Trick or Treat!

Our little princess was very eager to go trick or treating tonight! This was actually her third time this week to be dressed up in her costume. Earlier this week, we went to story time at two different places where they encouraged the kids to be dressed up. She got to practice trick or treating, so she was all ready for tonight! Thankfully, she agreed to leave her "glass slippers" home this time and wear her tennis shoes instead.

After visiting a few of our wonderful neighbors, we headed over to the Elgersma's house for dinner and trick or treating in their neighborhood with their kids and some other friends. Here are the eager beavers ready to go!


The kids RAN to each house with lights on. Anna tried so hard to keep up with the bigger kids. She was having so much fun! She was pretty funny, too. She'd run up to a house, wait her turn to get her candy, and turn to run back down the driveway. I'd ask if she said thank you and if she didn't, she'd run back up to the house (sometimes up steps), say thank you (usually until she was acknowledged) and then run back down the driveway again. When she started to fall behind a little and was getting very tired, Matt carried her from house to house (mostly running to keep up with the other kids in our group).

Once were back at the Elgersma's house, the kids emptied their bags to check out their loot! Then the trading began. That was a hoot to listen to!

And then it was time to indulge. Anna downed this rather large pixie stick quickly and then wanted more! It was no surprise that she crashed pretty quickly when she went to bed tonight. Hopefully, she'll actually sleep her extra hour tonight!!

Happy Halloween

Field Trip

Anna and I went on a field trip with our Soul Care group this morning. We went to Koetsier's Nursery for a little Halloween fun. Anna loved playing in the corn!

She did a little pumpkin bowling.

We went on a little hayride. She got to pick out a pumpkin (whose name is Dunkin)and watch our driver feed some goats and lots of chickens.


It was nice that we had the place pretty much to ourselves. It was a fun morning with our friends!

Leaf Pile

Before the layer of leaves got any thicker on the lawn and since it wasn't raining this afternoon, I decided it would be a good idea to rake leaves today. We had our friend Troy over, too, so that added to the fun. The kids were very helpful with the raking and were actually quite patient while I made it into a big pile. After I grabbed the camera, the jumping and throwing began!

The Weekend in Traverse City

Just Words

Matt and I are amazed at and amused by Anna's vocabulary and language development. While it's nothing exceptional or out-of-the-ordinary, we love listening to her and are delighted by her words. Here's a little sample of what we've been hearing lately:

*Anna and Matt were talking about her fourth birthday cake. Matt said something about the castle cake she had for her third birthday. She said,
"Not third, Daddy. It's threeth. My threeth birthday cake."
*Anna's been figuring out that some of her aunts are my or Matt's sisters. I asked her the other day if Daddy had any brothers. She said,
"I don't know. We'll have to ask him about that."
*A few days ago for the first time, Anna and I played a little card game where you have to match opposites. Today I was asking her to name the opposite of words that I said. I was pretty impressed with how well she did. At dinner tonight, I mentioned to Matt that we had done that and we started asking her more opposite words. When I asked her what the opposite of right was she said,
"Left....and wrong."
*Monday while Matt was cutting the grass it got to be time for a snack. Matt stopped working for a few minutes and said he'd come in when he was done. Anna said,
"Is Daddy coming in when he's done mowering the grass?"
So far, thankfully, it's all been cute stuff (yes, I've been writing them down). I know the embarrassing stuff will come later! What fun!

It's Fall

Anna has been wanting to go apple picking since spring. We kept telling her that she had to wait until fall when the apples would be ready. When the official day of fall hit in September it was a bit warm here and of course, the leaves hadn't really started changing color yet. Now it's cool and the leaves are red, orange, and yellow. On Friday as we were driving over to have dinner with friends, Matt commented that the trees were sure starting to change color. Anna heard that and got all excited! "It's fall! Now can we go apple picking?" We assured her that we would go the next day.


Since there wasn't any rain on Saturday morning (what a change from the rest of the week) we headed over to Robinette's for some apple activities. Anna was very proud of the apples she helped pick!


A bag full of apples and plans to make apple pie, apple crip, and apple bread applesauce. We may have to make another trip out here in a few weeks!

We went on a hay ride after picking apples. Anna didn't want to get too close to the big horses, but enjoyed the ride around the orchard. And what's a trip to the apple orchard without some cider and donuts!

Lowe's Workshop

Saturday morning we went over to Lowe's for one of their kids' workshops. We had never been to one before, so we weren't sure what to expect and didn't really know what to tell Anna before hand. The project of the day was making a ball toss--basically nailing some pieces of wood together.

Pretty cute in those safety glasses, isn't she?


Anna's not really into this project at this point. She was a bit distracted by the other kids around the table.

Finally getting into it. Daddy did most of the pounding, so we were done pretty quickly. (I didn't get a picture of the final product! OOPS!!) It was a fun outing, but maybe we'll wait til Anna's a little older (or just more interested) before we do this again.

Three and a half Years Old