Ballerina Time

Abby had an opportunity to go watch her two babysitters (Kitty and Susie) and their sister Sadie perform in LSSU's dance recital this afternoon. She had a great time. She was very excited about being able to wear her fancy "Belle girl" dress and "nursery" shoes (translated: a white dress with multicolor polka dots and white patent leather shoes). She even let me put a bow in her hair. And boy did that girl strut around the Fine Arts Center. She did nap through part of the recital, but when she wasn't sleeping she was having a good time and her running commentary was cracking me and our friends up.

Olivia skipped out on the recital and watched some baseball with her dad. I'm pretty sure he was pretty relieved to get out of watching the dancing. He was also pretty impressed with both girls, who let me sleep in until 8 a.m. Steve got to sleep until 9 because I made sure to get the girls downstairs pretty quickly once they both were up and making noise. We both needed a morning where we could "sleep in." Once upon a time we would sleep until 10 or 11 on a lazy Saturday morning... that was a long, long time ago.

Trick or Treat

Alright... I know this looks like she is crying, but I swear she was not. She did not like getting the candy from costumed people, but she didn't mind asking older people for a treat. Abby's friend Maddie went with us and was way into trick or treating - she even walked straight into the first house.
Mom and the ballerina trick or treating - she had cute little tights and a shirt on, but at 40-ish degrees you get to wear extra pants and a coat to trick or treat.
Abby and Dad trick or treating. Abby only took a 30 minute nap at 5 pm (we had to wake her up at 5:30 because people were here and ready to trick or treat). She did pretty goo for being tired.
Ballerina before the party. She was way cute :-)

Playland is at McDonalds

Steve and I had a biology teacher that hung the statement "Playland is at McDonalds" one day after we were particularly obnoxious the day before. Abby and I decided we would enjoy our local playland and had a lunch date at McDonalds yesterday, just us two girls. It must have been a really slow day for playland, because after Abby finished eating there were no other kids there. And since there were no other kids there I helped Abby explore more of the playland than she had ever seen before. She got to go into the 2nd of 3 levels and rode down the twisty slide 4 times. We had a great time. I got two cute pictures on my camera phone, but I have no idea how to transfer them from phone to computer. You'll just have to imagine Abby in a blue tunnel slide and Abby peering through the window on the 2nd level tower.

While we were at McDonalds we ran into Dr. Anderson's mom, so knowing that she is heading back to Iowa soon and that we had wanted to have them for dinner before they left, Abby and I jumped at the opportunity and had Steve invite them for dinner. Then we cleaned like maniacs and cooked for the rest of the afternoon. But, we had a great dinner, a nice visit, and Abby decided that Mrs. Anderson should be her adopted Grammy. That really made Mrs. Anderson's night since she has no grandchildren. We had lots and lots of fun.

We started our morning yesterday playing Star Wars. Abby loves playing with the toy light sabre we have (don't know why we have it, but we do). She was being an ewok, since she had cute bear ears on top of her head, and was chopping off Maize's legs and ears. They have a lot of fun playing games together. After we played Star Wars we pretended to be bears since she had the ears and all.

Today we've been recouperating from the fun. This morning Abby climbed out of bed and donned a sun bonnet before sneaking into our room (with Steve guiding her and keeping the hat on so I could see it) to wake me up. I don't remember when I last laughed that hard. This girl sure has an amazing sense of style.

Shopper's Shoulder

Abby loves wearing her new tu-tu from Grandma Mary and Aunt Hannah. She even knows how to do spins now. She would wear the tu-tu over anything if we let her.
This is Abby's necklace that she picked out at Super Wal-Mart. She is showing me how to wear a bracelet, but using the necklace instead. She really loves jewelery - we are in trouble when she gets big enough to walk around the store by herself.

Abby and I went and picked up groceries along with some camping supplies today. Abby picked out her very first fishing pole. There was a Disney princess one and a Dora the Explorer one. Abby is usually a princess kind of girl, but she picked Dora. Then she rode in the cart saying "Dora, Dora, Dora" just like the theme song. She was very proud of her purchase - that is until I put the goldfish crackers into the cart. Then all she could think of was the goldfish crackers and how badly she wanted to eat them.

Abby said Grammy and Grandpa one time last night, but then wouldn't say them again. She has lots of words like that, I know she has them stored up in her head and just isn't using them because they don't go with anything she is thinking of that day. Even without those words that she doesn't use every day we still have a lot of jabbering going on around here.

Just Another Terrific Tuesday

Abby tried on her outfit from India today. She is still a little to small to wear it, but we still had a little princess party in it. As you can see our stairs are all wood now and they look pretty good. They could use some sanding and staining, but for having been covered with nasty carpet they didn't turn out too bad.
This is Abby pretending that she can't hear me telling her to get down from the shelf. She's figured out that she can climb onto almost everything in the living room and she has been taking advantage of that ability to the greatest extent possible. She's also been on top of the couches, cedar chest, and fireplace surround. We need to work on teaching Abigail that climbing is fun, but is not an indoor activity.
This is Abby's dishwasher box house. She's been having a fun time playing in the box with her chair. We cut two windows into the sides and she loves peeking out of them.
Abby has moved on to a new favorite doll. For a very long time, JoJo the water baby was her favorite, but now she especially loves playing with "Uncle Nate" the doll from Mildred. Nate comes with us all over the house and he even gets to wear his clothes, unlike JoJo.
Someone was having a great time with my sunglasses, right before she broke them into 3 pieces. Guess I can justify buying a new pair now. She thought she was hot stuff in my glasses.