Happy Hall-weeeee!

Hi guys!  I had a fabulous Halloween today!  At school, I dressed up in my poodle outfit.  I absolutely did not want to take it off.  I wasn't sure I could be much cuter.  And then my parents put me in the Boots costume!  CUTER!

After I checked out my awesome pumpkin, I decided to take a few rides down my slide.

Finally, the clock struck six and it was time to go Trick or Treating!  I really enjoy activities that involve gently placing objects in baskets, so Halloween is right up my alley.

I went up and down the street with Daddy for an hour and a half, then came home to show Mommy my loot.  My basket was completely full and I needed help carrying it!  Look at all the great treats I got!  I got to pick out one treat from the pile, and I went for a "pop."  It was delish.

After enjoying my first Halloween treat, I joined Daddy on the porch to hand out candy to some other Trick or Treaters.  What a great night!

Tick teet!  Happy Hall-ween!  Thanks!  Bye bye!

Brammy and Bimpy Come to Visit!

There are these people in my life who are just awesome.  I see Maama and Pop-pop fairly frequently, which is great, and then every now and then I get to see Brammy and Bimpy!  It's always rather exciting when those two come to visit, partly because they bring my buddy, Pippi along with them.  Love that dog!  So Brammy, Bimpy and Pippi came for a visit last weekend.  I would have written sooner, but my mom didn't get the pictures uploaded soon enough.  Mom is always the hold up.  Without further ado, here are some photos from last weekend!

On Saturday, we went to my friend's birthday party:

At the park for my friend's birthday party

Drumming

 On Sunday, we went to the pumpkin farm:

Slide!

Bigger slide!

Posing with my mom

I'm so cute!

In the hay with Bimpy

Hi Goat!

Lost in the corn maze: no corn!

At lunch with Brammy

Slide!

On the happy tractor to the pumpkins

Which pumpkin is best?

Feeding chickens!

Baa!

A pastoral scene with Brammy and Bimpy

We had so much fun at the pumpkin farm.  I can't wait to go back next year!  Thanks for visiting me, Brammy and Bimpy!

Charlottesville

The last time I was in Charlottesville, I wasn't even blogging yet!  Look at what a little munchkin I was back then!  It had been a while since we'd seen my mom's friends, Emily and Andrew, and an even longer time since my mom or dad had seen her friend Julie, so I decided it was time for a trip.  I got Mom to schedule a weekend, and I packed my bags (with a little help).  Down we drove to Virginia!

I sang, colored and slept most of the way down Friday night.  When we got to Virginia, my mom tried to put me to bed.  Puh-lease, lady!  I'm just seeing friends for the first time in ages, and they have a dog.  You want me to go to bed?  I won and got to stay up late. 

The next morning, we ate breakfast (pumpkin muffins!) and packed the car.  Four adults plus me in one car - I hear it was a bit squishy in the back seat.  I was comfy in my carseat!  We drove way out to Mineral, VA, for a wine festival.  I braced myself for an earthquake, but was disappointed.  My mom's friend, Julie, was at the festival too, and she brought her new husband!  We all enjoyed meeting Grant after hearing about him for so long.  They met (and married) in New Zealand, which is just a bit far for a weekend visit.  We all enjoyed the bright, sunshiney day, and then went back to Emily and Andrew's for a cookout.  I ate some lovely corn casserole and baked potato, while the adults enjoyed steaks and tuna.  It was delicious!

Our visits with Emily and Andrew always pass by so quickly.  Time flies when you're having fun, right?  It's their turn to visit us next.  I hope it's soon!

ps - you can blame my mom for leaving the camera at home by accident.  Another weekend completely undocumented!

St. Louis

As Laura mentioned in her most recent post, Nate and I went out to St. Louis, MO last week with New York Life!  We didn't meet anyone named St. Louis, but we sure did enjoy the city!  Before we left, we took suggestions from friends for all the must-sees.  I think we did pretty well!  Here's our recap.

We spent Sunday getting our bearings, and of course found a place to watch the Steelers game.  We might have enjoyed our Sunday more without that loss.  I blame Laura for not wearing her lucky tutu that day!  We went to the opening dinner and caught up with some friends from the 2010 Executive Council.  Nate made it over to one of the casinos, while I devoured Hunger Games in the hotel room. 

Of course, no trip to St. Louis is complete without seeing the arch.  It's also really easy to see the arch from pretty much anywhere.  It was an especial treat to go up IN the arch on Monday, a perfectly clear day.  We could see for miles!  What an amazing feat of architecture!

Heading to the visitor's center

View from way below

Inside the tram!

 Nate and I decided (gasp!) to skip the NY Life Awards Dinner on Monday night.  Instead, we took ourselves to Joe Buck's BBQ.  Maybe not the most hole-in-the-wall St. Louis BBQ joint, but the food was great and it was fun to walk past the beautiful stadium to get to dinner!

Nate with the arch

Me with the arch

 We didn't catch a baseball game while we were in town, but we really enjoyed seeing the city all dressed in red to celebrate the playoffs!  It was easy for us to cheer for the Cardinals while we were in town - finally a bird team that's winning! 

Nate with the arch with the fountain dyed red!  Go Cardinals!

I was up bright and early Tuesday morning for the NY Life Family trip to the zoo!  The St. Louis Zoo is lovely, with many of the oldest buildings dating to the 1904 World's Fair.  Truly neat.

After the zoo, Nate and I met up with friends for a tour of the Anheuser-Busch Factory.  Seriously, one of the best tours I have been on.  And it was free!  I mean, really - we got to see the Clydesdales!!!  They are just as gorgeous (and big) as they seem on TV.  The whole factory is gorgeous - and immaculate.  It was a really fun way to spend the afternoon.  The free beers at the end of the tour didn't hurt, either!

