The Halloween Fun Continues...

I just love October through the end of the year as so many fun activities get planned for the kids. David and I went to our neighborhood mom's club Halloween party. It didn't take much to persuade Sophie to dress up as Jasmine again! The weather couldn't have been more beautiful and the company was great! We had a fun time chatting and watching Sophie with her new friends.

We were trying to get a picture of Shannon & Greg's son Cal, the little stinker, and Sophie:



















By the end of the party, Sophie was playing with the girls who are her same age. At one point there were 3 or 4 of them in the house! I look forward to the same party next year!

Spiky Hair

David was so nice to let me sleep in one weekend, since I was feeling pretty rundown and tired. As I was curled up in our warm, comfortable bed, Sophie and David were having the time of their lives! Bathtime looked to have been a lot of fun... and crazy, too! I can't believe her hair went a foot high into this mohawk. From looking at Sophie's natural smile, she was loving Daddy's insane and spontaneous antics! I should sleep in more often and see what fun they get themselves into!

Pumpkin Carving

I was so excited to start our annual pumpkin carving tradition this year! Since Sophie is getting older, it's a lot more fun for all of us to do family activities! We bought the perfect pumpkin at the Sweet Berry Farm pumpkin patch, so we were set to go!

After prepping our creation, David was hard at work:

On this perfect Sunday morning when I was looking forward to the three of us doing an activity together, Sophie decides she didn't want to carve a pumpkin and went off to play with her toys! We tried to entice her back to our work of art, but she wanted nothing to do with carving the jack-o-lantern:

Sophie is definitely smart -- she came back to see what we were doing only after David and I finished carving the pumpkin! David is always so sweet with her. He's showing her the final product:

I got a quick pose with the jack-o-lantern and sweet Sophie:

Cookie decorating

Jamie came up with a fantastic idea to get the ladies and kids in the Cramer family together for some bonding time while we decorate festive cookies. So, the Saturday before Halloween, I had Gayle, Jamie, Kristin & Ethan over, and Jenn came up with Hannah & Holden. I made Sprinkles cupcakes and sugar cookies cut out in Halloween shapes all ready for decoration. It was so much fun and crazy to see four kids decorate at the same time.

I had a feeling before Sophie was even born that she was going to have a sweet tooth given my sugar cravings when I was pregnant with her. It has definitely been proven a reality this month! Sophie is all intent on using her toothpick to spread the icing on the cookie:



















I was trying to take a picture of Gayle, Hannah, Jamie and Sophie with their materpieces. Everyone was willing to show me their cookies except Sophie, who was intent on eating hers! She was practicing the "eating as you decorate" technique:














Daddy swooped in to clean up the final product:

Prodigy's Fall Festival

After a last minute decision to change costumes and let Sophie be what she wanted (Princess Jasmine), we enjoyed a few parties before Halloween. We went to Daddy's office to celebrate one evening and the next day we went to Sophie's school for their festival. Sophie was all into the Jasmine -- for face painting she asked her teach Miss Becca to draw "Jasmine" and when Mommy & Sophie frosted cookies & decorated with sprinkles, Sophie told me we were making "a Jasmine cookie".



















Sophie with her two teachers -- Miss Yaya and Miss Becca -- as well as her favorite friend in class, Sanjna:

Sweet Berry Farm

Later on in the evening after the Zilker experience, the three of us drove to Sweet Berry Farm in Marble Falls to meet Kristin, Josh and Ethan for an evening of activities at the pumpkin patch. We're lucky that Josh's firm rents out the place each year and we enjoy a private party!

Sophie always gets so thrilled when she sees Ethan. They play so well together and she's always talking about him! It was even better tonight -- they could run through the pumpkins, get their faces painted, do arts & crafts, take pony rides, heat hot dogs over an open fire, and enjoy a hay ride. I really like it out there and love the time with the Schencks!

