pumpkins and candy

although we don't celebrate halloween, this season is practically begging you to stuff your face with candy, carve a pumpkin or two (the one on the left is my first one ever!), and have a Harry Potter marathon. and so that's what we've been doing...

growing up, my mom and another family we were close to would get together and have treasure hunts for yummy treats like pumpkin pies instead of dressing up and trick or treating. but these days, it's all about the store bought candy. except not the scream cadbury eggs. ew, yuck!

my favorite candy is twizzlers. usually i try not to buy them because once i have one, i can't stop myself. it's frightening.

johnny's so long at the fair

on saturday we bundled up the baby and drove down to the Georgia State Fair, which moved this year (apparently, according to the Houston Chronicle which seems like an odd place to learn about the Georgia State Fair...) to a new location: the parking lot of the Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton. now, if concrete and yellow parking lines under foot don't scream Fair! to you, i can't say as i recommend it. it was much more like a carnival than a fair. re: toothless, one-armed hagglers selling candy apples and the chance to win a mask for $3! and the smallest carousel i've ever seen.

but on a happier note: fried everything. and a petting (feeding) zoo!

the sun was shining. the day was cool. we rode the carousel, we won some masks, we fed some goats and we conquered many fried foods.

we didn't see any clowns. but there was one really cute Wiley Bear.

and his mama and papa

for the love of all pumpkins

as a kid i loved pumpkin pie so much i'd ask my mom to make it for me instead of cake for my birthday? i kind of ODed on it to the point that now i only like pumpkin pie around thanksgiving. sometimes i wonder if i make it just for the sake of nostalgia. but i do love pumpkin bread and pumpkin lasagna and pumpkin muffins and pumpkins cookies! pumpkin anything, it's a fact, is sure to brighten up any day. except of course if you don't like pumpkin (apparently pumpkin is not big in Russia, or at least wasn't when a friend of ours was growing up there).

and there is no better way to gear up for fall than with a saturday morning trip to a pumpkin patch! can you believe that i still have my doubts about Georgia, when there are all these fun things to do around? i mean i never went apple picking or pumpkin patching in texas, but there you have it, there is no logic to the heart.

anyhoo, we pumpkin patched and much fun was had by all. i'm still thinking about those fried raspberry pies. why not fried pumpkin pies, is what i wanted to know. but the raspberry was darn tootin' good.

okay, prepare for a million pumpkin photos:

another family trip to stone mountain

well hello there! how was your weekend? ours was pretty great, actually. i had my doubts because we were supposed to wake up real early to make breakfast for church (not the whole church, just the extra special ones who come to clean on saturday morning) and we didn't have any plans. i hate not having plans, because this can sometimes mean not doing anything. but! i sneakily got to sleep in on saturday morning (only fair since the baby kept me up like half the night). and then loverboy and i decided to get coffee and put our stone mountain pass to use. it's like we like it there or something.

see, i like being outside, loverboy said to me (not at all disparagingly, oh no), when i remarked how nice it was. you wanted to see people and 'things besides trees,' he reminded me. well! i like being outside too, just so you know. plus, there were actually a lot of people there. ;) the trees were just okay. but the weather! the weather! so dreamy. i plan to go outside at least once this week. ;)

because wilder does nothing by halves, he very much liked the whole thing until he didn't, and then he really didn't. loverboy finally took him out of the stroller when he began causing a ruckus, but i really didn't mind it. babies yell sometimes. what?

it's everyone's favorite season!

can you believe yesterday was the first day of fall? in college i liked to send out emails on the equinox, wishing everyone i knew a happy season. there is just something delicious about the start of a season. especially the fall season. i mean, isn't fall everyone's favorite? i guess some people like spring (only people in london and new york city i think). and of course, summer is every kid's—and teacher's—favorite. but fall! fall is everyone's favorite.

hot cocoa and toasty knitted scarves and roaring fires and biscuits with stew and pumpkin pie? yes. yes, please.

fall is also my favorite because it's my birthday, and while i've lost interest in getting older, i just can't seem to lose interest in celebrating myself. ;)







it was at this time four years ago that we moved to atlanta (see photos above). i can't believe we are going on our fifth year here, already. it sometimes still feels like we're recent transplants.

last year when we got pregnant, i got a job and we started looking for a house, i realized that we would probably be here for at least a little while longer (okay, maybe i am still not completely convinced of that). then, i read this article and got more excited to get to know this city we now call home better.

at the start of every fall i kind of like to put together a list of things to accomplish—i set an intention, if you will (i'm very yoga right now;). last year's sort of list. a trip to montreal is still on loverboy and i's perennial trips-to-take list.

this fall, i'm dreaming of:

pumpkin festivals and the Georgia state fair,
daily walks in the park and weekend jogs around stone mountain
for sloshing in leaves and letting the lars-dog run free,
seeing my baby crawl, and hoping he doesn't start to walk yet,
cupcakes at the new sprinkles store (coming soon!),
many more donuts from donut king,
and this bourbon-caramel pumpkin tart,
chicken tortilla soup and maybe some beef stew,
finally decorating the nursery and some other projects,
introducing yoga to my favorite loverboy of all,
reading this and this and maybe this,
cooking our very first thanksgiving dinner,
going to the zoo, the atlanta botanical garden and the yellow river game ranch,
maybe catching a baseball game and another ballet,
and, most importantly, spending my days with the cutest baby (and sweetest papa) there ever was.

here's to a happy fall! 

p.s. look at those 2009 chickens! can you believe we were both in our 20s then? and can you believe loverboy is still wearing that grey shirt? just kidding, it's a different grey shirt. ;) and also, you can tell we had just moved from austin because a.) i was still wearing flipflops everywhere and b.) the in-laws took us to little five points to make us feel at home. so sweet:)