Emmet's first 100 days marked by a trip to the plantations and a wild hat

This weekend was an exciting one. Grandma Neta was in town and so was our friend Boo. Nai nai also told us that the 100 day milestone was an important and fortuitous one for babies. She gave Emmett a gift of a couple of good luck tassels, with which we adorned him, along with the first wearing of his tiger hat.

On Friday evening, we built a magnificent fire and caught up on news with Boo. Sarah and Emmett went to bed a little early to catch up on rest and fight the plague that has descended upon the house. For some reason, Boo decided to sleep outside in his tent.

On Saturday morning we got up, got dressed and headed out for a day in the fall weather. Here's Emmett all snuggly and warm in his flannel pants and Danish sweater. He's always ready for the adventure ahead!

I'm bummed that this picture is blurry, but putting it in anyway, as it is one of few full family shots.  We got some rain, which we're all hoping is an indication of a snowy winter. Any reason to throw on the galoshes is good enough. Here's the family in front of the beautiful redwood tree at the botanical gardens at the Cornell plantations.

All dressed in green. 

Brilliant fall flowers

The secret door to the magic shade garden kingdom. Lots of wild ginger, too. 

Striking fall colours!

An interesting fern in a beautiful autumn woods

That's a big pumpkin, papa!

After the botanical garden, we headed over to Dano's for OPT brats and German fare.  This was a first trip for both the Dude and Boo.  Technically, the Dude has been there before, but only as a passenger in Sarah's belly.  He was amazingly well behaved despite the leisurely pace of service.  Boo was a pretty good boy, too.

At dinner, I had a Lucky Hare Brewing Fall n' Oats that was so good we drove straight to the brewery after.  I got a regular sized beer, but Emmett can only handle small glasses at this point.  The brewery is in the brewers' former rental property.  Boo and I waxed philosophical about the buildings in which breweries exist.  It's a testament, I think, to the quality of the brew that, despite the humble abode in a region lousy with million dollar chalets, that the street was lined up and down with cars.  Our advice to brewers, spend your time, energy, and money on the beer, not the building.

When we returned home, we dressed Emmett in his lucky tassels and tiger hat for his hundred day milestone.

Then we were all whooped and it was time for bed.  One more change for Chopper for the day; this time, into some sweet PJs that his aunt and uncle sent him.  Thanks guys!

If I have anytime this week, I'll share photos of our bike rides, the market, children's garden, and fall foliage drive on Sunday.  Today, was more of a business day.  We visited another day care provider, met with an HR person for Sarah, picked up diapers (cuz running out would be a true disaster!), chopped wood, cleaned house, and worked on our budget.  I'll provide one sneak peak since it's unlikely I'll ever get to that blog:

The family working on the budget.  "It's ok, momma.  Try that calculation again.  I'm sure it'll work this time!"

Mom and dad come to visit

Mom and Dad came to visit last week, and we couldn't have planned a better way to wrap up our summer. 

Indy has found the bean tipis to her liking.  They offer shade, a spot to supervise, and of course, beans.  I lost many beans, most of my peas, and all of my grapes to this predator.

The visit coincided with the harvest time for the hops and Mom and Dad made chipper volunteers.  We took our hops to Erik and checked out his brewery and hops.  Later in the week we went to Hopshire Farm Brewery's CoHoperation Celebration when the brewing and growing community bring the hops they've grown to Hopshire to make a community IPA.  What that meant to us was some good beer, good friends, and really good pulled pork.

The field next to the house is beautiful, but also producing a dizzying array of allergens.  Poor Sarah and Eva were beside themselves.  Both have since recovered.

Mom and Dad and I hit some antique  malls mid week and saw lots of cool old stuff.

We also checked out the Plantations.  There was a bit of wind and rain throughout the week, but we managed to find plenty of sunshine, too.  The Plantations was amazing with lots of flowers and trees in peak season.

I love how Mom and Dad point things out to each other and always have an idea about where the plants might fit in their gardens.

The Plantations provide quite the home for honey bees.  It was good to see so many of them.

Mothers Day Weekend

These photos are from this weekend and the days leading up to it.

Dingy helped me fix the riding mower.  The nice thing about having dogs is that one is never without a helper.

 This is from Matt's last day.  My first student teacher experience was... ok.  The kids really liked him and even wrote a song and a story for him.

 Matt adopted some of my less effective practices.  Here, two students are sitting in my chair.  Instead of asking them to move out of a chair they shouldn't be in in the first place, Matt is contorted around them to work on the computer, setting up the next lesson.  Hilarious.

 Eva helped me "prune" the smallest of the apple trees.  Veneta had lots of helpful advice, too, but didn't stick around for the picture.

 We went to the Plantations and Sarah took us on a wildflower walk.

 Mom and I competed for most pictures taken.  Here a vortex opens as I take a picture of Mom taking a picture of a flower.

 Wildflowers are much too small for me, so I wondered around IDing trees.  Ash.

 Beech

 Basswood

 White Poplar

 This is the larger of the two apple trees that I pruned.

 Had to have a beer before I cut all the branches off.

 Sarah mowed the lawn while I pruned trees and weed whacked.

Jonas helped with the pruning.  Veneta gave me lots of great advice.  We had a great weekend.  I didn't take any pictures of the Migration Celebration at the Ornithology Lab and all the awesome raptors we saw, including the merlin, eagle owl, kestral, golden eagle, barred owl, great horned owl, and some crazy peregrine falcon hybrid.  We went to the Farmers Market and Hopshire Farm Brewery, too.  Had another great weekend with the moms.