Trick or Treat!

It's All Hallows Eve here in the barrel and we stepped out to sample the local sugar confections....

Elias discovered the joys of many different styles refined sugars present themselves in. Favorites of the eve: Tootsie Roll Pops, Sour Twizzlers, and Fun Dip. Consuming these items was followed by large bounds of energy. Halloween was certainly a well-enjoyed evening.

Pumpkin Time

We are getting ready for Halloween here in the barrel. Elias has his army of Drucolmo and Mr. Lantern to scare away the creepies and to delight the treaters.

Master of the Utensil!

This post goes out to all of Mama's therapy friends. Elias has been working very hard and for about 3 weeks has mastered both the spoon and fork with chunky purees. He was quite the natural and had no difficulty with this skill at 16 months. Please admire below:

A Little Fall Fun

This weekend we made our annual trek to the southern part of the state. The trees have all turned to their yellows, reds, and browns. The crispness has finally met mornings. Although we had an extremely dry and hot summer, Fall has shown some beauty in Indiana. So we celebrated with going to a pumpkin patch (strategically located on the Huber Farms) with Miss S. and for some wine tasting as well to stock out cellar in preparation for the holidays.

Deciding which pumpkins to bring home....Mama loved the lone white one.

Elias is SO big!

Barrel tasting anyone? These don't look like our barrel...

We got to ride the tractor to and from the patch with Miss S.

We stayed with Miss S in Louisville. Not only did we get to meet Sweet Adeline...sorry no pictures of the little lady who is the new daughter of Mr. J and Ms. A, but we got to play with Ringo!

We ended the weekend with a little light shopping at the outlet mall and then headed home. Needless to say we were all tuckered out by the end of Sunday. And will curl up in hopes of a Colts win this evening, sipping our new wine and playing with our new tractor.

O'zapft is! Wir geht nacht Deutschland!

This year marks a very special anniversary....the 200th year of the marriage celebration of Konig (King) Ludwig I and his bride Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen, also known as the Oktoberfest. So we decided about 2 years ago that we would return to Germany to join in this very special occasion. We were also able to bring Elias to see his extended family and the beautiful sits of his Oma's home country. Needless to say a very good time was had by all and we were able to soak in the local celebrations. 

Sipping Starbucks in the airport like Daddy

Discovering the inner workings of the airplane

Although Elias has been on many flights (4-5 hours), this was our first attempt internationally with a raging toddler. We were fortunate that going over Elias slept most of the trip, however this was not the case coming home. Keeping a very active 16 month old entertained was quite the challenge for 10 hours.

Elias was VERY excited about FC Bayern  München gear!

Opa's castle

Dressed to celebrate! 

Elias drinking from his stein (of lemonade...) 

Give a boy a rock and a stick and he's happy!

All the new grandparents and their boys!

Enjoying time with his 2nd cousins

 Mama and Daddy were able to enjoy a FC Bayern  München game against Mainz. The seats were amazing, the playing was not. We lost 2:1.

Our new summer home ;)

Auf Wiedersehen! Tschuss!

End of Summer Highlights

So sorry to our faithful readers for the lack of posting. Our barrel has been filled with much activity all summer and ending in a special vacation. (Stay tuned for a separate post featuring our trip.... ) After moving into the new barrel, we have been spending time enjoying the new space and getting further settled in.

Playing with friends

Loving the neighborhood slide

Reconnecting with the hemophilia community and getting to meet the writer of the Hemophilia Parent's "Bible"

Celebrating friends getting married

Trying new foods...sushi anyone?

Sitting in a firetruck at the neighborhood picnic

Overall this has been quite an enjoyable summer. We have gotten to see our little monkey blossom into a raging toddler--one who is quite curious about the world, loves to run, play soccer (called "futball" here),  giggle, blow and place kisses, read books, play with sticks and rocks, and generally is very easy going as long as he can get all his energy out. He's incredibly social and loves other children. We all feel pretty lucky to have such an amazing little boy.

Stay tuned for a recap of our Big European Adventure....