Kylee's First Halloween

 Daddy and his girls :)

 Zo drew the face for David to carve...we wished him luck :)

 David helped Zo carve her pumpkin...

 Zoe got the hang of trick-or-treating this year...

 So proud of herself...

 

Daddy and Jeff (Silly guys!)

Halloween Parade

At her school near home, Zoe had her first costume parade.  Shaun took a half day this time for it and after the parade, the kiddos sang some songs.  Of course, Zo just stood there, but at least she didn't put her fingers in her mouth.  Shaun and I sometimes wonder where she got this shyness from.  Slowly, but surely, she will get the hang of performing.

Trunk or Treat

This was our first year participating in a Trunk or Treat event.  We went to our friends' church and it was just the right size for Zo.  It was super hot, so the girls were only partially outfitted with their costumes.  They still looked super cute.  Kylee is our little pumpkin, so it was only suiting.  Zo picked Raggedy Ann.  We had a lot of fun and are excited to participate again next year.  I need to come up with a better theme (and game), now that we understand what this is all about.  Zoe also got to do a cake walk!  That was my favorite at my elementary school carnivals.  She didn't win, but she had such a good time she asked to "play" three times.  That is a pretty big step for her because we usually have to encourage her to try things and do them more than once.

Zoe's First Field Trip- Pumpkin Patch

 

Hay Ride with Zoe's School

 

Ooooo...Hay

Zoe's first field trip was to the pumpkin patch.  It was on my birthday, so I decided to take a half day to take her.  I couldn't stay all day because I had parent teacher conferences scheduled that day.  She had a good time and I was excited to be able to go on her first field trip.  We picked out some pumpkins and Grandma got Zoe a big pumpkin to carve.  She picked out very round little pumpkins and a great pumpkin to carve.  We also saw the animals.  Next year we will definitely spend more time there because I am sure she will have a field trip there again.  Kylee loved the hay and stems of the pumpkins.  She wouldn't even look up when we wanted to get her attention for a picture.  Silly little baby!

CLU Homecoming Weekend

 Go Cal Lu!!!

 Park Fun

Homecoming weekend is always fun to look forward to because we get to see our good friends, Dave, Kim, Jackson, and Addison.   Zoe is now finally getting to the age where she will play with Jackson and Addie.  Her and Addie had a great time together at home and at the park.  They were girlie girls together.  We were  able to hang out at the CLU family event and have a day at the park with the kids while the guys golfed.  It was a great time and Kim and I actually got time to catch up because the kiddos were busy playing.  (Thanks Kim!  I took some of your pics off of your blog :) )

October News

 

Kylee went to the doctor for her 6 month check up.  She was about 25 inches and 15.6 lbs.  Zoe got her flu "shot" in the nose and Kylee got 3 vaccinations, plus her flu shot.  Kylee has been eating a lot more solids, but prunes have to be handy always.  Poor little thing gets so stopped up already.  Hopefully she will get passed that stage when her body gets used to solids.  She is sitting like a champ, loves squash, peaches, and pears.  Green beans are not a favorite.  The doctor said she has such great core strength that she may be an early walker.  Yikes!  She absolutely gets a kick out of watching her big sis when she is busy running about.  I am sure she will be running after her sister soon enough!  We have almost made it to my goal of breastfeeding Kylee until Christmas break.  Pumping at school is NO fun!  Plus finding the time to makes lunchtime go in fast forward.  I think we will stick to our morning and evening feeding routine and possibly introduce formula for the daytime.  We'll see! 
Zoe is enjoying school.  She loves singing all the songs, BUT only at home.  We have a TON of projects from both schools and love seeing what she makes.  She explains how she made each one and is always eager to tell the story behind each project.  Every time she gets a chance she treats her babies like her students and plays school.  Too cute!  We had our first parent/teacher conference at our school for her.  It was weird being on the other end of the conference.  Of course we gave her teacher a hard time from the get go and asked, "How are you challenging our daughter?"  Her poor teacher is new to our school, so she wasn't sure if we were joking :).  Well we are definitely proud parents!  She is very slow to warm, so she is still very shy at school, but we are working on it.  Academically, the teacher said she is off the charts.  They assessed her letter, number, shape, color recognition and quantities.  Her teacher said she knows 9 letters, 10 colors (the teacher quit asking her anymore :) ), 7 shapes (again, the teacher quit asking her anymore :) ), names numbers to 8, and counted quantities to 10 (the teacher quit giving more quantities after 10).  She knows her first and last name when asked, she knows she is a girl.  They said she knows many directional/positional words and attributes such as dirty/clean, dry/wet, and big/little.  Also, they hear her use "ing" verbs and can answer who, what, and where questions.  Of course I wanted to know when she should be able to identify all of her letters and her teacher pulled out the scope and sequence and said at age 5.3.  Zoe is just such a sponge!!!  She gets introduced to a few letters each month at her school near our house and she is picking up letters here and there because her little friends' names have certain letters.  They really enjoy having Zoe and another teacher in that program basically puts dibs on her for next year.  We cannot be any happier with our decision to place her at both schools.  Now we will continue to try and encourage her to participate during circle time at school :).