halloween dress rehearsal

The girls have been so excited to put on their adorable Halloween costumes. They had the opportunity to dress up twice already and will have two more times to buzz around like little bugs.

On Thursday, I took the girls to Byerly's for their annual Boo Blast. It's such a cute time. They have a DJ playing dance music, the kids walk around to different stations to trick or treat, they have balloon animals and face painting, and the best part is we always get two new reusable grocery bags! (Byerly's has the best ones in town!!).

The girls just had to get ready an hour before we needed to leave, but since this year's costume required a little bit of makeup, I needed the chance to do some online research and test it out.

People have been asking if I got their red and yellow glitter Toms shoes just for the costume, but no! Since red is Little Pie's favorite color and yellow is Little Bird's, this year's clothes shopping has been really easy. Since they will most often only wear a dress (unless we are going to gymnastics), I have only been buying dresses in red or yellow (so easy!) and the glitter Toms were a no-brainer!

We met our friend Ms E and her little baby sis Miss A at Byerly's and had a blast walking around the store. Little Pie had more fun looking at all the other kids' costumes; I don't think she even cared about the loot she was getting.

On Saturday morning we took the girls to Main Street for their annual trick or treating/fall festival. Again, it was so fun for Little Pie to observe all the other kids in their adorable costumes. She had so much fun looking for other lady bugs and bees and Spidermans too (stay tuned for a much anticipated Spiderman appearance). 

Despite the gorgeous sun, it was freezing, hence the winter jackets over costumes. But that's Minnesota!

This is pretty fun!

Our favorite restaurant, Three Squares, had mini pumpkins to color.

Concentrating hard. Nana's hand warmers come in handy for coloring pumpkins outside on cold days.

On Sunday afternoon, I had to go to a funeral, but Rob and the girls carved and painted pumpkins. Being the photographer that he is, there are no pictures of this event. (I'll get a picture when we light up his Spiderman pumpkin). I was highly impressed with the results and the best part of it all was that when I got home, there was no sign of a mess!!! To quote Rob, "not bad for a Dad".

We are all looking forward to the girls' Halloween party at preschool on Tuesday and of course our party and trick or treating on Wednesday!

Happy Halloween!

and whoosh, they were gone

Around the second week of October, I start to get out our Halloween "decorations", books and other spooky things. We have costumes purchased and the anticipation for Halloween begins. The question of is it Halloween today? starts and is repeated over and over. 

The girls are always really curious as to why we have all of our Halloween things out when it's not actually Halloween. (I remember these same types of questions from Christmas last year). I continue to try to explain about the season and how it's fun to decorate for several weeks up until the actual holiday. Oh, OK.

And the next day they ask, why do we have our Halloween stuff out if it's not Halloween?

The joys of preschoolers' questions.

The girls have been doing a few Halloween activities at preschool and we have tried to do a few here at home. One of our favorite books to read is Room on the Broom so one day last week we had a witch's theme of activities.

I'm asked to wear this witch's hat quite often, so our witch theme day wasn't any different.

I'm so sassy. And the bathroom mirror is dirty.

We read the book of course, but this time the girls played along with their own "action figures". They continued to play and act out the book even without me reading it.

Finally we made our own witch's potion. We put some food coloring, glitter and dish soap into some vinegar. Then we added some baking soda, cast a spell and whoosh!

Every night after reading books and saying prayers, the girls climb on my back (one at a time of course!) and I tap my broomstick and ...

whoosh, we are gone.

To bed of course.

hans, part zvei

So Hans has been with us for almost a week. He will return to preschool tomorrow to go home with another fun kid (there is a chance he'll turn around and come right back home with us!).

We had a blast hosting Hans at our house. I just finished making a journal entry in Hans' journal (on his behalf of course). Here is the entry (including the pictures we added):

On Tuesday, October 9, I went home with Evie Nelson to spend a week with her, her mom and dad, and her twin sister, Sophie. (I also learned that I will get to come back to their house; next time as a guest of Sophie’s!).

Evie was very welcoming and introduced me to all of her other soft, snuggly dogs like me. It was sure fun to play with them and Evie sure gives lots of nice hugs. Evie was afraid I would be nervous my first night at her house, so she let me sleep at the foot of her bed. It sure was a cozy spot and I loved sleeping there each night!

We got to go on a lot of adventures. I really enjoyed watching Evie at her gymnastics class. I could tell she was excited I was there and she always waved at me through the window. She told everyone about me and I got hugs from lots of nice kids.

One day I even got to go outside and play with Evie, her sister and her neighbors. We raked up some leaves and then jumped in them!! It was so fun; we did it over and over and over again. We even threw the leaves in the air and giggled and rolled around. Evie keeps talking about doing it again!

I got to meet a lot of Evie’s family too. I FaceTime’d with Evie’s Nana and then got to drive to her house to meet her, Evie’s Papa, her Uncle and her great-grandparents. I also got to FaceTime with Evie’s Gramma and Grandpa and get introduced to their little dog named Bindi (apparently Bindi is even smaller than me! Can you believe that?!).

