Christmas

Isabelle had a fun and very busy Christmas. She got to spend time with family and friends and got a bunch of wonderful gifts. This was defenitely the year of the princess for Isabelle...she got princess costumes, princess dolls, princess castles, princess everything!

Isabelle with her Aerial dress/outfit

As a nice break from the princess action, Isabelle got a V-Reader from her aunt and uncle. She really loves this thing it comes with games and activities and you can buy books for it...would you believe that we bought the princess game for it?

Isabelle was pretty excited when Santa left her a gigantic castle and all the princess dolls under the tree....

Here is my little princess in her Tianna costume...

More gifts to open at Grandma's house...

Cool sunglasses from Grandma.

Out like a light.

Another trip to see Santa

My work hosted a kids christmas party last weekend. Santa and Mrs Clause came in for some photo opportunities. Isabelle colored a picture for santa and santa held it and pretended to read it while they took the pictures. She thought that was neat. Isabelle did a really good job with santa this year, she wasnt scared or shy. She really just wanted him to know that she wants princesses, and a castle.

a trip to see santa

This weekend we brought Isabelle to Jans Tree Farm in Foley, MN. They had a lot of fun activities for the kiddos, cut your own christmas trees and pre cut trees. Santa arrived in a helicopter! After doing a couple passes over the crowd he landed and greeted all the kids. Most of them were totally amazed at the whole thing.

Isabelle was not afraid of Santa and jumped up on his lap and asked for princesses and a princess castle...santa must have heard because he already dropped both off....she is going to be a very excited little girl on Christmas morning. I cant wait.

In the giftshop isabelle picked out 3 "log crayons"...she was pretty excited about them too.

Isabelle spet some time on the playground while we were waiting for santa to arrive.

Hanging out on Daddy's shoulders while looking for just the right tree...we found a really nice pre-cut tree...

Isabelle waited patiently for her number to be called for her sit down with santa....

One of Isabelle's favorite things to do right now is to write her name. At daycare they work on writing their name, phone number and address. She is getting pretty good at it.

turkey day and bowling

Isabelle had a very exciting Thanksgiving weekend. We had a four day weekend and managed to mix in two turkey dinners, a bowling birthday party and a lot of house cleaning and other projects.

Isabelle Gina and I made this cute little fruit Turkey for Thanksgiving dinner and Grandma Barbs. It was a pretty fun little food craft. We made turkey sugar cookies the day before but didnt take any pictures of them.

Cousin Kaylee turned 5 and we celebrated with a sunday afternoon of bowling in Monticello. The kids really only managed to throw about 5 or 6 frames before totally losing interest but it was a very fun time.

rapunzel....boo!

Isabelle decided to dress up as Rapunzel this year. Not a stretch as she has the dress and wears it qute often. She was excited to have sophie dress as Pascal (Rapunzel's lizard friend). Sophie didnt like the costume very much but at least she kept it on for a picture or two.

It was a little chilly so we had to trade in the princess crown for a stocking cap

Pascal....

What a cute pair.

Our little Princess...

On the Saturday before Halloween our neighbors hosted a rather large party. All of the kids dressed up as did most of the parents. The kiddos played carnival games, had a costume parade and eventually settled in for a movie.

Isabelle, Miley and Sienna in the costume parade.

The whole gang of costumed kiddos.

Gina and Isabelle with our pumpkins.

haircut!

Isabelle got quite the haircut this weekend. Her hair was very long and had a tendancy to always get in the way. Seems like it was always in her face, dangling in dinner, or being chewed on. Hopefully her cute new style will be a little easier to manage.

Apple orchard, chopsticks and visiting old friends...

This weekend we visited the Apple Jack Apple Orchard with our friends the Ohmes. What a fun place. Even with massive crowds of people there is plenty to see and do. It spreads out over a huge area so it never feels quite as crowded as it is. The Girls had a blast at the petting zoo, horse rides, wagon ride and of course the huge inflatable pillow (jumper). We also shot an apple cannon but didnt get any pictures of that.

Isabelle and Olivia....

Isabelle had been on pony rides at carnivals before but nothing quite like this. The ride was on a little loop through the woods which is more fun than walking in a circle under a tent...Her horses name was Jewels, she thought that was pretty cool.

The highlight of the trip had to be the gigantic inflatable pillow. I have never seen anything like this and I am sure that Isabelle thinks we should get one in our backyard.

On Friday Isaebelle and I ate at Noodles. This absolutely my favorite father/daughter dining experience. SHe gets sgetti or mac-n-cheese and I can have spicy asian noodles with shrimp. What a great place! Isabelle was intrigued by my chop sticks and wanted to try them out...

After about 2 minutes she said, "this is hard Daddy"...she is pretty persistent and actually began threading individual noodles on the stick and then eating them off....

Isabelle's daycare provider was out of town on friday so we took the opportunity to meet her friends from her old daycare at the park. She had a blast playing with old friends, but really didnt understand why I refered to them as old friends...they aren ot old...???...eventually she decide that everyone was a little bit older...

Just a random shot of Isabelle making some sugar cookies...the cheater kind that you just throw on the baking sheet....

family fun day, harvest and the zoo

Another funfilled week and weekend for Isabelle. This weekend my work hosted a family fun day and the kids got to play on a bunch of inflatable toys, play some games and have a picnic. It was a little chilly but quite a lot of fun.

Jumping in the bouncer never gets old for Isabelle...

Isabelle also enjoyed the gigantic inflatable slide. It was a long way up there, but pretty quick coming down.

Isabelle's daycare took a field trip to the Minnesota Zoo on Friday. Isabelle had a great time at the zoo. Thankfully they took some pictures...I remember when she was way to scared to get this close to the animals...not anymore.

What a cute chick(en)...

We spent some time "harvesting" a lot of fruit from our backyard this morning. We have 3 apple trees but only one had really nice apples on it this year. the other two have been sick and I may have over pruned them a little this winter. Hopefully they will come back strong next year. Both of the pear trees produced a lot of pears and we are now going to attempt to can some pears so we can enjoy them all winter long. We also got a big bowl of rasberries...

picking and eating some rasberries...

pears pears everywhere...

not letting summer go yet

Summer is winding down but we arent ready to let it go just yet. This weekend we found one last carnival for the summer and tackled one more landscaping project.

Isabelle and Cousins Kaylee and Blayne had a fun time at the Osseo Lions Roar Days. We rode a few rides and played a few games and had some greasy corn dogs...washed down with mini doughnuts. Isabelle and I went on the ferris wheel for the first time. She liked it but was a little scared when we were stopped on the top for a while.

Isabelle got to spend a little time with her friend Emerson during the vikings game on Sunday. Isabelle really misses Emerson now that she doesnt see her at daycare everyday.

This summer was not kind to the hostas that had been planted in our front landscaping. They were big, overgrown and generally not that healthy. So we dug them all out, split them into much smaller plants and replanted a few of them. Check out the Before (acutally mid-project) pic below and the final picture above.