November

Wow, I'm so far behind! Here's a glimpse into November. It was a great month around here, as you'll soon see!

our two sweet girls

Our last trip to the zoo, a month and a half ago. What's going on around here?! I don't think we've ever gone that long between visits, but it's been really cold. That's my excuse.

riding Smoky at the zoo

picking up leaves at the zoo

I had oral surgery on November 10th, so Steve took Jill out the following day to let me rest. They went to the museum, but it was too crowded due to school being out for Veteran's Day. So they played in the leaves and went to the fire station instead.

playing in the leaves at Seattle Center with Daddy

Daddy/Daughter trip to Daddy's work

Daddy had been unable to accompany us to any of our Lowe's trips because they are always scheduled on his work days. So, we bought one that he and Jill could do at home. They had fun.

building a school bus

We went with our friends to the science center one day and had a blast. We're looking forward to a membership there soon.

playing in the design exhibit at the Science Center with Connor and Caleb

making a pattern at the Science Center

in the Butterfly House

Watching the butterflies eat...I swear she had a really good time!

in the dinosaur room

water table

I found some Star Wars pancake molds online. The Millennium Falcon, a Tie Fighter, and a Y-Wing Fighter. Jill loves them.

tie fighter pancake

Since I have 2 education degrees and no job, we decided I'd just do preschool at home. We've been getting to it at last 5 days a week, usually all 7. Jill is now sounding out words and has read 2 of the Bob books to us. I'm SO PROUD of her!

homeschool

We headed down to my parents' house for Thanksgiving. Every year we bring the ham. This year Jill helped make it. She loved attaching the pineapple with toothpicks.

making the Thanksgiving ham

Jill has been working really hard to earn stickers on her "Good Girl Chart." She is working on Listening and Following Directions the First Time, Not Throwing Fits When She Gets Upset, and Listening and Obeying at Dance. She met her goals and chose a trip to Build a Bear as her reward.

Sally the Bear

She tested out her new apron and hat while we made pumpkin muffins. She LOVES the apron and hat. LOVES.

little chef

she requested a 2nd picture so we could see the cherry on the hat

Now that Daddy is gone for 24 hour stretches she is soaking up her time with him any way she can get it!

sitting in Daddy's work car while he fed Henny

Jill's First Dance Performance

For the past 2 months, Jill has been practicing for her big dance performance, which was this afternoon! They wanted the girls there 1.5 hours early for pictures, etc., but we decided to live dangerously and show up 9 minutes before the show started. We got back to the room to find that there were about 30 little girls and 2 adults...this was why we got there late. I had no intention of letting someone else supervise my rambunctious girl and I was sure they wouldn't have enough help. I ended up staying and helping out by ferrying girls to and from pictures and the stage, which was just fine. I walked the girls up the side of the stage to wait in the wings, and they were VERY excited. As it was their turn to go on, Jill's teacher came up and Jill hugged and kissed her many times, as is her custom. We *thought* it was their turn so Jill started tapping her way onto the stage, but the teacher called her back at the last second because it turns out we'd been misinformed and a singer was going next. Jill loudly tapped off the stage to laughter. Steve said he could only see a flash of her hair, but he knew it had to be Jill! The entire time the singer performed Jill kept saying loudly, "But I don't see any dancers out there! I can do it!" When I saw her costume I initially balked because I thought it was pretty inappropriate for a 3 year old, and then when we got there the other classes were in cute long-sleeved Christmas themed shirts from Old Navy, but Jill's class had these flapper outfits. Oh well, it was cute and I'm glad we let her do it.

Here is the performance. The adorable. I can't stand it.



She's a born performer (as we all knew). The dance she'd been showing us at home was pretty different from what we saw today which made us laugh a lot. Oh this girl, how we love her!

the star, bowing

soaking up the applause

heading offstage

our little dancer

October 2011

Here is what we did in October that didn't have anything to do with Halloween. We had a lot of fun, but then, we always do!

Clay at the Children's Museum with DADDY!

More Daddy time

the Lego exhibit

Dick's!

After seeing Elvis Costello on her morning dose of Sesame, Jill asked to dance to his music:

Visiting Daddy at the Great Seattle Fire Day at MOHAI

dressing a firefighter

such a grown up girl!

pretend breakfast

building with the Megablocks

Daddy came home after a 48 hour shift plus time spent at the museum, and Jill had this to show him:

school time

a serious writer...this is her least favorite "school" activity

my spaghetti sauce taster

Jill and I had gotten our flu shots the day before, so we took Daddy to get his while Jill sang to him.

with her building at the museum, on the day she decided to become an architect

she wrote a book, and this is one of her illustrations

Playdoh cakes are a daily occurrence at our house.

making a rainbow with the flashlight, paper, and water

Making letters out of straws (a during Playdoh play discovery).

egg race at the museum on World Egg Day

reading together on the couch

teaching Pop all about the lightsaber battles dvd

Lightsaber battles recap:

Pumpkin Patch and Halloween 2011

We had a great Halloween this year. Trick or treating was very fun, but it turned out that candy turns Jill into some unrecognizably demanding, greedy little being, so I invented the Candy Witch. She comes and takes your candy and leaves you a cool toy. Jill was ALL IN for this idea, so we wrote a letter and put out the candy, and it was replaced the next morning with a new Star Wars toy. Bless you, Candy Fairy, and moms who have done the Christmas shopping way too early! :) Happy, lovely, perfectly sweet little Jill has returned with the departure of the candy. So weird!

posing at the Children's Museum

Lowe's Monster Machine

"Hawwoween cupcakes"

"Mmm, these are delicious, Mommy."

ghost pumpkin

"This is a good one!"

"A little help."

getting so grown up

little pumpkin with a pumpkin

I cropped this, but it didn't work

laughing it up with Daddy

sillies

the beginnings of the R2-D2 pumpkin

all ready to trick or treat, as Yaddle

light saber is ready!* She knows she shouldn't have a red lightsaber as a Jedi, but her Jedi one was too heavy to carry around all evening. The red one is smaller.

I look like a weirdo, but she looks great!

posing in a yard

even Jedi get tired