#1 Piece of Advice for People Under My Roof

C and Bean are sitting on either side of me, watching Sesame Street while I take advantage of some baby free time to work on photos.  C, looks at me and grins...  and then slooooowly extends her index finger and heads towards my keyboard...

"Buttons!"

"No, C."

Her finger keeps moving towards the keys... as the distance closes, her grin widens.

"BUTTONS!"

"No, C!  Don't push my buttons!"

Heh.  Hehe.  Sound advice for life with a happy Mama, wouldn't you say?

Smooshies!

He's got crater sized dimples, delicious chubby cheeks, and sparkly baby blues. 

That combo makes it easy to forgive him when he grabs my face with his two meaty little hands and chews. 

Well, come to think of it, that's pretty cute too. 

Slobbery, but cute. 

There's Something I'd Never Thought I'd Threaten

Today I managed to get our little family out the door to church.  (OK, full disclosure, Shaun was home and so it wasn't a solo deal as it would normally be).   Last week's snow pushed our annual Christmas service to this week so Bean made a Christmas tree ornament that looked like a tiny baby Jesus in a little manger.  She was VERY proud of her ornament.  In fact, every time it came across C's vision, she would screech, "BABY JEEEESUS!  BABY JEEEESUS!  Peas?  Peas?  Have BABY JEEEESUS?!"

Needless to say, Bean didn't want to give it up.  "But I don't want to share my baby Jesus!"

"JEEEESUS!  BABY JEEESUS!"

And so on... and so on...  It got a little crazy.

Anyway, after lunch, I was trying to hurry Bean into her car seat so I could help her buckle up and she was being a trifle difficult.  "Mama, I can't buckle the top buckle.  I can't reach it."  "Mama, my arms are tired."  "Mama, I want YOU to do it."  Etc., etc., etc.

Finally, my patience were shot and I snapped at her,

"BEAN!  If you don't get your arms into those car seat straps right now, I'M GOING TO TAKE BABY JESUS AWAY!"

She got her arms into the straps.

C piped up, "BABY JEEEEEESUS!  HAB IT!!!"

Oh good glory.

Merry Christmas!

May you and yours be blessed this Christmas season and all year long!

Wash The Dishes, Do The Laundry...

I've often joked that the only reason I have kids is to raise tiny indentured servants that will do my bidding. 

Kidding, of course.

The only reason I have kids is to do that AND to take care of me in my old age. 

Obviously. 

But in order to make indentured servants worthy of earning their keep, I'm finding that I need to invest considerable time in teaching them the finer arts of how to clean. 

Yesterday, I was coaching Bean on how to remember the proper location for her toys as opposed to pushing them out of sight into another room.  (She's quite masterful in the realm of "out of sight, out of mind")  She became more and more exasperated and completed each assigned task with the maximum amount of huffing and sighing that she could get away with. (Which isn't much). 

Finally, she had enough of my instruction, and turned towards me, hands on hips, and said,

"MooooOOOOOM!  I am NOT Cinderella!"

Heh! Not yet, kiddo...  But now that you mention it...  those dishes could use some washing... and the laundry needs doing... and hey, the toilets?  Hmmm.... 

Cinderelly, Cinderelly
Night and day it's Cinderelly
Make the fire, fix the breakfast
Wash the dishes, do the mopping
 

And the sweeping and the dusting
They always keep her hopping  

She goes around in circles
Till she's very, very dizzy
Still they holler

Keep a-busy Cinderelly!

A Poll - Indulge Me, Please?

So, answer me this, my friends...

Is it completely nosy to ask a friend if they're planning/hoping to have more children?

Or is that one of those utterly taboo questions you should leave well enough alone? 

Obviously, exceptions made for very close friends, (who most would ask) and near strangers, (who I imagine most wouldn't).

Weigh in, folks! 

At Least I'll Have Seen It Coming

Bean's in a funny stage lately.  She sings.  A lot. About EVERYTHING. 

She hums and sings and until recently, the vast majority of her songs consisted of exactly 5 words, sung over and over and over and over. 

"Mommy is making foooood.  Mommy is making FOOOD!  Moooooooommmy is making food."

Over and over. 

And over.

And while that was driving me crazy cute, I'm very glad that her songs are developing into nice, storytelling ballads instead. 

Except, her songs are a trifle... dark. 

