PA part 8 - Gender Reveal Party

The party was so much fun!

I made party favors, little 'presents' so everyone could guess if it was a boy or a girl. Most people guessed girl. Everyone else in Andy's family has 1 boy and 1 girl, so they figured we would follow suit and we did :)

Then I also made a tree and bought ink pads so that everyone at the party could put their fingerprint on the tree. A family tree.

Here is Maddie by the decorations.

Getting ready to cut the cake, I was sure Van would jump in with both hands if I didn't hold him.

The suspense is building. It wasn't obvious after the first cut, I could see filling on the knife, but because the cake had blue and pink flowers on it I wasn't sure if it was frosting or filling.

Hooray! Telling Van he's going to have a little sister. 

We skyped with mom so she could hear the news at the same time.

So fun! What a great party, thanks to Lisa for hosting.

PA part 7 - Pumpkin Patch

Sandy took us to a great pumpkin patch. The first pictures are of Van on the barrel train ride. He thought this was great. When he was in the white barrel he could give the driver a high five on tight turns. He really liked that.

This was the corn box, another favorite. This other random boy is telling Van that he cannot play with any of the toys and should particularly not place corn in the area he had previously cleared out. These directions were not followed.

This was the hay mountain, perfect for jumping off of. This other boy is telling Van that the mountain is too tall for little kids. And only big kids (like himself) should be up here. He also says that he is really strong and asks if he can feel Van's muscles for comparison. Luckily Van ignored anything he said and they ended up playing pretty well together. 

Still, I was not a fan of this other boy. 

Van and I actually hold hands a lot, usually quite pleasantly. I really wanted a cute picture of us holding hands. Van wanted to go do something else.

So cute, love Clarion, PA!

PA part 6 - Gender reveal party prep

Tomorrow is the big day. No one except the baker and the ultrasound tech currently knows the gender of our baby, but tomorrow we will all find out!
I made these so everyone can pick one and pin it on in support of their guess.
Sandy and Lisa are making delicious food and Andy's brother and family are driving up from Virginia.
It should be a fantastic day, I'll be sure to post pictures.

PA part 5 - Fishing

This was an epic day. Van's first fishing trip and he got to go with his friend Owen. The ponds were really low, but each boy managed to catch a fish. Van didn't really want to touch his. Later they caught a crawfish. Awesome weather, awesome day.

Father son fishing. Cutest thing ever.

Setting worms on hooks at the really really low pond

Love it

Pretty much killing it (while Van scares away all the fish)

Dave and Owen

Is this dock stable?

Boys running on the grass. This is the farm where Dave grew up. I can imagine Dave and Andy were much the same.

The catch

The reluctant fisherman

Still unsure about the fish.

Owen and I hanging out across the pond.

This is on Sandy and Joe's property, near their spring. Van and Andy are getting ready to let the crawfish go.

Dumping the bottle...

There he goes!

Having so much fun in Pennsylvania.

PA part 4 - Sunny sunny weather

So much nice weather. These photos were taken at a playground in Clarion near Andy's mom's house. Very appropriate that they start with Van taking his shirt off. It was so wonderfully warm out.

This is our pirate ship.

Van is telling me the rules of the pirate ship.

He's gathering our treasure.

A natural climber.

PA part 3 - 70 in October!

Today was so beautiful, the high is supposed to be 70 for the next 5 days, Van and I have been having a great time playing outside and Andy is working on his bowhunting.

Throwing rocks in a pond