The Princess and the Pumpkin

Happy Halloween!



We've had a great Halloween this year. Abby helped me make Halloween sugar cookies last week, but they didn't quite last until Halloween. So we made another batch on Friday and Saturday, and this time we introduced her to Adam's family tradition of using frosting to decorate cookies.


All set up and waiting for Abby.


Getting started


Tasting all the different colored frostings was definitely her favorite part.



Nora didn't get to decorate any cookies this time, but she enjoyed eating our handiwork! If you have a good imagination, you can pretend that you can see her new little tooth starting to poke through her gum in this picture.


This morning after church, we carved our pumpkin. Adam wanted to make it look like Gingham, but after he drew on the Gingham face we couldn't quite figure out how to carve it out, so we just drew a happy face on the other side (Abby's original request.) So we decided it's a "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Gingham" pumpkin.


Adam can never resist the opportunity to use the largest knife possible.


Abby helped pull out the goop, but then she didn't like how messy it made her hands. She gets that from her dad, so the de-gooping fell to me.




Finally, it was all cleaned out and ready to carve.





After naps this afternoon, it was time to go trick-or-treating! Abby wore her princess dress, Nora was a pumpkin, and I was a cowgirl. Adam told Abby he was dressing up as a dad, which she didn't particularly approve of (he was supposed to be a pirate.) But then she decided that Gingham could be a pirate, so the afternoon was saved.




All ready to go trick-or-treating! Abby's licking her lips in anticipation of all that candy.

Before we got very far, a man from the local news stopped us and asked if he could interview us as local trick-or-treaters. It'll be on at 10:00 tonight - Abby and Nora's TV debut!



In other news, we got a new couch this week. It's pretty exciting for a few reasons - it's red, it's a sectional (so we get a lot more seating in the living room) and it's new! New things are always kind of exciting!


The day it was delivered, both of the girls spent all day playing on it. They really like the new couch!

The Stair Climbing Baby

Nora's discovered the stairs and the magical world they lead to:

Curtis Orchard

This morning, we took our third annual family trip to Curtis Orchard. Adam took the day off to work on the living room ceiling, so we decided to take our trip on a weekday morning instead of a Saturday to avoid some of the crowds. It was a good plan - we had a great time and didn't have nearly the crowds of last year's trip.



When we got to the Orchard, Abby wanted to go see the goats right away. She brought Baby Bear with her instead of Gingham, and she told him that we'd see real bears, but we had to settle for goats.



She did a good job feeding the goats. It took awhile for her to walk up close enough that the goats could reach the food in her hand, but once she got it figured out she had a grand time letting them eat from her hand. When she ran out of food, she wanted to pet all of the goats, too. When did she get so brave?



Nora stayed in the stroller and practiced her yoga.



After a brief stop at the playground, we headed out to the pumpkin patch.



Abby rode in the wagon; Nora stayed in her stroller, still practicing that yoga.





After a long trek out to the pumpkin patch, Abby and I walked through the patch, looking for the perfect pumpkin to bring home.



We carried back to show Dad and Nora.



Nora likes it!



And Dad likes it too!



Baby Bear likes it, too. We're all happy!



Nora didn't spend the whole trip practicing yoga in her stroller. She hopped out to play in a bin of pumpkins for awhile.



We stopped in the store on our way out (since we had to buy our pumpkin) and picked up some apple cider and apple doughnuts. Abby was a big fan of the apple cider - she had it instead of Kool-Aid at lunch and instead of chocolate milk at dinner. And we all enjoyed the apple doughnuts with our lunch. It was a great trip!

Wake Me Up When September Ends

I'm having trouble coming up with an all-encompassing theme for the last month and a half to explain why it's been so long since we last updated, so we'll have to settle for life with a toddler and an infant. Most of daily life is pretty uneventful - we do a lot of coloring and reading books, playing in the yard/driveway/swingset, a fair amount of trying to take toys away from one another, and far more cooking and cleaning than I would like. A few highlights of the last few weeks:

Abby fell out of her crib! We're still not exactly sure what happened there. All we ever got out of her is that Gingham jumped out and she went after him. She insisted on a bandaid on her forehead where she bonked it to help it feel better. For a few days after that, she would climb out when we lowered the side of the crib for her, but she lost interest in that. Which is probably just as well.



Abby and I both got to ride a horse for the first time a few weeks ago. One of the families in our small group at church has a horse, so when we met at their house we got to ride it. We weren't sure if Abby was going to get on, but she's gotten so brave about things lately! She talks to strangers when we're out, she touches animals, and last time we went to the park she ran around by herself and climbed up and went down the slide by herself too. It's such a turn around from just a couple of months ago.

Nora had her 8 month birthday.


Waiting patiently for her cake


How old am I? That's a lot of flame!

Both of the girls enjoyed their birthday "cake."



The squirrels continue to taunt us. They like to take a tomato, take a bite or two, and then leave it somewhere we won't miss it. Some favorite spots include the top of the garden gate, the sidewalk right outside the door, and the top of the swingset.



Last weekend, Adam's parents came down to help Adam put up the living room ceiling. Adam and his dad moved the couch to the back of the room while they were working, and we just left it there for several days. Abby loved playing in the space that the couch usually takes up. One morning, she lined up several of her stuffed animals along the wall where the couch usually is and insisted on a photo shoot.




Nora's at that age where she's always doing funny things for the camera. Adam took some pictures of her this morning that made me laugh.




Adam didn't think they were as hilarious as I did. Maybe I was just tired when I saw them.

Nora also discovered that there's a cute little baby living in the fridge. She loves to crawl into the kitchen and try to touch her. Today, she realized that she could give her kisses.