Happy Halloween!

These are the last of the cute chicken pictures. We went to our church's Halloween festival. That Grace was a huge hit, although she is really not a "center of attention" kind of kid, unlike her big sister. People kept going on about her costume and how cute she was and she did okay with that. However, quite a few people tried to touch her or even, *gasp* pick her up, which she was not okay with! She really enjoyed the festival, though. Here she is playing with "World's Largest Rabbit (probably)." She loved the hayride and seeing all of the other children dressed up.

I tried to ply her with nutritious snacks before we left, so she wouldn't eat so much candy. She caught onto the grabbing candy notion really quickly. We didn't take a bucket for her, though, so we just got a piece of candy at one station and ate it a little at a time until it was gone, and then got another one. She had about 3 pieces of chocolate, 1 cupcake plus a few bites from another and shared a hot dog with Daddy. Not too bad, and we didn't bring any candy home with us. I'm sure this plan will have to be revisited in a couple of years, but it works for now.

Earlier today we did a big/little activity. It was very easy and required minimal prep time. I just grabbed a big and little object of several different items (shoe, cup, and spoon) and we talked about which was big and which was little and then I let her pick out the big ones of each. Cheap, easy, and educational entertainment!

Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens

We had our Tot Class Halloween Party today. We didn't stay the whole time because That Grace was still not feeling her normal self. She's still crazy about the babies, though. She had a great time but we left after the snack, so we missed the pumpking carving. Unfortunately, we had to forego Boo at the Zoo this year. I hate that we have to miss it, because she really loved it last year, but it is just too cold for her to be out.

Hmm, this was my first hint that she might need to go home and take a nap!

Just because I don't have that many pictures from today, here's one from a few months ago.

Dinner and a Show

Sunday night we had a lentil casserole and acorn squash rings. That Grace helped cook, which mostly consists of her tasting all of the food. If you're eating with us, there are some things you're better off not knowing! Here she is reaching for an onion.

Here she is after figuring out why most people prefer not to eat raw onions. After that, she decided to stick with the greens.

We weren't able to go visit the grandparents because That Grace is still contagious but Grandma sent loot home with Daddy and Caroline (who refuses to let me call her sissy, even in the blog).

Thanks, Grandma! She loved the candy, pumpkin and especially the rooster!

That Grace is too contagious to go out, sick enough to be cranky but not really sick, so I decided to put her to work. Most people only use 1 broom. That Grace wants to be sure her floors are spic and span, so she uses 2.

She loaded the dishwasher herself.

Daddy wants me to cut her hair, at least her bangs, but I just can't bring myself to do it. Mostly I try to keep it in a Pebbles ponytail. She has started pulling it out and then saying "uh oh."

We did have a big development on the language front tonight. That Grace said her 3rd word -- what did she choose after "Mommy" and "Amen," you ask? Well, Caroline was entertaining us by putting on a play that she is going to be in at school. She was performing all of the parts herself and at one point one of the characters tells another to die. So, That Grace's 3rd word was "Die!" which she shouted repeatedly as she helped wash dishes. One can hope she was talking to the germs on the dirty dishes!

The First Party of the Season

That Grace made her debut as a chicken at her first Halloween event this season. We had a party with our playgroup today. I had to distract her with a cookie to get her to let me put on the costume, but once she had it on, she was fine. The costume shed a little bit but not too bad. Hopefully it will hold up for the rest of the month. She has about four more events coming up.

Making Pumpkin Bread

I had all the supplies out to make cookies for the Halloween party, so we decided to go ahead and make pumpkin bread while we were baking. We used the recipe from Mommycoddle's blog. It was delicious, but very sweet. I was planning to let That Grace make cookies with me but after our pumpkin bread experience I decided to make cookies after she went to bed. Once she figured out that we were dumping stuff into the bowl, she decided to try to add a few of her own ingredients -- like the jar that the pumpkin pie spice came in and the saltshaker! You can see that she believes in tasting as she cooks!