Scarecrow Festival

Even though I have been teaching in St. Charles for eight years now, I still had never been to the Scarecrow Festival. So this year we decided to go. We loaded up Bel after work because the weather was absolutely perfect- sunny and 70's- and we headed down to see all the scarecrows. There is a little competition for best scarecrow and many businesses, schools, churches and even some families enter (Mom... that is so up our alley! I have ideas :) We enjoyed fair food (nachos, ice cream and some perogies) and Bel found a little sandbox/play area to hang out at. Overall, it was a cute, fun, festival and I didn't even hear "Mrs. Leppin!!!" shouted that often.

I know... she doesn't look impressed.

The park is full of scarecrows and they are grouped by category.

Here were some of our faves....

 Of course... the Goddard School scarecrows..

 and the Wredling Redhawk "scare leading" team

 The mechanical Noah's Ark...

and the creepy Bella and Edward "Twilight" scarecrows...

The food is always the best part of any fair, isn't it?

American Idol

Lately Isabel has been experimenting with singing. She loves to sing in the car- mainly la de dah, la de dah, and la la la. She has a few fave Sesame Street songs like "Sing A Song" and "Walk Walk" - Here is a tiny taste of her vocal talent :)

Wedding Pics..

Here are some pictures from my cousin Katie's wedding last weekend. She looked so pretty and Mandy and I were obsessed with her flowers. Her bridesmaids wore cranberry dresses and her bouquets and centerpieces were a very unique mix of reds, corals, greens etc. I just love fall weddings- I think it is the prettiest time of the year. Isabel got to attend the wedding too, but she ran out of steam not long after dinner. My parents took her home and put her to bed so Jason and I got to stay out late for a date night. So fun! We danced all evening and we may have shaken Mandy's baby loose (she started having contractions not too long after and now she is 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced!) Too much dancing I guess.

 Bel enjoying cocktail hour- people watching galore

 My parents- Thanks for watching Belly!

 Yum..... great food!

 I have such a good looking husband..

 Awww! Baby Payton. She was rocking out to Lady Gaga on the dance floor.

I am so happy for Sean and Katie and glad that I got to be there to help them celebrate their special day! It was great fun. In fact, there are some more incriminating pictures from the night- (let's face it- Jason and I had a few drinks and got our dance on- but we will not be posting those on the blog)

Apple Picking.....(minus the picking)

We made the trip out to Kuipers Apple Farm last weekend because I have always wanted to go apple picking and had grand images of taking Bel to her first apple orchard. I thought I would get all kinds of awesome photo ops of her picking apples in the beautiful fall weather. Well, it turns out everyone else in the free world had the same idea last weekend. When we arrived there were literally HUNDREDS of people waiting in line (and only two registers open at the gate) So... we scrapped the apple picking plan and decided just to go into the orchard store and BUY our apples. (Hey, why not? We knew they were ripe and clean) We also got other yummy sweets and treats like apple doughnuts, hot chocolate, homemade popcorn etc. Then we just let Bel run around and play outside for an hour. I don't think she actually knew the difference and as you will see from the pics she TOTALLY enjoyed her honey crisp apple.

Harvest Days- Dwight Trip

I have been SO busy at work lately and haven't had much time to keep up with my blog. Anyway, here are some cute pics from our weekend in Dwight for Harvest Days- Enjoy!

Grandma and Grandpa Leppin babysat while Jason and I headed down to U of I for the football game. The Illini beat Northern Illinois University. (Note that even though I wore orange- I was secretly rooting for the Huskies)

 Bel had a lot of fun hanging with her grandparents. Here she is with a big box of bead necklaces (her favorite) that belonged to her great-grandma!

 Oh Elmo..... Bel never tires of you! At least this is a NEW video- since we have seen all of the others 42,000 times. Best of Elmo 2 features Beyonce, Jack Black, and Jason Mraz so I didn't even mind watching this one.

On Sunday we headed to Harvest Days for lunch and the big parade!

 I know this picture doesn't do it justice but at the start of the parade they have this "basset hound waddle" which basically consists of 500 basset hounds (many in costume) and their owners marching down the street at once. I really thought Isabel might have a heart attack since she is normally super excited about seeing even one dog on the street. Well... I think it may have been a bit much for her. She just stood there kind of mesmerized. I took video- someday I will try to post it.

 The queen of the "wave". Here she is waving at each float and car that passed by.

Her favorite part of the parade was an appearance by Smokey the Bear. She has been talking about him ever since. Go figure. Thanks for the fun weekend Leppins!

Daddy's Girl

 Poor Mommy!!! Totally cut out of the loop now. Isabel is officially the biggest daddy's girl. She is happiest when snuggled up on his lap or playing with him on the floor and doesn't even want me to read her a bedtime story most nights. (Whatever! Doesn't she know I have a Master's in reading?!!) Well... I guess it could be worse....she still thinks I am a pretty good substitute when he isn't around and it IS pretty sweet to see how good Jason is with her.