Trick or treat

Caroline was really into Halloween this year. She had a costume party at school on Wednesday and got more candy than she did trick-or-treating tonight. We did some fun crafts here at home to celebrate. We carved pumpkins and even painted two little ones. I planned a spooky meal - mummy dogs, witch fingers, cobwebs, and ghost cakes. I was pretty pleased with myself over the silly meal plan. She had a great time saying, "Trick or treat! Happy Halloween!" at all the neighbors' houses. And then our little kitty helped hand out candy to the other kids.

I'm not sure how many trick-or-treaters we had this year. We always get a ton. Kevin got 1200 pieces of candy and gave out all of it - mostly two pieces at a time. I think he was a little more generous toward the end of the night.

Overall, it was such a fun Halloween for all three of us!

Little helper

Caroline helped me make pumpkin bread. Then she kindly offered to do the dishes.

Itsy bitsy

Are you sick of the singing yet? I might find an agent and see if we can cut an album.

More singing

I never tire of hearing her sing. Good thing she does it a lot these days!

Lazy daisy crazy

Here is Caroline's fall dress - finally finished! Hooray! I started working on it back in July, but then that pesky first trimester hit and I could hardly muster up enough energy to make dinner, let alone smock. When fall arrived, I kicked it into high-gear to get it done. I finished it last night, just in time for church today. I am very proud of the sunflower dress. Here's a little math problem for you: there are 32 sunflowers on the dress. Each sunflower is made up of 10 lazy daisy stitches. That equals 320 lazy daisies. Yikes.

This is the back of the dress. This is one of my favorite dress patterns because of the back.

Yes, it was a very sad morning for some reason. She was not going to smile at all.


I think she'll wear it to church every Sunday until Advent!

Punkin patch

We took Caroline to a real pumpkin patch this year. It was so much fun and the pumpkins were very reasonably priced (much more so than at the "patches" in town). She loved looking for little ones just for her. But my favorite thing has to be that she says "punkin"!

Overheard

Kevin was playing with Caroline while she was in the bath. Caroline said, "Daddy! I'm trying to do some serious work here!"

What a goof! I wish playing in the bath were my serious work!

Big girl bed

St. Louis

We had a really great time last weekend in St. Louis with Kevin's sister, Emily. We did Grant's Farm Saturday morning. Then Aunt Emmy took Caroline to Build-a-Bear, where Caroline built a tiger. Apparently once the stuffing was in, Caroline immediately wanted to do a bear. Saturday night we had a wonderful meal on The Hill with Emily's boyfriend and his parents. I don't remember the restaurant, but the food was really good. Sunday, we took Caroline to the zoo, which was just as neat as I remembered. It's a huge zoo, so we'll have to go back to take in all the areas we didn't get to.

My camera battery died the minute we arrived, so all these photos are courtesy of Emily. Thanks, Em!

Creativity

Caroline woke up one morning and her first order of business was building a nest. She kept talking about eggs and baby birds and nests. So we helped her fashion a nest out of blankies and gave her an Easter egg. She was so happy with her little nest. She played in it all day. I'm amazed at the workings of her little brain. We've never really talked about baby birds being in eggs. I'm guessing it's something she got from Word World. Regardless, I hope I am doing my best to foster her young, creative spirit. (And she had said egg started with "E" 2 seconds before I took the video - stage fright!)


Remember when Caroline liked a nest of a different variety?

Her two favorite songs

It's not what you think, Mimi and Papa

No, we haven't suddenly become Longhorn fans. We're still saying, "Boomer Sooner!" around here--I promise! This is Caroline's new sign. She came up to me yesterday and said, "Look, Mommy! I did it! I love you so much!" (My family has always waved goodbye using the "I love you" sign and now I do it to her and Kevin.) I didn't even realize it was something she had been trying to do, which makes it even more endearing. Talk about tugging at my heartstrings... I got a silly video of her, too. It's hard to get video these days because she always wants to "see the movie."

