(Almost) Famous

Charlotte's made the big time! A few weeks ago, the district photographer came to her Parent-Toddler class, and this week she and a few of her friends are in the district newsletter. They're starting to really push building a new Early Childhood Center. I think she makes a great advertisement!

Here is the link to the full newsletter in case you're interested.

Look What We Discovered at Swimming Today

Wow was this a thrill. Discovering that they can fit inside a locker at the Y. Endless fun. If only we hadn't had to leave to go home for naptime!

Charlotte and Cold Weather

Charlotte: "I ready for winter!"

Charlotte: "I toot"

Mama: "You had a toot?"

Charlotte: "No!! I SO TOOT"

(translation - I so cute!)

Mama: "Yes, you are babe!"

Boo to You from St Lou!

Due to Nicholas having a fever and being diagnosed with influenza yesterday (as well as a probable secondary infection) we had to forgo the trick-or-treating this year so as not to spread the flu throughout our neighborhood . I thought this would be a huge problem (especially because Nicholas was feeling basically 100% tonight since he's been on medication), but it turned out to be such a fun night...we didn't even miss it! I snagged this picture in between trick-or-treaters. Charlotte wore Nicholas' lion costume from when he was 2, and Nicholas wore his monkey from last year. It is the last picture of that big pumpkin. Sometime during the night it disappeared!

One source of entertainment? Well there was a big game on! USC played Oregon, a big intrafamily rivalry. Sadly for us, USC was beaten handily by Oregon (the alma mater of two of my brothers).

Nicholas tried to help out. Having ditched the monkey coat (it's a little toasty), he practiced his kickoffs:

What form!

Charlotte cheered him on

Charlotte also got hot, ditched the costume and started her own game of jumping off the family room steps. She loves counting to three and then jumping. She holds up one finger for all three numbers as she counts.

She got more and more brave at the door as we passed out candy. Nicholas watched from the family room window as the kids came up the front walk. He wanted to know what every costume was. I couldn't even tell what some of them were! I fear the boy costumes of the future.

In the end, there was enough candy for all our visitors, with more than enough left over for our family.

Happy Halloween to all!

It Smells Like Autumn!

I cut out a recipe from the Magic House newsletter for pumpkin pie play clay awhile ago. We had the day off from school today, so we decided to make it. It required 1/4 c (yes, that's CUP) of pumpkin pie spice per batch, and I always make double. But who has that much pumpkin pie spice at one time?? I had almost 1/4 c, so I just used that and threw in some extra cinnamon and miscellaneous other sweet spices. It was potent! I'm thinking that might have been a misprint. Regardless, it smelled great and was a fun activity for Charlotte.

Meanwhile Nicholas took a page from Charlotte's playbook and did "stickers". The joy of free labels. One batch of labels was from M.A.D.D. That was quite a conversation explaining that one! My job as parent is only going to get tougher as his reading improves. Bumper stickers are not my friend!

LECC Halloween at the Magic House

Every Halloween, Nicholas' preschool rents out the Magic House for an evening. (Here are last year's pictures) This year we planned on taking the whole crew, but Charlotte needed to recover so Nicholas and I headed off alone. We spent the entire two hour party in one small exhibit. There is a traveling exhibit about Curious George here that Nicholas hadn't seen. He was hooked. And not at all because of Curious George.

There was golfing. Three holes with different obstacles.

There was a big conveyor-belt thing that required both loading and turning of a wheel.

Nicholas was a total "turn the wheel" hog. He had to be reminded that there were other kids also interested in taking a turn.

So there I sat. Watching most parents and kids come and go out of our little room. But not my Nicholas, who has always had the longest attention span of anyone his age. He could only be convinced to leave for one reason:

pumpkin donut holes

In the end, it was all about having fun, and boy did he ever. I certainly know where to take him for serious entertainment!

Why Daddy Isn't in Charge of the Blog

Tom scored some tickets to the Rams game today and took Nicholas. It was the first game Nicholas has made it to this year. As they walked out the door, I handed Tom the camera, hoping for some great photos.

Here's what I got:

While clearly I'm thrilled that they got to see Peyton Manning (sarcasm intended), I wasn't so thrilled that there were zero pictures of my son at the game. I have learned the lesson that I need to be specific with what I'm looking for in my pictures! Sadly, the Rams continued their season-long losing streak, though my guys didn't seem to care. If only I could see their joy in pictures... :)