Halloween gone wrong

I was all excited to get off work today and hurry home to take Claire trick-or-treating. Well, she had another idea. Jeff did an awesome job at getting her all dressed up at Tinkerbell (again, thank you cousin Ellie for sharing all of your things!) and she was all pumped up to go get candy, at least until Mom pulled up.  We stopped for a minute to get a few pictures and then we were off to fill our buckets. Well, we hit one house and immediately Claire decided to hide behind my legs and start to whine. Jeff took her home and had a talk with her and she decided she wanted to go inside and get her jammies on for bed. So, the evening Jeff and I were looking forward to all day quickly became a disappointment to us both. You just can't make a 3 year old do something she doesn't want to do! Lesson learned! Good thing we took pictures first!

Gymnastics

Jeff and I decided to enroll Claire in gymnastics to help her learn some skills and meet some new friends. She was so proud to be able to wear a leotard (thank you to cousin Ellie for giving them to her). When she got dressed for gymnastics, she kept twirling around saying she was so beautiful! The bottom picture is us practicing a move she learned at her first trial class. As long as she loves to go, I think this will be an activity that we will keep her in.

School project

Claire brought home this purple feather from preschool the other day. Her task was to decorate it and return it so it can become a part of the classroom turkey. I got Claire some glitter glue and paint and she got busy decorating. As you can see from the pictures, she was very focused on detail and we ended up with a very beautiful feather made 100% by Claire!

YMCA Fall Festival

On Friday evening we were able to take Claire to the YMCA Fall Festival. The weather had changed due to a cold front and we dropped over 20 degrees so it was time to get out the pants and jackets. Jeff may never admit it, but I will...we have become officially whimpy! It was in 50's and we were freezing! Anyway, we all had a fun time. We especially enjoyed watching Claire come out of her shell a bit. This was the very first time she would stand by a dressed up person for a picture. Usually she just clings on to me so tightly I can barely breathe! We were very proud of her. She had a great time getting her face painted and sat so still we could have balanced a plate on her head! Then she found the bounce houses. Once she started with those, it was hard to get her off. It was a very fun family event.

Time Flys

It's time for a pillow fight!

Jeff and Claire love to have pillow fights. I am surprised at how hard they hit each other and then just laugh about it. Sometimes Claire laughs so hard that she has to stop the pillow fight until she can control her laughing! She is one tough kiddo! It sure is fun to be a spectator at events like these!

At the park with Elliott

After our doctor visits, we got to go to the park with our friends Rachael and Elliott. It was so fun to watch Claire and Elliott play together and follow each others lead. We had to work at keeping them focused on the playground instead of wandering off to get into other things but overall, they seemed to have a fun time. Claire goes to preschool with Elliott and I can see them becoming very good friends. We may have trouble on our hands when they get a bit older!

Time for your check-up!

Today Claire and I got to play doctor. She has a play doctor kit and she decided that all of her babies were not feeling good. She worked hard to get them better. First she checked their blood pressure, then she checked their temperature. After this she looked into their ears and into their eyes. Finally she had to give them each a shot and then they amazingly felt better! It is so much fun watching her little imagination go wild. She has really started to role play a lot and comes up with some very clever stories! Grandma and Grandpa will have their fill of laughs when they come to visit next month!
One cute thing Claire has started to say is "Quickly, my dears". She tells me this often when she wants me to hurry and do something fast. I am guessing she learned this from her preschool teacher. Too cute!

Painting pumpkins with friends

Today we had a busy day. It started with having 7 friends over to decorate pumpkins and decorate cookies. Each child had their own little pumpkin and we had paint, pipe cleaners, pom poms, google eyes, sticky shapes and letters, and glitter. It was fun to watch the kids all do different things with their pumpkins. Claire liked the paint the best. After we finished with that, we brought the kids inside and they got to each frost their own cookie and put sprinkles on it before eating it. Then they got to run around to wear off the sugar in their system! This afternoon we were able to go visit with Me-maw and Paw-paw before going to the park with Daddy. We definitely enjoyed the day of cooler weather today.

Fun at the pumpkin patch

 It was a beautiful evening so we decided to head to the pumpkin patch for a fun time. First we had to take some pictures sitting on all of the pumpkins.

 Next, we went on a hayride through the property. We got to see a few cows and even a baby calf.

 Claire was a bit shy of this rather large spider so Mom had to stand by her for a picture.

 With some encouragement, Claire climbed on top of this large turkey. Claire and her Dad competed to see who had the biggest smile!

 Claire saw the face painting table and wanted a princess painting. We were both surprised at how still Claire stayed the entire time and it was fun to see how happy she was when she got to look at herself in the mirror.

Finally, Claire got to go down some bounce house slides before we headed home for the night. We had a really fun time at the pumpkin patch and will probably go back every year as a tradition of ours.

Sea World in the fall