What a difference a few months make. That Grace has loved gardening. She runs to the door with her little watering can when it's time to water the plants. We just had a few small containers this year: bell peppers, tomatoes, chives, and mint. When That Grace picks a pepper or tomato, she immediately starts eating it!
That Grace loves to pick up acorns off the back deck when we go outside. We collected some in a little jar and used them in our centerpiece tonight. She loves to see them and run her fingers through them. The pumpkin is the one we bought to replace the poor abused pumpkin that is sitting in the refrigerator, waiting to become more pumpkin bread -- or maybe pumpkin pancakes -- or pumpkin pasta. The possibilities are endless.
We went to the park to paint pumpkins with the playgroup today. It was the first time That Grace has painted with a brush. She caught on really quickly and was very enthusiastic (hence the blue neck)!
After the painting, the kids played in the sand for a while. She also loves the slide but I haven't been able to get a picture of that, yet. I need both hands free to catch her when she comes down! Maybe I can get Daddy to come along this weekend so I can get some pictures.
Snuggling with Daddy after a busy day!
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! 
Lunch is our learning meal. We usually eat at home and we have the time free from distractions to focus on skills, manners, etc. It is also a lot of fun. That Grace loves getting her lunch stuff together and setting her table. We start by getting her dishes out of her cupboard and putting everything on a little tray to carry to her little table. She loads the tray but I actually carry it to the table.
She unrolls her place mat and puts her fork down. Then she sets her little cup out. I put her plate out for her and pour her a little bit of water from her water pitcher. She is learning how to pour water, but we are working on that separately, so I do the pouring at lunch.
Sometimes she has company for lunch! After lunch, I put her cup, plate, fork and pitcher back on the tray and she rolls up her place mat. After all that work, it's time for a nap!