The other day, she lined up her animal figurines and one by one she tipped them over, singing, "allllll creatures must diiiiie.  All creatures die!  They all die!  And when they diiiiie, they fall over!"  in the cheeriest voice imaginable. 

Erm, ok.  I mean, it's true and all, but um, a song topic? 

And then today, in the car,

"Santa won't bring the presents and Christmas isn't cooooooming!   Because everyone was bad, bad, and my Mommy said NOOOOOOO.   No more presents for anyone!  But thennnnnn, Mrs. Clause said we have to rescuuuuue Sannnnta!  Or Christmas will be goooooone!"

Where does she get this stuff?  I mean, really? 

Sometimes she sings about cheerier stuff, so I think I can safely assume she won't be pulling out the black clothes and Emo music anytime soon. 

I hope. 

Little Things

Let's not kid around here...  I'm not getting a whit of sleep.  It's C-Rex, Part Deaux. 

But it won't last forever.  (I hope so, at least.)

For now, I'll enjoy moments like this...  Sayer has to be holding something, anything, to fall asleep...  that time, it happened to be my nose. 

I didn't mind :)

And Now We Truly Know Which Kid Takes After Me

Yesterday, the whole family was in the car headed to various places for the evening.  As usual, it was a trifle chaotic.  Sayer was squealing, C was erm, singing.  Shaun and I were trying to have a conversation.  And Bean was declaring loudly for everyone to hear that she did NOT want to hear anyone else. 

I told her to hold her ears. 

That worked for a minute.  (Probably less).  Then again, "I DO NOT WANT TO HEAR OTHER PEOPLE TALKIN'!"

I rolled my eyes, sighed and asked the impossible question, "Why?"

"Because I am GRUMPY and I do NOT want to LISTEN to ANYONE!"

"OK, Bean, just chill for a bit, ok?  We're almost there."

There was a momentary lull in the cacophony before it started up again, double the decibel level. 

Bean screeched, "EVERYBODY NEEDS TO BE QUIET!!  PLEASE!"

And from the back seat, a little voice,

"Sister, chill!  Chill, Sissy, CHILL! CHILL SISSY!" 

(You can imagine the effect that had on the car... needless to say, Bean didn't think it was quite as funny as the rest of us did). 

A Good Friend...

A good friend is someone you can text when things get a little hairy...

JEN:  Ok, I'm done mothering.  Is 5pm too early for bedtime?

A great friend is someone who makes you crack up with Harry Potter allusions.


AMY:  Oh no!  No chocolate in the house?  Because I imagine how you're feeling right now is similar to a Dementor attack.

And a fantastic friend is someone who laughs just as hard at yours.   

JEN:  HAHA!  I'm beginning to think I need to summon a Patronus in the shape of Supernanny.   

(And come on, you know you wish you were us.  We emanate cool.  It oozes from our Harry Potter loving pores.)

Giveaway! General Mills Movie Cash!

Well, it's been awhile, friends, but alas, a giveaway is afoot.

General Mills is currently giving away movie tickets!  If you buy two specially marked packages of General Mills' cereals, you can get one free movie ticket through moviecash by using the codes inside each box.

And bonus (or curse, depending on how you look at it), the participating brands are all delightfully sweet...  Honey Nut Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Lucky Charms, Trix and Reese's Peanut Butter Puffs.

If your house is like our house, those are the "Mommy and Daddy" cereals for consumption when the kids aren't around.

Comment on this post for a chance to win four e-movie cash certificates, (worth $12 each) and a coupon for a free General Mills cereal.  If you'd like, include a good movie recommendation!  My husband likes to remind me that it's been ages since we've last seen a movie and I'm thinking it's time to catch one.  (But it better be good!)

Contest ends midnight on Sunday, December 13th.  Get a second entry if you tweet about this contest.  (Must post a separate comment with your twitter name :)

The must knows:  I was provided with 2 Movie gift packs of four e-tickets, product information and 2 coupons for free cereal from General Mills through MyBlogSpark in order to write this review.  (One to keep and one to give away).

Bunkies

I hate change.  I really do.  So I railed heavily against the inevitable change necessary in our house.  In order to fit our kids into rooms other than our own, we needed to bunk up the girls and give Sayer the smaller room that C was in.

I didn't wanna.

