Decorating for Christmas

It is the day after Thansgiving - our official day for putting up our Christmas decorations. Claire was very excited to help me put up the tree. She was a very good helper. Kate helped too. We listened to Christmas music and made our house festive for the holiday season.

Thanksgiving Day Parade

We went to the Thanksgiving Day Parade in downtown St. Louis. Brrrrr! It was really cold, but the girls love parades and we all had a great time.

Daddy's work picnic

This year Daddy's work picnic was at Eckert's. We picked apples and pumpkins, Claire rode on the airplane swings and a pony, we went through the corn maze, we ate dinner and apple pie, made s'mores around a campfire, and went on a spooky hayride...all courtesy of The Business Bank. The girls had a great time. Claire had been looking forward to this all day. This morning while Josh was still in bed, she brought his wallet into him and said, "Here is your wallet so you can pay for the apples." Too cute! Claire had so much fun that in the car on the way home she asked if we could pretend that we were still there. Kate fell asleep shortly into the car ride home. Claire couldn't stop talking about the day, but then all of a sudden she was quiet. I looked back and she was out like a light. Thanks Business Bank for a great day!

Claire's 3rd Birthday Party!

Claire had the family over for her birthday party. She was spoiled rotten with great gifts, and this time Kate helped Claire open the presents too. She had aprincess cake with a Dora candle. What more could a little girl ask for? In the last picture you can see she is using her bubble mower while wearing her Cinderella gown. Shortly after cutting the grass she was using the walkway up to our house as a runway and told Aunt Megan F. that she had to say "Here comes Cinderella!" It was really funny...she did it about 20 times!

OUCH!!!

So we thought we would be good parents and take the girls to the park on a beautiful Sunday morning. They were having a great time running around, then, it happened. Josh and I both saw it happen. Claire was running and then all of a sudden tripped on her own feet and flew towards the bottom step of the staircase going up to the slides. She hit her face on the bottom step. She hit it HARD. Of course , she started crying. I ran to pick her up and after one look knew that we were on our way to the emergency room. We got to the hospital and they saw her right away. They glued her cut (all the way to the tissue under the skin) shut and we were on our way. Well, it didn't go quite that nicely, but I will spare you the details. The first two pictures were taken the night it happened and the one on the bottom was taken the next morning. She was such a brave girl. I think she handled it better than I did!

Ameren's Safety Fair

Grandpa W. works for Ameren and every year they have a safety fair. It is a big picnic with games and prizes, food, ice cream, and all the other things that little girls love to indulge in. Before leaving the house Claire insisted on having her picture taken with Kate. The other picture is of us taking a little break and eating Kettle Korn. Yum, Yum!

Claire's 3rd Birthday

WOW! Can you believe that Claire is already 3 years old? I can't. On her 3rd birthday she had school so she took Krispy Kreme doughnuts for her friends. After Daddy came home from work we opened presents...books, trucks, a puzzle, and a scooter. She has been asking for a scooter for months and she finally got it. After presents it was dinner at her favorite restaraunt - McDonald's. Then it was back home for cake

and to play with the scooter. What a great day for a 3 year old!

Arthur's Picnic in the Park

We went to the PBS Arthur's Picnic in the Park. Even though we were there right after it started it was soooo crowded. We didn't actually do anyhting except watch some kids tumble on the stage. There were lots of PBS characters, but luckily Claire didn't want to go near them. She just loved being part of all the excitement and looking at the characters from afar.

Kate's boo boo

Kate was playing behind the rocking chair in our family room and fell and hit her face on the wall. It left a nasty little scab on her f

ace.

Parents As Teachers

Tonight we had a visit from our Parents As Teachers teacher, Jennifer. While she was here she played learning games with the girls. Kate looked at a first words book, played with a couple of different shape sorters, and was very busy getting involved in Claire's games. For Claire she brought a huge piece of white paper and traced around Claire, then she asked Claire to put a face on her, give her hair, clothes, and shoes. She kind of did that, but then she just wanted to draw all over the paper. Then the girls thought it was fun to walk on the paper to listen to it crinkle.

She did an evaluation of Claire. Her physical development (things like being able to jump over a piece of paper, hop on one foot, etc.) she is at about a four year old level. Her vocabulary, things like identifying animals and how they move (ex which animal gallops? and she pointed to the horse) and also things like can you put the block on the table? under the table? etc., is much higher...she stopped testing Claire when she reached the 5 year old level. They test until they fail one of the tests. We always knew Claire was a talker!

Go Tigers!!!

We went to the Mizzou vs. Nevada game in Columbia. Even though it rained on us throughout the day we had a great time. Claire loved to watch Truman and the cheerleaders. She told me that Truman is a real tiger...so don't say that he is not. This is a picture of Josh with his girls all decked out in Mizzou shirts before the game. For those of you who don't follow Mizzou football - Mizzou kicked Nevada's butt!

Fenton's Sunset in the Park

Every year Fenton has a founder's day parade and Musical Sunset in the Park. The have a band, petting zoo, train rides, and more. We always meet a group of friends and spend the evening. Claire and Kate loved riding the train with their cousin, Kyle. They also really enjoyed the petting zoo and riding in a friend's wagon.

Kate's first day of school...

and Claire's second day. Claire goes to school twice a week and Kate only goes once. As you can see in these pictures, Kate was not cooperating with me. In the one picture Claire is trying to get Kate to look at the camera, as you can imagine, that did not go over well with Kate.

Claire's First Day of School

Here is Claire on her first day of Parent's Day Out. She is all dressed for school with her backpack and lunch box.

More wedding fun

We went to another wedding. This one was for a member of Josh's family. The girls once again had a great time drinking soda, eating cake, and dancing. What more could a little girl ask for? Claire loved dancing with the little flower girl and Kate was busy doing her own thing...she loves to move to the music.

Golf with Daddy

Josh took Claire to the driving range with him. According to Josh she had a great time, but is a horrible golfer.

At the Cabin

We spent the weekend at a cabin in the middle of nowhere with my parents. I call it a cabin, but it has a huge kitchen, living room dining area, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a porch that overlooks the Current River. It is a cool place to spend the weekend. The girls had a great time running around a new place, watching the people in canoes float by and swimming in the river. Josh took Claire for a ride in a canoe. She had a blast!

Making wine with Daddy

Josh is making his own wine this year again. Today he is pulling the grapes off the stems and squishing them up...and Claire is "helping".