a ladybug, an elephant, and cinderella

Every year, we have a "party" in the living room, helping hand out candy in our costumes. But, this year, Anna Kate planned to trick-or-treat. So, there we were, time to head out for some trick-or-treating. When the girls realized they had to go to the doors and say, "trick-or-treat" and "thank you," the plan changed. No thanks, we'll stay home, maybe next year. We had a great time!

My little ladybug ~ oh my! she was Q-ute! My elephant, posing for a picture.

And, Cinderella. Anna Kate had a party at school, which she went back for in the afternoon.

Thanks, Aunt Heather, for presents! We love the books, and everyone loves Samantha's new safari truck.

Earlier in the week (on the day it was supposed to snow!), we decorated fall cookies - pumpkins and leaves. It was SO fun! (Thanks, Aunt Hillery for our matching dresses! You know how we love to match!)

Samantha's FIRST Birthday!!!

Here is the birthday girl! We started celebrating at breakfast. Grampa was still here (yea!), and we had waffles. Samantha ate half of a Belgium waffle! Wow!

After taking Grampa to the airport we had a couple of presents for Samantha to open. We like giving presents early in the day so that the girls can enjoy their new toys on their birthdays! (Daddy discovered that Samantha's shirt was soaking wet, but she didn't wait for him to return with a shirt before beginning to explore her presents! Before opening them, she stood, climbed, and even carried them!)

She didn't need a lot of help opening!

It was only 7 o'clock (an hour past her bedtime, oops!) when we offered her a cupcake (white cake, strawberry frosting), but she was done! We'll try a cupcake today, I think.

I love this pic of Anna Kate. So I had to include it.

Grampa Bill visits

Grampa Bill visited from the Turks & Caicos Islands this past week. We had a great time - doing daily stuff, like running errands and going to gymnastics, and some fun stuff too, like lunch at Indian Ladder Farms and the park! Here are some photos from the week.

Playing in the leaves outside the house!

Celebrating Grampa's birthday, just a couple of weeks early. I made a chocolate chip dutch baby (think puffed pancake) with sauteed bananas in a kahlua sauce - mmmm.

family movie night

We had a family movie night on Friday and we watched Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: The Best of Both Worlds. The girls liked it. Everyone danced, and Anna Kate tried to sing along. Here's Samantha in her chair, dancing. Even when she was done eating and out of her high chair, she was dancing. It was so cute!

Pumpkin-Picking Field Trip

We all had a great time on Anna Kate's class field trip pumpkin-picking.

On the hay ride - it was sunny, chilly and so much fun!
Outside the hay maze.
Anna Kate - just landed - out of the hay slide. The kids sailed down these black tubes and in to huge piles of hay, laughing!
Picking pumpkins in the patch! It was challenging for each of the girls to choose a pumpkin (and kind of difficult for Mommy to actually get it off the vine!), but in the end, we came home with lovely pumpkins!

Samantha and the buzzy bee

Samantha is walking - running, really - all over the place. Here's a video - it's not very good :) - of her with the buzzy bee. She is really enjoying the pull toys.

Apple Picking - kind of

Again this year, we were foiled in an attempt to pick apples. Our friend Myra and I loaded the girls up this morning and drove to a local orchard. We discovered, though, that there is no picking on weekdays! Surprising, but we made the best of it with yummy snacks (apple cider, apple cider doughnuts, and candy!) and still came home with loads of apples. Pumpkins are out, of course. And right by the parking lot there are pallets full of them. So, I was able to get a couple of quick pictures.