Maria's 7th & Autumn at Last

Hildebrand Dairy Farm- Kansas 

Sweet Will

notice the "cheetah" headband. I have no idea where it came from but she's all about the cheetah print

10 1/2 months

Pop-up hair salon

the bubble man

Undercover detectives in search of Flambeau.

The overalls live on! :)

 She's 7- this smart, loving, goofy, helpful little girl.

God was incredibly kind and generous to give us such a special soul as her.

Everyday at my side, this one.
Ready for the day the moment her feet hit the ground, I rarely catch Maria before she's dressed. Many times, her bed made as well.
Constantly toting off Benjamin- he just beams and bounces each time he sees her coming. She's the fun one, the one who tickles him, and the one who will deposit him in Mom's arms the nanosecond he whines for me. His personal little taxi service. :)

Funny, she is legitimately funny and regularly has everyone laughing, especially over the dinner table.

Just yesterday she was trying to keep Paul (and herself) occupied while sitting in the waiting area for quite some time. She had decided she was an evil doctor and she would quickly stab Paul with her poisonous needles , one in each hand, making him belly laugh while she quietly cackled her evil doctor laugh -bizarre, a little morbid, and totally Maria!

Maria's birthday just happened to be the first cold day of Fall- perfect for our little fall baby who was brought home in the first snow of the year.

The big boys stayed up late with me decorating, wrapping presents and conspiring. It was fun to have their added energy and enthusiasm when I was feeling more tired than inspired!
We got a special throne made for her at the table, complete with a wine glass, and we cooked up "clues" to  her birthday scavenger hunt for the next day.

This year, because of the weather and because Alex was gone, we did things a little different.
Instead of one big scavenger hunt with presents at the end, she recieved a number of different clues throughout the day (each leading to one present) by way of the doorbell and a mysterious envelope dropped for her.

It was a lot of fun and helped to drag out her birthday all day long.

After her special breakfast the kiddos played with Perler Beads all morning long and eventually we bundled up and headed to a really neat park we'd never been to.
Snacks for lunch.
Home for cupcakes, more playing, bubble baths, and we ended the day with (what else?) pizza and a movie.

We were lucky enough be able to hit up a couple of different Fall Festivals these last couple of weeks as well. They seemed to be mysteriously well timed with the weather which was a really lovely bonus.
Just when we were starting to wonder if the leaves would ever change here and the weather ever become reasonable, Fall finally arrived. Mostly a yellow tree here and there but once in awhile a vibrant orange or red.

The change has been most welcome. :)

Alex is supposed to be home in a couple of weeks. We can hardly wait.

*Note to self: Benjamin started crawling a week before 10 months old. In the last month he's mastered that and started to practice standing by himself. We got the "duck walker" out yesterday and he can push it a little ways by himself. He's always very pleased with himself and makes sure to clap when we tell him "Good job!'