Pumpkin Carving

OK. Two posts in one night. Trying to keep them sort of short and keep the pictures separated. Tonight "we" carved the pumpkin that Evvy got at the pumpkin patch a couple of weeks ago.

It has been many years since I have carved a pumpkin. It was kind of fun. I will say there is something to be said about little pumpkins. They are easy to clean out but a little hard to carve. Evvy wasn't quite sure what to make of pumpkin cleaning. I kept taking out seeds and she would put them back in. Pretty cute. I am always telling her to keep her food on the plate, etc so I guess she figured that Mommy needed some help keeping the pumpkin seeds in the pumpkin. She also kept trying to eat the seeds and didn't really like the goo on her hands. She did eat a little bit of pumpkin but I figured it was good fiber, right?

I am not a great pumpkin carver but her is our first pumpkin together.

Susan

Um, mom, what did you do to my pumpkin?

Am I supposed to eat this? Yuck!
Hmm, maybe this will taste better.
No, yucky too. I will put it back inside.
Maybe the big part will taste better? Hmm. Nope.

Yucky sticky seeds.

Get them off my fingers please.

Oooh. Cool mommy. You did a great job!

What did you say Mr Pumpkin head?

Help, he is trying to eat my hand!

Musing on Making Memories

Not much going on in our busy life. I broke down and bought Miss Evvy a Halloween costume. It is pretty cute. She is going to be a lady bug. I was thinking about it today....why buy a 17 month old a costume and dress her up. She won't understand it. But then I thought, "cute pictures and memories for mommy and for her when she is grown up." Hopefully, it will make her feel happy looking back at the pictures of her childhood and making her memories. I know I loved (ok still love) looking at pictures from my childhood. I don't necessarily have the actual "memories" of the events but it helps me create my past in my mind. Does that make sense?



Anyway, my ladybug is very cute. Her personality is really coming out. Tonight, she kept running out of the bedroom when we were reading stories. Then when she would come back, I would be hiding and jump out and she would be startled and start laughing. OK, so not the ideal winding down activity but she went to bed happy. She is starting to blow kisses. When I tell her to say "night, night" to the cats, she blows them kisses.



Saturday we went to a Halloween parade around the town square. They had trick-or-treating with all the local merchants. I was going to do that but the lines were all the way around the square and it didn't look that fun. So we went to the bakery and Evvy got a cookie and mommy got a donut and then we staked out spots for the parade. Peggy and her kids met us there. The parade was fun. Miss Evvy was getting tired towards the end as it was naptime so we took the costume off but not a problem as she had a Halloween t-shirt on. She was pretty cute.



Here are some pictures from of my cutie pie. I am sure there will be more tomorrow after trick-or-treating. We will probably just go over to Peggy's and go to a few houses as my girl doesn't really know about candy yet. I'm sure I will probably give her a piece or two (or not).



Here she is.



Susan

My First Craft at the Library

For the past 3 weeks I have been taking Evvy to story/craft time at the library. I know that she is a bit young for it but I want to start exposing her so that she can learn the right behavior. She LOVES the library. We pulled into the parking lot and she knew where she was and started getting excited and "talking." It was like, "come on mom, let's get in there cause they have lots of books and a nice room for me to play." I love the story time lady "Ms Sharon." She has been doing story time for many years. I used to go with P and her kids when they were younger. Last week we barely got through the short movie they show "it is a book movie" kind of like those old timey filmstrips we used to have when I was a kid. She watched it sort of tonight and then walked around "visiting" other children during the story. For the most part she was well behaved. No tantrums like last week. Then she even stayed and did the craft. OK, so mom did the craft for her. But, she let me trace her hands for the bat and she "helped" me cut it out (she tore the scraps up into tiney pieces). She helped me stick the nose on. Then she carried it around really proud and got mad when I took it away in the car (it had some choking hazards on it that I couldn't monitor with her in the back seat).

Anyway, when we got home I did snap a couple of pictures. She was pretty tired and really didn't want to cooperate. She is adicted to Plaza Sesamo (spanish sesame street) and went right for the remote control and gave me the sweetest smile so what else could I do. She hadn't been home all day and it was 8:00pm. So I sat her on the couch with her craft and you can totally tell she is trying to see around me to watch TV. Oh well. I count it as "spanish" lessons for both her and me and we do watch it together and we don't watch it every day (I TIVO it).

Then we read one book and she was so ready for bed. Mommy is ready for bed too.

Here are a couple of pictures of Evvy and her library bat.

Susan

I really want to pull the nose back off.

Ah, Plaza Sesamo!

OK Mom, move it. Trying to watch Sesamo!

Six Month's Ago Today....

I can hardly believe that I am posting this. Where has the time gone. Six months ago today, Evvy landed in the United States.

One year ago this week, I was supposed to meet my sweet daughter for the first time but the trip was cancelled due to some political issues surrounding adoptions. It was a heartbreaking week for me.

I am so blessed to have this beautiful child in my life. She is truly the joy of my life. She has given me a purpose to live and be a better person and the best mom I can to her.
Here are a few pictures from our past year's journey.

9 days old

Oct 2006 (4 1/2 months old)
April 2007 (pickup trip with Grandma & Grandpa)
On the Plane going home (April 18, 2007)
Home 6 months (October 18, 2007)

Lions and Tigers and Bears...Oh My

Well I don't think we saw any bears but lions and tigers yes. We spent about 4 hours at the zoo today with our friends Julie, Sam, Lucas and Judi & Elaina. What a group of cute kids they are. The weather was perfect as was the company. The kids were definitely done in by the time we got on the tram to come back from Africa to the entrance area. Evvy was out in the car by the time we left the exit and slept until almost 6:00. Hopefully she will still sleep tonight.


Here are some pictures from our day.


Susan

Welcome Elise Katherine!

Friday morning my baby brother welcomed the newest member of his family into the world. Elise Katherine weighed in at 6# 8oz andwas 18 1/2" long. She is a precious little peanut. She looks so tiny but she weighed 1 1/2# more than Evvy when she was born.

Isn't she just beautiful?

Whatever should I wear?

Tonight we were playing in Evvy's room and she got the bottom drawer of her dresser open. I was talking on the phone (bad mommy) and she pulled everything out of the drawer. She had such a good time. She was really trying to put the clothes on too. She kept stretching out the arm hole on a shirt and trying to put her head through it. She just giggled and then started rolling around in her pile of clothes. She was deliriously tired as she didn't get to bed til almost 9:00 which is an hour past bedtime. We just had a very busy evening running errands. Hopefully tomorrow will be more relaxing and maybe she will sleep in cause I kept her up late??? (a mom can wish).

My Pumpkin at the Pumpkin Patch

Today Peggy and I took the kids to the pumpkin patch. There was a children's singer there giving a concert also. We saw Mr Stinky Feet. He was pretty entertaining and the kids seemed to like him. Evvy just loves music and was dancing around. It was a really fun day. The farm had all sorts of fun stuff for the kids: hayride, moon walk, horse swings (Evvy's favorite), rocking barrel horses, corn maize, train rides and pupkins. Lot of fun. We stayed for about 3 hours and I think I got a little sunburned on the face. It was so hot. Not the ideal fall weather that one would hope for going to the pumpkin farm but I think fun was had by all.


Here are some pictures. I will put the rest on our picture website.


Enjoy!
Susan

Giddy-up Horsie!
I'm lost in the Corn Maze!

Hay Ride

Me & My friends at the Pumpkin Patch.

Too Big!

Just Right! Let's go!