Because really, what good could come from combining two girls in one room?  Nothing!  Nothing could come of it but things like early mornings, yelling and talking before bed, waking each other up, and mischief.

Come on people, you KNOW it's true.

So understandably, I procrastinated.

"Oh, Sayer is fine in our room!  We don't mind!"  Shaun would raise an eyebrow at me when I'd say that, recalling the need to whisper and tiptoe around the sleeping baby next to our bed.

"I want to wait for ____ to happen before we change them over!"

"Well, we'll eventually do it...  I mean, maybe soon?"

Yeah, I made LOTS of excuses.  (Who could blame me?)

Anyway, vacation forced our hand.  When traveling, most kids aren't afforded the luxury of having their own rooms.  So, *deep breath* we bunked them up.

The first night was ok.  At least that's what Shaun said.  I wasn't there.

The second night was a little more insane.  C shrieked, Bean fussed, and there was general chaos all around.

That chaos ended up with both girls in a full sized bed together, head to toe.  C was enamored with the idea of a big bed and Bean liked the novelty.  But they fell asleep that way, so that worked.

The next night, the chaos erupted again, this time in the form of a VERY tired and VERY cranky Bean.  I jokingly told Shaun that if Bean wouldn't stop carrying on like a baby, maybe he should stick her in the crib.

He did.

And wouldn't you guess...  not a peep from either of them.

So vacation went onward and by the end, they were actually going to bed well with no fussing.

Moral of the story?  If you want me to do something I don't want to do, force my hand with a vacation.

Preferably one with a tropical beach and drinks with umbrellas.

(And oh, the girls are sleeping in their rightful places... Bean's crib days were numbered).

A Very, Merry, Quirky Christmas

I love Christmas.  I make no secret of it.  I love Christmas and Christmas trees and presents and candles and evergreen wreaths, cookies and cakes, parties and play, families and food.  Christmas is awesome. 

But GAH, the commercialism.  It's bad.  Worse yet is that it starts BEFORE HALLOWEEN! 

Buy!  Buy!  Buy!  Spend!  Spend!  Spend!

I like buying a good gift as much as the rest of them.  I love the look on someone's face when I can give them something that they really love.

I married a bit of a Scrooge.  He likes Christmas alright.  (He really is one of the best present givers I've ever met. 

 He's been harassing me for years about my love for cutting down Christmas trees.  "Are you SURE you don't want a fake tree this year?"

"Do you KNOW, $40 will feed a kid in Africa for a MONTH!"

Every time, I glare at him and say, "NO."  No, no, NO.  NO.  That's my favorite tradition.  The tramping through the field in the cold.  The fighting over who picked the prettiest tree.  The pine needles all over the--

Wait a sec.

I caved.  I told him that we didn't have to do a real Christmas tree this year. 

I had been reading through blogs and came across this entry in Vitafamilae.  I was struck by how lovely their tree turned out.  Then I read their reasoning and was sold. 

So that's what I suggested.  A bare tree. 

He heard "free" and he was sold. 

So that's what we did.

And in my opinion?  It couldn't be lovelier. 

May you challenge yourself this holiday season to find ways to change, to serve, and to love.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Isn't it pretty?

Oy

It's been awhile, no?

We're mostly settled in at home after a 2 week vacation in Texas. 

I think I have a vacation hangover. 

Anyone want to sponsor a vacation for me?  Alone?  (Ok, maybe Shaun too?) 

No one?  Fine. 

I'll settle for 5 minutes alone in a bathroom. 

(And now for something completely different.  A completely unrelated picture of my squishy ball of cute.  Come on, you know you love it.  I certainly do.)

Greetings!

Many well wishes from the great (flat) (mostly) state of TX!

Please excuse the lack of posting, as we've been and will be a bit buried with fun for awhile. 

Sayer - 3 Month Update

(Good GRIEF, how did 10 days of November fly by like that?  Ooof!)

My Snuggly Cebu,

Being that you hit the size of a 3 month old at oh, about 3 weeks, it's weird to think that you're only that old.  It feels like you've been here for so much longer than that.

You're by far the happiest of my babies.  When you're awake and you catch someone's eye, you grin.  You grin at your sisters.  You grin at me.  You grin at anyone who will talk to you.  Heck, you grin at the ceiling fan too. 

And it's so very easy to make you laugh.  You regularly crack up for no reason other than the tone of my voice when I talk to you.  And if I can't get you to laugh by talking to you, I can tickled you.  Without fail, I'll get at least a smile. 

