it's beginning to look a lot like autumn everywhere we go!

pencil roll

complete with embroidered pencil

i was so happy with the way it turned out...

that i made one for ezra too

(who is currently in a phase of "i want everything isaac gets even if i don't really use it yet")

first time on the metro(how is it that OUR children hadn't yet done that?!)

yay for birthday cookbooks!

 

and my new little green friend in the kitchen that happens to make some awesome oatmeal...

sweet brothers

i don't think he was this big yesterday.

 

a bit of yellow i saw on my date sunday night(during which we walked by the aarp building at which my husband shook his fist and yelled "stop sending me stuff!")

 

sunbathing turtles

friends don't let friends walk the boardwalk alone...

 

 

baby sayen

fall is on its way!

sending birthday invitations(isaac walked them all the way to the post office with quite the spring in his step!

gleaned during the daily leaf hunt... it's a beauty!

the last 24 of 24...

two enormous grasshoppers doing it on one of my tomato plants.

may i introduce you to all of the socks that ezra has been taking off and stowing behind his crib!

pre-birthday dinner with my three handsome dates

i also happen to share my birthday with my wonderful mother, for whom i made a gratitude wrap(free pattern in amanda's "Favorites") for her journal(she is a very faithful journaler) and took her birthday lunch and brownies in bed(she has been suffering from severe headaches and was in the hospital last week).

embroidered initials

birthday wildflowers picked by my honey(and incidentally a bit of yellow to share with you!)

a work-boot-search visit to bass pro and of course a visit to see the giant catfish

peekaboo ezra!

thank you laurie, janna, andrea, angie, and adam for the lovely birthday gifts!  you all know me so well!

apprehended at last!

this jerk-of-a-groundhog has finally been removed from my garden!

 

adam trying to need a rabies shot

adam took him wherever he took the other one(~5 miles away near the patuxent).  he has been our garden pest for about 2 1/2 years.  i will not miss him.

mid september doings

these might be the two cutest baby boys ever(that means emmett is REALLY cute because ezra definitely has the unfair advantage of being mine)

and this stud(chris, my now 18 year old brother) is getting way too old for my liking

 

this is us just yesterday...

 and what better excuse than a birthday to stuff your face with chocolate cake(good choice chris)... 

and get in a little train time.

saturday was garden overhaul day(and disappointing carrot day)

                                         

VERY disappointing.  they've been in the ground practically all summer and i just think our dirt is not airy or nitrogen rich enough

 sweet potatoes

 we have a new neighbor next door, so i decided to remove our giant squash plant from her yard(which she was too nice to ask us about).  the people who lived there before her have been letting us use the garden bed adjacent to ours which is now hers.  i'm not really sure these are butternut although that's what they are most similar to.  i thought spaghetti squash at first until they weren't turning yellow.

 

i guess i should have taken a before picture so you could see the difference but it was embarrassingly overgrown...  one of our tomato plants is 6 feet long!

 these are all the tomatoes that FELL OFF as i re-staked the tomato plants(in my new/old orange pyrex bowl... an exciting recent thrift store find!).  AND I WAS CAREFUL! we are going to be swimming in them soon! 

 bell pepper flower

 

 tomato flower

 

 

 groundhog strikes again.

 sarah and pedro are having a girl soon!

 i think she should have an apple hat.

 i love sewing/cutting terry cloth because it gives me an excuse to NOT vacuum until i'm totally done!

 more wipes for ezra

early birthday present from laurie(yay for storage!)... she knows me!