Rainy Days and Pumpkins

I grew up in the midwest, and fall was always my favorite season. I loved watching the leaves change colors, feeling the chill in the air, and knowing that Halloween was on its way. There isn't a true fall here, but we can do one thing that reminds me of my childhood...go to the pumpkin patch!

Reilly was off school yesterday and I wanted to do something special with him. So I asked his friend Kamron and his mom, Mary, if they wanted to go to the pumpkin patch in Hammond. The ride should have been about an hour, but we got a little lost. Eventually we found it, but not before it started POURING!!!

When we pulled up, there was a building with a little porch where some people were sitting to stay dry. We figured we could wait out the rain there, and at least be out of the car, but the boys had another idea. As soon as we reached the porch, they took off for the petting zoo area. It was only about 20 feet away and we could see them from where we were, so we just let them have fun. They were quickly soaked from head to foot, and having the time of their lives! They loved checking out the animals, and eventually the rain stopped and we could go explore the rest of the farm and pick out our pumpkins.


We all had a fun day, the boys were well behaved, we had a yummy lunch on the way home, and everyone was happy. Gotta love days like that!

Not letting a little rain stop him from having fun
pumping water

this look clearly says "stop taking my picture!!!"


checking out the piggies

2 tired boys on the drive home

Hotty Toddy, Go Rebels!

This past weekend was a big one for Reilly...he went to his 1st college football game. Bobby picked him up from school at lunchtime on Friday and they headed up to Oxford. Reilly was super excited, not just about the game, but because he would be hanging out with his friend Lily Grace (the daughter of Bobby's friends from college). Saturday morning they went to the Grove for some tailgating, followed by the game that afternoon. Reilly didn't make it through the whole game, but he had a lot of fun!



It was actually a big weekend for me too. This was the first time since Reilly was born that I spent a night away from him. It was a nice break for me, but I will admit that I missed him. He was asleep when they got home late Saturday night, but he woke up a little as Bobby carried him up the stairs. When he saw me, his little face lit up and he cried out "Mama"...it made my heart sing!

The crowd in the stadium

Cheering for the Rebels

Walking to the game (he looks so cute!)



Tailgating with Daddy and Lily Grace

Little buddies hanging out

Reilly-isms

I am endlessly amused by the things that come out of my son's mouth. He makes me laugh a million times a day, usually completely by accident. Some recent favorites...

-A few weeks ago, I took him and his friend to Baskin-Robbins for ice cream. The other day while we were driving around, he asked me if we could go to Christopher Robin's for ice cream after dinner. Apparently we have been invited to visit the 100 Acre Wood...who knew?

-The other day, I had to borrow a jar of peanut butter from the neighbors because I couldn't find ours in all the renovation mess. The next day, Reilly asked his preschool director to come to the house. When Tim asked him what we would be having for dinner, Reilly told him "sandwiches from the neighbors house"

-While watching TV, Reilly saw a commercial for some dolls and asked if he could have them. I said that they were really intended for girls, and he told me that when he was a little girl, he had those dolls.

-This morning, Reilly was eating on my bed while I got ready. He got crumbs all over the place and I told him that he needed to figure out a way to clean it up. He walked out into the living room and I heard him say "hey, I've got a great idea!"...he came into the bedroom with a dustbuster. It WAS a great idea. Unfortunately, the dustbuster was not charged, so we had to resort to plan B, letting the dogs come in and clean it up.

-Reilly thinks that "underpants" is the funniest word on the planet and likes to use it whenever possible. His favorite way is to replace words to a sang with it. So yesterday on the way home from school, I heard "Twinkle, twinkle, little underpants. How I wonder what you underpants", etc. It actually is kind of funny, and he knows that he can't do it at school, only with mama, so I just let him do it.

The Rainbow Connection

Things have been a little stressful around the house for the last week or so...we are in the middle of a major kitchen renovation, and it has been taking its toll on everyone in the family. One of the biggest issues is that the living room is full of clutter, as are the kitchen and dining room. And of course, all this clutter is just a magnet for Reilly. As a result, he has been staying late at school everyday and I have been keeping him out of the house as much as possible.

Tonight I decided to take him to storytime at Barnes and Noble. I loaded him into the car and had driven about 10 feet when he yelled out "Mommy, a rainbow!" I looked up and sure enough, there was a beautiful rainbow directly in front of us. As we continued to drive through the neighborhood, we could see the rainbow from every street. Reilly was just fascinated by it, and decided that the rainbow was following us. I love his imagination.
A few minutes later, he got all excited and said "Mama, it growed!" I looked up, and the rainbow had turned into a DOUBLE rainbow! I don't think I have ever seen that before. I was kind of cranky and stressed out when we left the house, but how can you be in a bad mood after seeing something as amazing as that?

Football, anyone?

The past week was fairly uneventful. Reilly went to school, I tried to keep the house in some semblance of order, Bobby worked a lot. Just your average week around here. Now we are in day 2 of a 3 day weekend. Football season has started so Bobby is permanently glued to the television.

Speaking of football, we took Reilly to his first football game Friday night. He will be going to some Ole Miss games with Bobby this year, so it seemed like a St. Martin's game would be good practice for him. When we picked him up from school on Friday, he was all excited because the preschoolers had gotten to go to the school's "pepper rally" and he saw cheerleaders and the football team. So he was extra excited when we headed to the game. He was a little restless and wanted to run around in the bleachers, and was starting to get grumpy when we told him he couldn't. Then his friend Sofia and her mom Heather showed up, and he was all smiles. The 2 of them had a great time playing with their pompoms and watching the cheerleaders. I'm not sure how well he is going to do at the Ole Miss games, but hopefully a few more St. Martin's games will get him ready. I realized when we went to the game that we might be attending these games for the next 14 years if he stays at St. Martins until he graduates high school, which is our current plan. That's a lot of football games.

Reilly-isms

If there is one thing Reilly does well, it's talk. He has a huge vocabulary, but like all kids he makes mistakes sometimes. He also comes up with things that just crack me up. Some recent examples...

-He calls the Insectarium the "excitarium". I guess he is really excited to go there???

-The Audubon Zoo is called either the Ottoman Zoo or the Dinosaur Zoo (because of the dino exhibit that is there right now)

-The other night he lookes at Forrest, who was all curled up in a little ball, sound asleep, and said "mama, Forrest is round like a shrimp"

-Driving home from the park the other night, he asked if he could suck his thumb. I told him no, because his hands were all dirty. I looked back at him a minute later and he was blowing on his hands. He told me "I am getting the dirt off my hands with the wind in my mouth"

-Last night we were at our neighbors house and her 5 week old grandson was there, asleep in a pack n play. Reilly insisted on singing him a lullaby...so sweet.

-I was playing with the camera the other day and took a bunch of pictures of a friends baby, including some close ups of her feet. When I showed them to Reilly, he told me "baby Regan has such cute feet, I want to tickle them"

Duck, Duck, Goose...

And some nutria and turtles too!
Living in south Louisiana, I try to spend as much time as possible indoors during the summer, since it's often unbearably hot and humid. This past week, we were very lucky and had some unseasonably pleasant weather. I decided to take advantage of the cooler days and take Reilly to the park to feed the ducks and play on the playground. We went 2 nights in a row, and had a lot of fun both times.

Calling the geese to come to him...it didn't work

A nutria, yuck! They give me the creeps.

I love the light in this picture



My little tree-hugger!

Just being cute