Boo + Zoo = Mayhem!

There was one last attraction to get to on Saturday.  Boo at the Zoo at Zoo Boise.  On any other day, parking is easy and the zoo is fairly empty.  But for this event, saying it was packed was an understatement!  We circled the lots for 20 minutes to find a place to park!  But, it was worth it as Emily enjoyed  going around and collecting more candy and hugging the characters such as a giraffe and panda, Tigger and Pooh.

The Winner Is...

A costume preview...

After leaving the Pumpkin Patch, we went to Burger Time in Boise.  Friends of ours own it, and they were doing a Trunk or Treat out of hot rods and also having a costume contest.  She filled her little pumpkin sack and then joined the parade, where the car owners voted her the winner of the 5 and under division!

Farmstead Pumpkin Patch

On Saturday, we made our 4th annual trip to the Farmstead Pumpkin Patch.  We spent 3 hours riding, jumping, climbing, swinging, and sliding.  Finding the great pumpkin wasn't as easy, the patch was pretty picked over this close to Halloween, but Emily's mission was to find the biggest pumpkin she could.  She walked away with a 30 lb. prize!

Dance, etc.

Monday night was visitation week for dance class, so both of us went to see Emily show off what she's learned.

There's three weeks left to go, and it has been a little difficult to get her to actually go to dance class.  But she was all smiles the entire time we were in the room watching her.  It was a farm animal theme for the night, so after a little warm up, they spent the rest of the creative movement class acting like animals.  At times it was pretty entertaining!

On the way to school that morning, Emily was talking about Nadia.  She wanted to know if Nadia could see her dance that afternoon.  I said, "Of course!"  Emily's innocent reply?  "Well, how can she look down and see through the roof, Mom?"

After the great performance, Emily and I stopped by the fire station to drop off a thank you from my class for a recent field trip.  It was good timing.  You see, there was a little incident on Sunday when our smoke detectors went off.  And since someone had the genius idea that not only should they use batteries, but be wired together so that if one goes off (in this case, a dying battery), they ALL go off.  And for poor Emily, it startled her awake from a nap and scared the dickens out of her.  We had a very difficult time getting her to bed that night because she feared they would go off again.  So, back to the fire station.  Firefighter Misty was very nice when Emily told her about the scary alarms.  Not only did she load Emi up with all sorts of hats, bags, pencils, stickers, candy, etc. that she could find, she also gave Emily a personal tour of the station, let her sit in all the trucks, and put on all of her gear so Emily could see what it would look like if they came to rescue her.  While Emily still takes note of where the detectors are everywhere we go, it really helped to take away some of that fear.  Let's just hope they don't go off anywhere in the near future!

Fall, part 2

So, Monday was a little rough getting Emily to go to dance class.  We were in the hall for 15 minutes in tears before she agreed to go in to watch, and from there she slowly crept toward the group before finally joining in on the fun.  By the end of the class she was all smiles and having a great time.

Tuesday Emily got to ride yet another horse named Patches at Swiftsure and had a great time doing a Halloween themed scavenger hunt along the trail path.

Patches

Thursday was the last night of soccer and the 4 year olds tried to play a game, which was fun to watch. The best part was that she walked away with a medal and an otter pop when it was all over.

And in between all the activities, it was just fun to grab the camera and try to get some good fall shots with the great weather and gorgeous leaves.

Okay, still down...

Darn head colds.
So, we were able to rally for most of the week.  She went riding on Tuesday and soccer on Thursday.  But, somewhere in the middle of the night her temperature was back up and we were staying home on Friday.

It was a careful dance avoiding Aaron so he didn't get sick (and so far so good!).  He was gone Tuesday and Wednesday, and by the time he got home from work the rest of the week, the two of us had eaten and cleaned up and put ourselves to bed...well, Emily to bed and me on the floor next to her. That makes for a night of good rest, but might as well keep the germs contained to one room!

Saturday he spent the day in Boise, we spent the day on the couch.  Today, feeling just a bit better Emily and I bundled up and went to watch the Trailing of the Sheep parade in Ketchum.

 The sun was shining when we arrived.  Emily loved the horses, but wondered where the candy was.

 By the time the sheep were making their way down the street, the clouds covered up the sun and it cooled down a bit, we had to layer up!

 The highlight of the parade!

Now, hopefully after a night of good rest, we'll rid ourselves of this cold for good.

Down N Out, But Just for a Bit

A certain little princess woke up with a fever around 3 this morning, it lingered around 102 but she was adamant that she didn't want medicine.  She tossed and turned, and eventually got back to sleep around 4:30 and stayed in bed till almost 9:30.  By noon, the fever was gone and she was getting cabin fever so we stepped outside to get some fresh air.

She hasn't figured out she missed dance class today, but there's always riding to look forward to...

We spent the morning completing the projects from this
month's Kiwi Crate.  Perfect timing, it arrived yesterday!

Fall

Yesterday we went to the Fall Festival at Webb Nursery in Bellevue.

 She painted a mini pumpkin.

 And did some fall crafts, like a crown adorned with leaves and glittered pumpkins.

 Someone made a balloon animal for her, a dog, which popped and was replaced with a green hummingbird.

 Face painted was offered, but that's not her style.  She did agree to have a butterfly painted on her hand.

 We went through a straw maze, twice.

 And she gave lots and lots of hugs to Bernard, the mascot from the animal shelter.

 We also went on the wagon ride pulled by two mules, Jack and Jill.  We did that twice as well!

 After the snowy and cold, crisp days, Saturday turned out to be a beautiful fall day.  It was the perfect day to be at the nursery where we saw lots of our little pals and picking out the world's best pumpkin to take home!