Enjoying the Weather!!!

A few weeks ago, I thought we were for sure beginning our prisoner days of being stuck inside. Then just when I think the cold has set in, we are blessed with a beautiful day in the 60s. We have definitely been taking full advantage of this. We spend so much of our time outside whether it's a day trip somewhere or just a simple playdate with our yard. I've been feeling kind of bummed thinking about the weather getting cold. And now since we are in an early flu season, I really need to find alternatives to indoor activities. Therefore, we have a new rule around here: if it's in the 40s, we're outside. Hence, we've been to the zoo four times in 10 days. Here's a photo recap of some of the fall activities we've been enjoying.

This was a trip to the riverfront to walk aboard Nina and Pinta replica ships. They were really neat and the history teacher in me was very excited to see them. (Anna loved it. The face you see in the pictures is actually her "camera smile".)

We love that we have such a great park we can walk to. We like to go play all times of the day (this particular time is on a Friday evening after dinner. It was such a crazy night, we closed the park down) and we love to feed the duck. Yes, I said duck. Lots of geese but only one duck.

We went to Findlay Market one morning and got a sunflower. Anna thought it was the greatest thing to put on her gardening gloves and help mommy plant the pretty yellow flower. She was so proud of her work.

I take the girls to the zoo by myself quite often. It's sometimes easier that way because then we can work on our own schedule. When someone else is with me (like Great Grandma Joyce -G.G.J.- in these pictures), then it's not too difficult to watch walking Anna. When I'm by myself...yes, I'm the mom who puts the harness on my child. P.S. I included the gorilla picture because it's just too darn cute! Look at the mommy holding her baby.

Pumpkin Patch Pictures
What parent doesn't look forward to these pictures every year? And this year was extra fun for the Zumbiel household since we now have TWO little pumpkins to pose. I literally mean "pumpkins". This year, Anna and Megan will both sport their orange and green for Halloween. We thought we'd try out the costumes at the patch. It went okay, but the girls were so interested in discovering all the sights that it was a bit difficult getting a good shot of them in their costumes. We managed some great ones pre-costume though. Enjoy the slideshow!

Disney on Ice - 100 Years of Magic

Amazing. Tremendous fun. Memories. Watching your two year old's eyes light up while she claps over and over and says hi to Mickey who she thinks is there just for her. Definitely one of the many priceless moments we just experienced as parents.

Not too much else to say. Imagine what it would be like to take your child to see Disney on Ice and that's exactly what it was. I'm sure it was only second to walking down Main Street USA in the Magic Kingdom....yes, we're already thinking about that trip for our two little princesses....

I love this picture because it prefectly captures the innocence of a child. Here's Anna playing with her puzzles just minutes before we left for the show. She had no idea what kind of excitement was waiting for her later that night. Oh, if we could all just live in the moment.

Dancing in the aisle. Anna did a great job sitting on our laps. She finally figured out we were right next to the aisle at the end. We let her hang out there and dance for a little bit.

Anna brought this Minnie doll from home and held her the entire show. We actually got out of there without having to buy anything. Lucky us!

The Typo
I would like to take this opportunity to redeem myself for the typo in my previous post. The teacher in me is going crazy knowing that I inappropriately used a possessive "s". That specific misuse of the written word is probably one of my greatest pet peeves. Yes, I know that Halloween doesn't own anything in my sentence. My sincere apologies to all of you who read it and cringed. I know I did when I finally proofed it.

First day of Fall: If you ask me what my favorite season is, I will say summer. It's because I love warm weather, but it's really probably because of the nostalgia it brings....summer family vacations, playing outside until the street lights turn on, going to amusement parks, celebrating my birthday, summer festivals...Then every year when spring and fall come around, I end up longing for them too. (Sorry Winter, I don't really like you.) Fall is college football and the Bengals. It's the fall Keeneland run and grabbing some Joe B's while in Lextown for the ponies. It's jeans and jackets. It's now celebrating fun Halloweens with my sweet babies. It's pumpkin patch pictures....thanks Fall. I'm glad you came this week.

Okay, that's better.

"Firsts" around the Zumbiel House

Of course our days are always exciting around here, but this week proved to have a lot of fun "firsts", so it was an extra special week!

First day of Fall: If you ask me what my favorite season is, I will say summer. It's because I love warm weather, but it's really probably because of the nostalgia it brings....summer family vacations, playing outside until the street lights turn on, going to amusement parks, celebrating my birthday, summer festivals...Then every year when spring and fall come around, I end up longing for them too. (Sorry Winter, I don't really like you.) Fall is college football and the Bengals. It's the fall Keeneland run and grabbing some Joe B's while in Lextown for the ponies. It's jeans and jackets. It's now celebrating fun Halloween's with my sweet babies. It's pumpkin patch pictures....thanks Fall. I'm glad you came this week.


