Snow Fun

What a difference a year makes! The girl who cried and whined when her hands got wet from snow last year now can purposely do face plants and come up laughing. She loves the snow. We've been sledding, shoveling, making snow angels, and building snowmen whenever we can. And more than anything, she loves eating snow. I can't count how many times I've gone over the eating snow rules- namely you have to ask before you eat and it has to be clean. Shhh don't tell, but she's getting skis from Santa so we'll see how that snow adventure goes.

We went to Bentleyville again this year and took a train shuttle there. What fun! She loved the train ride and even though it was obscenely crowded, we managed to have a good time and see lots of familiar characters in lights. 

Happy Thanksgiving

We love the holidays. Well, I do and therefore anyone who lives with me also does by proxy. This year Booboo and Al flew in for thanksgiving which was great. Frannie was a little (well a lot) shy for the first day or so but slowly warmed up - to the point where she cried when we took them to the airport. They got her a marble run game and they bonded putting that together. We all went to Mèmè's and Poppas for thanksgiving dinner and just to hang out a couple days. 

We tried to get into the holiday spirit by watching Frosty last night but alas, we will never watch a scary/mean/sad/worrisome movie because even the mean magician in Frosty upset her and we had to turn it off. I have resigned myself to watching Daniel Tiger, Caliou, and Clifford for the rest of my life.

So instead we made cut out sugar cookies with sprinkles. That was a huge success. She did a great job rolling the dough, cutting it out, and sprinkling. She even did the dishes and cleaned the counter after we finished. I'm assuming that will never happen again so I'm documenting it now.

Halloween

This is supposed to be about Halloween but first I must record the most amazing event from tonight. Frannie has been loving theme books right now- example we read Click Clack Boo approximately 6 times a day for the last two weeks, along with some other Halloween/pumpkin books. So I grabbed her Snow, a Dr Suess early reader book in hopes to 1-get away from Click Clack Boo, and 2-to get her on the winter/holiday mood. I got it Saturday and since then we've read it about 2-3 times a day each day. 

Tonight, as we were getting ready for bed, she told me she'd read Snow to me. IT WAS AMAZING! She turned every page and "read" from memory what she saw/remembered. Probably one of the cutest, heartwarming moments of our life together so far. This tiny little person with a cartoon voice "reading".

Ok....on to Halloween. We are lucky to even been able to go trick or treating because the Thursday before Frannie got strep. She was pretty miserable so I wasn't sure we'd make it. But by Saturday night, she was excited to put on her costume and head out. I suggested we go to the three houses next to us, but she told us "I go far" and headed down the street. We made it to three houses and she said she was done. We pointed out that she said she wanted to go far. Her reply "I did go far."

It's probably good it wasn't an epic adventure because she scored quite a bit of candy from three houses and she's quite in love with the fact she gets to eat it all. Cutest Care Bear Ever.

Also included are pics from Boo at the Zoo...a pre-Halloween  trick or treating event at the zoo. She opted for the monkey. You know to keep with a zoo theme.

Running

Oh boy. I'm a slacker. Well now that summer is over I should begin a recap so I'll start with Wednesday Night at the Races. Each Wednesday starting in July, grandmas marathon puts on a kids run complete with ribbons and drinks and snacks. She has loved this and looked forward to it each week. They had the grand finale at the end of August. I actually didn't think it was even going to happen because once we got to the park where it was at, all she wanted to do was play on the playground. When she heard the announcer call for the runners she was back in so we were lined up to run. When I say lined up its true...there were hundreds of people there. It was crazy. They gave the kids ribbons, a bag, a t-shirt, and then at the end of the run there was a catered picnic dinner complete with mini Ben and Jerry's ice cream. And to seal the deal it was right by the beach. You'd think it'd be perfect,and it was except for the UWS Yellowjackets mascot who was there to run with the kids. Frannie was NOT a fan of "that bee" and almost fell as she kept looking behind us as we were running to be sure he wasn't coming to get us. Even as we ate she kept a wary eye out for him. She's a sensitive little soul.

(Also included are pics from other nights at the races and our final visits to the beach)

Berries

Strawberries and blueberries....yum. We were able to go pick both this summer. I'm still holding out hope for some late season raspberries, but apparently they were earlier than usual this year. 

We went to Finke's to pick our own strawberries. Frannie was actually really good at picking only the red ones and even better at picking and eating them. For awhile I at least had her picking one to eat and then one for the bucket. She totally got into finding the "big big" ones. There was a storm coming as we picked so the sky was pretty amazing to look at too.

Blueberries were at our usual Blue Vista Farm in Bayfield. It's over an hour and a half drive each way so I was a little worried about that- but shouldn't have been. We ate breakfast in the car and even though it took awhile to pick all the berries we wanted, we filled a box. Frannie brought her "purse" filled with toys/animals/blankies and some snacks. That plus a lot of room to run, yummy blueberries to pick and eat, and well placed shade made for a great day. A nice nap and a promise of a playground stop made the drive home go smoothly too. Another tradition in the making.

Camping

We have been able to do two camping trips this summer. First we went to Bear Island near Ely. We paddled in and got an amazing site with a huge sand beach. Not only that, we got the added bonus of tons of ripe wild blueberries right at the site. Frannie will eat four or five store blueberries at a time but out there we picked berries for an hour and just kept filling her cup....she must have eaten over a cup of berries! She also loved the hammock and all that sand. She even spent time naked in the water (with life jacket) and played around. 

Then recently we were able to portage into Wood Lake in the Boundary Waters. We went with Ben and Alan and had a great time! Frannie really does a good job in the canoe. She also is now a pro at peeing in the woods-may even prefer it. We had a great site with a trail up to some rocks and a great view. There was fresh fish (courtesy of Booboo and Al) for dinner and s'mores. Again her favorite was swinging in the hammock. I'm so glad she enjoys camping. She loves her own sleeping bag and being in the tent. She kept saying "I a big kid".