Finally, we did a lot of singing and dancing at Evie’s house. We listened to the Fresh Beat Band every night and had a dance party. And in the car we listened to the Sound of Music a lot. I sure like to hear how enthusiastic Evie is about singing!

I’m looking forward to meeting even more friends from Karing Kingdom and have more fun adventures!
Your friend,
Hans

best part of fall

I have vivid memories of jumping in piles and piles of leaves at Magramma and Boompa's house when I was a kid. It wasn't fall until we were running, jumping and crunching in the leaves. 

The girls have been very anxious to start jumping in piles of leaves themselves, but our tree out front hasn't lost much of it's leaves yet. After a few days of some heavy winds, we finally had enough leaves on the ground to make a pile.

Little Pie thought Hans would like to jump in the leaves too.

There are still many leaves that need to fall from the tree, so even though we raked up leaves from both neighbors' yards, we still had a pretty wimpy pile. 

I think throwing the leaves may rival jumping in them.

Jumping is still pretty fun.

Little Bird kept asking us to make the pile even higher.

Pure joy.

hans

Little Pie drew the lucky straw today at preschool. She got to take home their preschool "kritter" for the week. 

When I picked the girls up today, she was not only wearing a huge grin, but a huge backpack too. She told me Hans was coming home with us and that she was to take care of him this week. 

When we got home, we unpacked him and read through the journal that accompanies him. Their teacher had the first entry (she picked Hans up on her trip to South Dakota this summer). The next entry was by the first student who got to take him home. Now Little Pie will make her entry.

Someone else in our house is having a hard time adjusting to not being the one in charge of Hans. There have been some pouts and stomps of feet and even some forceful grabs to make Hans her charge. Little Pie has been very patient with Little Bird's attempts at taking over the responsibility, even offering Little Bird a chance to hold him and walk him around the house. She even let Hans sit in the chair in between them at lunch. But Little Bird is determined and having a hard time understanding that there will be a week where she  gets to bring him home and be in charge.

Sharing.

The funny thing is, the same thing would NOT have happened had the situation been reversed. It's funny how these two can be so different (and so predictable!).

We are looking forward to getting to know Hans over the next week and introducing him to life at our home.

around town adventures (in pictures)

A couple of weeks ago, we visited the MN Zoo (I apparently forgot to blog about it). It was a very chilly day, but we had fun nonetheless.

Two spiders in a web.

Two birds in a nest.

Spiderman and his spidergirls (trying to figure out their webs).

This bear was hysterical! He's holding his two feet while relaxing in the water. (Ugh, the window was so dirty.)

Scratching his head.

Better shot through a cleaner window. I swear he's looking right at me.

Little Pie kept saying, I hear the wolf howlering!

Miss Falcon

Miss ?

----

After a very lazy morning (and waiting for the temps to improve a couple of degrees), we headed to Elm Creek Park to hunt for leaves. The girls and I made a leaf book and we needed some leaves to add to it. (Still working on getting the leaves in the book).

They had a blast running along the trails looking for leaves. The got excited about each and every one of the leaves they picked up. It was hilarious to hear them get so excited about another giant red maple leaf. It was like each one they picked up was the most amazing one they had every seen. It was so fun to hear.

a perfect fall weekend

The alarm went off bright and early on Saturday. I begrudgingly got out of bed and Rob rolled over to try and catch a few more winks. The girls weren't happy I woke them up and Little Pie was confused as to why it was still dark out.

But we quickly got ourselves together and headed off to run the Dave Ryan 5k/10k race for Special Olympics Minnesota. 

We could not have had a more gorgeous morning. The temperature was a perfect 55 degrees when we started the run. The sun warmed us up a bit and the trees glowed with gorgeous reds, oranges and yellows. Our "Team Gold" was excited and the adrenaline pumped through our systems. The running felt really good and we all finished with some of our personal best times. It was an amazing morning and I'm already excited to do it again next year.

The girls had a blast playing on the playground (thank goodness there was one right by the finish line). As I was nearing the finish line, I looked and looked for them but couldn't find them. Suddenly I heard Little Pie yell, "Go Mommy!". I loved it!!

Team Gold: 5 5k walkers, 8 10k runners, 4 little spectators.

Rob and I didn't get much time to rest (we both had some pretty sore legs) before we headed over to his boss' house for a family BBQ with his team from work. The girls had a blast playing with the other kids and were so excited about meeting new friends. Of course the big trampoline in the backyard kept them busy most of the night. It was hard to drag them away, but I think Rob and I were more tired than them and were the ones that wanted to call it a night.

Sunday was another gorgeous day and we spent some of the afternoon on a tractor pulled tram ride at Elm Creek Park Reserve. We got to go with our new neighbors that we have become fast friends with since they moved in in June. The colors in the park were gorgeous and it was a nice relaxing ride around the park.

After the tram ride, the kids had a chance to make some apple cider at a little apple cider demo. We got a little taste too. mmmmm!

Little Pie has been asking every day if we can make a pile of leaves and jump in them. While I can't wait for that fun, I'm not ready for the gorgeous leaves to fall and the cold air to come. It'll be here before we know it, but I'd love for fall to slow down a bit.