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!