Trick or Treat!

This was our first Halloween to take Molly trick or treating. We got together with a few friends at her good friend Alex's house and hit the streets right as the sun set. Alex, Molly, Sara, and Julie walked door to door. Molly was most definitely the most timid of the group, usually lingering a few steps behind and shyly holding her basket out for a piece of candy. It is the sweetest thing to see her little shy personality come out and watch her become independent, but still prefer to have mommy or daddy's hand in hers. They grow too fast, so as long as she wants my hand to hold hers, I will certainly be happy to oblige.

Pumpkin Patch and Fall Carnival

What Halloween would be complete without a trip to the pumpkin patch? The church across the street from the school where I teach has an annual pumpkin patch, so as we drove past after lunch today and noticed there were only a few pumpkins left, we decided to stop and take some pictures of Molly, since it was looking like our last chance.

As we drew closer to the pumpkins, we noticed all of the remaining ones were disfigured, miscolored, or covered with bumps. What made me smile was that Molly didn't seem to notice. To her, they were just pumpkins, and it reminded me of how innocently children see our world and its people every single day. She even hugged the pumpkins goodbye as we left and assured them we would be back again to see them.





After our trip to the pumpkin patch, we went home to get Molly changed into her costume for her school's Fall Carnival. She was happy to be Belle again, so we went to school and she was glad to see her friends, play some games, and collect lots of candy. The highlight of her day was by far painting pumpkins. She had such a great time sitting and painting with some of her classmates. She also really enjoyed getting her nails painted pink and her hair colored (temporarily, mind you!) purple at the Spooky Spa station of the carnival. If you look closely in the pics below, you can notice her pink nails and purple hair. All in good Halloween fun :)

A Halloween Princess

When I asked Molly what she wanted to be for Halloween this year, she promptly replied with "A Princess!" Of course, I followed that up by asking which princess she wanted to be. She told me Belle. As luck would have it, we already had a Belle costume that had never been touched (we bought it for our trip to Disney and she never ended up wearing it). With a quick trip to Target, we had a matching crown and shoes for the perfect costume...



So this morning, when we woke Molly up, she reminded us that she got to wear her costume to school today. She was quite excited, so when I asked her what her costume was and she proudly proclaimed "Cinderella!" I was a little surprised.

I mean, what about Belle? What about the perfectly matched gold shoes to go with her dress? Hadn't we planned out her costume so perfectly? So goes another lesson in parenthood of a toddler...life cannot be planned out without the expectation of a change in the plans.

Lucky for all of us, we do own a Cinderella dress...she had worn it to dine with Cinderella and Prince Charming in Disney World. We also had the matching crown. So we pulled out the Cinderella dress and started to get ready for our day. She was all smiles once she was transformed to a princess.





So as the Halloween weekend begins, we have already been Belle and Cinderella. She did briefly mention that she wanted to be Jasmine this morning, which we quickly ignored and moved past. I mean, we don't have an endless supply of princess dresses in her closet, you know. At least, not yet.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Fall Fun!

While the weather does not at all proclaim the season, fall has arrived anyway! And fall for us means a trip to the farm...Dewberry Farm! We have taken Molly here every year since her first Halloween and it is always fun to bring her back. Each year she is able to do more, understand more, and enjoy it more. Here are a few photos from our trip this year, and in years past!

One of the things we have done every year is take her picture in the same spot to determine "How Tall This Fall?"

2008:



2009:



2010:



Other shots from this year:









We also tried something new this fall...a trip to Zube Park to ride the mini trains! Molly and I ventured out one beautiful Saturday morning and after a short line, were able to board our train for a spin around the park. It was one of the neatest things to do, and Molly was so excited to ride the train! She definitely enjoyed it, and we will be back!

All Aboard!


Riding along:


Enjoying every minute:

Where has the time gone?

I laughed and cried to myself tonight as I pulled up Molly's old blog and realized it had been over a year since I updated it.

Where did that year go? How has she changed? How has she grown? Why did I lose the motivation (or maybe the time, energy, interest?) to chronicle her little life? And then that Mama guilt hit full force.

Here I sit awaiting the arrival of my second daughter and I realize that a whole year has passed by on what was supposed to be Molly's space online, and that space is blank. So in an attempt to recapture what was lost, here is a small chronicle of what we missed...

-We saw snow! It snowed a total of three times in the winter of 2009!





-Molly turned TWO!



-We took our first trip to Disney World!



-Molly started ballet classes!



-We learned that Molly will be a big sister!



Of course, her life has also had other major events and she continues to amaze me every day with her energy for life and learning. She loves to sing songs, play puzzles, and give kisses and hugs on demand. I am truly blessed to have such a little lovebug to call my own. I anticipate with eagerness and love the day she meets her baby sister and starts to teach her all that she knows. I know she will love and protect her like no other.