After the brewery tour, we headed to a dive I'd heard good things about: Broadway Oyster Bar.  It was like stepping into a little slice of New Orleans!  The decor was lots of fun, and I hear the oysters were fabulous.  I was happy with my salad, one of the few non-seafood options on the menu!  Nate shared his meal with Louie the Clydesdale, a friend we picked up for Laura at the brewery.

Nate and Louie at Broadway Oyster Bar

Louie meeting a cousin outside the Old Courthouse

We made our way to the rooftop bar, 360*, atop the Hilton after dinner.  The views up there are amazing.  The arch, obviously, but what a different angle!  And had we had more time, the bar would have been the perfect place to watch the Cardinals game.

The view from 360*

On Wednesday, I went to the City Museum with a NY Life friend for some fun on the slides.  I honestly didn't look too much into this place before going, other than hearing it was "a must."  I figured it would be a neat place to learn about the city.  I was wrong.  There is not much "museum" about the City Museum, but there is a lot of "slide" and "climbing!"  WOW.  I can't even begin to describe (or photograph) how amazing this place is.  A huge collection of found materials turned into a crazy playground.  The slides were awesome, and I have the bruised elbow to prove it!

Wheeeeeee!

We finished out our trip to St. Louis with a Beatles concert.  No, really!  NY Life arranged for the original cast of Beatlemania to play a concert at the closing dinner!  I was dumbfounded!  We arrived at dinner to find basic balloon hats on each seat, and vats of balloons around the room to add our own flair.  These became our Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band hats.  We had SO much fun putting them together!  And an hour into our hat making?  THE BEATLES CAME ON STAGE.  They played all the hits.  So much fun.

It was a pretty jam-packed little vacation to St. Louis.  I'm so glad we had the chance to go.  See you in Vancouver (or the Bahamas?!) next year!

Ticket stubs from the Arch, the Budweiser Factory, and the City Museum

Fall in PA

My mom and dad went to see St. Louis last week.  I'm not sure what that means: were they in a church with some random guy for a whole week?  If so, WHY?  Grown-ups are so weird.  At any rate, while they were seeing St. Louis or whatever, I got to go to Grandma and Grandpa's (Mama and Poppy's, as I call them)!  It was pretty awesome.  There were three dogs and a cat for me to play with!  I also got to meet my new friend, Esa.  She is five, which makes her a big girl.

Here is a picture of Esa with me in Poppy's tractor.  I liked sitting in the hay just fine... till the tractor started!  My goodness, that thing is so loud!  I was terrified.  But I did like the pumpkins.

 I got to see more pumpkins when Mama took me to the pumpkin farm!  I did like sitting with all the pumpkins.  And I looked so fall festive in my orange shirt!  My mom loves putting me in this outfit.  I just like any outfit I can wear with my Dora Dora Shoes (which is pretty much everything, right?). 

My mom says she's going to write a little recap of her visit to St. Louis.  Maybe that will shed some light on what those crazies actually did while I was having fun with the pumpkins!

September Recap

September 2011:

• Laura will ask "Happened?" with her arms all shrugged up and the inflection to suggest a question.
• Laura will also ask "Go?" in the same way, often when something disappears during a rousing game of peekaboo.
• Laura calls all crayons "Ca-yers."  She loves drawing, but often turns to eating the crayons after a little while. 
• Is really into the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and asks for "mowse" while pointing the remote at the TV.  She has also tried to where her "mowse" jammies to school.
• Laura has her first cousin!  When prompted she will say "cuz-seen."  Elizabeth was harder for her to say, and came out "bay-bay."  Ruth was much more fun to say, "Roooooo!"
• Sometimes Laura really sounds like she is talking in full sentances.  I'm pretty sure "Ah wah da" means I want that.
• Laura is very good at two-word phrases now.  We'll just start working on those three-word phrases!
• Laura told me to "Get it!" the other day.  Little Miss Bossy!
• Laura also mumbles something that sounds distinctly like "I want that."  Assertive!
• In the same vein, Laura is applying ownership: "My juice"
• Has been saying "applejuice" very nicely, with all three syllables very clear!  APP-EL-JOOSE
• Is getting great with names:  Uncle Andy is "Annie" and Grampy is "Bi-pee"
• Calls her favorite blankie (a 1-foot square thing) her baddy.  She likes to sleep with Baddy, Baa (a lamb) and Doggie.  Sometimes Boobee (Brobie from Ya Gabba Gabba) is included in this group.
• Loves to give "cooookeees" to "my Ries"
• Plays with her Snap-and-Style Dah-ee (dolly) every chance she gets; she especially loves putting the "haht" (hat) on Dah-ee's head.
• Loves watching Doodoo and Bits (Dora and Boots), Deedeedee (Diego), and Gabby (Yo Gabba Gabba).  Also enjoys watching Elmo.
• Routinely asks for a nobka (napkin) while eating dinner, so she can keep her hands wiped clean.  She gets too upset to keep eating if her hands get too covered!  She's getting really good at using her utensils though, which is a huge help.
• Asks for hep (help) when she's in need.
• Is currently insisting on sitting in her booster, pushed all the way up to the table so she can eat like Mom and Dad - no tray!
• Particularly likes eating with Mom-mee's fork, even if she already has her own.
• Loves to eat stah-bees (strawberries) while we grocery shop.
• Loves playing peekaboo and shouts "See oo!" as soon as one of us hides.
• Asks for eepmeal (oatmeal) for breakfast almost every morning.