Carving pumpkins

We had a big day today! Mer had her second skating lesson and it went very well. We talked it up all last week about how she was going to go out on the ice by herself with just the other kids and her teacher and it made a world of difference. She did wonderful today and enjoyed herself without getting too frustrated. She was able to get up and down and balance better. Eeek! She was so cute!

Tonight we carved pumpkins. Mer was so excited about this. Her help in the carving process consisted of scooping for about 10 minutes and then mom and dad did the rest. I don't remember carving pumpkins as a kid being such a chore.

So here she is digging into the pumpkin. Ewwww!

Getting into the groove.

Daddy taking Mer's cues and saying "CHEESE".

This is the aftermath.

I think they turned out pretty good. Mer picked out the bat (which I carved), I did the monster and Greg did the scary face.

Pre-Halloween Trick or Treating

Today we got dressed up in full costume and went to my office to have a little fun and to do some trick-or-treating. Mer came home with half a pumpkin full of candy already.

Tomorrow we are going to carve pumpkins and then on Sunday we are going to a Halloween party and then head home to go trick-or-treating with the neighbors. Should be a fun weekend!

Skating Lessons

Both Greg and I want Meredith to skate. Actually, play hockey. I really want to be a hockey mom. I don't care how expensive the sport is. Call us a little hasty, but we signed Meredith up for skating lessons at the ripe old age of 3. Oy.

She's in a pre-beginners class for 3 and 4 year olds. It's not a hockey class, but just a learn-to-skate class.

Her first lesson was this weekend and fortunately, the time slot we picked up only has two other kids besides Meredith in it. Parents are allowed on the ice with the pre-beginners so Greg took her out. The other two kids didn't have parents out on the ice with them. That was red flag #1. The other kids appeared to be 'older' threes or in their fours. That was red flag #2.

Needless to say, I think we would have been better off not having Daddy out on the ice with her. While the other two kids listened patiently and tried to do what the teacher was asking, my child shrieked at the top of her lungs, got frustrated, huffed and puffed, bossed Daddy around, etc. **sigh** I think next time we will be better off letting her go out on the ice with just her teacher and maybe she will behave a bit better.

When she got off the ice, she was all frustrated and kept screaming "I felled". We've been explaining to her that it takes patience and that is why her teacher was teaching her how to fall. Because you fall A LOT.

At least we've hyped it up enough that she is agreeable and somewhat excited to go back to her lessons next week.

One lesson down, seven lessons to go.

So, here she is all excited getting ready for her lesson.

Not so bad here...before all the shrieking and crying started.

This is just cute - all the 'lil ones on their butts

Doing some exercises.

Leaving the ice...not quite as happy as she looked prior to her lesson.

Beautiful fall day

We have planned on going to Emma Krumbees for quite a while now and we couldn't have asked for better weather. I can't believe the warm weather we've been having this month. I just love fall. It's my favorite time of year. We are going to get family pictures done next weekend so I'm hoping for some nice weather and some color still left.

Greg, Meredith and I met up with my friend Barb, her husband, and her two girls. This is the third year that Barb and I have taken the girls to Emma Krumbees.

Meredith was a cranky pants in the car. She kept seeing pumpkins along 169 and wanted to stop and see them. I guess she was too excited.

When we got there, she still wouldn't cheer up. I swear, I can't take a nice picture of her. Ever.

She perked up a little when she got to go on a pony ride.

And she really perked up when she got to run around with Erin.

She rode in an oil barrel train all by herself!

The girls played hide and seek in the graveyard.

She went down a giant slide.

She fed goats. Thank you to another father for giving Meredith a quarter for the corn machine...we only had dollar bills and that doesn't go far when the corn is in a quarter machine.

The girls dance and made music up on stage.

They went out to the pumpkin patch.

They were joined by Erin's little sister Sara in the orchard.

We had a fabulous time. I absolutely love Emma Krumbees. It's such a wonderful place to take small children.

