Happy Halloween!

Here are a few pictures of our little dinosaur :) Isn't he adorable?!

Enjoying some chocolate on one of our practice runs :)

Eating more of some sort of candy.

He was afraid of his costume until he realized that if he wore it, he got candy. We practiced all week, and he did great trick-or-treating tonight -- he even said "Boo" and knocked on people's doors all by himself!

Ryan liked these pumpkin lights!

Trick-or-Treat :)

At this house, you helped yourself ... always loved those houses!

Our dinosaur and Iron-Women (aka, Aunt Laura)

This house was decked out! Very cool :) And, Ryan wasn't even afraid!

He got lots of YUMMY candy, which Daddy had fun raiding :) Ryan is not picky when it comes to candy. He likes it all; however, his favorite was the suckers!

"Sucker!"

AND the icing off of the Halloween cupcakes we made! :)

Ryan helping Mommy ice the cupcakes :)

He really just ate the icing. Didn't even touch the cake.

Hope you had a fun and safe night :) We sure did! Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Carving

Our pumpkins are carved and we are ready for Halloween :)

We had our annual pumpkin carving "contest" last night. We take this seriously! :) It went a little something like this ...

1. David and I picked out our pumpkin face templates online,
2. Transposed them onto our selected pumpkins, and
3. Spent the next hour or so carving away as carefully and perfectly as we could.
4. Then we admired our hard work, and positioned our pumpkins on the front porch.



And, while Mommy and Daddy were busy at work, Ryan was happily painting his baby pumpkin {and the concrete}.

He also gladly offered his assistance to Mommy, but Daddy kept his masterpiece out of Ryan's reach {cheating if you ask me!}

Looking at all the pumpkin gunk -- yuck!

Helping Mommy clean the pumpkin out :)

All done!

I do have to give David credit this year though. He really stepped up his game and his pumpkin turned out great! He is our 2010 pumpkin carving contest winner :)

Left - Melissa, Right - David

Looking eye-to-eye with the pumpkin.

Sleeping with the pumpkins :) Silly boy!

On another note, I got some great pictures of Ryan posing with our finished pumpkins thanks to some good old bribery. I told him that if he sat down next to the pumpkins and smiled, he could have a sucker, and it actually worked!!! I was shocked and thrilled. The boy does love suckers though. Hopefully I can get similar results for our Christmas card photo :)

Charlotte

We are home safe and sound from our latest trip. This time, the three of us went to ... {drum-roll please}

Charlotte, North Carolina to visit Rachel.

We drove up on Thursday morning and got back around noon today. Ryan was PERFECT in the car, once again! He makes such a good little travel partner :)

We had a very nice time, and enjoyed spending time with Rachel and seeing where she lives!


Rachel's roommate is an awesome photographer, and inspired me to play around with my fancy camera {which I got last Christmas} a little while we were there. Thus, on Friday morning we went to NoDa {an artsy district near uptown} for a little photo shoot. It was fun! I have LOTS more to learn though.

Later that afternoon, we headed over to a great little neighborhood park that was right around the corner from Rachel's apartment so that Ryan could play for a bit.

Then, we enjoyed a yummy dinner at Carrabba's Italian Grill before heading back to the apartment to call it a night.

Thanks for hosting us, Rachel! See you again in a few weeks :)

Day Trip to North Georgia

We spent the day yesterday in the the North Georgia mountains ...

Our first stop was Ellijay for the Georgia Apple Festival. Nestled in the mighty Appalachian Mountains, Ellijay is the heart of Georgia's apple country, and the tree-ripened mountain apples available at the festival were DELICIOUS and less expensive! I wish I had bought more than 1/2 a peck of apples {5 -6 pounds} to bring home!


We had fun walking around the festival and viewing all the vendors handmade, hand-crafted items, and Ryan went on his first pony ride. He was so excited although he hung onto my arm for dear life during the ride. We also enjoyed some apple treats before we left -- homemade apple dumplings {which we watched them make} and a caramel apple.

Homemade Apple Dumpling -- Yummy!

Ryan LOVES apples and calls them "balls."

{He thinks anything that's round and resembles a ball is a ball :) I guess it's good that he can associate apples, pumpkins, and balls being the same shape, right?}

Then we headed east to Dawsonville and stopped by Burt's Farm to get some pumpkins. This place is amazing and has some of the biggest pumpkins I have ever seen! We have gone there every October since 2007 {when David and I first discovered the place}, and it is always a highlight of the month for us!

Ryan had lots of fun running around the pumpkins {and kicking them, throwing them, and beating on them -- he is all boy!}, and observing all the other children -- he gravitates toward them!

Ryan is helping himself to the "baby" pumpkins.

"I got one!"

And, we enjoyed the wonderful pumpkin pie aroma that permeates throughout the farm thanks to the homemade pumpkin pies cooking, and being sold! It is hard to resist buying one because they smell SO darn good! We did though.

Our final stop was Amicalola Falls, which is right around the corner from Burt's Farm. Ryan isn't quite big enough yet to hike up to the Falls so we drove to the top, and then took in the beautiful view!

Ryan wants the fruit snacks Daddy has :)

Looking at the waterfall!

Not so sure about being on the rock mound by himself.

Warmed up and loving it now :)

Hiking back to the car.

It was a gorgeous fall Saturday, and we had so much fun together on our day trip up to North Georgia!!