It was so easy to snap several cute pictures of the two of them in the pumpkins. I love how they both are sitting back, chillin', with their arms propped up:














So, after our success with taking pictures of the cousins, I decided luck should be in my favor with getting Sophie to pose by herself in the patch. I had already tried on a few other occasions with not much luck. Third time was not the charm, as Sophie obviously decided she was done with "pumpkin posing" and was quite bored of my attempts! One of these years, I'm going to get a good picture...














Today was another "first". Sophie went on a pony ride all by herself! She held on to the saddle horn with no assistance from us and around the farm she went! We were so proud of her:

Riding the Zilker Zephyr

I feel as if I'm constantly repeating myself on how beautiful the weather has been the entire month of October! On one of the weekends, David and I decided we needed to enjoy the beauty and spend it outside. We went to Zilker Park for a little train ride, playground time and snacks. We're lucky to have Zilker Park in the heart of Austin!

Trying to kill some time with a family picture while we wait for our train to "choo-choo":














We decided to go all out with special activities/treats and introduced Sophie to a sno-cone. She liked it but it was cold on her mouth!



















I can never resist posting pictures of Sophie going down slides. It's so easy to see her natural enthusiasm! And, it too cute how she just repeats the process -- climb up, slide down, climb up, slide down... until we tell her we're done, which is always before she's ready!

Dora's House

Ethan gave Sophie the best birthday gift for her two year birthday in April. I would never had imagined the Dora Fun House would have been such a hit! Any time kids come over to play with Sophie, they all pile in this house and refuse to ge back out! Ethan was nice to visit us on a Saturday afternoon. Sophie was thrilled to have Ethan at our home! The cousins insisted on eating their afternoon snack in the fun house. They are too cute and rambunctious together!

Sea World Spooktacular

This year, October's weather has been perfect! I feel as it's Calfornia weather -- 70 degrees and sunny. With Sea World having special shows and decorations for the Halloween season, we planned another daytrip to San Antonio. I really think October is the best time to go to Sea World -- it's not hot and the park wasn't nearly as packed! We saw our typical shows... Viva and Shamu, but we also found time to make it to a couple of new things. Daddy and Sophie rode a few kiddie rides in Happy Harbour and we went to feed & then watch The Cannery Row Caper at the Sea Lion Stadium.

Sophie and Daddy listening to the sea lions "talk":

We had the BEST LAUGH during the sea lion show. David and I decide to sit in the last row of the "splash zone" as we typically do in the Shamu show and never get wet. This way, we're close enough to see all the action but don't have to deal with the sticky feeling of pool water sprayed on you with your clothes on! The show was pretty entertaining! Towards the end of the show, as part of the prop, a firehose literally shot out of the background setting and hit the three of us square in the chests. Sophie was completely startled and started crying and we were all drenched! We definitely learned a lesson on where to not sit in the sea lion stadium!

Poor Sophie ended up riding back to Austin in just a pull-up as we didn't want her sitting in her car seat wet!














As always, we love visiting the dolphins. You can see Sophie really having fun watching them swim to us:

Weekend of Wild Kids

As we continued our fun-filled weekend in Dallas, I was lucky to see a lot of my friends and their wonderful children. The weather was gorgeous, so we spent a lazy Saturday morning with the kids jumping, swinging, playing, and just plain ole hanging out in the Park Cities. We are lucky for all our friends in Dallas!

Sophie was having the time of her life with Savannah on the Hinze's trampoline. She likes the concept of running full steam ahead more than jumping right now! David and Rod climbed on the trampoline with the girls for "supervision"... it was cute to see the men taking care of the girls and little Will!

My friend, Kerri, brought over her little boy, Ethan, to play with the ladies! It was nice to see Kerri as it had been years since we've seen her! I laughed to see the three kiddos sit this far away from each other while they were swinging! I guess that's how 2 and 3 year olds interact!

I was also excited to see my good friend, Maria, and her little baby, Homero! I couldn't believe how big he's gotten! I look forward to him getting bigger, so Sophie can play with him!

That night, we went to visit our dear friends, Kristie & Mike. I was so thrilled to meet her new little baby, Owen, who was only a month old! They have wonderful kids! We were hungry and went for pizza and then ice cream. Quinn, Brendan, & Sophie were all holding hands on the way to ice cream! Love the picture!

