It only comes but once a year:)

Yesterday was my birthday. Thirty-one-derful, as Matt says. 

I'll take it;).

Friday night my parents sent us out to a nice dinner sans the little guy (he got to hang with grandma for the night). We enjoyed some good fondue....mmmmmm:)

Yesterday, Matt and Ben surprised me with a pumpkin-picking excursion, cider donuts, steaks on the grill for dinner and red wine:). 

Some photos from the lovely pumpkin patch.....

Perfect birthday, perfect start to autumn:).

Happy Fall

xoxo

September

Happy September

Also known as 'the best month of the year'. 

Not just because of back to school glee and the smell of sharpened pencils (even when you don't go to or have a little in school)...

Not just because of warm days and cool nights (requiring sweet, cozy sweaters:))....

Not just because of the crisp air and bold colors that Mother Nature blows our way...

Not just because hydrangea blooms turn into magnificent large purple, speckled eggs....

Not just because of pumpkin-scented, pumpkin-colored, or pumpkin-anything....

Not just because we pull the soft slippers out of the closet and dust them off to prepare for two seasons of use...

Not just because of our (now) annual tradition of a week on the beach at Cape Cod...

Certainly not just because it's my birthday month...

But because of it all

and more.

Wishing you a very happy and healthy September 2011.

xoxo
B.

A Weekend of Firsts

Happy mid-August:).

This past week felt a lot like the beginning of autumn; the days were rainy and dark, the night air had an early fall-ish chill. I'm trying so hard to just soak up the end of this summer, to be present and to bask in Ben's first summer,but I find my usual childhood giddiness with the onset of fall creeping in. 

Today we split and stacked wood; the wood that will provide the sole source of warmth for our home from October through April. And the whole time that I was stacking, the smell of logs had me day dreaming about apple picking, toasting pumpkin seeds, baking pies, lighting cinnamon-scented candles and snuggling up on the couch with a cozy blanket and a steaming cup of cider. Oh, how I love fall. And this fall, Ben's first fall, will be filled to the brim with everything that there is to love about the season. I'm going ten-fold this year. Ben may not remember his first autumn, but I'm laying the foundation for years and years of tradition to come. And it is going to be sweet, sweet, sweet:).

But I mustn't let the end of summer slip away without a proper goodbye. She is, after all, so very special in her own right. We're enjoying our summer, very, very much. This weekend we took the canoe out to our favorite little pond. We loaded the pup, the babe, a cooler full of snacks, wine, and the picnic blanket into the car and drove the two miles to the pond, where we relished in Ben's first (of many to come) canoe trip.

It was just perfect.

There is something so incredibly moving about watching my son experience his firsts in life. He's young now and won't remember this canoe trip specifically, but there will be so many canoe trips, so many campfires, so many frogs (he saw his first frog yesterday and laughed as it leaped out of my hands and onto his leg) for him to enjoy.

We're merely laying this foundation; a love of nature, of curiosity and activity, an appreciation of life. He won't remember these early firsts, but thankfully we will. And we'll keep them tucked away for a rainy fall day in the future... :)

Happy end of summer to you.

xoxo

gratitude

Happy November.

This month has always been a very special treat for me, for it's the perfect blend of fall and winter, with the excitement of the holidays folded in, generous dashes of family gatherings and beautiful decorations, rounded teaspoons of leaf piles, dustings of snow. I get giddy just thinking about it.

I think back to my childhood Novembers, which were always packed with a flurry of activity, family, delicious foods and smells wafting from the kitchen, pumpkin-anything, cozy nights in front of a holiday movie, with a roaring fire in the background. My parents raised us in a home wrapped in love and happiness and I can only hope that my children will feel and know the same. 

This November, we'll be spending a lot of time in our home, getting to know this little baby, who is still quite comfortable inside me, I might add;). We feel like we're as ready as we'll ever be to welcome this little guy into our home. A home that we built on love for each other... and now a love for this little boy (and Luna too, we must not forget her:)). I look at how Matt is preparing for 'the big day' and it nearly brings tears to my eyes. He's already a proud papa- it's so sweet. He's so protective and attentive and he won't let me do anything around the house. He rubs my belly every day with such a proud look on his face, something that Benjamin will never see, at least not from this perspective, but something that I get to see every day, and will cherish forever.

I'm full of gratitude this November. Gratitude for my past, for our future, and for today.

Happy November:)

xoxo