Water for Elephants

Happy Halloween!  Sorry for the delay in sharing these photos.  As you can imagine, preschool and playing are keeping me very busy these days.  Mom attempted to do another Halloween duo for a costume theme this year, but decided to give up after many hours of shopping online.  Instead, she thought of what we love the best...I love trains and Cooper loves animals.  Mommy's friend reassured her that she was thinking in theme...think of the book/movie Water for Elephants.  This is on Mommy's reading list and she hopes to read it before she turns 80.  Anyhow, this little bit of news made her day so there you have it, Water for Elephants this year!

Don't be disappointed quite yet, there are lots of Halloween pictures below.  Apparently, I have forgotten how to upload photos in reverse order, as these were placed sporadically in this blog post.  Sorry about that.

I received my school picture and to everyone's surprise, I don't have squinty, big cheesy smile face :)  The guy who took my picture was really silly; he put a Barney dinosauer on his head.  He obviously knew what he was doing. Look how big and handsome I am in my first school photo.

We had our first measurable snowfall on Thursday morning!  I hollered, "IT'S WINTER TIME!!!"  Cooper and I had a few minutes to play in the white, sticky stuff before heading to Jenny's house for the day.  Within a few hours, the snow melted away and I was left confused to why we couldn't go sledding or snowmobiling that afternoon when we got home.

We met up with Laurie Jo, Lily and Lucy this week at the Sports Center.  Cooper loves to ride the trucks and toys there while making lots of obnoxious spitting/revving sounds.

I still love the arcade area and Mommy still will not allow me to drop a quarter in the machine.  I take this driving game very seriously, unlike my wreckless brother.  Is it possible to make a prediction already about who will be the more responsible driver someday?

I easily scale up the mountain and was a good helper to Lily who made it to the top for the first time.. way to go Champ!

I have to explain this one in reverse order.... Cooper loves finding fuzzy caterpillars on the driveway.  He thought it would be nice to take his little friend on a ride in the back of his pick-up truck.

Monkey See, Monkey Do.... Cooper often copies me as I decided to be the car washer (picture below came first).  He then took it upon himself to take over, hence an argument about who gets the sponge.  What you don't see is Mommy yelling at us and swearing under her breath about Daddy getting home soon to take over.

Do you see Cooper's shoe?  Look right under it, yup, the poor little caterpillar.  Cooper must have learned this "somewhere" because he thinks it is fun to stomp on caterpillars.  He then proceeded to give the caterpillar to Mommy and then he put it in his pickup for a ride.  He kept turning around while driving to make sure the little guy was OK.  How thoughtful Cooper.

Since Halloween is over, Cooper still thinks it is picture time on the steps.  He likes to stop there, smile and say "EEEE" for "Cheese."  That is Mommy's cue to take a photo of him.  I am along for the ride on these.

Here is an action shot as Cooper is now tall enough and smart enough to know that if he stands up on my John Deere rider, he can actually make it go.  We now know NOT to let him on it without constant supervision.  Here comes more fights about who gets to drive.

Cooper helped Mommy, Grandma and Mommy's friend Bridget with sauerkraut making.  It is a fun tradition Mommy and Grandma started a few years ago.  They shread the cabbage, add salt, mash and allow it to ferment and process (about 6 weeks).  I am pretty certain Cooper and I will not be eating this nasty stuff, but my parents like it... pass the sausage!

Here are the Halloween photos I intended to include earlier in the post.  The above picture is a photo of exhaustion and glutttony.  Cooper and I lasted 1 1/2 hours of trick or treating.  We had a great time with family and friends that night.  Our neighbor Donny, let us use his golf cart as our neighbors own one too.  This helped us travel quickly around the neighborhood without getting too cold or tired.  Daddy kept commenting on how trick or treating just isn't the same these days!

One of our favorite stops was at Monty and Cheryl's house.  They love stopping by on their walks to see us.  They gave us yummy candy and $1 each for our piggy banks.  I was most excited about that stop :)

Our trick or treating crew this year

Earlier in the day, we stopped over to the assisted living apartments to see Great-Grandma.  She was thrilled to see us and all of the residents gave us candy from their stashes.  Seems like a nice place to hang out!

We also went to the public library as they had a special storytime, songs/movement, snacks and trick or treating.  I thought the story about Halloween Goldilocks was hilarious, hence the silly expressions below.

Cooper on the other hand, was not as amused.  He listens well, but I think the elephant ears  and trunk put a damper on his spirits that day.

What do you think this expression means... .maybe "Don't you dare show anyone this photo" or "Payback is a Bummer?" 

The weekend before Halloween, we went to Grammy's house with all of our garden grown pumpkins.  This was our first year of not buying pumpkins from the patch.  We made lots of silly carvings and I even helped carve with that amazing knife that isn't sharp but still cuts through a pumpkin...amazing discovery.

Grammy even let me use this beautiful apron to keep me nice and clean while carving pumpkins.  A little domestic, but cute :)

Daddy snapped this photo of me one day as I rode my John in the backyard.  Our maples were beautiful and vibrant red this fall.  The leaves have since fallen thanks to the constant wind we seem to be experiencing around here.

The kick-off to Halloween was my preschool parade and party.  Mason (Jenny's son) was a ninja and I was a train CONDUCTOR (this is how I described myself and was sure to pronounce it carefully).  In the picture below, I was on Mrs. K's lap and my expression is one of a completely overwhelmed kid! 

Other news.... Daddy returned from 5 days at "the shack" and was skunked this year.  He didn't see a deer, so no venison yet.  He will hunt next weekend again in hopes of nailing one.  Mommy swears for the amount of money he spends, she could drive up and down the highway, hit a deer, pay the deductible and fill the freezer.  He hasn't taken her up on this offer yet.   Hopefully, my next post will be a photo of the "big one!"