Visit with Santa

Isabelle had a nice visit with Santa this year...she is very excited to get some of the things she asked for...

Turkey, Circus, Snow and Pjamas at school!

Isabelle had a fantastic Thanksgiving. We had a chance to celebrate with family and of course we ate piles of turkey. We also got together and celebrated my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary. Isabelle had a great time and took this really cute picture with my cousins Genny and Alex.

Isabelle is a huge fan of the movie Madagascar 3...this movie revolves around the circus. So for a couple months Isabelle has been talking about the circus. Last weekend we took her to the Shrine Circus at the Target Center. She had a blast. She got autographs from clowns, rode an elephant, ate junk food, drank junk food, bought a toy wand and stared at the show for 3 hours. It was far more entertaining than I had anticipated.

 

We got a dusting of snow on Thanksgiving night, it wasnt much, but it was enough to convince Isabelle that we shoudl get the sled out and slide down the hill in our yard.

Isabelle's preschool did a pajama day a couple weeks back, I thought it was a pretty cute picture (shes in the lower left corner).



Booo!

Isabelle had an action packed Halloween. They celebrated with a party at Pre-school. We attended the neighborhood Halloween party and of course participated in a fairly long night of trick or treating. It was the most fun I have had on Halloween in a long time. Last year Isabelle hit a handful of houses and wasn’t really that into it. This year they sprinted from door to door and made a huge haul…more candy than any 4 year old needs.

Fall Fun

We visited two different pumpkin patches last weekend. We picked our own pumpkins at the farm by our house. Isabelle loves the farm because she gets to be up close and personal with the cows and feed them some hay. After that we went to the 101 Market in Otsego for the corn pit, bouncy pillow and other activities. We are almost ready for Halloween. Next up...pumpkin carving.

its now officially fall

Mommy and Isabelle marked the official start of fall by putting up the fall decorations on our front step. Isabelle was pretty excited that she got to pick out her own scarecrow so now this is a mother/daughter scarecrow combo...apparently I am the pirate...?

Isabelle is really enjoying her gymnastics class. These pictures are a little fuzzy because I took them through glass at a distance, with my phone. It is fun to watch her go through all the routines and exercises, she is so in to it. I have a feeling that she may be into gymnastics for a long time!

Summer turns to fall

Summer is officially over! We are done visiting the Lake Osakis area until next summer...on our last trip over labor day weekend Isabelle got to spend some more time in the boat with Pappa and caught more really nice sunfish. The cabin was a lot of fun this year and I look forward to doing more fishing up there next year.



 Fall means that we have lots of food to harvest in our backyard. So far this year we have canned pickles, salsa, pears and plums. We have frozen apples and beans and have lots of fresh apples and pears to eat. This weekend we picked our first pumpkins. We got a few really big ones and Isabelle is exctited to carve them up for Halloween. I hope they last that long.

Isabelle got a fish last weekend! She has been waiting pretty patiently to get another pet. We went to Petco and she picked out a pink Beta that she later named Pinky. She spends quite a bit of time just sitting on a stool looking at him (yes its a boy named Pinky).



Isabelle really likes spending time with her new cousin Natalie!

Isabelle also started gymnastics a couple weeks ago. So far she seems to really enjoy it.

The last fishing trip of the year...When we brought the boat home from the cabin we left it in the driveway for a couple days until  I could get it cleaned out. Isabelle liked to sit in the boat and pretend fish. This summer was a blast and provided a lot of memories. My favorite memory might be watching Isabelle fall in love with fishing, it started with dock fishing and then out in the boat, she really seems to enjoy it and that makes her Dad pretty happy!

all kinds of stuff...

It has been a busy few weeks with lots of fun stuff going on. Isabelle and I visited the Tutti Frutti frozen yogurt shop in Maple Grove. Isabelle really enjoyed her ice cream...all of it.

Our garden and fruit trees are really starting to produce the fruits and veggies. The plum tree and two the apple trees have already been harvested and we canned the plums and froze the apple slices. We also made 12 jars of pickles from our garden cucumbers and frozen several bags of green beans. In a week or two we will have the 2 pear trees and one more apple tree ready to pick...then the canning will really get started!

 

Isabelle has a pair of glasses frames with no lenses in them. She likes to put them on and sit in the "library" and read. She calls it "playing school". Its pretty adorable.

Last week Isabelle and I spent the night at our friends house and Isabelle and her friend Emerson got to jam out in their PJ's while the Dad's took in a Vikings preseason game.

We attended a company picnic at the splash pad in Otsego. It was a little chilly outside but Isabelle was not detered. She had a blast running around getting her tushy wet.

Last weekend we went to the cabin with our friends the Ohme's. we had a good time fishing, making smores and hanging out at the lake. The girls did a great job in the boat and we were able to catch some bass, a northern, lots of sunfish and one little walleye.

  

Isabelle even got to go fishing with Papa on Sunday afternoon.

cousins everywhere!

Isabelle got to spend the last two weekends with her cousins at the cabin. Needless to say she had a really fun time with all of them. Will and Keegan came up last weekend and we were able to get out in the boat with the boys a couple times and managed to catch sunfish, largemouth and smallmouth bass and a bunch of perch.

Isabelle had another exciting weekend with Kaylee and Blayne...corn on the cob, Todd County Fair, fishing and s'mores...what else could a 4 year old want?