Ho Ho Ho - Dec 6, 2008

It's that time of year again...jolly old Saint Nick!

We have been talking about Santa for the last few weeks and invoking his name as a reminder for Abby to try her best to be a good girl.

Saturday we went to see him. Abby walked up, gave him a hug and announced that she was a GOOD girl. Santa asked her what she would like for Christmas...she told him a Princess Toy.

Popcorn Posse - Nov 30

Abby has inherited several of her dad's traits. His passion for teasing people, his pretty blue eyes, his slightly less than attractive toes...and a powerful preference for POPCORN!

Here Abby, Joe, & Millie are sharing a giant bowl of popcorn.

Abby is working on improving the "shovel method" of cramming an entire handful of popcorn into her mouth at once.

We LOVE popcorn!

MORE popcorn!!!

Here Abby is on a solo popcorn mission.

Vid Kids - Nov 29

We went over to Evan & Emma's house to play on Saturday.

Evan has adopted his dad's old Sega Genesis and was demonstrating his gaming prowess to his little cousin Abby.

Gobble Gobble! - Nov 27

Happy Thanksgiving!

Me, Abby, & Mom.

'NASTICS! - Nov 26

Abby has begun taking gymnastics classes...and she LOVES them.

Gymnastics, or NASTICS! as Abby calls them, are a great way to burn off some energy now that the weather has turned colder.

Imagine a dozen 2 and 3 year olds all bouncing off the walls for an hour each Wednesday. It's pretty nuts-o! Abby does her best to listen to her teacher and learn the new routines each week...but I am begining to suspect that she really just looks forward to the part of the night when they blow up the big inflatable bouncer.

Here Abby is about to perform a forward roll...a/k/a a sommersault.

And here she is modeling her pink leotard at home.

Fall Fun - Nov 1

Uncle Jon was here visiting for a few days from Arizona...so te remind him of the joys of life in Minnesota, we let him help us with raking leaves.

Here Abby & Uncle Jon take a break for some fun.

Trick or Treat - Oct 31

We went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood on Friday.

Abby's "practice" house was at our neighbor's door. Once the candy hit the bag...she caught on pretty quickly.


Abby (Elmo) was joined by Jack (Luke Skywalker) and Charlie (Yoda)...a pretty good pair to hit the 'hood with.

Tub for Two - Oct 30

You know you have a TRUE friend when you can share bathwater.

Abby & Haley splish-splashed together the other night.

Our Little Pumpkin - Oct 26

Abby & Joe worked together to carve our pumpkins for Halloween.


FIRST, they were creative with the pumpkins...Then it became creative photography time...

Here is the Mount Rushmore of Pumpkin Heads:

And to keep it a little more Minnesota...here is a Pumpkin Totem Pole!

And then Abby held the pumpkin on dad's head!

AFTER photos - 1st Haircut ~ Oct 20

Simply marvelous, darling!

Abby's first haircut - Oct 19

After much deliberation...the time for the first haircut was upon us.

Abby's hair had gotten so long...but it was taking on a touch of the "rat-tail" look...a la early 90's skater dudes.

First Abby watched Daddy get his hair cut to get an idea of how things would play out. (Note...This was the longest she stood still in many many moons.) She kept watching her dad's face to make sure he was having fun.


A BEFORE photo of the mini fe-mullet.
Abby got to sit in a fancy car chair, and watched VeggieTales while getting her hair done.

She seemed to enjoy the process and did a good job of tilting her head when she was asked to...she also treated her stylist to an acapella version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
At the end, her stylist even sprayed some "princess sparkles" in her hair...very fancy!!

I.O.U. an AFTER photo...will post ASAP. It looks really great! All clean and straight...like a little woman.

Pumpkin Patch Oct 12

We spent Sunday morning with our friends the DesJardins and the Steffensmeirs picking out pumpkins.

Abby wanted to find a little pumpkin.

There was a little village of Halloween cutouts that Abby got to cruise around in. Here she is attending "Ghoul School".
Abby with her friends Haley & Hannah.

Fire Hall Open House - Oct 11

October is Fire Safety month...so the FLFD had an open house so that kids could come explore the firehall and the BIG YELLOW fire trucks.

Abby got her own Fire Chief hat.

Abby & Joe got to climb into the big tanker truck.

The firemen were doing kiddie fingerprints.
Abby pretended to drive this big rig.


We topped the day off with a hot dog for lunch...who could ask for more!

Fall Yard Work: Oct 11

Most of the year, we feel very lucky to have big beautiful trees in our yard.

However...in the fall, the big pine trees that edge one side of our house begin to drop their needles and blanket our yard. We have to clean 'em up, or else our grass is toast the next year.

Joe & Abby spent Saturday morning doing the first of several pine needle clean up patrols.

It's not ALL work...

...it's kind of FUN too!

MN Childrens Museum ~ Oct 4

Abby & I spent a fantastic morning exploring the MN Children's Museum this weekend.

We both had a BLAST!

In the Habitot Gallery Abby pretended to be a frog on a lily pad.

And she peered down an ice hole at a big fishie.
She also pretended to be a turtle.


In the Our World exhibit, Abby took a turn driving the Metro Transit bus. She shopped for produce in the market.
And then took a turn at being the Checkout Girl...

...kind of like her mom back in the days of Leuken's Village Foods!

I questioned her on how one bottle of tide would ring up as $600 dollars...

and she got a little flustered.

Abby created a visual masterpiece in the Creativity Room.

It is now prominantly displayed on our dishwasher at home.

We also made a hat with boingy antennaes out of recycled paper.

In the World Works exhibit, Abby and a few other industrious children manned their posts in a make-believe warehouse. They worked as a team to move boxes through a long two-story conveyor belt.
There was also an entire room full of water activities...Abby was soaked up to the elbows,

but had so much fun...who cares?