Holiday Performance

Liesl loves her preschool so much and she reeeeeally loves when they have performances.  Now this is not just kids shouting jingle bells.  Her teachers are amazing and they work on dances and songs and poems from about October on.  They did a great tap dance to up on the housetop.  I will try to get it on here.  Anyhow the performance was a success, only one little girl left the "stage" crying.  Then we had an amazing potluck with 25 crazy preschoolers running around like mad.  Nana and Papa came and Liesl was so glad -even though she was trying not to smile.



Liesl and I found this fabric and we decided she must have dress made from it. 
So last week I sewed up a storm and here it is, it fits!
 I was a little afraid we wouldn't get it over her head.



Posing

Hamming it up!

She is trying sooooo hard not to smile.

Here is the start of the tap dance, candy canes and all.

 

She was concentrating very hard.

Yeah!  Nana and Papa!

Suppertime with all of our friends.

Liesl and her good friend Alice.

These are 2 of Liesl's best friends from school.  We managed to close down the party!

Snow Time

Yippy! Snow!
We are thrilled to have lots of snow sticking on the ground already.
Liesl will be doing her first organized activity this winter.
 She is taking X country ski lessons, apparently it is a blast (I hope).
 I get to do my job as Chalet Parent (only one time).  We are excited for it to start.

This is so funny, it looks like ping pong balls are flying around our yard.

Liesl is a huge help shoveling the walk.

Here's my girl in the Coke hat.  This has appeared before in the blog.  It is still her favorite.
It was mine as a child.  It was probably from the Bonners.  Sara P must have one too, hiding somewhere!

Halloween!

the carving begins

this is the first time Liesl has ever wanted a scary Jack-o-Lantern







Liesl loves these teeth.  This photo cracks me up!



That is better, a nice sweet woodland fairy.
 Liesl has decided that her fairy name is going to be Birch.

We have been putting on different face paint just about every day this week.

Liesl (she has the teeth in again) and her cousin Jude ready to hit the town!

Jax looking tough in his spidy costume

Buds!  Isla came over to hand out candy (this tradition is great).

Here we are, Liesl wanted me to be a leaf pile and Dave was, as you can see, an elephant.

Happy Halloween!

Fall Fun!

This fall has been filled with many fun things.   This is a hodge podge of photos of our fall festivities so far!

amongst the apples

cousins Nolin and Mia playing in the hammock - Mia is trying to kiss Nolin

Liesl's preschool class came over to pick our apples for cider making.

here is the last of our apples

These are her teachers Ms. Jodi and Ms. Emily - they are amazing!

Kids roaming the yard looking for dropped apples.

The kiddos did an impromptu apple song for me.

Today at school they learned about raccoons.

The apples are ready for the cider pressing!

The "Cider Man" taught us all how to make cider in his back yard.

chopping the apples

pressing the apples

oh my goodness, it was delicious!

oops sideways - Liesl and our neighbor Sydney and their leaf queen crowns

Princess Liesl and Princess Esmae frolic in the leaves.

Baby Princess Elsa hops in the hammock with the "big girls"

Who needs Disney?

 Liesl has been talking about roller coasters and rides and princesses etc.  So we thought Disney!  Then we thought, even better the MOA and the Renaissance Festival!  We can drive there and do it all in one action packed weekend!  We went on every ride she could ever want at the MOA and visited the wonderful butterfly garden.  Then the next day we went to the Ren. Fest.  It was the most fun I can remember having in a long time - and we generally have lots of fun.  The costumes and actors and food and fairies were unforgettable and we are already looking forward to next year!

Liesl and Dave on the "roller coaster" train.  We were not sure
that she was enjoying herself until the ride was over.

You can touch the butterflies!

here are some cocoons

finally one landed on her head (this was her goal!)

one more ride on the Carousel

We made sure to bring Liesl's princess cape.  It was chilly
so she wore it over her winter jacket.

drinking hot cocoa - did they have Styrofoam during the Renaissance?

I think Liesl liked this ride better than any at the MOA.  It is powered by a person
pushing the center pole. 

This permagrin says it all!  It was a magical weekend!