We love children’s books and the plethora of phenomenal ones with a fall theme!

Here are some library finds we’ve been enjoying lately:

Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert:

Miss Leyba relates to the idea of picking up plants from the garden center, then planting, caring for and growing to love them. She’s memorized this one already.

And Then Comes Halloween by Tom Brenner, illustrated by Holly Meade:

A showcase of fun fall activities, such as carving pumpkins, raking leaves, decorate yards, and making costumes, gearing up for Halloween.

Hello, Harvest Moon by Ralph Fletcher, illustrated by Kate Kiesler:

Beautiful imagery and verse, nevertheless I’d personally recommend this book for older children; our toddler has little patience for it unless she’s really in a reading mood. We’ll try again next year!

In November by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Jill Kastner:

Beautiful pictures, sound science, and the girls especially enjoy it. David thinks it’s a boring story, but don’t tell Miss Leyba!

Frog and Toad All Year by Arnold Lobel:

A story for all seasons! My favorite Frog and Toad book, it’s quirky, fun and a very, very sweet collection of stories about best friends!

Despite the heat, we’re busy pretending it’s fall here in Northern California!

We now have lots of pumpkins at our house!

We had to bring something back from the pumpkin patch, right?! I admit we may have gone overboard, but they were so affordable, we directly supported a local farmer (rather than the corporation he sold the pumpkins to, although we’ve done that too with itty bitty pumpkins, discussed below), and what fun they’ll be to carve! The white Cinderella pumpkin is mama’s favorite of the bunch.

On the front porch this bouquet of dried lavender, a gift grown by our neighbor, welcomes us home. How I love its fragrance!

Wee little pumpkins that Miss Leyba plays with, pretends to cut and eat, carries around, adores! Each time we grocery shop she asks if we can pick one up. We’ll have quite the collection by the end of the month if we continue at this rate. The truth is, I love them too (the small size! the varied colors!). I especially like how different they are from each other. Such a wonderful treat.

And, finally, what’s that hidden behind the super large pumpkin on our porch?!

Miss Leyba’s outdoor (see the dirt?!) matchbox cars! (Hand-me-downs from our neighbor with now grown kids.) Such fun to play with. And to make a big pile of, evidently. Clearly a kid lives at this house!

Every few weeks Miss Leyba requests that we make play dough. Usually purple, red, or blue play dough. This week I suggested we make orange play dough for Halloween and, amazingly, she agreed, the exact opposite of typical toddler behavior around these parts right now.

Picture endless games where I say, “Whatever you do, don’t drink that apple juice!” to which she replies, “I’m drinking it! Open your mouth and act surprised!” I completely anticipated having to say, “We can make play dough in whatever color you’d like, but NOT orange!” to sway her. I should have known she’d go for anything Halloween related. That’s the hot topic here these days.

So we made deliciously orange play dough together.

The recipe we use is from Green Crafts for Children, a wonderful book full of art activities using natural, recycled, and found materials.

It’s your basic cooked play dough recipe incorporating 1/2 cup salt, 1 cup flour, 2 tablespoons cream of tarter, and 1 tablespoon oil; we then add 1 cup of water mixed with food coloring and stir the dough while slowly heating it on the stove.

After a brief cool-down period, the dough is ready to go and it’s time to make birthday cake!

She made the cake and birthday candles with flames by herself. Then she insisted on making a total of three cakes, one for each of us, and singing many rounds of “Happy Birthday” while blowing out candles and then cutting and serving us cake. What a generous hostess!

Video: Happy Birthday Play Dough Party from Carrie on Vimeo.

I ask you, who doesn’t love birthday cake?! Especially when it’s orange, made of play dough, and cooked by this cute little girl! It’s irresistible.

Another post in our First on Friday series where we share a new activity from the week.

Despite the 90 degree weather here in wine country, we hear it’s actually fall in the rest of the United States. And fall means harvest activities! So we headed to a local pumpkin patch with our international play group. It was a hit!

By the way, Miss Leyba’s wearing a full-on hot pink outfit so that you can easily find her in the photos. ;)

Try getting a decent photo of ten toddlers. It’s a challenge, I tell you! (Anyone from the group have a better shot on their camera? I’ll post it!)

As often as I talk about living in wine country, I realize that I haven’t posted many photos showing you that we do, in fact, live in wine country.

Time to rectify the situation:

I snapped these photos about a mile from our house on the way to the grocery store. Not your typical sight near your local mom and pop store, I know.

The grapevine leaves are just starting to change colors despite the 80 degree weather as of late. In another few weeks the leaves will be yellow and then wither and drop off, as close as we get to the changing of the seasons here and the brilliance of fall.

And the view from our house:

Notice the flecks of green in the hills? More grapevines.

See?! We live in wine country. Love the beauty and open space that surrounds us.

We’re feeling West County to the core.

Someone’s obsessed with Elsa Holmelund Minarik and Maurice Sendak’s Little Bear books!

So obsessed that she pretends to make birthday soup in the kitchen sink during her daily water play:

So obsessed that she’s been calling her baby doll Lucy after the doll in the book Little Bear’s Friend.

So obsessed that she knows the story word for word:

Video: Reading Little Bear Book from Carrie on Vimeo.

Oh, that ending! We’re all about keeping it real over here. “I hate this book!” is what happens when I ask her to read it three times in a row so I can get a movie of her storytelling. I don’t blame her for being pissed at me. I’d hate it too after reading it three times.

Although if last night is an any indication, I’ll be reading it five times to her before bed tonight.

But that didn’t stop me from just adding the books to Miss Leyba’s book wishlist. That way we’ll get to read them over and over again for years.

A second post in my Art Appreciation for Toddlers series.

Our dear friend Alice found and sent us these phenomenal books by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York that teach the alphabet and numbers utilizing famous works of art from their collection:

Museum 123:

Museum ABC:

Both books do a great job of featuring prominent works from artists around the world and throughout the centuries, not just focusing on the last hundred years but showing ancient works as well from a variety of countries and cultures.