Jon took Laurel to the office today. He left her in his office while he went to another to get something. When he came back Laurel had a surprised look and quickly hid her hand in her sleeve, then looked at Jon and asked him "what are you doing daddy?" (Very sly that one) So Jon asked her what was on her hand, and she showed him the one that wasn't hiding in the shirt. Eventually he got her to show the hidden hand, which she had covered in pen drawings. Clever little devil.



Tonight we practiced a little trick-or-treating. I sent Laurel to the office door to knock, then daddy opened it, Laurel would say the magic words and daddy would give her candy. She thought that was pretty great. Other than that we made some more Halloween cookies. I took some video of it. So this is my first attempt to post video on the blog.

Here is a picture of Laurel digging out the pumpkin guts.

This weekend didn't turn out exactly as we planned. There was no corn maze, or pumpkin picking, or boo-at-the-zoo. But, don't feel bad yet. We still had a good weekend. Though from the parents' perspective there was an awful lot of cleaning...we got to have some fun too. We went to a party on Saturday night and Laurel was an absolute nut. (In a good way) She was funny and cute and charming. Then today we decided to carve and paint pumpkins. We set up a sort of impromptu Halloween party and had Hallie, Abby and Cody over. Laurel painted a pumpkin, and then proceeded to paint her arms, feet, toes, legs and then face. The funniest was watching her carefully paint the skin in between her toes. She was determined to get every little piece of bare skin. We ended up going right into the bath. By the time the bath was over, the water was brown. Then we carved pumpkins, colored them with markers (then colored our arms with marker)...then for a finale we ate a big jack 'o lantern cookie cake and watched the Charlie Brown Halloween special. Then mommy and daddy got to clean again...it seems like that never ends. (But we are making progress)

Here is a picture of the aftermath of the painting. She left paint footprints and handprints all over the bathroom.

Jon was on liberty day today. We spent the majority of last night and today cleaning and organizing in anticipation of the days when I won't have the energy to do either. After about a half a day of that we decided to take Laurel to look at big girl beds. Laurel brought Bagel with her to try out all of the toddler beds. She laid in them, stood in them, kissed them. In the end she seemed to like a white bed with little dots on the comforter. (she kissed it goodbye)

During all the cleaning I decided to start pulling out some stuff for the new baby. Laurel decided she wanted to be a baby. So she put the pacifier in her mouth and laid on the boppy pillow for about an hour.

We actually had a pretty busy weekend. I took all the kids to a fall festival on Saturday, and then we did the Stone Mountain Village on Sunday. I'm hoping this weekend will be as exciting. We'd like to do pumpkin picking and a corn maze on Saturday, and then possibly Boo at the Zoo on Sunday night. But we'll have to wait until next Monday to see if that all pans out. (In the meantime I have to figure out what Laurel is going to be for Halloween) I thought she'd have a real opinion about it, but instead she keeps giving me random answers. She's told me she wants to be everything from a bear to a ball.

This picture is from the fall festival. Laurel got to go fishing (for pretzel fish), she got her face painted (that's a pumpkin if you can't tell), she decorated a cookie and made a necklace out of pixie stick sugar. After the festival we went to visit Daddy at the fire station so that he could see the face painting. I swear she had more fun playing with the kids at the fire station then she did the rest of the weekend!

Today was a very blah day. Laurel and I are both a little bit sick. We even went all the way to the park to jog, and didn't have the energy to play on the playground later. Sad. So instead we came home and slept and did a whole lot of nothing. In fact, this picture is the most excitement we had all day. (which is why I decided to take a picture of it)

Laurel made her very first craft yesterday. Sometimes she goes with Grandma to the nursery so that Jon can get some work done, and while she was there she made the Crocodile from the Nile. (It's from a book apparently) As smart as she is, she isn't used to the preschool setting so she's been slow to join the activity. (Apparently she watched out of the corner of her eye from outside the circle. That way she could keep an eye on the fun without actually having to participate) But after a while of watching the other kids make their crocodiles she decided she wanted to make one too. So here it is.

Since I was at it, I figured I'd also send a picture of some of the cookies we made (There is still another new blog below...so don't forget to scroll down). They were all kind of an experiment since I've never really painted or glazed any cookies. But, experiment or not...they still taste good. ( I would send a picture of the water painting...BUT it might spoil a surprise for someone, so I won't do that yet)

It's October here, but it was still 90 degrees yesterday. I don't remember it ever being this hot in the fall. But, regardless we decided yesterday was the day to make Halloween cookies. Abby and Hallie helped paint and glaze the cut out cookies. Laurel didn't show much interest in baking or decorating cookies at first...just eating them. But after a while she climbed up on the stool and watched me for a minute. Then she took a clump of dough, a cup and some cookie cutters and spent the next hour rolling and cutting the dough. The dough was too squished to make anything with, but she had fun with it.

After that we all sat down to water paint some cards. This is the first time we've water painted with Laurel. She had more fun dipping the colors back and forth then anything else. She also enjoyed painting her arm as you can see in the picture.