Neenah

Last weekend we headed over to Neenah to celebrate Great Grandma's 86th birthday.  We had a nice relaxing weekend hanging out, visiting and catching up.  Jocelyn, Sadie, Sandy and Mom had a sleepover at Sandy's house on Friday night - the girls were up until 11:00 and had a blast!  I was thankful for a wonderful night's sleep! 

 

These two LOVE to color and spent a lot of time doing that all weekend.

 Bob and Mary Jo

 Bob, Me, Kevin

 Cousins!

 Happy Birthday Grandma!

 Four generations

 Four silly generations

Halloween

Halloween kinda snuck up on me this year...the weekend before we didn't even have any decorations up!  I was just going to skip them, but then we had to get the bin out to find the carving tools, so of course the girls wanted to get them out.  Which was fine - Jocelyn did help me put them away today.

 

Jocelyn also found the face paints in the bin and couldn't wait to get started!

 We all decided to do tracing carvings this year.

 Jocelyn was very into it - she did a great job and got thru 2 sections of her bat before Calvin took over.

 A scary face, a bat, and Doc

 She threw a holy fit after we were done carving when she had to take off her face paint.  So the next day after church she had to do it all over again!  But we left it on too long, and when she woke up Monday morning she looked like she got punched - her face was all red and puffy.

 Doc with her Doc doll and Doc pumpkin!  This was before her Halloween party at daycare Tuesday night.

 On Halloween she had a class party and they got to wear their costumes. 

 She did go trick or treating for a little while with my mom - they hit about 10 houses.  But she loved passing out candy again, so was quite content to sit and do that all night!  Awesome.

A few randoms

Kailee is taking horseback riding lessons, and the farm she takes them at is awesome!  They go and help out with chores too, and the people are so nice.  She loves horses and is having a great time.

 

They have a little pen of goats and this little mini horse.  Jocelyn and I met them out there a few weeks ago to bring lunch and see the animals.  This picture makes me smile - they have matching hair!

Jocelyn continues to love to write.  And color.  And draw.  We had her conferences this week, and that was one of her strengths - her teachers said she is over in the writing center a lot!  This was a precious card she made for me the other day - she wrote everything all by herself!  She had been wanting caramel dip for her apples, and I finally remembered to get her some at the store.  So she wrote a thank you note and a card.  And the one envelope has my "kinitials" on it (one of the last remaining cute words she says...I'm not correcting her).

 This is her birthday list, also written mostly by herself (I helped with -ing).  And while she would love a real cat, the cat on her list is a stuffed animal one she saw at Target...so no one get any ideas.  I love this writing stage - it makes me smile every time I look at things she writes.

A bit of culture

Jocelyn loves going to plays.  We took her to her first one probably a year and a half ago - we went to see Dora at the Eau Claire Children's Theatre.  Since then we've been to a few more, and she really enjoys them.  Which is great, because we love them too!  For her birthday we got her tickets to 6 shows.  They have a ton of good ones this year in Eau Claire - I had a hard time choosing which ones to see.  They always put on a great show. 

 

Last weekend when we were home we got to go to another one!  Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse was playing in Hopkins.  She has the book and likes it, so I knew she'd enjoy the play too.  They did a wonderful production - those kids just amaze me with the talents they have.  We got to meet the cast afterwards, and they were all so cute and polite.

 

 Jocelyn with Lilly

  A week before that, we went to see Pinkalicious in Eau Claire.  I had gotten the book in her book order, and was going to give it to her for her birthday, but we had to break it out before that.  She'd heard of it, but hadn't read the book.  She loved the book and couldn't wait to see the play!  It was a musical, which she likes even more than a play - holds her attention better.

 She brought her book, and Pinkalicious autographed it!  That took a little explaining, but she now thinks it's pretty neat.  3 characters signed her Lilly book, so she's getting the hang of it.

 Our friends Anna and Abby met us at the play too - all 3 girls in their cute pink outfits!

Zoo Boo

Last weekend after the recital we headed over to the Cities.  Since Calvin was gone hunting, we went over to hang out at Mom and Dad's - we hadn't done that in a while - just go to hang out.  On Saturday we wanted to see the little boys again, so we planned an outing to Como Zoo Boo!  We had never gone before - Angie was telling us about it and it sounded so fun.  They live about 5 minutes away, and have been before.  I think we'll make it a tradition now - Jocelyn had a great time!  It's basically trick or treating at the zoo - they give out really cool stuff (hardly any candy) and they have a ton of volunteers dressed up as different animals and characters. 

 

We met at their house...had to get a picture of Evan in his costume! 

 Buzz Lightyear!

 Doc McStuffins

 I wasn't fast enough to get them both looking at the same time

 She really wasn't crabby, just had to go with the sign!

Thanks for a fun afternoon Elliot and Evan!

Dance recital

Yes, she did it!  She made it thru her recital.  She was very excited to do dance this time, and really enjoyed it.  It was neat watching her this time - she really paid attention to the teachers and to what she was doing.  The next class level at this place is 5-8 year olds.  She hasn't decided if she wants to do that or not.  We'll wait until spring - this time of year is always busy, and then she has swimming lessons in January, so that will keep her busy too. 

 

 This was un-posed; maybe she will be a real ballerina some day!

 In her glory - 2 grandmas at once!

It was a girls only crowd this time around - the boys were busy hunting and doing home projects.