Grrrrr

We went to a friend's birthday party a few weeks back and there was a face painter there. Meredith had a blast and wore herself out. I didn't have my camera at the party so I took pictures when we got home and all I could get out of here was this.

Stay tuned for another long overdue update. I have some pictures from Emma Krumbees.

3rd Birthday!

I know it's been a long time since Meredith's birthday - I know I've been slacking. But before it gets too late, I wanted to share some birthday pictures. Thanks to everyone who came to her birthday party. She had a wonderful time and it was so fun to see her that excited.

My favorite picture from the day - playing with Morneau. This picture just screams the idealistic childhood moment to me.

Dining on some Little Caesar's pizza and breadsticks. Yes, we're that classy!

This is what she does when I tell her I want to take a picture. She grits her teeth, forces a big smile and screams "CHEESE". I wanted a picture of her monkey birthday hat I made for her.

The monkey cake from Wuollet Bakery. I loved it!

Blowing out the candles.

On to presents...she loved that singing fish card.

Oh, and that monkey pillow pet too!

The rest are pictures of the party guests! Thanks again everyone!

September 2!

I just wanted to throw in a blog entry about her actual birthday. She brought Rice Krispy treats for all her friends at Preschool. She got to wear a special birthday crown too! We took her out for a special meal and let her choose where she wanted to go...she chose KFC. This is copy and pasted off her preschool log (it was so cute that I didn't want to forget about it):

2:01 P Nap Duration: Fell Asleep Notes: did end up falling asleep a little while ago. she was so excited it took her awhile. she was on her cot saying i wanna go to kfc over and over!

After KFC, we went home and Grandma and Grandpa Carlson brought her cupcakes and hair clips!

We opened a few gifts.

You can see her birthday crown here.

State Fair!!!

As many of you know, I look forward to the State Fair well...pretty much as soon as I get home from going. So needless to say, I was quite excited to make the annual trip up there. Meredith was excited too. As always, we wake up at the crack of dawn and head to the free park and ride.

Riding the bus

The first thing I did was head to the food building and get 81 fat grams of delicious cheese curds. Meredith wouldn't eat them so Greg headed over to the mini donut stand across the street to bring back 19 fat grams of delicious donuts. Meredith loved them.

While waiting for Daddy to get back with the mini donuts, I asked her to pose for a cute picture. This is what I get.

A few minutes later we were able to meet up with Juana (Grandma Schwake), my brother Chris and my sister Jennifer. Juana was greeted with a huge hug!

After eating our breakfast, we headed to the Miracle of Birth barn and checked out some baby animals with Chris.

The ducklings were oh-so-cute splashing around in their little pond. They looked like little wind-up toys.

After we saw the baby animals, we went to the DNR fish pond. Again, I asked her to pose for a cute photo and this is what I got. **sigh** I give up trying to get nice photos.
We made our way down to the giant slide. This year Greg rode down with Meredith.

I'm going to have to invest in a coupon book next year. Rides are expensive. A sheet of 30 tickets is $20 and each ride costs 4 tickets. I was lucky enough to have a kind stranger offer me their coupon for $6 off a sheet of 30 tickets because they were not going to use it.

Jennifer took in a ride with Meredith.

I love this picture. She went on the train all by herself and was SO excited! Look at her face :-)

I took her through the funhouse of mirrors. Since I have very few pictures of us, I thought I'd share.

She went on the swings all by herself too. She really like this ride a lot. A lot!

Grandma went on the roller coaster with her.

And my favorite picture from the day!

All in all, we had a great time. I don't have any pictures, but we got to meet up with my uncle Robin and my aunt Janis.

I didn't get to do a lot of stuff that I wanted to do though like go through the grandstand and some of the other buildings with vendors and displays. We didn't make it up to the bazaar. Bringing a kid to the fair is slow going. I want to go again without the child but I don't know if it's in the cards this year. We have a really busy Labor Day weekend planned. I guess I'm just going to have to eagerly anticipate the fair for 2011. And remind me that I have to block out two days to go to the fair. One with the child, and one without the child.