Rain, rain

This was a couple of weeks ago when the remnants of one of the hurricanes came through. I sent Kevin and Caroline out to pick up dinner. She had a great time with her umbrella.

Why we love wire-haireds

I had no idea Tigger liked balloons so much. I guess I should have known. About 5 minutes after I promised Caroline he wasn't going to pop it, he did. Good thing balloons are everywhere we go these days.

Thank you and all the details

Thanks so much for all the warm congratulations and love for little G2, as we have affectionately nicknamed him or her. We are, of course, very excited! I'm 12 weeks along, with a due date set for the end of March. Mornings are great, but afternoons and evenings are tough - tiredness and nausea make it hard to get dinner on the table some nights. It's getting better, thankfully, and I realize that it could be much worse.

And the thing that sometimes helps my stomach discomfort? Super bubble. Weird, I know. I hate the stuff under normal circumstances and think it's disgusting. But for some reason, it settles my stomach.

No, we won't be finding out the gender of this little one. Caroline's gender was a complete surprise to us. Kevin swears he never peeked during ultrasounds and I have to believe him. We'll have to hold him to the honor code this time around, too, especially since he's more experienced now!

We have told Caroline. I love how sweet, gentle, and attentive she is with other babies. I know some of the newness of G2 will wear off after he/she arrives and there will be moments of jealousy or frustration. So any tips on easing the transition are greatly appreciated. Overall, I think she's going to love being a big sister. I told her one day that there was a baby in Mommy's tummy. She looked at me and then looked at my tummy, contemplating. She said, "No. Just food."

Excitement

I think she's going to do a great job!

My two most favorite people

Beach week

We spent last week at the beach in Destin, FL. We were able to spend the week with our good friends, the Wilsons. I didn't take nearly enough pictures. We were just too busy relaxing! We've had a lot of fun vacations where we did lots of things. But I have to say that it was very nice to just go and do "nothing".

The girls hated the ocean on the first day (and the water was really rough). But by then end of the week, we could hardly get them out of the ocean. There were no seashells on the beach. So we bought some seashells and planted them for the girls to find. It was so cute. I forgot my camera on that beach trip, so I'll have to see if Bryn got any good ones.

Kevin and George went fishing one day and brought back some delicious red snapper. And, of course, Bryn and I hit the outlet mall one afternoon.

It was great that the girls could entertain each other. We all had a really great time.

Latest projects

First up, a second birthday gift for one of Caroline's very good friends. The shorts are fast and easy to make. And I found the perfect color tee-shirt to match at Target. It was in the boys' section, but there's nothing boyish about it now.



Some very good friends are expecting a little boy in late September. Since Mom and Dad both went to UT, I thought the orange polka-dot flannel was the perfect choice. That's a blankie, a long-sleeved onsie (it will fit perfectly through college football season), and a bib.


Lastly, two gift sets for two new babies - some more birdies and some sailboats.

Felt board and other stuff

We're taking a trip to the beach. The long car ride calls for some new activities for Caroline. So I made a felt board. It was very, very easy. I bought a cheap 8x10 canvas, 1/2 a yard of felt from a bolt, and tons of craft felt rectangles. I cut the felt to wrap around the canvas. Then I used my staple gun (so much fun) to attach it in the back. And the shapes are just free-handed from my imagination. This is the "summer day" set. I'm going to make a "sea scape" set and a shape set.


No new creation is perfect until the test user approves.


My sleeping beauty actually took a nap one afternoon! I thought the giant violet hippo made a perfect pillow.


And sometimes when I ask her to smile, I get this face instead. Her Aunt Emily must have taught her this one.

(Side note: Caroline's little dress is another that I made for her. It's strawberry pique with a lime green pique collar and shorts to match. I made it for picture day at school. I stayed up until midnight the night before because she just had to have something new and handmade for pictures. I know. I'm silly. I'll post her picture soon.)

I've got a couple more sewing projects to show you...