halloween fun

October has been a really fun month for us. We’ve been getting ready for Halloween since the first week, starting with decorating pumpkins at the beach. T’s mom brought these little pumpkins with her and Bella and my mom decorated them together. There’s a Daddy, Mommy, Bella and Chloe (the cat) pumpkin.

pumpkins

After we got home from the beach, we started working on ghosts. Some have pink polka dots and others have Hello Kitty stickers. There are a few with the traditional black and orange, too.

paper ghost garland

October was a really rainy month! One rare sunny day we went outside and collected leaves. Our neighborhood trees are finally starting to get big and we’ve got some really brilliant red leaves this year.

autumn blaze maple leaves

The week before Halloween is Fall Break for the Lincoln school system, so Bella’s preschool celebrated Halloween the week before. She brought home all kinds of spooky art: a q-tip skeleton, paper plate monster, triangle witch and an itsy bitsy spider with its own water spout. Her favorite activity was face painting. (There’s a pumpkin on her other cheek.)

preschool fun

We also did quite a few collages. You can see some of them over here. After I got tired of cutting shapes out of magazines, I bought some fancy pumpkin foam stickers for her.

pumpkin stickers

The most fun was Halloween itself. Bella was Abby Cadabby from Sesame Street. She wore her costume all day, visited with her friend Mason the Bat Man, handed out candy and trick or treated for the first time.

handmade abby cadabby costume

I can’t believe it’s November already. Time to put away the ghosts and bring out the turkeys!

our late bloomers

cucumber

For awhile I thought we were only going to get one tomato and one cucumber from our plants. Remember when I told you I was trying to manually pollinate them? Well, we’ve got almost 20 tomatoes and 6-7 cucumbers now. Just in time for the cold weather!

tomato

I was hoping we could harvest some more before the first frost, but the weatherman said next week we’ll have winter-like temperatures. Whaa? Cross your fingers for us! In the meantime, we’ve got some yummies to eat.

tomato

first day of preschool

bella preschool

Well, sort of. This was right before we went to the preschool open house. Basically, it was an hour for parents and kids to become acquainted with the teachers and each other.

On her actual first day I made the mistake of trying to take her picture outside. As soon as I opened the door, all she wanted to do was run around the yard. So much excitement and energy!

Also, she refuses to wear the backpack I made for her. Oh, well. She had tons of fun on her first day and came home exhausted. I hope she has just as much fun today!

lincoln safari: peterson park

It’s been awhile since we’ve done any of the Lincoln Safari. Bella is obsessed really likes Mickey’s Clubhouse, and there is a lot of detective work on that show. Her favorite is The Case of the Missing Muffins. She’s loves looking for clues, so I thought it would be fun to start up again with the safari.

This park’s clue was southwest of the pond, under the tree that has a branch that almost touches the ground. She was so excited when we saw that branch! I have a feeling we’ll be doing these more often in the coming months.

We spent the rest of the morning at the playground. I’m paying for it this evening, though. I think all around the pond was ragweed. Yikes!

swinging at the park

tunnel at the park

seesaw at the park

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twitter was down?

It’s unbelievable that I didn’t know twitter was down until the evening news. I rarely spend so much time away from my computer during the day, but it was too beautiful to sit in front of the keyboard.

I have a book due at the library tomorrow that I was hoping to finish up today. The weather forecast was nice and cool (for August) so I took Bella to the zoo. She loves to sit in the big sand area and play forever. I figured I’d let her play while I’d sit in the shade next to the parrots and read my book.

You know what happened, don’t you? She was totally NOT interested in the sand area. Not one bit. I think I read two paragraphs before she was ready for the next thing. Oh, well. We had tons of fun. I can always read when it’s cold out, right?

bella caterpillar

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fun at the ager center

I can’t believe that it is sunny and cool right now. We planned to go to the zoo with Kelly and Leith today, but it was raining. The weather report called for more rain right around the time we were going to meet. Plan B was going to the Ager Center.

Now that Bella is almost three, I let her get a pass for play structure. She wasn’t really interested in it until the very end — right before we were ready to leave, of course. I didn’t think to get a picture because I was too busy checking in on her. I did get some pics of the two of them playing with Little People.

bella and leith

bella and leith

Kelly and I also had a nice visit. We didn’t play with Little People, though.

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new on julie-k: wardrobe refashions: pajamas, a skirt and a shirt

my little perch

bella's first swim lesson

Last week Bella tried swimming in the bathtub. I asked her if she wanted to take swimming lessons and she said, “YES!” There just happened to be a class open that started this week so I signed her up. Every day so far has had its own milestone.

Monday: This day was a little overwhelming. Skills covered were putting her face in the water and blowing bubbles, which she did not want to do, floating on her back, she kept bending her knees, and jumping off the side of the pool, which was more like me lifting her off.

Tuesday: A much more comfortable day in the water. She floated on both her front and back with help, jumped off the edge of the pool holding my hands and put her face in the water to blow bubbles.

Wednesday: I’m amazed at her progress. She’s putting her whole head under water, floating on her back, kicking while floating on her front and today she jumped off the side of the pool into the teacher’s arms and didn’t hold hands!

I wish I could take pictures, but I’m in the water with her. I’ll post more of her progress, though. Can’t wait to see what she does next!

dad’s photos

Right before my parents leave after a visit, my dad lets me download all of the photos from his camera to my computer. I love going through them. Here are three of my favorites from last week.

july 4th parade in seward

4th of july parade in seward, ne

chasing bubbles

chasing bubbles in the backyard

having fun at lost in fun

having fun at “lost in fun”

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