"They Say It's Your Birthday"

Official Disclaimer:

We took absolutely terrible pictures, and even very few of those.

So Oly's birthday isn't for a few weeks, but we had so much fun at our Halloween party last year and wanted to do it again, so we bundled them up into one!

Before the onslaught, these photos show the new white trim and the greeny-gray paint color on the walls:

White trim and two toned apricot colored dining room:

Balloons!

Clifford the Big Red Dog, Emily Elizabeth and a stray neighborhood cat.

Here is our friend Aaron, dressed as Pee-Wee Herman:

And our friends Anna and Josh with their little Lady Bug, Mila (thanks so much to Anna for taking this and the two above photos for us) 

I'm hoping others will e-mail us more pictures of all the other costumes, because some were really great. 

Here is Oly after blowing out the candles:

Ruth on the left took off her Piggy costume.  Michael on the right came as Santa, with his parents dressed up as elves.  So awesome. 

There were a lot of people here.  From counting up numbers from evite, we know there were at least 60.  I know that only children ate cupcakes and there were 23 of those eaten!  

We raked a big pile of leaves out front, and covered them with a tarp from the snow so they were niiiiiice and crunchy for the kiddos to jump in.  

Notice the snow leftover on the ground in the back:

And after it was all over, there was very little food left, a super happy Oly and tired parents.  And that was what we were hoping for!

At dawn this morning we dropped Clifford, I mean Papa, off at the airport for a two week trip to Asia so we'll be trick-or-treating tonight with her tiny Clifford stuffed animal. 

Calendar

Last month's calendar page looked like this:

It's like Nikki McClure snuck into Tim's wildest dreams where Oly falls asleep in his arms after she climbs into our bed in the morning.  How amazing is this picture?  Amazing enough that I kept it up all of October too.  I switched it over today for the party:

Party photos to be uploaded tomorrow, I'm pretty sure I haven't been this tired since giving birth.

We're Dreaming of a White Halloween

End of an Era

During Oly's nap today I heard voices coming from the stairs- it was my daughter, coming to tell me that she and her husky had climbed out of her crib and were ready for a snack.  Woah.  It was time to set up the toddler bed we bought a few months ago but hoped we'd never need.  Right now it's 9:30 pm and as far as we can tell she's fast asleep in it.  There's a tiny possibility that she climbed out the window and she's cruising around Media in our car, but we trust her.  

She is officially not a baby anymore.  

Let's Ballet!

There's a british show called Chloe's Closet (Google Image it) with a little girl who loves to play dress up.  She has blonde pig tails and.... wait for it..... a yellow duck-head-blanket thing just like Oly's Honk.  It's insane.  Anyway she's seen it many times and there's an episode where they learn a ballet routine from the tiny doll inside their jewelry box.  Here's the routine:





And here's Papa doing the routine, under Olympia's tutelage:

Mellow Music

Tonight at dinner we taught Oly how to dance to mellow Paul Simon music.  You sway.  We're the hippest parents ever. 

Lasturday

Oly's working on measures of time.  She has no sense yet about what days, weeks or months are.  She saw Tommy yesterday, Halloween is on Monday, vacation will happen in December, Papa only stays home from work on the weekend and she will be an adult someday.  It's not easy.  Today she referred to something happening "lasturday".

More of What We Were Up To

Sorry this is late, but these pictures were taken with Tim's cell phone which was temporarily misplaced.   So here they are, mostly duplicates of Amy's but still cute!

Trolley!

The possible highlight of the Arboretum: 

Being shuttled there on a school bus!  (The only disappointment with pre-school is that she doesn't get to ride a big yellow bus, I just drive her in our normal old boring car.)  It lived up to the hype!

This tree was a large series of pulleys that rang bells up in the branches.  We jammed for a long time. 

In our back yard:

And, one of the rabid hockey fans:

A Few Of The Things We're Up To

Checking out Diggers:

Reading books in bed:

Building kitty forts:

And reading dog books in them:

Pictures From Earlier In The Week

Oh hey dump truck, waddaya got there?

3 cords of firewood!  To stack in the 75 degree heat!  Something's not right there.

Oly had her first Mexican Soda at the Media Food Fair.  She's a fan. 

Co-Op

I imported a few helpers for this mornings Co-Op!

As soon as Kyle got here he hopped up onto the couch and asked Lucy to join him.  Then he snuggled her for several minutes.  Lucy obliged.

A jungle was constructed. 

Anna wanted to get away from all of those crazy chimps.

Then we had a horse show.....

...with help from Lucy's favorite barn hand.

When we sat down for apples and popcorn, they were so sweet you would have thought they were downright civilized.

(Notice the paint in the dining room is done?!?!?!  Work has stopped while the Reading/Farmers visit but the living room will be painted early next week!)