Halloween!

We had a lot of Halloween fun this year with Charlotte. She seemed to understand the concept a little better than last year! We read books about dressing up in costumes and going trick-or-treating to get her in the spirit. She liked being a ladybug. As soon as I showed her the costume (thanks Lisa!) she began to point out ladybugs in all her books.

Our neighborhood has a really cute little Halloween party for the kids at our clubhouse. There's lots of food, a craft table, a parade, and at the end all the kids get on stage to collect their goody-bags. These pictures don't do the whole thing justice! It was just really adorable to watch Charlotte take this all in. She participated in the parade and stood up on stage. One of the older girls "helped" her.

We just went to two houses trick-or-treating, then we sat on our front porch and handed out candy. It was a fun night!

The best pictures I got of Charlotte in her costume are actually from the weekend before Halloween at a friend's party. Here's Charlotte heading in to the party.

Charlotte and her friend, Sophia.

Coloring at the craft station at our neighborhood party.

Just one of the kids, getting ready for the parade.

Charlotte and her little friend, James, being helping in to the parade line.

Checking out all the costumes!

Checking out the candy bowl on our front porch.

Picking out something yummy!

A ladybug walking down our driveway.....Happy Halloween!

First Jack-O-Lantern

Today we went and got a few pumpkins and carved a jack-o-lantern. Charlotte was really not too sure about this activity. She loved picking out pumpkins and bringing them home, but when we cut in to the pumpkin and starting pulling out its innards she kept her distance. She even moved the chairs on the front porch so that she could watch, at a safe distance, in comfort as mommy carved the pumpkin. When she saw the finished product she was a little less timid. She enjoyed taking the top on and off. Hey, I had fun! It's been years since I've carved a pumpkin.

New Hobby

Charlotte is REALLY in to books lately. I love it! She loves to sit in her chair in her room and "read". She'll do this for about a half hour! Just enough time for me to clean something, organize something, or just get dressed and brush my teeth! We've gotten in the habit of reading first thing in the morning too. I'll go in, get my sleepy little tot out of her crib, grab a blanket, and snuggle up to read a few books before starting the day.

She loves to find things in the books, like little lady bugs, people looking out of windows, animals' tongues, dogs, and other little things. Most of her favorite books revolve around animals. She loves a book about ducks that I brought home from work, along with a book about animal tongues. She also loves a book from Grandpa and Grandma Linda called If I Could, she loves the fact that the little "girl" (she's really a raccoon) in the book also has a stuffed bunny (like Charlotte). She is just really in to books right now, reading them to herself or her babies or having mom or dad read them. She also loves when I pretend to read to Amelia :)

County Fair

I grew up going to the Lorain County Fair in Ohio. Although my sister showed cows or steers, I was always too afraid of those big beasts, so I took sheep and rabbits. I have very fond memories of the going to the fair every summer. I was looking forward to introducing Charlotte to the fair tradition by taking her to the Anne Arundel County Fair (our local county fair here in Maryland).

The AA Co Fair was really cute, very small, but perfect for our first-timer. As soon as we pulled in to the parking lot Charlotte was smiling and pointing to all the rides with their twinkling lights. I knew she was going to have a great time. We headed to the animal barns first. Charlotte looked on in amazement at all the animals. She seemed to especially love the goats, sheep, and ducks (of course!). She had a very serious look on her face the whole time we looked at the animals. She was really taking it all in. Imagine seeing a woolly, baaing sheep for the very first time in your life!

Of course we all enjoyed some fair food. Charlotte munched on fried mozzarella sticks and shared a chocolate coverd sundae in a cone with me. We ended our visit to the fair with a balloon. I tied it to Charlotte's wrist and she thought this was great.

It was such a simple evening, but seeing the fair through Charlotte's eyes made it a very special afternoon.

Ducks!

The goats were checking out Charlotte as much as she was checking out them.

A little rain didn't bother us, thanks to our raincoats!

Perfect end to the afternoon, a balloon tied to her wrist.

