Happy Halloween: Kid Karnival

We had originally planned to go trick-or-treating with our neighbors, but instead we have been visiting Grandma and Grandpa T. all week while Daddy works in their area. Grandma's church had a Kids' Karnival tonight, and we told Hannah she would get candy if she kept her costume on. She was happy to oblige. Here are some photos from our Halloween fun:

playground fun with Grandma

after the party

Happy 2nd Birthday, Part 2

The cake and cupcakes, made by Aunt Becca. They were as yummy as they were adorable:

Blowing out the candles

We love our Grandma!

Mmmmm....

The posing did not go so well... Juliana did not care to join the picture,
and Hannah didn't want to stay in it.

Cousins Juliana and Emily help open presents...

Kisses for Sunshine Bear

Daddy frees the wild horses...

"umbrella... rain... outside..."

A classic toy for little girls of all ages

Having fun with the party favors...

Em and Mad go treasure hunting beyond where the sidewalk ends before the long drive home.

Birthday Celebration Weekend

We had a terrific weekend with family. Gramma and Grandpa T. arrived Friday night, followed by Uncle Nate, Aunt Cheryl, and older cousins Em and Mad. Hannah stayed up over an hour past her bedtime; she was thrilled to see everyone and tackled them with lots of hugs and kisses. We put her to bed first, and a while later the cousins were moved from their parents' bed to their air mattresses in Hannah's room. On Saturday Our little Miss Sunshine showed them what being a morning person is all about. Aunt Becca dropped off the birthday cake later that morning, GranWendy and Grandaddy arrived in the afternoon, and soon Bec, Brett, and cousin Juliana ("Jew-nah-nah-nah") arrived for the party too. We ate dinner, then it was time for the main event- gift opening. Cousin Em served as Hannah's professor of present distribution and opening, and Daddy found wire cutters for taking toys out of their restraints. Who knew that plastic horses might possibly run away? Hannah received lots and lots of wonderful gifts, and then it was time for cake and ice cream. She LOVED the panda bear cake which was designed and made just for her by Aunt Becca, with coordinating paw-print cupcakes. She blew out the candles (with Daddy's help), but not before tasting the yummy frosting with her fingers. After eating her piece of cake and ice cream, she confiscated the cupcake left behind by cousin Em.

Her current favorite new toy is her doll house. The roof makes a terrific slide for the dolls. She exclaims, "down again!" "up again!" as she sends her little family soaring down the slippery slope. She also loves helping her dolls take baths and wash their hands, and she even tried to sit on their potty. She quickly realized it is a little too small for her rear.

While she napped this morning (something that rarely happens, so you know she's tired from all the excitement), Em and Mad and I went on a "treasure hunt" in the undeveloped area behind our house. The found goldenrod, a green tomato, lots of rocks, red leaves, and somebody's silk pansies which had blown down the hill. When we returned to the house, they showed their discoveries to their Mom.

We are so thankful that so many close family members were able to celebrate with us.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Part One

When he came home from work yesterday, Daddy brought me 2 roses...



Cookies n' cream ice cream cake... compliments of a generous neighbor

Mommy took me to the dollar store to get birthday balloons....

While Daddy went to exercise at the gym this morning, mommy let me smell the roses again.

not-so-wordless wednesday

Taco-Time Body Art

"Round and round..."

Cheese!

fall flower-picking fashion

raingirl

Our reprieve from the drought has continued, and the grass almost has a surreal brightness to it, as though you were looking at it through a special lens which enhances the color. Bear wanted to go outside, and since the rain was fairly gentle, I gave in. I love the fresh smell of a cleansing, soaking rain. She was still in her jammies, and we put on her crocs- shoes that can handle the water.

She played with her pie plate full of rocks, picking some of them up and rinsing them under the gutter spout. Then she stepped off the porch and stepped into the rain catcher tray thingy that is next to the garage. She drowned a mum blossom in the water, then decided to step into the stream, exclaiming, "pitter-patter, pitter-patter splash splash SPLASH!" This was a game we played in the pool down in Gulf Shores, and apparently it works as well for puddle jumping as it does for splashing in the swimming pool.

By the time we came inside, her hair was really curly, her jammies were soaked, and she was glad to change into a clean outfit and get warm. She also clutched a handful of mum flowers in her fist.

chatting

hannah: outside
me: it's raining, we can't go outside in the rain
hannah: raincoat! raincoat!
me: you don't have a raincoat

(she does have a hooded jacket, but that's not the point...)


a couple of minutes later....

hannah: okeeydokey... a raincoat, a raincoat


i think she really wants to go outside.

playtime

the concept of musical accompaniment is clicking.

hannah climbed onto great-gramma eileen's piano bench and started playing. she then proceeded to sing her medley of "twinkle, twinkle little star", "the alphabet song" and "jesus loves me."
*******************
hannah most definitely has an imagination. she was playing with her little people nativity set tonight, and apparently the camel wanted to ride in the donkey's cart. the angel and one of the wisemen got into an altercation... the wise man kept kicking the angel as hannah said, "wise man kick me!" (she confuses the pronouns for you and me.)

oh, dear.... apparently she has a violent streak, too. i asked her to make the wise man apologize, but "he" was not very repentant. 2 minutes later, he was tickling and kicking the angel all over again.

hyper-sensitive?

I tried to give Hannah canned pears at lunch. A couple of pieces had some rust-colored specs where some of the core did not get removed completely.

"Pears hurt!" she exclaimed, and refused to eat any more of them.

Of course, if I thought my pears had blood on them, I probably wouldn't want to eat them, either.

rock pie

bear carried some rocks from where the sidewalk ends all the way up to our front porch today. she wanted to bring them inside, but as always i told her ,"rocks stay outside." i asked her to put them with the rest of her rock collection on the porch. as she piled all the rocks into her disposable pie pan, she said, "bake. oven. make cookies." then she picked up the rock-filled pie pan and carried it toward the front door. apparently she wanted to bake the rocks in the oven and have them come out as cookies.

aunt becca's birthday party at grandaddy and granwendy's

the monarch butterflies were all over the zinnias, so i thought they would smell nice...

then i wanted to pick one

sitting on grandaddy's shoulders in his backyard... next to really tall grass

trying to lead "ju-ju-ana" to the butterfly garden

the butterflies were gone, but we decided to explore together

we also played ring-around-the-rosey

running through the path (leaving molly the dolly in the dust)

more running with cousin juliana

sitting with cousin j's grandma liz, who also came to celebrate aunt "bah-ca's" birthday

watching cousin j dance with the stars on her blog with cousin j's papa jim

tackling grandaddy

hugging aunt becca

hoarding the teaset

cousin juliana is ready to eat the cake her mommy made!

twirling with the tissue paper is a grand game!


Happy Belated birthday, Aunt Becca!