Last weekend we attended an event called "Spooky Hollow" at a local apple farm. We rode together in a 12 passenger van and were quite cozy (and carsick) by the time we arrived. But it was so worth it! We enjoyed the grounds and a hayride along with a delicious dinner or tri tip! The spiced apple cider was bomb too.

After dinner they had a hoe down dancing, contests and a festive play. Our group dominated the seed spitting contest and apple eating. Riverside Pride. ;)

bff time!

some of the girls

I would totally go again next year! We laughed hard, ate good food, and won some contests...what's better than that? :)

And PS Disneyland was a blast! But we didn't get home till 12:30! Yikes. More on that tomorrow!

Ahhh this weekend was jam packed with FUN! Fall is finally (kind of) in the air and we took full advantage by going to a festive dinner/hay ride with friends followed by the pumpkin patch the next day. I was lucky enough to have my bff visit (again!) which made the festivities that much more enjoyable. :)

We headed to Live Oak Pumpkin Patch on Sunday and while it was a warm 85 degrees it still felt like fall with all the pumpkins, corn fields, caramel apples, and kids running around in their Halloween attire.

one day i'm hoping to swap that pretend baby for a real one ;)

my little pumpkin

the post wouldn't be complete without this cheese face or Kelly Diana

loving every minute with this girl lately!

pretty sure she's asking for a pony for christmas...start working overtime M!

on second thought she may ask for a goat...that might be more affordable

stupid noon sun. should have waited till "golden hour." sigh. next year.

That pretty much sums up our pumpkin patch experience and I can't wait to share about the rest of our weekend shenanigans tomorrow. Today we are headed to Disneyland for trick-or-treating with Mickey and friends! Yay!

I've been loving making fall treats lately and the weather here is finally cooling down! No more AC and I've actually been able to snuggle on the couch with a blanket at night. Yay! Yesterday I made some pumpkin muffins (recipe here). I doubled my batch so I could freeze half and use them as breakfast for B when we are in a hurry to get out the door. She calls them donuts for some reason and I'm not going to break the news to her. :)

the cider was SO good! I highly recommend it!

Lucky for me I have an excellent mixer at home. :) Crazy bed head and all!

Our friends are headed to a "Spooky Hollow" type dinner this weekend complete with an apple eating contest, pumpkin pie eating contest, and jack-o-lantern carving contest...something for everyone! I'm really looking forward to that and the pumpkin patch on Sunday. Not to mention Disneyland on Monday for trick-or-treating with Mickey! Guess who's getting a corn dog...

I've been dying to share about my meet up with the lovely Natasha over at Schue Love! All the wedding posts have been cramping my style.;) On Sunday we had the pleasure of hanging out with the Schue Family at their beautiful house in South Lake Tahoe before we caught our flight home. And let me just tell you they are some of the kindest, most down-to-earth people you will ever meet! They even had bought a cute organic doll for B at a local toy store and served us pizza for lunch! I felt like we had known each other for ages and our conversation flowed so easily. We share a love for Nordstrom, husbands that cook, and dressing up our minis to name a few.

Blair and Ethan had a great time playing outside before we put them down for naps and enjoyed some adult conversation. :)

if i didn't know any better i would think these two were related! look at their hair!

roller coaster obsessed!

teaching Blair how to mow :)

the couple that mows together...

E was so cute and copied Matt's stance!

wilson was such a sweet dog!

So thanks again Natasha for letting us invite ourselves over and take over your Sunday afternoon! We had a great time! I'm looking forward to meeting other blogging friends face to face someday too!

 Oh toddlers...tricky little stinkers they can be! After Blair's stage five melt down at the rehearsal I was definitely sweating bullets over the wedding day. There was no way on God's green earth that she was going to walk down that aisle by herself. She wanted Mama and that was final. So we decided that she could walk down with me and hold my hand...money! She did an awesome job but I can't say that there wasn't bribing involved. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Here's how we managed to keep her happy during the ceremony...

And of course we prepped her for about a month before the wedding on what it would be like. We read her this book over and over and even had her practice throwing fake petals. Along with that we told her that if she did a good job walking down the aisle that she would get suckers and Frozen dolls. Proud parenting moment right there. But you know what? It worked. And we don't do it all the time so I was totally okay with it. She was a dream and everyone gushed over her the entire night. Plus we got to relax at the reception which was awesome. I'm putting this one down as a success in my book!

see that smile on my face? it spells "relief"

she carried her own mini bouquet

still practicing throwing her petals...

she took advantage of the empty dance floor right away!

and then found a friend :)

 There is no way on God's green earth that I could have managed being in my best friend's wedding without M. I can't say enough how grateful I was to have him there. He earned some serious brownie points! On the day of the wedding I was MIA from about 7 am to midnight which made for a long day for him. And he didn't just plop her down in front of the iPad for hours of Peppa Pig (which she would have loved) but instead he took her to a fancy breakfast at the hotel, followed by swimming/jacuuzi, a shower, a nap, getting her dressed and bringing her down for pre-wedding photos.

Hope this gave you some help to how to control your wild child little one at special events! :)

On the day of Kelly's wedding we took an early morning boat ride around part of Lake Tahoe. It was an awesome time to connect before the craziness of getting 10 girls hair and make-up done. We sipped mimosas and enjoyed the sunrise over Lake Tahoe. So beautiful!

the bride and her ladies

jump for joy...it's kelly's wedding day!

she adores him and so do i :)

can you believe the electricity went out after dinner for the remainder of the night?! we didn't let that stop us from tearing up the dance floor with portable speakers though! cue the flashlight feature on everyone's iphone. my request? taylor swift shake it off of course! :)

bridesmaid dresses by Watters and Watters

Tomorrow I'm talking all things essential for getting a toddler down the aisle without a tantrum. Stay tuned for that and of course for more pictures of the flower girl solo. :)