Trick-or-treaters

Kyle's nephews came over for dinner and trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. Grace had a great time. It is definitely more fun to have some friends to go with!

Here they are

Pumpkin carving

This has become a new tradition! Grace loved getting her hands (and the table, chairs, floor, my hair...) all goopy with the pumpkin insides! We ended up with three, cool-looking pumpkins.

Pre-kindergarten parade

Trick or treat,

Smell my feet,

Give me something good to eat.

Not an apple,

Not a pear,

Not your stinky underwear!

That is the song Grace has been singing for the last couple of weeks. She learned it at school. Hopefully not from the teacher! My guess is she learned it from some of her classmates. Many of them have been together since they were 18 months old, so they are like "family" at school. And with that comes the teasing, rivalry, and silly songs and jingles

Rainbow in the sky

Grace got the coolest balloon today when we went out to dinner. She asked for a rainbow and, boy, did she get one!

Horse people

Horse people are different. Not being a "horse person" myself, I have always known they live in a different world of stables, shows, and caring for a pretty big animal. Visiting Post Hill Equestrian center today with Grace, made me think that some day I might just understand the difference between "Western" and "English" and the benefits to both, because, as I have said before, we have a little horse lover in our house.

Unfortunately, Grace didn't get to ride a horse today, but we saw about 30 of them. The owners were all really nice and welcomed her questions and allowed her to pet them. She also got her hand painted, made a horse mask, and decorated a horseshoe with glitter paint and jewels.

We got to enjoy what might be one of the last warm autumn days of 2011. And Grace even posed for some pictures.

I think the bribe that we would go into the inflatable jumpy house at the pumpkin farm next door had something to do with it!

Jinkies! Zoinks! It's....

....Scooby, Scooby Do!

This year, Boo at the Zoo was very crowded. We think it is because the weather today was wonderful and last weekend it was cold, rainy, and windy! When we tried to buy pre-sale tickets this afternoon they were sold out. So, we had to buy them at the zoo, which meant waiting on line to get in. Even with the crowds, we had a fun time. Grace was very proud of her Scooby Do costume and her friends - the nerdy Velma Dinkely and the always hungry Shaggy! We got a lot of looks and comments at the zoo!

Progress

I have been working A LOT! And I have a lot of Mommy guilt to go along with the long hours I have been putting in at work. But I have been so pleased with Grace's pre-kindergarten teacher and the progress I see Grace making.

Suddenly, she is interested in writing and trying to "sound out" words. And, I see a difference in her drawings. For weeks she has only wanted to draw rainbows (that were colorful but not shaped like a rainbow) but the last few days she has been producing art like this and has elaborate stories to go with it.

In this drawing she told me it is Kyle, me, Grace and the babysitter because Mommy and Daddy had to go to a meeting. The color above the head in the middle is Kyle's hair. I haven't seen her draw people like this before so I find it hard to believe the drawing is hers but Grace is so insistent and she can share so many details about it that she must have drawn it.

Today, when I picked her up from school she was excited to show me the "sentence" she wrote. When I asked her to read it to me she said it says, "My mom is the best ever. I love her to the moon and back." Awwww....Of course it doesn't look anything like that so I asked her to tell me the letters. She pointed out an a, o, h, the number 7, a, t and then h, i, t.

All that work calls for some ice cream!

Storybook forest

We didn't know what to expect when we decided to attend the 3rd annual Light UP Lantern festival this weekend. I guessed that we would experience something different and magical since it was sponsored by Leandra Drumm, a well-known local artist and her creative family members who run one of the oldest and respected galleries in the area. Just walking into Don Drumm studios is a delightful experience. To see an event they created and sponsored is something out of this world. Combine all that familial creativity with a fall evening, close to Halloween, lanterns and costumed spectators of every shape and size, folk music, fortune tellers, stilt walkers, street performers, and the exotic aroma of food cooking at sidewalk stalls and you have all the ingredients for a unique evening.

I am glad we arrived early. The whole event took place on one small side street, so once it got crowded it became hard to see everything. Since we arrived about an hour before the crowds we wandered through the gallery where I bought this spider "hat",

Grace and Dawson took a quick rest on a bench in the secret garden,

they made two craft projects (a firefly and a lantern),

and we people-watched as fanciful costumes, floats, and lanterns wandered up and down the street.

This little girl's costume was amazing.

The entire back was like a patchwork quilt.

Grace was curious about the "smoke"

in the Alice in Wonderland teapot.

But NONE of us liked the Queen of Hearts. She was RUDE!

The theme was "storybooks" and there were a lot of fairies.

I liked this one best. She was Thumbelina

and next to her was Tinkerbell.

The girls are looking at Tinkerbell here.

Grace told me early in the day that she was "so excited" to go to the lantern festival and more than once when we were there she said, "This is so awesome". Putting her to bed was fun as she recounted to me her impression of the beautiful costumes, displays, and lights.

My little pumpkin

Have you ever seen a pumpkin like this?

Or this?

Unusually warm weather for October, allowed us to play outside at the soccer field before the last home game. It is pretty nice to be out there without jackets and long pants. The temperature is supposed to get up to 80 this afternoon!

It was "senior day" for the soccer players so the field was decorated with balloons, tents along the sidelines, and they brought out this giant bulldog. We watched as they blew it up and then Grace had fun running through it.

Preparing for the lantern festival

I don't know how Kellie and I have never heard of the Light UP Lantern festival before. This year will be the third year of the festival held on a Saturday night in early October. Kellie and I are always looking for something new to do, so I can't imagine how we missed this artistic event the last couple of years.

Since we are headed to the festival next Saturday night we thought it would be fun to have Grace and Dawson make lanterns to carry with them. The festival sponsors say, "fanciful costumes and lanterns are welcome and encouraged". I know there will be some amazing ones by many local professional and amateur artists.

Our "artists" made these cute ones using plastic jars, paint, and battery-powered tea lights. I think they turned out great. I am glad they decided to make their jack-o-lanterns more colorful than just orange. They seem to fit in well with the creative theme of the festival.

Dawson's lantern is on the left; Grace's is on the right.