Halloween Part 1

 Amelia was a kitty for Halloween this year.  I was excited to make a simple costume that would also keep her very warm.  I didn't plan on the fact that she would hate the hood for the costume.  I tried keeping it upstairs so that she could see it and then I tried wearing it hoping she would want to copy Mommy.  Nothing was working!  My last effort was putting a "pretties" by the ear, and that sealed the deal for my girly girl.

 It still bothered her some but she kept it on.

Here is her "Cheese" face that has become common during photo sessions.

She didn't even mind wearing her costume to school.

Apples

We weren't able to go apple picking this year but we did visit an apple farm to buy apples for canning.  

 Of course they had pumpkins and you already know how Amelia feels about those!  She's still asking about pumpkins on December 17th!

 We went back to look at all of the apple trees and show her where they grow.

 She really just wanted to eat them.

She had so much fun that day and was super excited that it was tasting day at the farm.  She was able to sample apples, cheese, pie, and donuts.  Mommy was super happy to come home with two half bushels of apples for canning and apple cider for drinking!

Wedding

One of my cousins got married in October.

I tried to make Amelia a dress to wear for the occasion but it ended up a little big.  She didn't care and her favorite part of the whole evening was the dance of course.

 She ran out to the dance floor and didn't care if anyone much less anyone she knew was around.

Then uncle Josh tried to dance with her.  He picked her up and she gave him this glaring look as if to say, "you have some nerve doing that."  When he put her down she made a beeline away from him and avoided dance for about five minutes before running back out again.

It's been fun to see how her dancing has evolved over the past 6-7 months.  I still have no idea where she picks up some of these dance moves.  Could it really be her just moving her body the way the music moves her?  She definitely has more rhythm than Lucas or I.  She's even begun choosing slow or fast movements to appropriately match the music!

Gymnastics Update

                                                    Amelia with her friends, Lila and Allie

Gymnastics has become a joy and I'm glad I stuck with it.  Next week is our last week though and we are going to have to take a break since Sprout will be here before we know it!

I know she is really going to miss it.  Amelia has gotten very good at trying new things there and even attempting certain things like the low balance beam by herself.

Some of her favorite things are summer salts, bear walk, swinging on the bar, headstands, jumping off of blocks, and playing in the foam pit.  She also loves to sing the cheer at the end of class and follows along with the actions.

"Tumbling tots, tumbling tots, flip, flop, hooray!"

Random October Happenings

 We went to Hy-Vee one day, usually we are Cub Foods shoppers and Amelia was lucky enough to receive a balloon at the end of the trip.  She loved this balloon until Mommy had to make it disappear because she was becoming very demanding with me and the balloon.  She figured out that if she let go of the balloon it would float up to the ceiling and I would have to go get it for her.  So I tried to tie a toy to the end so it wouldn't float.  She cried.  So I took off the toy and attached a very long ribbon to the balloon so she could always reach it.  Well now it wouldn't go all the way up to the ceiling.  She cried.  The balloon disappeared.

 I had closed the piano for some reason and we opened it back up again.  She loves to play on the piano and plays something for us almost daily.  Usually she makes Daddy come over and play with her and as she is with all things, she has a precise plan and he is to follow it.

We inherited this Elmo alphabet toy so now Amelia thinks she needs to learn letters.  I was happily teaching her colors thinking how appropriate that was for her age.  One night she started talking to me about triangles and before I knew it she had most of her shapes down without me really teaching her.  She also decided that  she would like to work on numbers along with everything else and can consistently count up to 6.  Yeah, my little overachieving, multitasking, determined little girl doesn't remind me of myself at all.... ha ha

 Her hair is getting longer and I've been managing to get it in a ponytail without the whole thing coming apart within an hour.

 Because of gymnastics she has become obsessed with stickers.  She can now take them off of the paper by herself and loves to share them with everyone including pup pup and Mommy.  I always have to check over my pants before leaving the house to clean off any stickers.

Final Days of Canning

Here is the last batch of canning from October.  I was so glad that my second trimester energy occurred during the canning season or I'm not sure I would have gotten it all done!

 Some salsa that I was not originally planning on doing, but with so many peppers and tomatoes lying around I just had to make a batch!

More tomato sauce!  I ended up dehydrating the rest of the cherry tomatoes and left the other tomatoes to die.

Applesauce - One of Amelia's favorite snacks!

Apple pie filling (Lucas' favorite snack!) and caramel apple jam that became syrup instead of jam.  It's still tasty!

Leaves

Amelia was super excited to play in the leaves this year.

 She approached the activity much like a cat.  A little timid, picked up a few at first.

 Began circling the pile.  Then went a little farther in..until....

 She was running at full speed and diving into the pile.  She didn't even care when Daddy raked the leaves up over her head.  She was all smiles and giggles.

 Then she proceeded to follow Daddy to the curb where he was raking up the leaves and destroy that pile.  Poor Lucas had to rake everything at least twice.