For the Birds....

While we were watching Agent Oso the other morning, they were making peanut butter birdseed pine cones. Kelsey kept talking about them and how you have to tie a ribbon on top at the end. I decided since we have pine cones in the backyard/backlot, that we would attempt this after naptime. I took her out and we collected a few pine cones, cut some ribbon, got the peanut butter and ran out to the store quickly to buy birdseed (I thought we already had some in the garage). Searching/Finding pine cones in the empty lot behind our house.
All ready to start...plate of birdseed, spoon, peanut butter, & pine cones (next time I will put a smock on her)

Spreading the peanut butter on with the spoon, she was trying to be so clean! Lou and I used our fingers to finish spreading enough peanut butter onSprinkling birdseed on the pine cone...We told her it would work better to roll it. Birdseed was sticking to the peanut butter on her fingers and she kept trying to flick it off. After we finished we tied ribbon around the pine cones. Kelsey was so happy. I hung them in 3 different places around our yard.

The next morning while we were getting breakfast ready, we saw a cardinal sitting on the fountain trying to get to the pine cone. So we went outside to go watch. Kelsey was very excited to watch the birds at her pine cone

If you look closely you can see both the male & female Cardinal in this picture. Female is on the dead palm branch. We did not see the female until I uploaded these pics.

Big Girl Cup

Last week I was browsing through Target's dollar spot and found some small plastic glasses that were on clearance for 50% off (yes $.50) I bought 2 and figured we'd give it a go. Yesterday we had a nice family breakfast of pumpkin pancakes, eggs, and turkey bacon. We also had orange juice. I grabbed one of the new glasses out of the cupboard and poured in some OJ about 1/2 way. She did really well. Occasionally over sipped or moved to fast, but pretty good for never really attempting before. She asks to use the cups all the time now. We have decided we will only use them when we are sitting at the table for a meal. So the past 2 nights she has had her milk with dinner in her cup. Last night she sometimes would put the cup to her mouth below her lips and you can imagine what the result was!! We spilled a little more milk last night than OJ in the AM. She did much better tonight. I can't believe how grown up she is getting!!

She is very proud of herself for using a "real" big girl cup. I initially called her sippy cups big girl cups when i took the stoppers out to remind her she had to be careful. As she was drinking today, she tells me "have to be real careful"

Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread

After a quick call to mom for the recipe and running over to borrow an egg at 7:40 pm from Brenda, Kelsey & I stirred up a batter of Mom's pumpkin bread using a gluten free flour substitute. IT WAS A SUCCESS!!!! Yeah, it tasted yummy and was very similar to the regular recipe using flour. I'm so excited that K-bear will still be able to enjoy pumpkin bread! Next attempt will be gluten free candy cane cookies....

Halloween Night

We started out after lunch by heading over to Gma & Gpa McD's to watch the football games while K napped. We figured that way we could get her up from nap and get her dressed over there. Kelsey wanted us to dress up as well, so I was a Vampire (sorta like a witch as I explained to K) and Lou was a Cowboy Sheriff.

We then headed over to our friend Megan/Matt's house to meet up with friends to trick-or-treat. Kelsey and Jack rode in our wagon. They got out and walked up to a few doors and sometimes we even just pulled the wagon to the door (I know...lazy) Kelsey was so cute..she kept saying "mommy, I got candy!" in the cutest voice. It's so funny to hear things like that come out of her mouth when she's never even had any. At one point I looked at her and she had opened a skittles bag and had one in her hand. I took it away from her and told her she wasn't allowed to have anything until mommy/daddy checked it.

We got back to our neighborhood about 5 minutes too late...we missed the rush of kids by a few houses. We stopped by our neighbors house on the way in so they could see Kelsey all dressed up. As usual, Brenda & Lloyd get the award for most awesome neighbors. They had a special treat for Kelsey...a fruit bowl, raisins, apples and grapes! She loved it and actually ate 1/4 of the fruit bowl that night before she went to bed.

All in all I think Kelsey had a really good Halloween. She keeps talking about it and asking about her bumble bee costume (Thanks Jennifer!)

Up Past Bedtime...

Kelsey was having so much fun being allowed to stay up past bedtime. She kept wanting me to take pictures of her, and actually smiled for the camera on cue. She wanted pictures with her Morgan too!! So I happily obliged.

Pumpkin Carving

We let K stay up past bedtime last night so we (Lou) could carve our pumpkin. We started by taking the pumpkin seeds out. Kelsey didn't want much to do with this, but did help when a few fell on the newspaper. We decided to do a Mickey Mouse this year. Instead of going with just the basic mouse shape, Lou found a more detailed template to use. It came out really great. I think Lou did an awesome job and after telling him that...Kelsey kept telling him that as well.

Like my daddy

I like to wear my daddy's hat (even though it's way too big on me):

Pumpkin Picking...

Well, okay since we live in FL it's more like choosing! After nap Kelsey and I met up with Daddy at the Methodist church to pick out our pumpkin and take some pictures. At first she was hesitant, but then she was trying to pick them all up. LOL We missed the fall festival they held b/c we were at Christine's wedding (Lou's sister), but hopefully we'll be able to take Kelsey next year.

I'm so strong...I gonna pick this pumpkin up!

Check out my baby pumpkins

This is the pumpkin we chose

Aunt Christine's Wedding (& Uncle Gary)

Last weekend was a joyous moment in our family. Christine and Gary made it official and were married down at the beach in Delray. Kelsey was in the wedding along with her cousins and she did magnificient. She sat all by herself (next to her cousins Ryan & Colin) in a chair during the ceremony and was soooo good (Mommy & Daddy were in the wedding as well so we were standing). At one point she started taking handfuls of her flowers out of her basket and dumping them on the sand..then she decided just to dump over the entire basket. Everyone who was watching was laughing at our little princess, I had a hard time controlling my laughter too.

She took NO nap that day as we were totally out of routine, unless you count the 10 minutes she slept on the way over to the ceremony. I was dreading the meltdown that I expected to happen at any moment. To our complete shock and surprise she was WONDERFUL!! She was up until about 10:20 when she finally fell asleep in my arms. She enjoyed herself dancing and running around. She was really great with family she had never met before and even willingly went to them to dance and just be carried.

The things they say...

I was making a left hand turn today onto a side street. There was a car parked/stopped along the right hand side of the street with their brake lights on about 50 yards away. Mind you, they were on the grass. All of a sudden from my back seat I hear "Dude, get out of the way!" I busted out laughing as she continued to repeat this over and over. I guess I should be happy it was this she said and not "you dumb*ss learn how to drive" Just another reminder that we really do need to watch what we say, because she will store it away to use some other time. It's great though that she used it in the right context...double bonus points for her!!

Sweaty Bubbles...

It's mid-October and it was 92 degrees last week!!! Yikes. We did have a blast playing with the bubbles after nap though. But my girl was all red & SWEATY!!!

New diet so far...

It's been 3 weeks and so far I don't feel like it is working. I've seen some worse reactions since we've changed her diet. The only thing I have not concentrated on yet is making sure the soy is totally out. That will be my new focus. I need to call the dermatologist back and check on something. When we got the allergy report, garlic came back pending. So, I'd like to know if it is something we need to worry about since I use garlic in everything. I really hope this starts helping soon.

Playdough and fresh air

Last weekend while Lou & I were working in the yard, we moved Kelsey's picnic table out into the grass and shade by the swingset. I let her bring her play dough out to keep her occupied.

She's so funny because she only likes to play with one color at a time. She can't open them by herself and kept wanting me to open and shut them. I finally got her to keep the lid off of more than 1 color at a time.