Sonny Acres

This was Gavin's second visit to Sonny Acres, a pumpkin patch/fall harvest place located out where I grew up in the western burbs.  Like last year, I think this was my favorite fall excursion that we went on.  Maybe its because I get nostalgic about bringing Gavin to a place that I used to go to as a kid, but this place always has lots of fun things to do without being too crowded or crazy. 

Last year, Gav's favorite activites at Sonny Acres were the petting zoo and the pony rides.  This year he wanted no part of either of those activities, but he really loved the carnival rides!  My mom, Andy and Shari all came with us on our trip this year.

Riding the Choo Choo with Grandma.  I was very proud of Gavin for somehow knowing that the engine is the coolest place to sit :)

 Riding in the engine comes with the privilege of ringing the bell, which Gav and this little boy did quite often!

 This was by far Gavin's favorite ride.  It consisted of about 10 cars/trucks, and every seat had a wheel to turn, so there were no unhappy toddlers!  Adults were not allowed on this ride, so I was worried that Gavin wouldn't go for it, but he had a blast!

 Gavin picked the car himself, and I love that he color coordinated with his shirt!

 It thrilled Gavin to spot me, my mom, Andy or Shari has he went around and around.

 Just being cute!  We went to Sonny Acres on an absolutely gorgeous fall day, it was almost 80 degrees!

 Gavin quickly requested to go back on the car ride.  This time he selected to co-pilot the fire truck with a lady friend.

 Not overly thrilled about taking a picture in the pumpkins with Mommy.

 Shari makes funny faces off camera to get Gavin to smile for us.

 Gavin and Aunt Shari have a dance that only they do, this is a still picture version of it.  I decided not to post the picture of Shari doing the dance as well (you're welcome Shari :)

 A super cute picture of Aunt Shari, Gav and Uncle Andy.

 Riding the flying dragons and elephants with Uncle Andy.  This was Gavin's first "airborne" ride.

 I'm not sure who had more fun, Andy or Gavin?

 Post ride excitment, looks like the boys had a great time!

 Gav and I posing in one of the many cut-outs at Sonny Acres.  I really appreciated the pumpkins ability to hide my giant belly!



Royal Oaks Orchard

Back in early October (I think?) Gavin and I went with my parents to the Royal Oaks Orchard in Harvard, IL.  It was my first time at an orchard, and although we didn't actually go out and pick the apples ourselves, I really enjoyed our visit.  Their honeycrisp apples and donuts were amazing (or maybe I'm just pregnant :), and it had the right amount of things to do without being too over-commercialized and crowded.  I'd love to go back next year and actually pick the apples with the Gavvers.

Driving the red wooden train.  You can't really tell from this pic, but there was quite a line of kids waiting for their turn to drive.  I don't know what it is about steering wheels, but kids go crazy for them!

 Front view of our little engineer.

 Poor Gav took quite the tumble at the park right before this trip, so he has quite the bruised and scraped face in these pictures!

 Gav's favorite part of the orchard was this tiny carousel.  Grandma and Grandpa had to ride with Gav because they wouldn't let me ride since I'm pregnant!

 Gav and I are riding in the red caboose (I know, I can't ride the carousel, but the train is ok for preggos?!).  Its not a very close up pic of us, but I love how you can just see Gav's little eyes and nose peeking over the train window :)

 Goofy pose with Grandma and Grandpa.

 Another ride on the "horsies" with Grandma and Grandpa.

Random pics

I'm honestly not sure when all these different pics were taken, but there were only a few of each situation, so here are some random pics of Gav doing what he does best, being cute!

Hanging out in Daddy's office in the comfy brown chair.

 Gavin has taken a liking to standing on the furniture lately...

 ...or doing other gymnastic moves!

 Swinging on the tire swing at Apple Holler in Wisconsin.  I really wasn't that impressed with Apple Holler, so there aren't many pics from that visit.

 Gavin wanted to swing without me holding him, which caused me minor heart attacks, but he did great and loved every second of it!

