SC State Fair!

Mick and I started talking about going to the fair a few weeks ago--I realized the SC State Fair was going on in Columbia, which is only about an hour and 20 minutes from us. We left early on Saturday and got there not long after the gates opened. There was so much to take in, but we did our best to try it all!

Emily learned to milk a cow at one of the agricultural displays.

Then we got a great view of the fairgrounds from the ferris wheel. Emily loved going way up high!

On the rides we couldn't all three fit on, Mick and I took turns riding with Emily, and the race cars were first.

Daddy and Em stepped up to play some games, and she got the ball in the winning cup on her first try!

The nice thing about some of these games was that she had as good a chance of winning as we did.

Everyone was so nice to her, and most games gave prizes even when she didn't win--although for $3-5 per game, we probably paid for ten or twelve of their prizes :). Emily came home with a stuffed pig, doggie, cow, penguin, bear and giraffe.

Some of my favorite things are all the things that really make it a fair...the ferris wheel, of course,

and all of the crazy food! Seriously, deep fried kool-aid?!?

And check out these burgers--we actually saw people eating the doughnut burger--a cheeseburger between two Krispy Kreme doughnuts! I wouldn't have thought you could ruin a KK doughnut, but now I'm convinced I was wrong.

We didn't try anything crazy, but Emily needed some ice cream for sure.

She was exhausted after lunch and slowed down enough for a snooze with one of her prizes, a little stuffed doggie.

When she woke up, she was ready to go again, so we headed for more rides. The flying bumblebees with Daddy,

then the carousel,

and finally the big fun slide! She loved this one so much they had to go down twice.


We were a little spoiled in the morning because we got there early and didn't have to wait at all, but the later it got, the more crowded the grounds became, and we needed to get home to Gracie and Bella, so we left around 4:00.

It was such a fun day, and we'll definitely be back next year!

Better Than Stickers

Emily is crazy about stickers, but I recently discovered these vinyl window clings are even better! She can move these over and over and they don't stick to each other.


She now has bugs and flowers all over our back doors and oven doors!

Decorating

We decided to stay around home on Sunday and do some decorating outside. Emily got to paint the pumpkins we picked out yesterday,


and we both had to change clothes when she was done :).

Here's our finished product, complete with a ghost!

PUMPKINS!

Emily is pumpkin crazy this fall--she exclaims "punkin!" every time we see a pumpkin or jack-o-lantern, so we decided to head down to The Hunter Farm this afternoon in Weddington, which is really close to us.

There was a wagon ride that took us down to a barn with animals for her to see.

She saw little pigs and snorted at them,

got to feed a baby goat

and some very hungry sheep.

She got her fill of pumpkins, for sure,

and tried to pick up every one there. We only brought home three (they were included in our wagon ride price), but she would have filled the bed of Mick's truck with them if she could have!

By far, her favorite thing was the pony ride though.

She got to ride this sweet little pony named Tinkerbell. We were a little uncertain about it at first,

but boy did she hang on and love it. She said "neigh, neigh" the entire ride.

There was also a miniature maze for the kids,

and she loved running through that too.

Her favorite part was when she escaped from Daddy and he chased her through the maze.

It was a great afternoon with perfect weather--she needed to kick back and relax on the way home, so the shoes came off :).

Books Everywhere

Emily still adores books (we're hoping she always will!) and likes to have them in every room of the house. We were keeping the books in her room up on the top shelf of her dresser, but thought she'd enjoy being able to reach them without us lifting her up. I ordered this cute little book case with canvas shelves, and even had her name embroidered on the bottom.

She just loves it, and it looks really cute in her room. It also helps that she can reach these shelves when we ask her to put them away!

Hiding

These are just a few more of our silly little hider. She gets so amused with herself, and we'll say "where's Emily?" and hear her start giggling.

If we ask her "are you hiding?" she'll say "yes!" and give herself away every time--it's so funny.

As if the little fingers and toes wouldn't give her away anyway!

