Happy Halloween!!!

Check out our little pumpkin trick or treating for the first time. She had so much fun! She loved going up to all the houses and looking at all the big kids in their costumes. Check out Sebastian as The Flash!

We're back!

Well it has been a whirlwind few weeks! We left Virginia on October 10 and headed north to Rochester, NY for Ben's 1st interview. The interview went really well and Maddie and I had a great time touring the city and visiting The Strong Museum of Play!

After 2 days of interviewing we headed east to Lake George, NY to spend the night with Maddie's Grandma, Grandpa and Great Grandma Joan. Maddie loved looking at the boats and throwing pebbles in the water. She even got to pick her first Hershey Kisses from the candy tree!

We then headed to Gloucester where we spent the weekend with Nonnie and Papa. We had a really nice baby shower on Sunday the 14th and saw lots of family and friends, including Maddie's buddy David. They had a great time running up and down the hallway carrying balloons.

From there we headed north again to Maine where we spent the week hanging out with Ben's family. Maddie especially loved playing with her cousins Elias and Josiah! She couldn't get enough running around and copying everything Elias did! We visited Fort Knox while we were there but mostly just enjoyed some down time while the kids played. We had another baby "sprinkle" as Ben's mom called it and got to see even more friends and family! Maddie also LOVED the dogs. They let her pet and "hug" them, even though she called them kitties most of the time.

Monday morning we left Maine and met up with friends Amy, Jack and Collin for lunch at their house. Jack and Maddie had fun playing with toys and in the leaves while Collin napped.

Monday night we arrived in Pawtucket, RI after a nice dinner with Nonnie and Papa on the way. Yesterday Ben interviewed for the fellowship postion there while Maddie and I went to The Roger Williams Park Zoo.

Immediately after Ben's interview finished, around 4pm, we all loaded into the car... again... and headed on our way back here to Virginia. We were pretty exhausted when we rolled in at 1am but glad to be home!

Today Maddie and I hung out at home unpacking and doing errands and Ben got to sleep in a bit before going to work at noon.

This afternoon Ben officially accepted the fellowship position he interviewed for in Rochester, NY so now we know where we'll be moving to at the end of June and can begin to look forward to and plan for that! We will be in NY for 1 year and then it's back home to New England to hopefully settle in for good. Hooray!

"Apple Picking"

A few weeks ago, I googled "pick your own apples" in Northern Virginia and a whole bunch of places popped up. There were a few places that charged admission but we thought it would be fun to try one of these anyway since they also advertised having lots of fun things for little ones to do such as hay rides, pumpkin patches and petting zoos. This particular place was not too far from where we live so we decided to head out with friends Edward, Jeanne and Sebastian yesterday. To our disappointment, it was not quite as advertised... at least not yet.

There were no "pick your own apples", only pick your own out of a crate. There was no food as we were led to believe but luckily we had a few snacks handy for Maddie. There were no animals to be petted, but we were told they were on the way. There was no pumpkin patch, but the kids got to "pick their own" mini pumpkin out of a bin on the way out. There was, however, a BIG slide which Maddie and Daddy enjoyed! And there was a hayride, though it was very SLOW. Despite my disappointment, the kids had a great time and it was a beautiful day to just be outside! Better luck next year!


Maddie and Mommy on the hay ride. This would've been a nice picture except for my finger.

Daddy and Maddie on the way to the slide!

Maddie in the pumpkins!

Picking her own pumpkin... just the right size.