It's a good thing you're so jolly.  You're probably the worst sleeper of all three kids. My body has actually begun to accept that it's going to get no more than 6 hours of decent sleep a night.  I keep reminding myself that it won't last forever.  Because it won't.  Those 5am wake-ups where you are remarkably reluctant to settle back into sleep will fade before I know it and I'll miss having the one time a day that's just you and me. 

You love being carried and "worn" by your Daddy and me... and it works out quite nicely as you conk out pretty easily in the carrier or sling, but dude, you keep growing at that rate and I'm going to need some complicated lever system to haul you around.

(No babies were harmed in the taking of this picture...)

I love you more than muffins and yes, you're spoiled to bits.  Your daddy called me out on it... and you know?  He's right.  But hey, he's been spoiling your sisters for years.  My turn :)

Love always from that lady who makes the crazy faces and carries you around all day,

Mama

C Monkeyisms

The other day, C woke up from her nap quite a bit crankier than usual.  I walked her into the kitchen to get her a snack to hopefully boost her mood. 

"C, do you want an apple or a pretzel?"

She stared at me. 

"An apple or a pretzel?"

Her stare turned into a glare.

"C?  Do you want an apple or a pretzel?"

She waited for one more second then flatly said,

"COOKIE." 

(She got the cookie)

__________________________________________________

 Shaun took C over to pet the cow at the farm this past weekend.  She grinned at it for awhile, saying "Mooooo!" and "Cooooow!" over and over.  The she got quiet, poked at the cow, and said,

"EAT YOU!" 


Apparently, she won't be following in her mother's quasi-vegetarian footsteps. 
___________________________________________________

 C's taken to calling Bean "Sister!" complete with the exclamation mark.  Lately, she's been narrating everything that's going on.  "Sister, POTTY!" "Sister, EAT!" "Sister, hug!"  and when Bean is throwing a complete conniption, "Sister, Crying!  SISTER CRYING!"  Bean gets so ticked.  Semi-sweet vindication.
___________________________________________________

C crawled over to me while I was nursing the baby and headbutted my leg.  I pretended to be wounded and she giggled.  Then,

"EAT YOU!" and she pretended to bite my arm. 

I should watch out, the girl's hungry.

Or Again?

Yesterday after dinner, Bean was looking at her placemat, (this particular one has all of the state flags on it), and asking Robin and me to name the states that go with each flag.  Robin would name them each in sing-song and because she was pointing to them in alphabetical order, I'd jump in whenever I thought I knew what came next.

She got to Oregon's flag and as she had for the last few, she asked,

"And what's this one?"

Robin:  "Orrregon!"

She jabbed at it again, "What's this one?"

"Orrregon!"

Again, "WHAT is THIS ONE?!"

Robin and I together: "Orrrregon!"

Bean poked at her placemat in frustration and yelled,

"STOP SAYING OR AGAIN!  I don't WANT to do it AGAIN!  What IS this one?"

After we finished trying to control our laughter, we told her we weren't saying "or again", but rather, "OREGON!"

"Oregon?  This one is Oregon?"

"YES!"

"oh!"

Apparently, we have a bit of a communication issue there.  Hehe.

A Baby and Her Blanket

A case of the post-nap crankies found its way here yesterday.

I think its cute, so I let it stay awhile.

Girls

These two

Will always

Make for a lot of laughs

But better yet, a lot of love.

Just Make It A Double

A few weeks ago, my friend Amy proposed a new photo project idea for the two of us to embark on together.  Every day, we post two photos, one from each of us.  We don't show each other the pictures beforehand.  Some days we have a theme, such as a color or an idea.  But generally, it's just two random photos, placed together by chance. 

The results are sometimes surprising.  The other day, we found the subjects of our pictures had almost the exact same head tilt.  Chance is sometimes funny like that.

So check in on our project, Just Make It A Double.  If anything, you'll get to check out some more photos by me and some pretty amazing stuff from Amy. 

Writing in the Sand

Just Beachy

Wow, it's been quite awhile!  We broke away from the busyness and headed off to the beach for a few days.  I'm in the midst of getting back into the swing of things, but here are some of my favorite shots from the trip:

 

 

More soon!