 To truly appreciate why I put this pic on the blog, you might want to click on it to pull it up to full size.  Take a look at the kid's hair...oh yea, thats peanut butter all over his hair.  Gavin as enjoying a snack of apples and peanut butter, and apparently while Mommy was washing dishes, Gavin decided that he should wipe the peanut butter he got on his hands in his hair.  You can't even get mad about stuff like that!

 Play date lunch.

 I think toddlers sitting in grown up chairs is just so cute!

 A lot of our play date buddies have infant siblings now, which is who this gated area was for, but the big kids were the most interested in playing in here.  Gavin and Olivia kept calling it their "house."

Visiting Bryce in Geneseo

Back in October, we had a chance to get back to Geneseo to visit with Shane, Karyn and Bryce (who moved to Detroit in the summer, so we don't get to see them very often!).  Since Bryce is Gavin's only cousin (for now!), we really wanted to give the boys a chance to hang out and play.  Now that they're both older, Gav and Brycers are actually able to interact with each other, and its fun to watch.

Gav and Brycers hanging out in the jammies

 Mee Ma and her two favorite grandsons

 Check out the look Gavin is giving Bryce.  Poor Brycers just wanted to be like his big boy cousin and play with the same toys, and Gav was just not in the sharing mood!

 Bryce chasing Gavin around the table while Gavin hoards his toys :)

 This pic reminds me a lot of a picture of my younger cousin Lisa and I at about this same age.

 I wish this picture hadn't turned out so dark, but a nice moment with "Great Mee Ma."

 Brycers and Gav with their great grandma.

Gymnastics Class

Despite our absence from the blog lately, we haven't been slacking on taking pictures of our cute little guy!  Here's the last few months split into several different blog entries.  This blog is pictures from Gavin's gymnastics class.  Gav has been doing "gymnastics" for about a year now, and it is an absolute favorite of his.  Nothing makes him more excited than putting on his "star" shirt (their uniform!) and driving over to gymnastics.  In fact, every time we drive by the building the class is held in, Gavin yells "There it is, theres gymnastics!"

Gavin started out gymnastics in the baby class, which is really more about building basic motor skills and getting the kids to understand who the teacher is and to follow simple directions and routines.  The baby class all takes place in what they call the baby gym.  Now Gavin is in the transition class, which takes place partially in the baby gym and partially in what we call the "big boy gym."  After this session, his classes will be entirely in the big gym, and after that, he ditches us parents entirely and goes to class on his own!  Its hard to believe how grown up he is already!

Gavin's favorite gymnastics class activity, the trampoline!  Gavin is known as the expert jumper in his class, and has taught several of his classmates the finer points of a perfect butt bomb.

 jumping for joy

 Midway into the butt bomb.  Since this class, Gavin has learned to do a butt bomb and go right back into a jump without missing a beat!

 The smaller ball pit, another Gavin fave.

 Mommy and Gav.

 Gavin and Miss Susan starting "circle time."  Gavin LOVES circle time (which is funny to us because for his first few classes, he absolutely hated circle time).  Gavin thinks he is assistant coach and helps Miss Susan lead all the songs and activities.

 Gav and his classmates "listening" to directions in the big boy gym.

 A good visual of the length of attention span for 2 year olds :)

 Parachute time.  This is another activity Gavin used to not be very interested in that he now loves.

 Bubble blowing action shot.  Gav is still working on his bubble blowing skills, I'd say he is successful about 50% of the time.

 Helping his friends pop the bubbles.

 Every class ends with stamps on your hands, feet and belly :)

 Gavin LOVES his teacher Miss Susan and always gives her a big hug (sometimes two!) before leaving.

Gav's photo shoot slideshow

Gav and I were bored tonight so I introduced him to the Photo Booth app on my Mac (basically a program that can take pics every 3 seconds using the webcam).  Gavin loved it, so I created a slideshow from the almost 100 pics that he took (don't worry, I edited!).  The slideshow is my creation, but the poses are all Gavin originals.  Enjoy!