to walk down. The views were terrific.

Camp Y Noah & Maize Valley

On October 11th we spent the day at Camp Y Noah for our church family retreat. We had lots of fun spending time with friends. Millie got to ride a horse named "Junior." She saw some pigs and goats and played lots of soccer. She enjoy kicking the ball into the soccer nets. She sang some songs for Mr. Mark, Ms. Jill, Ms. Dawn and Sean. She really had fun hanging out with her friend Jade. They had a blast talking a long walk and playing with leaves, sticks, etc. After the retreat we all headed over to Maize Valley Farm to take a hay ride, pick pumpkins, watch a pumpkin cannon and more.

Pumpkins through the Years

It is so fun to look at how Millie has grown in the past 3 1/2 years. I have posted pictures of picking pumpkins from every year of Millie's life. The first year she was just learning to stand up. The second year she just wanted to run...run...and run some more. Last year she was interested in the pumpkins a bit more and wanted to touch every single pumpkin. This year she talked non-stop about the sizes of the pumpkins and the number of pumpkins. Actually she didn't stop talking the whole time. She picked up a pretty big one too, that was really funny to watch her try to juggle it. She noticed a rotting pumpkin too and wanted to touch it. It is amazing to see how much she has changed in these pictures, to see how little hair she had that first year.

8 months old.

20 months old.

32 months old.

This past Saturday. 44 months old.

A Budding Artist?

Millie has a love for painting! When she gets a brush in her hand she doesn't want to stop! Last night after dinner I let her paint for 30 minutes. She would have continued for at least another 30 minutes more I'm sure. She always used to love finger painting. But because of the giant mess it would make I did not encourage it too often. For a time should would ask to finger paint two or three times a day. Now she gets to finger paint weekly at school so I know she is getting to do it often. The past few weeks she is always asking to paint with a brush and paints. Gram Crackers got her a book and paints with Mickey Mouse and friends to paint. She used up all the paint in her first 2 times we did it. So I bought her some more crayola paints to continue painting the pictures. She is loving it! I think she has used up 3/4 of the crayola paint now so we will probably be needing more paint again soon. Here are two pictures and a video of her hard at work!

Beckwith's Apple Orchard

Millie's class went to an apple orchard for a tour on Friday. She learned how they pick the apples and sort them. They walked through the orchard and a corn maze. We learned all about the different animals that try to hurt the apple trees and how they try to prevent it. We learned all about the family that runs the orchard and their history and a lots of other things about the apple picking business.

She is Ready for the Cold

Millie got a new hat and mittens for the upcoming cold weather on Thursday. This is the first year that she has not put up a fight to wear them so we thought we would get a few pictures. We thought she looked adorable and just wanted to share a few smiles. Of course everything is pink. We are still in a pink phase. I wonder how long it is going to last?

Pumpkin Festival Time

Yes, it is that time of year again already. The annual trip to the Barnesville Pumpkin Festival. The winning pumpkin was 1,175 pounds! This year we tried something different. We did all of our walking around the festival during the parade. It ended up being a great idea. We didn't have to fight lines of people around every corner and could see twice as many pumpkins in half the time. Millie loved seeing the really large pumpkins. She was impressed. She got to go on a train ride and a mini Ferris wheel too. Lastly there is a video of Millie on the ride home. Becky bought her some Care Bears on Saturday morning. She has played with them all for a week straight now. They all needed to sit on her lap the whole way home last weekend. It was super cute!