Through The Years...

Our family sure has changed rapidly over the past 4 years.

Alden was born a week or two after this
picture was taken. He actually was here
for Christmas 2009.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like...

We made our 4th annual trip to Maple Row Tree Farm to chop down our tree. She's a beaut! I'll take a pic once she's completely decorated.

Too much Christmas cheer for Aldy!

Transformation

My favorite tree, a magnificent-old Oak that hangs over a colonial cemetery, eventually turns the prettiest shade of yellow during Fall. I vowed to get pictures of it this year and I'm glad I did since Hurricane Sandy blew all of its leaves off prematurely. Here she is in her seasonal splendor.

October 20, 2012 - red, orange, yellow and green 

One week later, October 27, 2012 - completely yellow

 

Fall Fun at the Pumpkin Patch

We made our annual visit to Jones Family Farms to get pumpkins two weekends ago. The kids had a great time and Ben and I took full advantage of the plentiful photo opps'.

My three munchkins

Blackballed

Alden is to our community pool as Jose Canseco is to the MLB.

Apparently, children in diapers are not allowed. Bogus law. I want to move.

Easter Festivities: Part 1

Last weekend, we ventured to the much beloved Lyman Orchards for their Annual Easter Apple Hunt. The weather was ridiculously uncooperative (ie: very cold!), but the kids still had fun.

Alden's first encounter with a costumed character. He actually enjoyed the bunny! Even Lanie didn't want her picture with him.

Lanie returns from the hunt with her bag of apples. (Disregard the little boy who looks like he's chasing her. I'm not sure what he's doing.)

Happy Fall

It seems I've been neglecting my blog for some time now. While I regroup and correct the error of my ways, enjoy these pictures from our trip to Jones Family Farm for their annual UNICEF Family Festival yesterday. Afterwards, we drove up the road to the Beardsley Cider Mill for apple picking. Apple crisp or an apple pie is definitely in our future.

Lake Compounce "Daycation"

So, I totally stole this collage idea from one of my new favorite bloggers at Enjoying The Small Things. (Check out her blog. She's an amazing photographer and takes the best pictures of her "littles". I've been very inspired by her.)

These images are made with the Hipstamatic app for your iPhone and laid-out in Photoshop. They are all from our trip to Lake Compounce today.

Afternoon T-Storms

Today was one of those perfect summer days when the late afternoon sunshine meets distant grey skies and, together, they team up to make the prettiest display of color found in nature. The green of the grass and trees becomes super-saturated and instantly the anticipation of a passing thunder storm makes you stop what you are doing to witness the display.

Grey skies across the river.

Boy playing his guitar on the roof outside of the home's widow's walk.

Storm cloud on its way. I wish I was able to photograph the lightening bolts.

I love how the ominous cloud seems to be heading straight for the house with the boy on the roof. (Click to make larger.)

Big Storm Today

Check this out: Lordship section of Stratford hit hard by storm

"(06/24/10) STRATFORD - The Lordship section of Stratford was also hit hard by Thursday’s fierce storm that wreaked havoc on Bridgeport.

The storm downed large trees onto yards all along Crown Street. Wires are down and power outages were also reported.

One Crown Street resident tells News 12 Connecticut he saw the funnel cloud in Bridgeport.

Residents have started the cleanup process."

We used to live right around the corner from here. The storm passed very quickly while we were at the orthopaedic's office getting Lanie's cast off (and then, unfortunately, a new one on, but that's a different story).

UPDATE: The news is confirming that it was, indeed, a tornado. We drove through there this morning and the damage is far more severe than I could have imagined. Here are a few pics I snapped while driving that don't begin to do it justice.

UPDATE 2: Just spoke with our old neighbor to make sure they are all ok. She said half of their tree fell onto her son's car. Our other neighbor's tree fell and completely demolished the back porch of our old house. She said another car down the street was crushed by a tree. The good news is that no one was hurt.

Surprise Snow

The weather forecast called for some rain around noon and possibly some flurries later in the afternoon. Well, we woke up to snow and it is still falling. It's the extra-pretty kind that sticks to the trees.

Lanie's loving it!

Alden likes the snow, too.