Byerly's Boo Fest

Today Barb and I took Esme, Annika and Laurel to Byerly's for their Halloween Party.  Everyone had a great time.

Here are a few picture at Grandma Barb's house before we left.

 Once we got to Byerly's there were a bunch of activities that Esme loved.  She got a balloon tiger.

 And a pink pony painted on her cheek.

There was also dancing and fun displays.

 We will definitely go again next year but a little earlier.  Esme could have danced all night!

Fun in the leaves

Today was raking leaves and getting them into the compost bin.  Esme helped.

Field Trip!

Esme's been sick, but today was her first preschool field trip.  It was to the Albertville Fire Station.  We decided to go because she had been looking forward to it for a long time.  To be honest, I think she was more excited to ride the yellow school bus for the first time than anything.

Once we got to the Fire Station all the kids sat around on the floor and one of the firemen gave a talk about calling 911; stop, drop and roll; and what to do when the firemen got there.  Something I hadn't thought about was that because the fireman may look scary, kids may hide.  So the fireman made sure to tell the kids that they are supposed to yell "I'm here, I'm here!" if a fireman is looking for them and under no circumstances are they supposed to hide.  Then the other fireman got geared up and came through the crowd.  The goal was to show the kids that even though he looked scary, he was still the friendly fireman they had just seen in regular clothes.  

Most of the kids did great, but Esme was having no part of it.  She didn't want him to come near her or even talk to her.  Even later when he got out of his gear, she didn't want to talk to him!

Then came the tour of the fire trucks.

And a group picture.  There were a bunch taken.  Just try to get 20 3 year olds to all look the same direction at the same time.  :)

 And finally they got to go outside and see the ladder in action.

It was also a great opportunity to see her friends.  Grant and his mom Erica.  

But she also really had a great time with Jacey, another girl in her class.  The were holding hands and sitting next to each other and just had fun.  Sorry to Jacey's mom for any cold germs passed on to her...

 On the way home I asked Esme - "what will you do if there's a fire and the fireman comes looking for you to save you?".  Her answer - "Hide under the bed!".  Clearly, we have some work to do...

Cold weather riding

Now that she feels more comfortable riding her bike, she wants to go and go!  

Who cares if it's kind of cold out!

Pumpkin Pickin'

Today we went to get a few pumpkins.  Esme had been to this patch before with Mamoo and Papa so she knew just where to go and which pumpkins she wanted.

When we got home, we opened the back of the truck up to take the pumpkins out.  We were parked on our driveway which has a little slant to it and one of the pumpkins rolled out and down into the street!  I thought for sure it was going to be smashed, but it survived.  The only damage was that the stem came off and that's easy enough to glue back on!

She's on the bike!!!

As you may remember, Esme has not been loving her bike lately.  She much prefers to trike.  So imagine my surprise when Aaron comes in from the garage this afternoon and says "guess who wants to ride her bike?".  My answer - No way!!!

But yes indeed, she did ask to ride her bike.

She rode it all the way to the mailboxes and back.  Then she wanted to ride around the driveway with the neighbor boys, so she did that for a few minutes.

I'm excited that she's finally excited about her bike.  Hopefully we can get one or two rides in before the snow starts flying!

Student Driver

One last mowing of the lawn before the snow comes means one last time for Esme to "drive".