Trick or treating downtown with Gramma and Papa, and roughly 5,000 other kids from the area.
While the trick or treating was primarily limited to downtown businesses, we did have one extra, very popular stop on Mass Street…
Archive for the ‘Ava’ Category
6 Nov
Halloween Round-up
This year, Mom and Dave spent Halloween weekend with us in Kansas, allowing Mom to see the girls in their costumes (and hear roughly 2,000 comments the cupcakes received as we made our way through downtown trick-or-treating). I’ll post downtown photos soon, but in the meantime, here’s a Gramma and Papa fix!
31 Oct
Trick or treat…? TREAT.
When my mom asked Ava what she wanted to be for Halloween this year, Ava immediately responded, “A CUPCAKE! A cupcake with frosting and a cherry on top.” I quickly added, “Could you make two, Mom?”
Mom delivered, and the girls headed out to trick-or-treat dressed as pretty sweet treats themselves.
30 Oct
Witches’ brew
Ava made wicked witch cupcakes for her kindergarten classmates on Friday. It seems as though she may have sampled the frosting in advance, don’t you think? Scary good!
25 Oct
Ava and Olivia Fix
I think this series of photos, in which I simply tried to obtain one decent shot of my girls in matching Husker outfits (thanks, Dad and Rose!), pretty much sums up the whole weekend.
But, in happier news, how ’bout those Huskers?
18 Oct
New beginnings
A couple of years ago, we enrolled Ava in a small, in-home Montessori preschool. We fell in love with the curriculum and the instructor, and marveled at how well Ava responded to both.
Last spring, her instructor announced plans for an expansion that would include a new building with classrooms to accommodate more than 90 children from six months to six years. Shortly thereafter, we decided to enroll Ava in the school’s new kindergarten program.
After driving by the construction site nearly every day for many months, Ava finally entered for her first day of class today. Here she is, all ready for what felt like her first official day of Kindergarten.
The new school is about eight blocks down the street from our house.
At the previous school, there were only 10 children, and a very low-tech sign-in process. I was worried that with an exponential increase in size, we’d see less of the instructor, and have less engagement overall. I was pleased to see the sign-in sheets were still there—there were five instead of one. And, the instructor was smiling from the behind the front desk, greeting the parents and children as we entered.
Ava walked right in, and hung up her new backpack. The classroom assistant was organizing a morning yoga session, to be followed by breakfast. I thought I’d like to stick around myself.
We were able to see the school during a special open house for parents on Saturday. We took Olivia, who will join the classroom for three-year-olds in January.
This is Ava’s classroom, huge and bright and open. There will be 10 students in her class.
We also met Olivia’s teacher. Liv introduced her to “Eliza,” explaining that Eliza had a twin, although Mom made her leave her at home. Her teacher asked if the twin’s name happened to be “Doolittle.” Olivia, nonplussed, responded, “No, her name is Hazel.”
I am looking forward to having the girls in one place–at least for the spring and summer. Ava seems intent on growing up as quickly as possible, though, and I’m sure first grade at the public school will be here before we know it.
6 Oct
73 pounds of pumpkin later…
There was a reason we went to the pumpkin patch without Bryan, as he just doesn’t understand the need for more than one pumpkin. The girls and I traipsed through the patch, picking the prettiest we could find.
Olivia’s lovie caught in the vines repeatedly, and at one point, she said, “Help! There’s a pumpkin in my way!” We took the offending pumpkin home, of course.
It took us a bit of time to load ourselves onto the hay rack, given our haul.
As the hayrack ride continued, Olivia sang the cow song (loud lyrics include: “The cow song, the cow song, the cow song, the cow song”), the pig song (“The pig song, the pig song, the pig song, the pig song”), the pumpkin song, the bird song and the farm song, among others. I think you can guess the lyrics to those as well.
Ava was most proud of her large, orange pumpkin, which I think will make a great jack-o-lantern in a few weeks.
I love the green and cream varieties myself.
It doesn’t really look like 73 pounds, does it?!
5 Oct
Sliding into fall
While Bryan checked out downtown Denver with David and Tom this weekend, the girls and I celebrated the first weekend of what might actually be fall.
The weather was cool, the apples were ready and the pumpkin patch was open.
This is my favorite season, and I’m coming off a very hectic time at work. I felt so free come Sunday I nearly took a trip down this slide myself. It’s going to be a great month!
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