Happy Thanksgiving!

Another Thanksgiving is in the books.  Carli really seemed to have a lot of fun this year.

Last Friday was the feast at preschool.  Carli was so excited when I showed up to eat lunch with her.  She had to show me everything in her room.  She also had to have her picture taken with her best friend, Merry.  Of course, Carli ate nothing at lunch.  Too excited, maybe?

Jacob photo bombed the picture.  Not sure how the girls felt about that.

This is the Church, Here is the steeple...

Her turkey, pink of course

lunch buddies
 

 Thanksgiving at home was a little different than we expected.  It was to be at our house this year since PawPaw at surgery a few weeks ago.  Then, Austin's schedule was changed and he had to work during lunch.  Then Grandma's pneumonia came back and she had to go back into the hospital.  None were able to come for lunch.   With just us and Poppie and a 13 pound turkey, there were plenty of leftovers!  After lunch, Poppie "read" to Carli from a coloring book.  It was a good day.



Carli's art gallery of artwork from school



reading with Poppie



After we all had a nap, it was time to decorate the tree.  While she was asleep, Joe and I assembled the tree in the living room.  When she awoke, she was mesmerized by the lights.  She had  so much fun putting the ornaments on the tree that she even forgot about cartoons for the evening!

She looks so grown up in this picture.

 

Notice all of Carli's ornaments are crammed together.  Love it!

 

Setting up the Nativity.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween this year with Carli was so much fun!  The weeks before, they talked about it in preschool quite a bit.  I was busy working on her costume.  She talks about Snow White so much that I thought this would be the perfect costume.  I searched all over trying to find the pattern, but finally ended up buying it off E-Bay.  As I worked on it, I showed her my progress.  She was so excited.  When it was ready, she couldn't wait to try it on.

Joe took her for a trial run with Grandma and PawPaw.  She was so happy to show it to them.   Then it was finally October 31st.

 

After dinner, Carli got dressed and it was time for pictures.  She loves to have her picture made.  Then we loaded up the car and headed to Poppie's house.  All the way over, she kept saying "trick or treat".  But when we got to his house, she was so shy and wouldn't say anything.  She even hid her face in her pumpkin.

 

 

 

Next we headed to Aunt Cheryl's.  Carli wouldn't really talk there.  I had to trick HER so I could get a picture of her with Cheryl by telling her that I was taking candy from her bucket.  That got a smile out of her. 

 

 

We headed to Aunt Nancy's next.  The skeleton on the wall of "Nana's" house danced whenever someone moved.  Carli thought this was the funniest thing.  She kept running up to it so it would dance.

Finally, we headed back into our neighborhood to hit a few houses.  By this time, Carli had no trouble saying "trick or treat" when she got to the doors.  She had so much fun.  Her biggest trouble came at home when she as told she could only have one piece to eat.  The decision was so hard...

 

Joe was worried that he would have trouble getting her into bed, but Carli fell asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Can't wait to see what next year brings...

Weekend with Mickey

From Mickey's journal:

 

What a great weekend to go visit Carli and her family!  When Daddy picked us up, we headed over to Mommy’s school.  There I got to see butterflies that had just emerged from their cocoons.  They were so pretty!  Then we went to the book fair at her school.  Carli bought several books to read to me.  I even found a book about me.

Arriving at Mommy's school

seeing the butterflies

"Look a book about me!"

On Saturday, we headed to Clemmons to help GG celebrate her birthday.  We ate at a Chinese restaurant.  Carli even tried something new honeydew melon.  Then we went to GG’s house for cake…”mmm.”  Saturday night, Daddy and Carli went to a choir party at a barn complete with a hayride, pumpkin carving and a fire.  I forgot my warm clothes so I stayed home and helped Mommy work on Carli’s Halloween costume.

Ike, GiGi, Carli, and me

Carli and PaPa Thad

Sunday morning, I went to church with everyone.  I played with the 3-4-5 year olds in Sunday School and then went to big church.  After church, we went for Mexican.  Carli fed me chips.  Finally, we went home for a nap.  I sure was glad because I was tired after all that running around!

My Little Ballerina

Over the summer, we enrolled Carli is a short dance "camp".  They met once a week for several weeks.  Carli seemed to enjoy it, so we signed her up for the regular weekly class.  Not sure which she likes more:  ballet, tap, or the gymnastics.  As much as she likes tumbling at school, it may be the gymnastics part.

Cora and Carli

My Little Model

A friend, and Carli's photographer for two years, posted on Facebook one evening that she was looking for girls to model dresses for a friend who was trying to get an Etsy business going.  I quickly signed Carli up!  When I told Carli about it, she was so excited!  If there are two things she loves to do it is having her picture made and dressing up.

The morning arrived finally.  We arrived at the park after Jordan (the photographer),but before the seamstress.  So Jordan, being Jordan, began to take some quick shots of Carli.  Carli, of course, ate it up. 

 

Finally, Carli's dress arrived.  Carli was so excited to see it and more excited to try it on.  She had fun twirling around and around for Jordan.

After the fun of pictures, we headed down to the playground for some fun before we headed home.

First Day of School

Today, Carli moved up to the three/four year old class.  She is growing up so fast! 

 

 

Her teachers are Ms. Judy and Ms. Charlemane.  We have been told she will learn quite a bit in this class.  Hard to believe that in just two short years, she will join me at Piney Grove.  Where has the time gone?

Our Playroom

 

Since Austin was no longer using his room, I took it over.  The plan was to turn it into a playroom for me and Carli.  So Joe and I packed up the remainder of Austin's things and I got busy. 

All summer, I painted and painted and painted!  It took FOREVER to cover up the bold blue stripe I had painted around his room when he was playing football.  (Note to self:  never paint a stripe again!)  Three coats of white primer later, I was ready to put on the pink coat of paint on the walls.  I quickly decided that I didn't want to put that dark color in the bathroom.  So since Carli loves polka dots as much as her mother, I used my Cricut to cut pink circles out of vinyl and Joe and I put them all over.  A quirky black mirror from Ikea completed the look.

 

 

Then I bought two bookshelves to divide the two work spaces.  Instead of using the cheap cardboard that came with it, I got some thin plywood from Lowes and...yep...painted it.  The result was terrific.

 

Then we were ready for the "big reveal".  Carli was in school each time I worked on the room so she really didn't know anything.  She knew Mommy was painting it and that I moved all my craft stuff down there, but she thought it was my room.  She was in for a big surprise.