Bathing Beauties & Precious Playmates

Sophie was in heaven - she loves taking baths with her friends as there are so many new and interesting toys she can enjoy which she doesn't have at her home. The girls had a bubble bath... and while we were turned around they dumped the entire bottle of bubbles in the water. No wonder they are smiling ear to ear!

Nothing more endearing to a mommy than the sound of your own daughter's laughter. Savannah has the coolest playhouse in her room. The girls would disappear for a long time and be "making coffee", cooking for us in the play kitchen in the little house...basically having the time of their lives! I didn't realize that Sophie is at an age where she parrallel plays. It's so amazing to see her grow up!

So, when they got tired of playing house, they moved on to playing dressing up. Sophie in her high heel princess shoes and Savannah with her tiara and wand... climbing by themselves to the top of Savannah's bunk bed. I can't get enough of my little girl!

The great thing about Dallas is they get the first of most things that make it to Texas. I have been wanting to try Sprinkles from Beverly Hills cupcakes for some time now. Sprinkles is a gourmet cupcake store which sells $4 cupcakes in all sorts of flavors. I've never had a $4 cupcake, so I was intrigued on whether I would think it's worth all the rage or not. So, Friday night, Jen & I and the 3 kids headed to Sprinkles, picked up several red velvet cupcakes and went to the renovated North Park Mall to enjoy our dessert before dinner! Sophie insisted she enjoy the entire cupcake herself! Mine was delicious and finished in new time flat!

Memories are made when the most random, ridiculous things happen and make you laugh. After a trip through the childrens stores and a late dinner in the food court, Jen and I took Sophie, Savannah & Will to see the turtles. For some reason the girls decided to take off their shoes and slide down the mall ramp instead. They can make a game out of anything! It was close to 9pm, Jen & I are sitting on the floor of North Park Mall dressed in super-casual attire, watching our daughters crawl & roll around the floor. We couldn't believe how our lives had changed-- years ago, I would have been dressed up and never caught dead sitting on the mall floor, much less be there at 9pm on a Friday night!

Trip to Dallas...Starts with Autumn at the Arboretum

I had decided it had been too long since the Cramer clan had made the trek up to Dallas. We miss all our friends and try to go every once in a while to visit everyone who is so nice to come see us in Austin. After an absolutely horrific 6 hour and 46 minute drive (I won't go into details as it's too painful to talk about), things got a lot better once I finally made it to Big D! As I think back to my funfilled long weekend, it makes me laugh. All the planning, organizing, and scheduling I did before I drove up went right out the door. I don't think one set of plans stayed intact! Good thing we roll with the punches!

In Dallas, we stayed with our good friends, The Hinzes! They are wonderful and we're so lucky to be friends with them. I don't think there is a more hospitable couple out there. Jen & Rod have two children, Savannah (3 yrs old) and Will (11 months). They are the cutest, sweetest little kids. Sophie just loved playing with them. And I loved watching Sophie finally be a "girly-girl" with her new friend! They were too cute!

One of my "must dos" for the weekend was visiting the Dallas Arboretum. The Arboretum is one place in Dallas that is truly beautiful and the Autumn decorations were no exception. The weather was mild and Sophie & Savannah had a blast climbing the pumpkins, running through the pumpkin house, and completing the kid's maze.

Sophie & Savannah just loved the Indian corn. I managed to pull them away from running through the kiddie maze to snap a quick picture:

Jen and I couldn't stop laughing at our two peas in a pod! There was a stack of Indian corn as decoration in the maze, which the girls would move the ENTIRE pile and line it all on top of the hay, put it all back in the pile, and start the process over and over again! If only I could get in the mind of a 2-3 year old!

Swingin' Sophie

I can't believe how time flies and children get big before you realize it. Sophie insists that she gets on the "big swing" now. Last year at this time, she wouldn't even look at it! And, the neat part is she can actually hold on and stay on while we swing her. Of course, Mommy and Daddy won't push her too high, but she's definitely swinging! Wow!