It's officially fall

Go 'Dores!

One of the faves

Both kids LOVE the donkey at Meleia's house.  Evelyn's intensity when she rides it cracks me up -

In a cabin in the woods

The Vogels invited us to their cabin near Deep Creek Lake this weekend.  It was a beautiful time - 50s overnight, and mid-70s for the high.  Evelyn wore pants and long sleeves for the first time as a non-baby.  So cute!

 The boys ran around like crazy until it was time to head to the boat.

 Evelyn was worn out after playing out in the woods for about an hour - she took one of the best naps of her life.

 We all had fun on the boat!  The kids were great about wearing their life vests.  Evelyn was completely unphased and smiled the whole time.  Max was fearless - he ran all over the place checking out the view.  He even drove for a minute.

 When we got home, we played with toys before lunch and naps.

It almost felt like fall (other than for about an hour in the afternoon, when the sun beat down and I let Evelyn run around in her diaper while the others napped).  Such a special place to celebrate E's birthday!

 Her cake and cupcake toppers resemble her turquoise bathing suit.  We picked it because her absolute favorite thing is water - baths, pools, and splash tables!

The boys went for a swim in the lake while the grownups and Evelyn played on the beach and dock.  Max was very brave.  He was swimming all the way out to the ladder on the dock, climbing out, then jumping in to do it all over again.  He was only hesitant when the wake from boats racing by knocked him around - that he didn't like to much!  E enjoyed playing on the beach while the boys swam.

We all enjoyed sitting by the campfire.  Even Evelyn got in on the action.

 Brody will be 3 in November.  He and Max got along really well.  It was great to have a buddy!

 When we got home, we opened all of Evelyn's presents.  Thank you to her generous family for being so thoughtful and helping her celebrate this first birthday!

Happy Birthday Evelyn!

I can't believe our baby is one!

Artistic Developments

We're reaching all kinds of new levels with the artwork around here these days.

Max has started drawing with purpose, and drawing real objects.  The red drawing below is of the moon, with footprints on it.  He made it for me because he felt bad for using mean words the night before.  

Max and Evelyn worked together on Ian's birthday card.  Max did the cover and the crazy squiggles, and Evelyn did her first real drawing, too - the more delicate squiggles on white.

Max had a lot of fun painting with dinosaur stamps.

Finally, the purple picture is his response from practice Sunday School.  Those are the rain drops starting to fall on Noah's ark.