Go CATS! Blaze family outing to the Cats game at Paul Brown Stadium v Miami. Very fun time!

First time Megan begins to crawl on all fours: As previously posted, little Megan has been getting herself around quite efficiently for about 4 months now. I actually thought that she might go straight to walking and skip crawling on all fours. She could get into a sitting position from her belly. She could maneuver herself over top of things on her belly and even start to pull herself up on furniture. She's been "rocking" for about 3 weeks, but this week she decided to pick up her little belly off the ground and use those knees as the preferred method of transportation. I have to say that I'm pretty happy she did, because it looks so darn cute!

Each morning, Megan usually greets us now with a sweet smile from a seated position.

First Big Girl Panties for Anna: That's right! Don't get too excited (that she's a big girl or that I'm nuts for trying with having an 8 month old). Anna's actually been showning "signs" since March that she could possibly be ready. She tells me when she has to go and even asks to go on her potty quite often. I've never really had the patience yet to deal with it all. Anna's friend Josie was potty trained in the winter at 19 months and we saw another 19 month old friend at Bible Study last week who is also potty trained. I thought surely we can make this happen! Well.....we'll see. Anna picked out her Minnie underwear this week and ran around the house in them - and out of them - on rainy Wednesday and Thursday. It went okay I guess.

A cute little flip book of pictures. (She thought she was really funny.)

First time Megan waved: I told Anna she needed to help me teach Megan how to wave. We both started waving frantically and saying "Hi Megan, hi Megan". She caught on right away and added the greatest smile. She's not doing it consistently, but she gets excited watching us try to make her wave back.

First time Anna asked a question: Sure Anna's been talking for awhile. She says prepositionless sentences (you're probably thinking she has language difficulties because her mom makes up words). She sings songs which she thinks use the right words. But she really hasn't asked any questions using the words "why", "where", "what", etc. Last night I was giving Megan a bath and Anna was sitting with me eating some graham cracker cookies. She must have dropped a piece on the floor. Later, when she saw it, she said "what is that?" I was shocked that those words came out of her mouth in a perfect little sentence. It was fun to hear her and she could tell she did something cool because of my reaction. Anna was all excited knowing she said something "important."

First time seeing Disney on Ice: We took Anna on Thursday and it was wonderful! Wait for a posting later.

First time ever writing a post this long. I'm tired.

Family Day at the Zoo
One of my favorite things to do with the girls is go to the Cincinnati Zoo. I try to meet up with friends, but when they can't make it I don't know why I always attempt it by myself. I can do it, but it just makes for a very crazy day. "Don't have any expectations." That's what I always tell people when they ask how (or why) I can do outings by myself with a rambunctious 2 year old and a fiesty 8 month old.

One of the most difficult things about going to the zoo, in particular, is that Anna always wants to get out of the stroller and walk around. As you can imagine, it's nearly impossible for me to let her. Inevitably, it means that I will go through my day choosing one child over the other....do I leave Megan to run after Anna, or do I risk Anna jumping in with the Gorillas to stay with Megan. The end decision: make unhappy Anna stay in stroller.

When Matt took a day off work and we took the girls to the zoo, it was a perfect opportunity to let Anna walk around by herself. She did this the entire time we were there and thought she was big stuff. It was nice to see her explore on her own and really enjoy her day there.

Chicago...Matt and I were able to take a 4 day trip away at the end of August. His cousin Adam married Alex on August 29. It was a great time in the city for two days then we headed north for the wedding. The girls had a wonderful weekend at home with Grandma and Baw Baw and Mommy and Daddy barely missed them! (As guessed, the break was much needed...)

A little something else to hold you over...

"Hold on, I'm coming!"


I feel like I say this all day, everyday to the girls ~ so I figured, why not say it to you blog readers. Yes, I'll be back. I actually have sat down in front of this computer so many times to post and realize that all pictures since August 25 (the last post) are upstairs on the camera. How lazy am I?! That means that I haven't taken the time to run up there, get the memory card and wait for the pictures to upload. I'm still not running up there just yet, BUT I did find a cute picture already on our computer that is worth posting.


Anna is eating the spinach enchilada filling straight from the bowl. Yes, that's right. It's spinach, cottage cheese, sour cream, garlic, and I can't remember what else. It's definitely quite tasty to ME, but for a two year old to enjoy it was a nice surprise. Anna's pretty good at trying things but she doesn't eat large amounts. When I noticed that she was asking for more on her spoon after I let her sample, I just handed her the whole bowl to have at it. She filled up before dinner and even had some room left to enjoy the cooked entree.