Autumn Leaves and Pumpkin Hats (2011 edition)

(Crochet pumpkin hat directions here)

We've had a very rainy fall.  Lots of chilly overcast and drizzle.  (It's hard to appreciate that crisp autumn weather without the "crisp" part.)  When we finally got a nice sunny day, I figured we'd better seize the moment and get some pictures of the kids in their pumpkin hats.  Andy was not too keen on the hat at first and kept pulling his off.




"Help!" says Andy.



Kate had to bring along a dinosaur.



Poser!



Andy finally decided he was okay with keeping his hat on.  (Yay!)






Aren't my little pumpkins cute?





Our apartment complex, magically transformed into a golden wonderland!

Golden Autumn

The trees are all nearly bare now, with a few straggler leaves hanging on here and there. We enjoyed the color and the nice crisp weather while it lasted. Today we had our first snowfall. I did get some pictures, but I thought I should post some autumn pictures first. These were taken a couple of weeks ago.



When we passed this tree on the way to school one morning, I said, "Look, Kate, it's like a yellow sea!" and she said, "Quick, let's run through it before the yellow shark gets us!"

Our complex has such a great variety of leaves--islands of gold under some trees and red under others, and great big maple leaves that cover the sidewalk along the street.

We had some fun with the camera at our favorite picture corner:











Doesn't this make it look like my kids actually get along and enjoy playing together? It's an illusion. (Yeah, they're doing better... some!)

Pumpkin Hats (take two)

I said that my goal was to get caught up so I wasn't posting Halloween pictures in December. I'm still not caught up, but I'm just going to post them now!

I discovered that Kate's pumpkin hat from last year was too small, so I put it on Andy and made a larger one for Kate. (I think it turned out a little too big and floppy, but it's okay, I guess.)










Right after this Kate lay down on some damp leaves and got wet splotches all over her shirt, so that was the end of the photos.

I had visions of taking my cute little pumpkins to a pumpkin patch in their hats, but that didn't happen. Maybe next year!

Cute as a Pumpkin

Karen recently posted directions for a crocheted pumpkin hat, so I thought I'd make one for Kate. I kind of guessed on making it bigger--I made eight sections of 11 stitches wide. (My ridges don't seem to be lying quite right. Not sure what's up with that.) I also made a matching vest to go with it. I think Kate got tired of me trying it on her. I only got two skeins of yarn to start with and ran out, so I got Doug to pick up another one for me while he was out grocery shopping. (Thanks!)

Yesterday we went out and got some pictures. We went over to our favorite picture-taking corner and found the ground just covered with leaves. Hooray!












(Blurry, but cute!)

I drew some googly eyes on paper and stuck them to the front of my camera, to get Kate to look at me. I think it helped! She thought the eyes were hilarious and kept sticking them on other things afterwards.

Smile

Taken today, just before my battery went dead. (I had an extra charged battery, I just didn't take it outside with me.)

Kate said she wanted to go outside and catch the leaves falling from the trees, and she wanted me to take her picture. (We'd been looking at these pictures from last year recently). I told her I didn't think there were any leaves falling from the trees yet, but she refused to believe me without investigating for herself. But it's a rare occurrence that Kate actually wants me to take her picture, so I got the camera and we went outside. We went to the corner where last year's pictures were taken, and sure enough, didn't see any leaves falling, but we did find some fun maple seed helicopters, so we played with those for a while.

She does look rather grown-up here. But you wouldn't believe some of the fussing and screaming we got to hear today.

Magic Lighting

When we got home from church today, we stayed outside for a while and got some pictures of Kate in this cute little dress that her Aunt Barb made. (She didn't make it for Kate, but we are using it while it fits.) She looked so pretty.

Normally I tend to go for the overcast days for picture taking, to avoid the harsh shadows. Boy, did I get lucky with these or what? I don't know if I'll ever be able to reproduce the effect!