This And That

I can't believe how busy we've been. The blog has just been left undone. I have loads of stuff to put on here, but never find the time. October is typically my busiest month just because of all the fun activities I want to do with Emma, but when you add her preschool, my new business, a trip out of town, and being sick into the mix, I become even more crazy than usual. I'm going to try to catch you up a little on what we've been up to in a few new posts that I'll hopefully do in the next few days. We'll see.

Every October my family gets together to celebrate Oktoberfest. This year with October being so busy (for everyone in my family, not just us) we combined Oktoberfest with our celebrations of both Eric's and Melissa's birthdays (their birthdays are only 3 days apart). It was fun having loads of yummy German food and playing games. Oh, and the birthday stuff went great too. =)
Eric and I took Emma to the farm for some Halloween fun. She wanted to dress up, so she went as a witch. She took us through a maze and kept leading us to all the dead ends. She LOVES mazes lately and just wanted to stay in there. I saw her eyes find the exit fairly quickly (it wasn't exactly a challenging maze, even to a 4 year old), but she kept going in circles thinking it was hilarious.

We also went to another farm for their Great Pumpkin Festival. We did this last year too. It's a lot of fun. You can go on a hay ride, pick pumpkins, enjoy hot cider, and watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown outside while snuggling under blankets. Awesome. Emma's favorite part was sharing the blanket with Grandma!

We also took Emma to Gardner Village earlier this month. I love it there this time of year. Emma had fun going on a witch hunt finding all the crazy witches they have there. She loved it even more when she learned the prize upon completion was a cookie! Life just doesn't get much better than that.
Jill and I took Emma to an activity called Barnyard Boo that I took her to last year. It wasn't quite as much fun as last year, but part of the reason was due to the weather. It was beautiful when we left home, but shortly after arriving the wind picked up and then it started sprinkling. Emma was a good sport though.

Things started well enough, a bit chilly, but not too bad.

Emma had fun doing the mini maze and the ghost bowling among other things.

And she loved decorating the cookies. Here is mine, Emma's and Jill's.
Not too shabby right?

But then things got a little scary.

So we did the only thing we could - go to jail.

But I had to let her out because I just couldn't resist seeing this cute face.
Could you say no to her?

Just A Cute Girl On A Sunday

Secrets & Surprises

Since tomorrow is Eric's birthday I was helping Emma make a card for him today. She always has fun making cards and I love seeing her creativity as she chooses what elements to include. When she finished I told her we'd give it to Daddy tomorrow, and that it was a secret, and not to tell him about it. I also told her we'd make him a cake tomorrow, but that it would be a surprise. Normally on Monday nights Eric doesn't get home until after 10:00, which means Emma doesn't see him, but tonight he got home at about 6:30, an hour before her bedtime. After greeting him and giving him hugs and kisses I hear Emma saying this to Eric: "I'm not going to tell you about your card." Hmm, I think he might suspect something now. =) Emma then went to help Eric change a light bulb in our room and I heard her say "We're going to make a cake!" Clearly I need to go over exactly what a secret and surprise is with her. All I could do was roll my eyes and smile.

Spider Catch

Emma makes up games to play all the time, as I suspect most little kids do. Their imaginations are just so awesome! It's so fun to see all the things Emma will come up with. Her latest game is called Spider Catch. She moves/walks her had along you pretending it's a spider, and you must try to catch it before it gets to your neck or face or wherever she's headed to. She loves trying to sneak the spider past your defenses. And if she manages to reach her goal, she'll just giggle and giggle. I think if we let her she'd play it all day long.