C's 17.5 Month Update

To My C,

You have gone through a remarkable transition in the last month.  No longer are you 100% baby.  Now?  Now you're far more toddler than I'm ready for.

I've stopped trying to get you down off of the dining room table anymore.  You take full advantage of when I'm feeding Sayer to climb up there and I'm tired of telling you over and over to get down.  When you're up there, you fiddle with whatever you find and periodically you look over into the living room at me and grin.  I now have to keep the table clean, which is probably a blessing in disguise.  Hey, call it bad parenting if you want, but alas, I can see you, which means you can't get into TOO much trouble.

But with those "gets into everything" moments, comes the funny ones, too.  Sometimes, when your Daddy comes home, he'll ask for a kiss or a hug.  Lately, you've been saying no.  But your Daddy figured you right out,

"Can I have a kiss?"
"NO."
"Can I have a hug?"
"No!"
"Can I have a wrestle?"
"YES!"

And off you two will go, wrestling and tackling all over the place.  You're a rough and tumble kid.

You've started repeating EVERYTHING that I say.  Including things that I shouldn't say.  The other day, I was changing your particularly ripe diaper and exclaimed, "EW!  STINKY BUTT!"  (For the record, "butt" is a strongly discouraged word in our house).  Without skipping a beat, you patted your diaper and repeated, "stinky BUTT!" clear as day.  And now?  Now you say it every time you need a change.  Lovely.  (But it could be worse).  Some of your new favorite words are "BAP!" (bath), "Geek" or "Gink" (drink), "Petty!" (pretty), "Moo-ee?" (movie or music, depending), "Cogadoogadoo!" (cockadoodledoo), and "Dank Ooo!" (thank you).

You love to dance, sing, wrestle, and run.  But you're also beginning to love reading and coloring, (when you're not eating crayons), and you're slowly starting to concentrate on small projects or tasks until completion, like helping me unload the dishwasher.

This stage of childhood is often the hardest.  You're just beginning to be verbal but not quite enough to be understood all of the time.  You have lots of desires, but sometimes I don't totally understand what they are.  And you often want to do things that you just aren't allowed to do.  But this is also the time of life where you're starting to be aware and to care about others.  You're developing a personality all on your own.  And your likes and dislikes are becoming quite apparent,

You like:
Green beans
Rock music
"Yelly Bees" (Jelly Beans)
"Noooo-Nooos!"  (noodles)
Baths
Outside
Going bye-byes
Your baby brother
Your blankets
Saying "Hold you" and reaching your arms up for a hug.

You don't like:
Broccoli
Being told "no"
Small dogs
Frozen things
Having dirty hands
Needing to stay still

I'd say that's fairly typical of toddler-hood.  :)

Sometimes I get wistful, watching you grow...  your babyhood flew by in a pregnancy induced fog.  Part of me will always wish for a do-over where I could grasp those little moments of you being small all that much more tightly.  But then, when you come over out of the blue to kiss your baby brother or you give something to your sister when she's sad, I realize that our family, while not exactly how I planned it, is perfect, just as it is.

So, here's to hoping you keep carving out your own niche in our crazy bunch.  I don't think you'll have a problem doing that at all.

Love always,

Mommio :)

Sisters

Sicky Mama today...  again.  But while I'm on the mend, here's something that makes me happy:

Love those two.

This Will Gross You Out

I'm just warning you now... if you're easily grossed out by bodily functions, you should probably skip this one.

I've been lucky with all of my children in that I've yet to have a drooler.  The most my kids ever drool is when they're in the very last stages of growing in a molar or three.  Even then, the drool is mostly a chin sheen as opposed to a soaked shirt. 

Granted... while they haven't been droolers, all three of them have been prolific spitters.  So alas, the laundry needs doing anyway, only with mine, it smells strongly of sour milk.  But I don't have to deal with that AND drool.  So that's good.

Well, Sayer's had a touch of a cold...  this has made him miserable and stuffy.  I carried him around all day yesterday and Shaun took over when he got to see him.  Shaun has a unique football hold that I can't manage with our son's ginormous body.  Anyway, he was holding him over his arm and I glanced over to see this:

I would be lying if I said I wasn't impressed.  Even in drooling, the kid does things BIG.  Thattaboy 

I Think I Need A Southern Dictionary

"Hey Mama!  Do you know what a heel is?"