Walking back to the car.

This picture says it all! Charlotte had a great time at the fair, we'll be sure to go back every year.

Random Shots

Charlotte riding her lion from Grandma Babs. She likes me to push her around on it as we chase Amelia. Amelia of course does not like this particular game.

Cute Char Char....needs a hair cut but Chuck will not let us cut it. Barrettes and rubber bands stay in for about 5 minutes!

Sitting on HER chair, looking through a toy magazine.

A Walk in the Woods

Just a cute video of Charlotte taking a stroll at our neighborhood park. She loves the woods. In fact during this walk she strayed off the path and into the woods about a million times!

Welcoming Grandpa Home

The whole gang (Chuck, Charlotte, Amelia and myself) headed to Ohio a couple weekends to welcome my Dad home. He's been in Wisconsin most of the summer with my sister. Again, Charlotte was a perfect little traveler, even good on the 7 hour car trip! She slept like an angel, taking all her naps and sleeping in til 8:30am everyday. Dad enjoyed Charlotte very much. He kept saying what a great little girl she was. And he was amazed to see her using a spoon to eat here own bowl of applesauce. It was a very nice visit.

Dad, me and Charlotte on the front steps.

Crab Feast & Happy Birthday, Grandma Babs!

Grandma Babs celebrated a big birthday milestone in Maryland with the whole family. The whole Malcomson family travel to Maryland for the weekend. In honor of Babs we had a huge crab feast on Sunday. We order two bushels of crabs (about 12 dozen crabs!). Everyone took a turn at the crab table, picking & eating yummy crab and drinking beer (of course!). I can happily say that I felt like a true Marylander as I sat picking crabs until the sun went down. As it turned out we ordered way more crabs than we could eat. There was no way I was letting these tasty crabs go to waste. Thanks to Nancy, my crab picking partner, we picked the rest of the crabs and put the meat in the fridge. Chuck and I had enough fresh crab meat to make and freeze 20 super large crab cakes! We'll be eating well this fall.

Babs got the very best birthday present...Charlotte said "Grandma" for the first time while she was here. Babs is an awesome grandma and you can see how much Charlotte and Babs love each other when they are together. It warms your sole. Happy Birthday Grandma Babs, we ALL love you!!

Before the feast began, two bushels of yummy Maryland Blue Crabs

Birthday girl, Babs, enjoying some crabs with Dallas and Chuck.

Charlotte (and Amelia) checking out the crabs. Charlotte was not to sure about this little critters. We gave her a piece of crab meat, but she didn't like it. She did like the crab cakes the next night!

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Nancy and I picking crabs in the dark, while Ivy keeps us company (Thanks Nancy!).

The true sign of a fun night...a table full of empty crab shells and empty beers!

New Bike

Chuck got Charlotte her first "bike". It's not really a bike (no pedals), it's more like a scooter. Charlotte really likes it and loves to ring the bell on the handle bars. She started off wanting to push the bike around, but she's really starting to get the hang of it now. Pretty soon she'll be scooting all over our house. We just think she looks adorable on it!

Carousel

Charlotte took her first ride on a carousel a couple weeks ago. She had a very serious look on her face the entire time. I know she enjoyed it because as soon as the music stopped and it was time to get off she held on tight to her horse and did not want to get off.

Some Summer Fun

I can't believe it is the middle of July already! I was having the feeling that we hadn't really had any good old fashion summer fun yet.....so I bought a backyard kiddie pool for Char and finally took our friends, Roger & Angela, up on their many offers to take Charlotte out on their boat. It was Charlotte's first real boat ride and she seemed to really like it. She was very serious throughout the whole excursion. She liked watching all the other boats, water-skiers, and the many birds flying about the river. She also liked when Roger went FAST!

Happy Summer to everyone!

Chuck & Charlotte waiting on the dock for Roger to pick us up on his boat.

She's got Grandpa Bill's love of boating in her!

She loves her backyard pool. Her favorite thing is to pour water over her head....see following pictures!

Before!

After!