Life à la Moad: Leaf Play, Apple Picking and Snow White

What a wonderful week of Fall!

Now that it is November we are kind of easing out of all the Fall fun and easing in to all the Christmassy fun!

I know some people dig in their heels and proclaim they will do nothing Christmas related until after Thanksgiving.
I'm not one of them. I've already started the carols, the diffuser blends and shopping. In my little world, the Christmas season has begun!

BUT

I should update on our one week of Fall Happenings before I dive too far into Christmas and forget all about it!

I feel like I jammed all of our fall activities into one action packed week! America has such great... and slightly odd traditions during this fabulous season.

Fantastic equals: apple and pumpkin picking.
Odd equals: dressing up like something you are not and knocking on stranger's doors expecting candy.

But we partook in all events with no prejudices!

Sadly our first one was a bit of a fail. My two childhood best friends
and I packed up our kiddos and met at a middle ground between all of our houses: An Apple Orchard!

Hello perfect fall activity!

We were gonna have the best day ever! Drink fresh apple cider, chat gleefully while holding all of our babies and watching the older children frolic in the apple orchard and pick large, beautiful, delicious red apples! Talk about a photo opp!

Yeah... not so much.

We got there, strolled through the cute little grocery store, found out the apple orchard wasn't open due to... weather... staffing... or any other number of excuses we were given that were not listed on the website... and so we parked our butts in the cafe, ate lunch and then took the kids to the park.

"What you mean we can't go apple picking?"

Whoops.
Not quite the "fall festivities" we were hoping for.

But a day spent with these 2 ladies and all of our kiddos is always a fun time!

It was a nice fall day filled with people I love...it just didn't include apples. Whatevs. :)

No Autumn season is complete without some leaf-play. Sadly, our new house has zero trees.

None. Zero.

This old, established neighborhood and no trees.

It's devastating.

I'm not sure why I didn't notice when we bought the house.

But I notice now.

Suffice to say, come spring, we are planting one... or 3! I grew up at a house with like 400 trees... and now I have zero.

Not okay.

So, on a weekend to visit Oma and Opa Lucy and Opa got in some super-stellar leaf play on the warmest fall day ever.

I think it was 80 degrees.

Not so Fall-like.

But ohhhh those leaves!!

Lucy loved it. I mean... loved it!

She kept wanting to go back out.

She wanted to jump in them. Throw them. Build them. Swim in them. Roll in them. Whatever she could do with those leaves she wanted to do!

I just took pictures because I don't like leaves in my hair, clothing, shoes and wherever else they manage to creep!

But I loved to watch her have so much fun playing where I too once played!

I'm too nostalgic for my own good!

Seriously. No One in the history of Autumn has loved playing in leaves like this girl.

And last, but not least comes the weird tradition of asking strangers for candy while masking your true identity.

I really wonder where these traditions originated. I find it so strange.

But hey, who am I to complain? I now have a huge bowl of candy in my kitchen for my snacking pleasure.

I mean... Lucy does. Lucy has a bowl of candy. ;)

Hershey has this weird thing where they do Trick or Treating on the Thursday before Halloween.

It's strange.

I don't like it.

But.. when in Rome.

So we got Lucy and Charlie dressed up for their very first experience with real, live Trick or Treating!

Lucy was dazzling as Snow White and Charlie was rockin' it in his stroller as a pirate.

argh.

She loved it.

Of course.

She really had the whole thing down!

She knocked. And knocked. And knocked.

I mean she gave those people like a whole 5 seconds to get their butts to the door...

Then she hit them with her cute face and her adorable

"Trick or Treat. No Apples, please"

Do YOU get it?

Because like.. 90% of the peeps out there did NOT get it.

She's Snow White.... No Apples... Get it?

Let's just pretend you got it before I explained it.

It was cute once I explained it to people.

But ya know... when you have to explain a joke... not as funny.

Moving on.

She was cute.

She got lots of candy.

Charlie rode in the stroller and had no clue what was going on... but he looked cute.

This is *the* costume for new baby boys in our family. He may be the third or fourth to wear it. It's almost a tradition now, passed on from one generation of grandkids to another.

I'm really all about the hand-me-down, free costumes for this one night of dress up :)