Summer Fun 2011

Such a backlog of experiences and photos... here are a bunch of pictures from last summer (broadly defined!), when mommy was buried in books much of the time!

Several fun moments at home...









A present from Uncle Dan and Aunt Lauren... just cause... starting her early...


We had a couple of great visits with dear friends Matt and Jenn this summer. Daddy and Caroline made another trip to Mammoth Cave with them and this shot is from a meal on that trip...


... but they also joined us in Nashville for the fourth of July. No pics of them here... but first, C eats her first hot dog, and then she dances and tosses grass about... she wasn't afraid of the fireworks at all!






Daddy and Caroline had an excellent visit with Pa and Eepa at their (former! hooray!) home in Michigan... many shots...

Lots of coloring time with Pa...




Lots of dipping toes in water...


A first pony ride!


Lots of exploring outside...


Lots of playground fun...







Lots of time "cleaning" the bird bath!



And a great visit with goats!






Other nice moments with loved ones (and a frog!)






2 moments from bonfires in our backyard... enjoying chocolate milk with Jo An


and after being put in bed while a bonfire continued outside, she clearly decided she wanted back outside, but didn't make it very far...


Just one of many lovely visits to the pool at the Y!


Several Sunday moments...






A visit from Mamie (super helpful... mommy and daddy got to get away for a bit for our anniversary and c got lots of loving attention during the final press to exams...)




This was a moment from Mamie's visit too..


Three more random moments...

Halloween 2011

I'll begin from the recent... and then work back... so much to catch up on... and soon SO MUCH MORE WILL HAPPEN!

But let me start with the recent cuteness of Halloween.

Mamie had the idea for the costume. Caroline LOVES to hop like a frog and does so very well. We have NO idea where she learned this, but she is impressive! My brain was consumed with exams so I was grateful for the idea from Mamie and for the wonders of Amazon... Kev has even better pics of C in her costume from a few weeks before halloween, but I don't have those on my computer yet. Here are a bunch though... first several from a day of the dead party at her school a few days before halloween.

When we arrived at the party one of her friends, Wyatt, said "Well, hello Caroline dressed like a frog!" (This was moments after the screaming fit she threw in the car about not wanting to wear her costume... though she'd be telling people for days she was going to be a halloween froggy!)

One of the moms brought sugar skulls and frosting with which to decorate them. Here she is working on the first skull she decorated, and a close up of her work!





And here she is doing some of her favorite things she does at school... biking... and swinging on the hammock...




And now the day itself. We went to a neighborhood trick or treating event with some of our friends, Alistair is the one dressed as spiderman and Wonder Woman is Ella, his big sister. Ali is one of the kids Kev has been taking care of in addition to Caroline the past two years. Here they are all ready to go! (A funnier version of this pic is up on facebook!)


First we went to the parking lot of a business where there were games to play, and face painting, balloons, etc. Caroline was pretty shy at first, MUCH more shy than I've seen her in a long time, but when she realized she could get candy she got a bit bolder. We took off from there to trick or treat on that street. Lots of folks were seated in front of their homes with bowls of candy. She would typically whisper trick or treat, but she'd forcefully shove her bag forward. Many people admired her costume... only one person thought she was a boy. : ) Many pics from the night follow.

Where we began...



And trick or treating galore...







I had planned for us to just be out for an hour... figured that would be enough and that that would facilitate decent bedtime and daddy getting out to a concert he wanted to attend (he went dressed as a bad dad, with a 3 ft skeleton in the baby bjorn!) But we ended up being out 1.5 hours. At about 1.25 hours we declared trick or treating done. C was insisting on riding in the stroller and Kev told her that we wouldn't keep taking her in and out. If she was done, she could get back in the stroller, if not, she should stay out. She opted in. And then TOTALLY melted down when she realized there would be no more trick or treating. Massive tantrum that went on and on and on... lovely end to the night. Ah... almost 3. But eventually we got to this... ah... now, that's a lovely ending.