Pumpkin Pickin'

Nothing says fall like pickin' pumpkins so we went to Washington Farms in Watkinsville, GA to pick our perfect pumpkins. The pumpkin pickin' process is very one that is quite arduous.
First you have to walk the pumpkin fields...Then you have to see how various pumpkins measure up against our little pumpkin.
Of course, James also conducts his various tests of pumpkin performance.

1. The roll test...

2. The pat test...3. And finally the taste test (thanks Daddy!)

By mornings end, we finally picked out 3 perfect pumpkins.

And for pumpkin protection, James chose to ride in the wheelbarrow to ensure their safety.
Rest assured, we all made it home and placed our perfect pumkins on our porch!

1st Birthday!

Well, so hard to believe, but on September 26th, our baby turned one! On the actual day, we started off by making some special pancakes for our big boy. Jamie did a great job creating "1" pancakes and James loved them.

Then we let James open a few of his toys from us - an old school fisher price kitchen. He is very excited!
James wore his birthday boy shirt and played with Meme and Grandad while we went to the GT game.

On Sunday, we had a family birthday party at Nana's house.

James had so much fun playing with his peddle firetruck.

and as a big surprise, a real firetruck came to the party too! James is ready to drive and push some buttons!James wasnt quite sure what to make of everyone singing "happy birthday" but he definitely understood what to do with his smash cake...

And he especially loved opening all his presents! What a fun day!

Summer

Well a lot has happened since Easter! So we will try to give an abbreviated update.
At the end of April, we went to Davidson College for Amy's 10 year college reunion - James' first trip. We learned a lot on the car ride up there such not trying to push meal time back just to make good time! Car ride home was much easier :)

In May, we went to Wild Dunes with the Hamilton side of the family (all 14 of us! Nana, Jody, Lori, Will, Justin, Cecily, Channing, Annlyn, Rhett, us and 2 babysitters- who were worth their weight in gold!)










Then we headed back to the beach in June with the Spotts' side of the family (Grandmother, Meme, Granddaddy, Ellen, Armistead, Carlton, Caroline, and us), staying at my uncles house on Folley Beach.








yummy sand!







Here are a few pictures of James and his Daddy enjoying a summer time bike ride! We also had fun playing in the Suwanee town park fountains.










A summer day would not be complete without ice cream - which he LOVES! (wonder where he gets that from?)






The 4th of July was fun. James enjoyed watching his mom huff and puff her way to the finish line of the Peachtree Road Race.

Then we went to the Atlanta Athletic Club to enjoy some pony rides, funny hats, and fireworks.










July also had lots of birthdays. Cousin Rhett turned 1 and Cousin Carlton turned 2! We had lots of fun at the birthday parties and we LOVED the cake as you can tell.








Carlton and James were covered in cake. James is fascinated by his cousin's juice box.









In August James stayed with Meme and Grandaddy (where he finally decided to forgo the army crawl for the much faster regular crawl! amazing how speedy he is when not dragging his belly) while his parents went to Hawaii. Fun was had by all!

Easter

James' first Easter was egg-cellent! Saturday James went to Nana's house to help his cousins make a bunny cake. He also helped himself to some cupcakes and icing (with Jamie's assistance of course). Yummm!

He also loved playing with his cousins!

Easter Sunday, after making through almost the whole church service, we all headed to Judy's house for a family lunch and egg hunt.

More fun with cousins...

Needless to say, James slept well!

This past Sunday, James went on his first trip to the zoo. We went with my parents, Ellen, Armistead, Carlton, and even baby Caroline. We managed to see most of the exhibits before the rain started. It was chillier than we anticipated so we had to purchase some classy zoo long sleeve shirts, but fun was had by all.

Meme and Granddaddy spending some quality time with Willie B.

Jamie and James watching the baby pandas

Armistead and "King of the Jungle"Carlton enthralled with the female gorillas and their babies.
What a fun day!