Halloween 2011

Halloween is quickly becoming one of my favorite holidays. What fun it is to watch little ones dress up and delight in traipsing from house to house in search of sweets.  Anna, or rather Snow White, exhibited no shyness this year and walked the entire neighborhood herself.  As her sidekick,  Dopey the dwarf, James was content to watch the action from the comfort of his stroller.

This year we were joined for a fun-filled weekend by Papa Odie and the magic costume seamstress herself, Gramma Turner.  I love that she got to see firsthand the reactions to the beautiful costumes she makes!

The East Gate kiddos

Anna and Jake

The aftermath

All About Anna

This week Anna was the "Star Student" of her class.  As part of this highly esteemend honor, she had to make a poster that showed her family and depicted all of her favorite things.  She was so excited and concerned about making her poster that I got some good insight into how I think she'll be with school projects in general (jury is out on whether we'll be able to work together...).  We talked about her poster and what she wanted to put on it at length.  So much so that I started a running list where I noted all the items she wanted to include (I did do some editing).  She was very proud of the finished project - and while I helped source the pictures and did the writing, all of the words on the page are straight from her mouth.  It ended up being a perfect snapshot of this moment in our special star's life.

Here are her "favorites":

Food: Milk, Donuts, Raisins, M&Ms, Cotton Candy, Pasta, Macaroni & Cheese

Toys/TV/Games: Bunny, Fairies, Princesses, Candy Land, Wild Kratts, Curious George

Things to do: DANCE!, Go to Disney World, Go to the beach, Crafts & stickers

Colors: Pink, blue and purple (but pink is her most favorite)

Animals: Tope, Goldfish (who knew?!?)

Seven Months

James rang in his seven month birthday in a big way - teeth!!  Look at those pearly whites peeking through!  I didn't think his grins could get cuter but I was wrong.

Bath time!

Now that James is sitting, he and Anna take baths together (huge timesaver!!).  James has always been a fan of the bath and is absolutely delighted with Anna being in the water alongside him. He quickly learned that splashing will elicit laughs from Anna - yet, he seems to ignore my requests to keep the water in the tub...  For her part, Anna is a great big sister in the tub, entertaining James and being surprisingly understanding if the bath needs to be cut short due to James' antics.  In fact, she's so understanding that she was hardly phased during their third bath together when James, well, you know, pooped in the tub.  Once I realized what the funny look on his face meant, I yelled at Anna to get out, get out, get out of the water!!  She obliged quickly but laughed the whole time, and was even helpful in cleaning out the tub.  Ahh, life with a baby.

Fun Fair

The North Georgia State Fair came back to town so we decided to introduce James to the fun.  Most of the attractions were the same as last year (except the man being shot out of the canon was a no-show...hopefully nothing bad happened there...).  Anna thoroughly enjoyed the festivities, rides and, of course, snacks.  She introduced James to the joy of cotton candy, a treat with which he quickly became enamored (no judgment people!).  All in all, we had a great time - the weather was beautiful, the sights were interesting, and the company was fantastic.  Already looking forward to next year! 

 

Sibling love.

Yellow and blue cotton candy make green...yummy.

Loving the rides...

Sugar crash?

Take a hike!


At dinner one night this week Anna lamented to me that she had never been on a hike.  This came from her new favorite show, Wild Kratts.  Yes, that means Curious George has some competition - yay!  Wild Kratts is a quite enjoyable show that focuses on animals and nature, and the Kratt brothers are often taking hikes.  Now, anyone who knows Jason and I, would probably be extremely unlikely to use the word "outdoorsy," to describe us.  We like the pool and beach, but the words hike, camping, or nature walk, typically stop us in our tracks.  But, we decided to oblige Anna's request and headed to Kennesaw Mountain.  I forget that we have a beautiful National Park so close to us, steeped in history.  What a nice surprise it was to see so many people outside exploring and enjoying all there was to see on a refreshing fall-like day.

For our part we decided to summit the "mountain" (the term mountain is used lightly here...), and we made it!  Anna bee-bopped along the whole time, without one complaint - I was impressed considering it was a 2 mile round trip excursion and I was sure Jason would end up carrying her.  At the top we stopped for a snack and took in the views of Atlanta.  Given the success of this outing, we may even venture out on a few more hikes.  But, I still draw the line at camping.

And the hike begins.

Hanging around.

Snacking at the top.

Sweet James, always quick with a smile.

Me and the kiddos.

This picture makes me laugh - we look like that dorky family you mock when you see them.  But, that's ok with me.  At least we're not wearing matching shirts! 

First Day of Pre-pre-K

Anna headed back to school this week.  She is in the "Dolphins" class this year and was really looking forward to returning.  After her first day, all she could talk about was the new behavior system they use in her class - each day the kids start on green and if you "don't follow directions or be really bad" (quote from Anna), you have to move to yellow and then, (gasp!), red.  At school (emphasis on school, here) she is a rule-follower and I can see the thought of moving to yellow or, heaven-forbid, red, makes her nervous.  She does however, like to spill the beans on her classmates who have to move off of green.  She also was very excited to have "homework".  We'll see how long that lasts.  I just can't believe we'll be taking first day of kindergarten pictures two Septembers from now...