"Hmm?  A heel?  Well--"


"No, Mama!  I'm going to teach you!  A heel is like a slipper..."


"Like a shoe?"


"Yeah!  Mommies wear them.  And girls.  And Ladies.  But not Daddies."


"Right!"


"And Mama?  A heel is also something that you can walk or drive on that goes waaay up high and then down again!"


"BEAN!  That's a HILL!"

"No, Mama!  HEEL!  THEY BOTH SAY HEEL!"

At the rate that the kid is picking up the Southern accent, I'm never going to be able to understand a darn word she says. 

Bleh

Sometimes, I feel like doing this to the world:

Today is blah.  I have 2.25 sick kids.  Bean has a cough, but is acting fairly normal.  C has boogers and is cranky as crud.  And I haven't the slightest idea as to whether Sayer's sick or if he's just a bit congested because that's how babies get sometimes.  But he's cranky and fusses through his feedings, so he probably has a touch of something.

On top of that, I'm TIRED.  Very, very tired.  The three kids were up throughout the night, ensuring that I didn't get more than 2 hours of sleep in a row.  (And that might have happened only once).  So I'm going to whine about it.

So yes, today's a blah day.  It would have been massively compounded if I had to make some semblance of order out of this house, but thankfully, that superman that I married cleaned the majority of the house yesterday.  He rocks. 

No, there's no point to this entry other than allowing me to vent and to share a fun picture of Miss Bean that cracks me right on up when I see it. 

Now?  Off to hunt up some ice cream.  Because really, what good is ice cream if not for its mood healing properties?

Sayer - 2 Month Update

Dear Sayer Doodle Boppa Noodle,

Upon seeing you, most people say,

"Oh!  He's so cute!"  This is followed by,

"What is he, like 5 or 6 months?"

Try barely 2.  Yeah.  I think that says it all.  From your 2 week mark to your 2 month mark, you gained 6 pounds and 4 inches.  It's no wonder you sleep a lot.  That kind of growing has to be exhausting.  Your grand total as of Friday is 15 pounds, 11 oz, and 25 inches long.  (For the record, your head is completely proportional to the rest of you.  That is to say, it's large).

Other than your chubbalubb factor, (which, in case you are wondering, I LOVE), you are doing things right on par with the average two month old.  Smiling at people, becoming best friends with the ceiling fan, sleeping sporadically, eating like a champ (as if there were any doubts there), and snuggling a lot.

Your sleep patterns aren't quite as good as Bean's were but aren't as bad as C's were.  So we're surviving.  It's kind of tough for you to get a decent nap unless you're in a sling, mainly because your sisters do not understand the meaning of "quiet" for any great length of time.  A harbinger of things to come?  Probably.  You'll never get a word in edgewise with those two... better get used to that now.

 (On a side note... I'm SO SORRY that I keep calling you C.  Poor kid, between that and the pink pacifier that I sometimes have to use, you're going to end up with an identity complex).

All in all, you're a perfectly plump, fantastically sweet little dude and I can't imagine what it was like before you were here.

Love always,

Mama

In Sympathy

The boy was decked out in his finest blue, but alas, his Daddy's beloved Cowboys were defeated.

So for you Cowboy fans? I offer these, in sympathy.

(And I didn't think I'd have to document the boy in his purple... but apparently, I should have. Bad day for football. Bad day indeed).

My Two Guys

Apparently, being able to fall asleep anywhere, anytime, in an instant is a distinctive male trait.  

The Apple Festival

This past weekend, our not-so-little-anymore family went to a local apple festival.  The rain held off long enough for us to be able to enjoy fresh pressed apple cider...

Then we cranked off the kernels on ears of feed corn,  (it was a true team effort... Sayer and I sat on the side and cheered)

 

Of course, we danced to a bluegrass band,

 

And said hello to an impossibly small looking Screech Owl, (looks like a distant cousin to Pidgwig)

 

It wouldn't be fall if we hadn't picked out some pumpkins, (with serious concentration)...

After which, with equal concentration, the girls painted their pumpkins...

Then they took turns trying out cowboy hats to find one for our scarecrow...

 

And of course, trying on the hats required some of their best scary faces.

Combine all of that with the deliciousness of apple fritters, apple dumplings, apple pie ice cream, corn chowder, kettle corn, apple cider, and BBQ sandwiches and I'd say it was a pretty nice day indeed.