Boo!

Lots to catch up on and I'll get to it eventually but for now...

Garden update

Our lettuce has been growing steadily in our garden. Baby romaine is great. And easy to grow!

Pom Poms and Pine Cones

Earlier in the month Maggie and I hosted our moms group toddler art club again. I thought it would be fun to make pine cone Christmas trees with the kids and I think they enjoyed themselves. I was able to photograph a few of the finished products before everyone left. The kids were proud of their trees and were enthusiastic about taking them home.

Holiday Baking

Last week my mom came up for the night so we could do our annual holiday baking. This year we made lemon cookies, ginger snaps, oatmeal bars and rocky road.

Jingle Bells

Two weekends ago my dad sang Jingle Bells to Maggie. I'd say he sang it a total of 4 times. Here she is repeating what he sang the next day. She's a fast learner!

Decorating for Christmas

After we returned from our Thanksgiving trip to Shaver, Chad, Maggie and I decorated our house for Christmas. Maggie's favorite item from the boxes was a Christmas item from Chad's childhood. It's an angel candle holder that spins due to the heat from the flame. And as it spins, it dings a little bell. Maggie was fascinated by it and sat and watched it for awhile.

Santa

Over Thanksgiving weekend Maggie met Santa. He was in Shaver that Saturday ready to take pictures, talk to the kids, and give out stockings and candy canes. Maggie was excited to meet him. I was super curious about how she'd react to sitting on his lap because last year she didn't think it was the greatest. This year, however, I really talked him up for the week or so before they met and she lit up when she saw him sitting in his chair. Here's the funny thing: she was way stoked to sit on his lap, but would not look at his face. Even once. She smiled and giggled and talk to him, but was totally timid when it came to looking at him. At least she was brave enough to sit on his lap and talk to him. After the kids all met the big guy they took their gifted stockings to the shops in town and got treats from the store owners. It was basically like trick or treating for Christmas candy, pencils and hot chocolate. No one complained.

Thanksgiving

Our family had a great Thanksgiving weekend. We were able to spend it with Chad's parents, siblings, and nieces and nephews up in Shaver Lake. There were four people out of the 24 who couldn't make it this year and they were certainly missed. We went early on Thursday and left Sunday afternoon. The holiday weekend was filled with eating food, playing games, doing crafts, riding on the swing, playing in the snow, making bracelets, seeing Santa in town, opening gifts and spending time with each other. So much fun.

Pump It Up

One of Maggie's buddies turned 3 on Sunday and we helped him celebrate at Pump It Up in Madera. After hearing so much about it for the past couple years we were excited to finally check it out. Such a neat place to go and Maggie loved it. Actually, we all loved it. There are eight huge inflatable slides, obstacle courses and bounce houses that the kids (and adults!) can play on. Chad, Maggie and I climbed up the slide a number of times and man, that was fun. Chad recorded Maggie going down a slide for the first time. The end looks pretty rough, but she was in her glory.

A quick hello and...

First Snow Day

We spent the past Saturday and Sunday with my parents at the cabin. Saturday was overcast and cool, but stayed dry. We woke up on Sunday to a snow storm with the ground and trees covered with soft white snow. After Maggie woke up we dressed her in some warm clothes and let her play in it for awhile. She tried to eat the snowflakes as they were falling, jumped in the snow, rode around in a sled with Chad, helped my dad shovel the snow layer on the front deck, and picked up more than her share of snow with her gloved hands. Unfortunately the gloves were more for style and cool weather rather than for snow because her little hands froze after about 20 minutes of playing. Hard to believe the first snow of the season (for us) has arrived before Thanksgiving. 

Yo Gabba Gabba

On Friday we took Maggie to see the live action show: Yo Gabba Gabba, It's Time to Dance! and it was awesome! We all had so much fun, especially Maggie, and we are so glad we made the effort to go. Mags was in her glory, singing and dancing and screaming with the best of them. The band, Yacht, performed a song and Biz Markie performed for us too. So cool! Next time they come to Fresno we're taking Maggie, for sure.

Turkeys Making Turkeys

Sorry for the week-long lag in posting. Maggie and I have been busy preparing for Thanksgiving. Hard to believe we're less than a week away.

Anyway, yesterday Maggie and I had our art club friends over for the morning. She was so excited for their arrival and absolutely loves having her friends here to play. The craft I planned for the kids was a little painted hand-print turkey I found online. The kids enjoyed themselves and made some cute little turkeys to hang up at home.

Uhhhh...

On Sunday we worked on our garden. We thinned the plants so that the garden veggies would have plenty of room to grow. Maggie helped us by putting dirt in a bucket. Additionally, she pretended to eat some of the food that we are growing. Pretended so well, in fact, that she believed it herself and took a nice big bite of dirt. If only you could have seen her tongue before I was able to grab my camera. Yum.

Cars

In September Chad put together the two Plasma cars we bought for Maggie last year. She's finally old enough and agile enough to ride them and, since they are appropriate for both kids and adults, Chad practiced riding it with her. She's definitely getting the hang of it. And I'll be honest: I'm having fun on them too.

Blue Steel

Last month at the pumpkin patch Maggie worked on her Zoolander Blue Steel impression. Not bad.

Trunk or Treat

This weekend our moms group organized a fun trunk or treat for the kids. The little ones (as well as the parents) enjoyed spending time with friends, wearing costumes and collecting candy. Maggie's favorite treasure from her sack of loot was the small bag of goldfish crackers. Good thing I like the rest of what's in her bag. That candy won't go to waste.

Pumpkin Carving

On Sunday we carved our pumpkins. Chad did an awesome job freehand cutting the cat face on the small pumpkin. It looks even better in real life. I did the buck-toothed happy faced pumpkin, as usual. I also carved a crooked M. We tried to get Mags involved this year but honestly, she wanted nothing to do with it. She was excited at first, but once she realized she was going to have to touch the pumpkin guts, she changed her mind. She did reach in once and pulled out a seed. One seed. And that was enough. You can tell by her face.  Later in the evening we went to our friends' annual pumpkin carving party (but cheated and brought our pre-carved pumpkins with us this year). It was still a fun party!

Check here, here, here and here for my previous posts on our pumpkin carving.

Pumpkin Patch

Saturday Maggie, Chad and I went to the pumpkin patch with our friends. The same friends, I should add, that we've gone with to the patch the last two years. (see here and here!) There was lots of chasing and wrangling the kids this time but still lots of fun. Below are some photos our friend Matt took for us:

Paper Jack-O-Lanterns

On Friday Maggie and I had our mom's group friends over for a little craft time. The children created collage pumpkins on paper and surprisingly really enjoyed themselves. Sometimes with toddlers crafts can be a little hit-or-miss when it comes to interest and enjoyment, but I chose well with this one, fortunately, and the children liked it. After the craft we headed to the backyard for the activity that is ALWAYS a hit: running wild and playing.