Amara's broken toe

I have no idea how I've made it my entire life WITHOUT breaking a bone, but Amara didn't make it to 5 :(

Sunday, she was climbing around on the piano bench, when all of a sudden it slipped out from under her and managed to slam down on her feet.

The it caught her left foot on the bridge of her foot, where it's a little thicker, but it caught the right foot right across her big toe.  Amara is NOT the crying type, so when she was still saying it hurt after 10 minutes, I insisted that E take her to Childeren's (hospital) while I stayed home with Cora.

After a while, they called with the hairline fracture diagnosis, got antibiotics called in, and had her foot taped up.  By the time she got home, she was ready for hugs from grandpa Jahn (who came over to see and wait on her) and an ice cream cone.

The injury didn't slow her down much--after a quick pep talk, she went to Landon's birthday party at World of Bounce--she'd been looking forward to for weeks, and then even to uncle John's bonfire that same day!

She took her medicine all week and this morning asked me to take the tape off, she announced "it's all better!" with a big smile and quickly put her socks and shoes on to finish getting ready.

I say this all the time, but I WISH I had the resilience of my girls, Beanie is amazing.

Cora likes to dip!

Cora is a dipper.  She dips EVERYTHING.  Her fingers in ketchup.  Oranges in her yogurt, ANY sauce that appears on the table, she will want it and she will dip into it. 

One night last week, Cora and I were puttering around on the back porch--Eric had picked up mexican food, and we were letting him set things up.

Cora realized she didn't like the sand table being wet, so we came inside to get warmed up.

She took her taquitos and systematically started looking for dip.  She was already scooping up her rice in handfulls, but then she spotted the queso.  She had seen daddy and I dip chips into it, so she decided to make her move (note chips in the bag next to her).

In one fail swoop, she had taken the chip, dipped it, and with a loud "MMMMMMMMMM" had found her target.  Cora likes chips and queso!

She continued on to dip her chicken in the queso and offered daddy and I more chips as she went along too--we have learned you have to take the bite, whether you want it or not.  I told Eric--remember this, when you want to put hot sauce on everything, that your daughter WILL want some of it ;)

Little Darby Creek with the Stevens'

So our friends invited out to Little Darby Creek maize and we had no idea what we were in for...but as soon as we got there, we could tell it was cool!  The girls ran from event to event for hours!

Cora even got to ride the cow train because some nice lady already in her seat offered to hold her for us--very friendly place ;)

What a super cute family pic of the Stevens clan!   Poor Eric--it happened to be OSU game time and they had it blaring over loud speakers while he had it DVRing at home.  He managed to miss most of it (so he said.)

The corn launcher guns were super cool and they also had a pumpkin launcher that was amazing--that thing looked military for sure.

Lots of animals were on the farm too--peacocks, chickens, turkeys, ducks, and some goats--this little baby goat was shy, but the girls loved him.

The duck water race game was fun too, Amara loved pumping the water back and forth between the 2 troths to Cora.

The bunnies had about had it for the day, but Amara sill managed to get one.  Cora wasn't interested in holding them, but loved patting them solidly.

They also had a big tarp you could jump and bounce out that was super cool--after some of the bigger kids left, the two of them had a blast running back and forth across the whole length of the thing.

We skipped the hayride in favor of playing more, so the girls got to pick out their own small pumpkins to take home.  Cora picked hers out after much consideration--not that there was much to pick from...

...just a few!~  We had an awesome time at LDC and Eric wants to even go back this year!  It is up past Plain City, so it's a drive, but we really all had a super time.

End of summer photos with Susie

Our magical photographer Susie did it again.  She was doing some quick end of summer pics and we jumped on the opportunity to get some of them.  The girls basically played in Gantz park, while Eric chased them around, and we got some great ones.  This hug one just captures their personalitie perfectly.

Amara looks so innocent here--though, I think she was just catching her breath from all the running...

And Cora in mid-run, couldn't be happier.  So, at this moment in time, Amara is 4, Cora is 19 months, and we have been blessed with the sweetest little girls I could have ever imagined.  Love my doll babies!  ...and of course, the amazing Susie Jarvis :)

Grandpa's pumpkin patch

One of the best parts of fall (for me anyway) is going down to lower Caldwells and picking pumpkins from dad's patch.  He had a heck of a time this year keeping turkeys out of there, so I was thrilled to finally get to go.

The girls put on their muck boots and headed right out in it--Cora went for the biggest one!

Amara found a pretty big one too--but the vines were really fighting her this year!

Cora found some tiny pumpkins too--and of course tried to manhandle them off of the fine by herself--leave it to daddy to save the day.

They went out on their own exploring pretty well.  Cora would just walk up the road all on the own if we'd let her.  Several people have taken to calling her our little 'free spirit.'

They had quite the bounty after just a few minutes but didn't want to go. We promised we'd come back--but it was quite muddy after a little rain, so I think we'll be good for this year.  Eric loaded up the car and we headed home to unload and enojoy our finds ;)

Grandparents day brunch (and Primrose)

As we've done now 3 years in a row (I think) we hosted a grandparents day brunch with all the girls grandparents.  We look forward to having some one on one time with them, not about any holiday, but just to appreciate them! 

Eric made his famous quiche and Amara and I whipped up our apple pie bars to get started.

For the Jahns, we made them a photobook of the girls, and for the Youngs, we made them custom embroidered shirts.

After eating and presents, it was time to play.  A cold snap kept us inside, but the girls loved staying in their PJs all morning and showing off for the grandparents.  She even hooked up our phones to the TV, so she could share some of her favorite YouTube video clips and really impressed them!

Thanks grandparents for all you do! We are so very lucky to have all of you in our lives.

(ADDED) I also wanted to mention that Primrose celebrated Grandparents day also and invited them in for snacks!  Amara was thrilled to have 3 of hers there at her school and I heard that they all enjoyed themselves.

Picking apples at Lynd's

We had our hands full at Lynd's this year, literally!  We headed to get some golden delicious and Melrose apples on a brisk morning and had a blast.

Cora was snatching up every apple that was within her range--I could hear her grunting and then the snap of the apple off of the tree and the branch recoiling back ;)

These girls love apples, and as Lynd's always tells us to sample them--they didn't hesitate. The apples were so good and fresh and sightly chilly, we couldn't stop ourselves!

Amara liked getting the apples from the top!

But the girls chased just as many apples from the bottoms.  It seems every time they'd pull one apple off, 3 more would fall to the ground.

Lynd's is just perfect for them because they can really do it all their own.  We just love all the owners and family who work there too.

A quick stop by the tent rounded out our trip. We got the girls shirts, some snacks and got on our way home.  I love how in this picture, you can see that the bottoms of Cora's pant les are wet from picking in the grass.  Check off another great trip to Lynd's!