a little trip to woodbury commons

we used to love going to woodbury commons about once a year to walk around the shops and get something to eat.  we haven't been there in over 3 years and were really missing it.

we took a trip up in the late afternoon / evening recently.  we were able to get a table for dinner at our favorite restaurant (parm!) and noah loved it just as much as we have for years.

we walked around a checked out a few shops, let noah play on the playground with pretend horses, shared some ice cream, and then headed home.  it was a nice little getaway for a few hours.

love, laurie

noah's very own excavator

anyone who knows noah knows that he loves construction equipment.  he is absolutely obsessed with excavators (which he calls scoopers), bull dozers, dump trucks, etc.

for his birthday this year ryan and i couldn't resist buying him his very own ride-on excavator.  it goes forward, backward, and side to side.  right now we can control it with a remote control, but when he gets bigger he can control it with the steering wheel and gas pedal (like a golf cart).  the front and back scoopers even move up and down and scoop things.

his birthday is the end of august but we gave him his present a month early so that he could get more use out of it in the nice summer weather.

he loves it and he looks awesome in it.  here are a few photos from the day we gave it to him.

love, laurie

huge sunflowers

we cut some sunflowers to take home with us on a recent trip to lakeland orchard.  noah enjoyed riding the tractor ride out to the sunflower field and back again.  we've been enjoying seeing our cheery sunflowers on our kitchen counter!  i've always liked sunflowers, they are so bright and cheery!

love, laurie

little man, big shirt

ryan came home from work recently and took off his polo shirt that he was wearing.  noah insisted on putting it on and it was hysterical!

love, laurie

berry picking at lakeland orchard

we ventured back to lakeland orchard this sunday to do some berry picking.  they had both raspberries and blackberries available for picking.  it was noah's first time berry picking and he did a great job.  we came home with two huge containers of berries!

it was also noah's first time trying the scrambler ride and he really loved it!

love, laurie

lakeland orchard

it has been 6 years since we last visited lakeland orchard.  we were there in the early fall of 2018 to go apple picking and somehow haven't been back there since.

one of our neighbors mentioned that she bought season passes to take her kids to lakeland and we though she was nuts until we looked into it and realized it was genius.  we ended up buying season passes last weekend and spent time there both saturday and sunday.

there were so many things for noah to do and he absolutely loved it.  it's definitely the type of place we can keep going back again and again to try different things.

the blueberry festival is going on now through the end of july so everything is currently blueberry themed.  yum!  we rode the rides, had some treats, and cut some pretty flowers to bring home.

love, laurie

noah's dinner outing

it's pretty rare that we go out to eat . . . we're busy, restaurants are expensive, and we have noah.

someone gave us a gift card to outback and we've been holding onto it because the nearest one is about 30 minutes away from us.  we had some time on a random monday night and decided to take a trip to finally use the gift card.  it turned out that monday was "kids eat free" night during the summer too.

noah got a toy crocodile from the waitress, loved playing with the crayons (which he never gets at home!), and really enjoyed his little grilled cheese and veggies.  it was adorable and he was very good (even better than some of the older kids sitting near us)!

love, laurie

tiny seat

my parents found one of my old tiny chairs from when i was little while cleaning out their house.  they brought it up for noah and he loved it.  now he is trying to say the word "seat" a lot!

i can't believe that the tiny guy in this tiny seat turned 23 months old yesterday!

love, laurie

ice cream? yes, please!

the pleased look on this kid's face when he found out mama and dada were taking him for buy-one-get-one free sundaes on sunday is priceless.  sitting between mom and dad means you get to taste both ice creams from both sides!

love, laurie

who's pink fleece blanket?

ryan bought me this pink fleece blanket for valentine's day in 2005.  I can't believe it's 19 years old.  i love it and so does leko . . . and so does noah.  this pink blanket sure gets a lot of love.  it was well worth the $10 that ryan spent on it nearly two decades ago!

love, laurie

tiny box, big fun

sometimes the best toys are cardboard boxes, or in this case a cardboard cat scratching box.  

love, laurie

a little trip to hillside dairy farm

it has been exactly 4 years since we visited hillside dairy farm.  i completely forgot about it until it popped up online recently as a nearby attraction.  we took a drive on a very warm summer afternoon for a little outing to see the animals and get some ice cream.  noah enjoyed visiting the barn and he really loved getting a chance to sit on the old-fashioned farm tractor.  he liked tasting the mint chocolate chip ice cream but may have liked bitting the wafer cone even more!  i have certainly had ice cream, but haven't had a wafer cone in years.  it was a nice treat that reminded me of my childhood.

love, laurie