Lesson Plans

I'm not sure why I've never posted this before, but this is one of the things I really like about Ms. Amanda, the lead teacher in Emily's Toddler 1 classroom. She writes out a lesson plan each week and makes sure we have a copy of it.

You'll have to click on the picture to enlarge it if you're interested in reading any of the details. One of the really cute examples is "Practice kicking ball. When it's your child's turn, they will be asked to make an animal sound." I can just see Emily snorting like a pig or growling like a lion as she kicks the ball :). I really appreciate knowing what she's doing during the day, and love asking her about it in the afternoons when I pick her up.

Changes

Mick and I were talking tonight about how neat it is to watch Emily changing--almost on a daily basis. Since she's mastered running, she has run into my arms squealing each afternoon when I pick her up.

That is until last week. All of a sudden, she started wanting to stay at Gateway--when she saw me come in her classroom, she'd start laughing and run in the opposite direction, or go straight to her teacher. Most afternoons, she's in the Toddler 2 classroom (where she'll transition next), and she loves the teachers in there--especially Ms. Essence. Emily talks about Essence all the time :).

Then this week, she's started getting excited again when I get there to pick her up, and she'll run straight for me. The difference is that now, she'll bring me whatever she's playing with to share with me, and then will grab my finger to show me something.

We love that she's so happy at Gateway, and it's nice that she gets just as excited about coming home as she does about getting there in the morning.

Visit from Grandma and Papa

Mick's parents came up on Thursday night to spend the weekend with us--I worked from home on Friday and they took Miss Emily on a shopping spree! They went to the mall and had a great time at Build-A-Bear Workshop, the Disney Store, and having ice cream. Emily was reportedly on her best behavior (although I think Grandma and Papa might be a little biased). She was so exhausted that she fell asleep on her way home with a huge Mickey Mouse on top of her! She made this doggie at Build-A-Bear and had breakfast with him Saturday morning.

I had booked Emily in a Play & Learn class at Gymboree Play & Music close to us--it was a free session to let us check it out to see if it's something we want to enroll Emily in. We got there a little early, so Emily got to play by herself for a few minutes.




She had a great time on the monkey bars and swinging rings with Grandma!


The instructor told us there were 17 kids enrolled, and the room filled up quickly when everyone started getting there!



It was so much fun! This was the 16-22 months age group, so Emily was right in her element, and followed right along with the instructions. They climbed, jumped, danced, clapped and did all the things she loves.

We even played with a parachute and blew bubbles! It was perfect for her, and we'll definitely be thinking about enrolling.

After that, we stopped at the pumpkin patch on the way home.

Emily wasted no time picking out her pumpkin. I think we might paint one rather than carve one this year.


The weekend flew by, and Emily didn't quite have enough time to warm up to Papa completely, but she did give him a few hugs and kisses :). She's still a little shy around men other than DaDa!

We'll just have to work on that a little by getting some more visits in.

Little Pumpkin

Emily is such a snuggly little pumpkin in the mornings, and we love the weekends when we can stay in our pjs for a while. I'm not sure why I like this picture so much--I think it's just sweet because Gracie is really starting to get pretty attached to Emily.

We discovered last week at the doctors' offices that she loves pumpkins (they are everywhere now), so we also did some fall decorating in our house this weekend--Emily and I were picking out some pumpkins in Target, and she found this little one that had a battery powered light in it.

She carries it everywhere, even now that she's broken the light (by throwing it like a ball). She even took it in the car on the way to school this morning. She now recognizes and names pumpkins, ghosts and jacks (jack-o-lanterns).

Little Diva

We had gorgeous fall weather all weekend, and since Mick had to work, Emily and I spent some girl time together, shopping and strolling around outside. We got dressed to go, and she needed her sunglasses.

She actually kept them on in the car, and even in the stroller! She's so much more content when she's walking on her own, so we really only keep her in the stroller if we're in a store with a lot of breakables or if it's very crowded. She's getting so good at just holding our hand and walking beside us, and I think it makes her feel like a big girl :).