Birthday on the Toman Farm
We had a crazy kid party to celebrate Cadie's b-day. We wanted to keep it small but with with parents and siblings we packed in 30 people (including newborns). We had a farm theme and I'll spare all the details but here are the cute cupcakes.

Cadie was so excited to have her favorite people in the same place together. Every time I saw her she was dragging someone new around by the hand. When everyone left she totally crashed, here she is in the collapsed tent gripping her balloons.

It took a few days to decompress from the craziness so for her actual birthday we were pretty mellow. I had to go into campus and so Cadie and Eric got to hang out. We made Cadie's day by riding the campus bus - seriously this smile didn't leave the entire time we were riding.

She's 2! "Deedee two!"
[Cadie about to take a worm that she dug up down the slide with her and then push it on the swing]

Happy birthday my sweet girl.

Great Weather and Good Friends
I think I have said this before but I love all of the hardwood trees here in Ohio and all the color! We have been spending as much time as possible outside. This week the spectacular weather made it even better to enjoy the outdoors. Someday I will take a basic photography class and learn how to take amazing pictures but in the meantime my photos may have either great colors in the background or good detail up close but probably not both.


My good friend and advisor from Oregon State, Arne, was in Ann Arbor Michigan for the weekend. Cadie wasn't feeling great so I drove up (about 3.5 hours) on my own to meet Arne and his family for dinner. I was able to hang out with my friend Amy from high school as well - I was planning on staying at her home but her family was wiped out with a flu so I ended up crashing at Amy's sister's home. It was so fun to see everyone and nice to be on my own for a night. This was the first time that I have ever been away from Cadie a full 24 hours! Between caring for sick kids and husband Amy still managed to make me a fine apple crisp and peach french toast. YUM.

I drove home just in time to attend the "rally in the ally" on the next block. Our neighbors invited us to their block party where they had closed off the ally, rented a bounce house for the kids, pulled out a big screen with the OSU game for the adults, and were grilling up some grub. We have really great neighbors!

Halloween Adventures
We have had a week+ of dressing up crazy and eating lots of junk. "Beggar's night" on our street was my favorite although we don't have many pictures. Friends Liz, Jeremy and Baxter (tigger) came over for dinner and joined us out on the front porch with all of the rest of the neighborhood (plus some!). Liz is faculty in public health and was a sick person "should have got my flu shot!" We had over 200 kids at our home in 2 hours and nearly ran out of candy. Luckily Read's stopped by with a cute princess and pea pod and some backup candy.


Cadie actually had 2 costumes and wanted to be a lion for playgroup.

And the full Toman getup:

Unplugged
We took an extended weekend trip to explore a little bit of Northern Ohio. The area was beautiful! There are so many different hardwood species around here and the autumn colors are gorgeous.
We started off in Kirtland Ohio, a small town with historical significance for our church. Here is a picture in front of a home that my great-great-great-grandfather (got that?) lived in during the 1830's. Crazy that it is still a home!

Then we headed to Holmes County - Amish capital. We stayed at a B&B and definitely need to head back again. We took a buggy ride, toured a cheese factory, ate lots of good food, and shopped for furniture. My favorite part (besides the buggy ride) was sitting out on the porch watching and listening to the buggies go up and down the road. I could seriously adapt to the Amish way of life - horse and bike transportation, no TV or internet, and living local.

On the way home we passed the Longaberger Basket building. Yes this is a functioning office building. Sorry for the quality of the picture, Cadie was cranky in the car and we were not stopping.

Fun!
Enjoying crisp weather at the park


Friends over for playschool (learning about eyes and ears).

Camping
Our next-door neighbors invited us to their family tree farm an hour south of Columbus to join 70ish of their other best friends for a night of fun and camping. I'm ashamed to say that this was Cadie's first experience in a tent. But happy to report that she slept well - better than her mom who was awake checking on her every hour. The 20+ baby kittens were a hit as was the pumpkin carving and running around crazy with her BFF Kelsey. Now that we pulled off one night in a tent we are trying to squeeze in another adventure before the weather turns really cold.