Fall Fun

Its hard to believe that July was the last chance I had to sit down and blog about life in the Mentor Pavicic household...then again, maybe it is not so difficult to believe since I do have a very independent, yet attention-seeking, cute little two year old (+) man that I spend all of my free time with.  And when I say free time, well, there's not a lot of that either between work, taking a class, trying to maintain a household and taking care of Baby Pavicic #2 who's nesting in my belly!

Speaking of "nesting", maybe my mother of two+ (or expecting #2) friends can sympathize with me about my recent obsession with getting things done and making sure to spend EVERY FREE MOMENT doing something extra special with Tommy.  I've been hard at work making sure we enjoy our last fall season as a family of three.  Looking for simple things to do with your infant or toddler this fall?  Here are some of the simple, yet awesome things that we have done together.

(1)  Visit a Pumpkin Patch, Yearly - My hubby and his family used to go to Sage's Apple Farm each fall for pumpkins and apples when he was a kid.  So, keeping his tradition alive, we decided that our family will visit this same place each year.  We pick out pumpkins, take lots of pictures and sample apples.  We always come home with cider, apples and pumpkins!

(2)  Make "Spooky" Decorations & Surprise Your Child - While Tommy was down for a nap one day, I cut  out several spiders and bats and hung them in our kitchen window.  I told him to see if he could find the "spooky" decorations when he came downstairs.  He was so excited to look for them...and when we found them, we counted how many spiders and bats there were.  He looks for them every day!

(3)  Cook a Special Treat - This Fall we made special pumpkin shaped pancakes - well, attempted it...I now know I need to spray the cookie cutter with Pam before using it for pancakes - and cut out ghost, pumpkin and bat sugar cookies.  For a special touch, we added M&Ms to the cookies as eyes.  He loved this.

(4)  Decorate the Outside of Your House...and Use the Decorations for Great Snapshots! - Paul was so kind as to buy me outside decorations for fall for Sweetest Day.  Tommy helped us organize the flowers and pumpkins...and later, when he had his costume on, we let him climb up and arrange himself and we snapped a few pictures.

(5)  Prepare Your Child for "Trick or Treat" - Tommy is fairly convincing, so I wasn't surprised when he coaxed his Aunt Mary Pat to join us at the mall for "Trick or Treat."  This was a great opportunity to practice what to say to get candy, how to get it and put it in your bag and what to say after...and of course, to visit with Aunt MP and our friends, Kelly & Timmy.

(6)  Go on a Hayride - The Lake Metroparks put on a super cute hayride for kids of all ages.  Many people volunteer their time to act along the ride, park cars, take tickets, etc.  There's plenty of food and other activities for your kids to do outside of the hayride...however, rain does not make this an ideal event and YOU MUST BUY TICKETS EARLY!

(7)  Make a "Treat" for Grandparents (or Aunts,Uncles,Neighbors) - Thanks to Dear Chrissy (and Pinterest), I was able to find this cute craft for Tommy and I to make his Grandparents!  Like they did when we were younger, I know his grandparents will break this out every year come fall to help decorate.  How cute is this, really?

(8)  Make Halloween Special! - Since Halloween is tomorrow and Hurricane Sandra has mixed up the Trick or Treat schedule a little bit, tomorrow night will be a "Spoooooky" Halloween night at the Mentor Pavicic house.  Pinterest has given me great ideas to use for additional decorations and I think I have come up with a good dinner for all of us to enjoy!

The holiday season is going to fall upon us quickly and before we know it we will be celebrating Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's again.  Time seems to be going even faster than I had imagined.  Life will be busy at the Pavicic household as we re-do Tommy's room to make it ready for him to be a "Big Boy" and "Big Brother" and as we get the nursery together for Baby P #2's arrival in April.  Keep us in your thoughts as we start to transition our family...and I'll do my best to keep posting ideas and updates.