The Lee Family: October 2014

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Olivia's School Fall Festival

Yesterday Olivia was able to wear her costume to school where they participated in a Fall Festival the last hour of school. Although she plans to be Anna for Halloween, we still have Sofia's cowgirl outfit from when she was 3 years old. I showed Olivia both costumes and she decided to be Anna. I was sort of hoping she would chose the cowgirl outfit since it would be cute to see her dressed up in the same thing, but maybe I can convince her another day. We've actually had the girls Elsa and Anna costumes for a few weeks already and they have played in them a lot. In fact, I'm surprised the Anna costume is holding up as well as it is. It really looks adorable on her and is pretty good quality. She wanted to wear "princess shoes" but knowing school wouldn't want her to wear them, I talked her into her sparkly pink Crocs and striped socks. Before taking her to school, I was able to get a few photos of our sweet girl. I was surprised at drop-off that there were no other Annas! I didn't see any Elsas either! I figured there would be several of both. All the kids were SO cute all dressed up!

That afternoon during the festival, the kids split up and enjoyed some Halloween games and then returned to their classroom for a story and singing followed by a cute craft. After, they finished their craft, they walked through the halls trick or treating by saying "Carmelos, caramelos" and received snacks and treats from teachers and other parents. CK and I actually were able to go and watched the end of the games and then enjoyed Olivia and her class' story time and craft. Olivia seemed really tired and wasn't very involved and just after we loaded her into the car she was asleep within minutes.

After Sofia got home from school the girls went through Olivia's toys and treats and enjoyed a few goodies including pretzels, Ritz crackers, and fruit snacks. They also played with the little toy lizard and skateboard that Olivia got at school. What a fun Festival and day.

Our little Anna all ready for school

A close up of our girl

Ready to play "Pin the nose on the pumpkin"

Olivia actually lifted up her blindfold so she could "see" what she was doing. It was pretty cute.

Papa and Olivia. She didn't know we were there yet so CK surprised her.

Circle time for her story

Listening to the story

Working on her mummy cup craft

Inspecting the final project

Olivia and her classmates

In line to trick or treat in the school

In line to collect goodies

"Carmelos, carmelos"

More snacks

Some of the cute costumes

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

The Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday the girls and I met up with Thelma and her girls at Hall's Pumpkin Patch. The girls were really excited especially since we'd tried to visit on Sunday after lunch and it was so crowded that we immediately did a u-turn and went home. It was about half crowded and the girls and I walked around and I took pictures of them together while we waited for Thelma and her girls. Sofia and Olivia enjoyed playing inside the hay house and then rode on the tractors, which were more frustrating than anything since Olivia couldn't get hers to go very easily and I had to push it along with my foot. We ended up at the slides and the girls enjoyed going down the slides over and over. Of course, we had to have our annual behind buster when Olivia slide down the first time and went so fast that she landed hard on her behind at the bottom of the slide. I always forget that about the pumpkin patch slides! Next year I'll remember.

Once Isabella and Nicole arrived the four girls played on the bales of hay for a long time before moving on to the hay house, always a huge favorite for Sofia. Finally, we decided to go into the corn maze, which has always made me a little nervous but now that Sofia is 7 I figured we'd all end up at the end of the maze at some point. Just as we started, I told Sofia to enjoy it and wait for us at the exit once they finished. I don't think we saw her and Isabella for two turns of the maze before they were gone. Olivia and Nicole stuck together and wanted to be with us although they loved making all the decisions on which way to go. Once the four of us made it out of the maze, Sofia and Isabella were actually waiting for us and looked a bit worried. Sofia said they both started to cry a little bit just before they made it out of the maze, thinking they would never see us again. Isabella ran to Thelma, hugged her and started crying a little bit. They were both fine and soon ran off to play together. We spent a little more time at the pumpkin patch before we said goodbye and headed home. I planned to buy pumpkins there but felt too tired and decided to buy them later in the week. We actually ended up stopping at a local church's pumpkin patch on Friday afternoon where the girls bounced in the bounce houses and took a hay ride before picking out their pumpkins.

Our sweet girls

Love this picture!

Playing on the big tractor

Sofia the driver

Olivia on the little tractor

Sofia driving her tractor

Another sweet photo of our girls

Olivia on the slide

Sofia is getting a little big but still loves it

Olivia as a scarecrow

Olivia and Nicole - she adores her friend Nicole!

The little ones in the corn maze

Sofia and Isabella (and the ridiculous reindeer Sofia "had" to bring with her)

Pumpkins

Sofia picks out her pumpkin

Monday, October 13, 2014

The Texas State Fair

This morning, after a breakfast of fresh biscuits and scrambled eggs made by CK, we loaded up and headed to the Texas State Fair! We actually had a storm and cold front come in last night so we all had to really dress warm so we wouldn't be cold while walking around. Once we arrived we parked in a nearby grocery store parking lot and walked to buy tickets and start our day. Olivia was in her stroller with a blanket while Sofia walked. We decided to go to the petting zoo first and then let the girls join in the PeeWee Stampede which takes place in a small arena right next to the petting zoo. The girls loved the petting zoo and Sofia enjoyed feeding the animals while Olivia was happy to watch and try to pet them once in awhile. Just before the noon start time for the PeeWee Stampede we left the petting zoo and walked next door but learned that the Stampede was cancelled due to the rain the night before. The arena was really wet and muddy. Instead, we learned about milk cows and watched a cow being milked. Sofia was totally fascinated.

After that demonstration we decided to eat and walked back over toward the Midway and stopped at a place we walked past that was grilling turkey legs. We decided to get a turkey leg (they are surprisingly big) and a corn dog (which was actually a huge sausage dog instead), and an order of french fries. It was an amazing amount of food and we all shared since we wanted to try some of the fried food or cotton candy, etc. The girls loved the turkey leg, which was really good. After eating, we walked down the midway, looking at all the carnival games and rides and watched the Midway Barker who looked like he'd been cut in half. It was pretty strange actually. Later we saw him in his regular clothes and he was not actually cut in half - still not sure how he pulled off the illusion. After, we made our visit to Big Tex and took the obligatory photo. Then Sofia and Olivia decided it was time for something sweet. We walked back down the Midway to ride on the Texas Star Ferris Wheel but the line was so long we decided to check back later. Luckily there was a cotton candy stand right there making fresh cotton candy, so the girls got one cone to split. It was gone in record time!

We rode on the Merry Go Around which was fun and then Sofia wanted to ride on the "scary ride" we walked past which Olivia couldn't even look at! I had to turn the stroller away from the ride so she couldn't see the talking witch at the top of the ride. CK and Sofia loaded onto the ride and they were soon through and on their way. Apparently it wasn't particularly scary. After they were done with the scary ride, we hurried over to the Kid's Boardwalk to see the "State Fair Stallions" which I knew the girls would love! They love horses and I could just imagine watching a well-done horse show. However, once we arrived we found that the "stallions" were actually men dancing around in costumes. It was well done and the girls were completely mesmerized and followed the two horses around talking to them, petting them and pretending to lead them. At one point, Sofia came up to CK and said "I wish we had some carrots to give the horses. Maybe we could go back to the grocery store and buy some?" It was cute since we thought the girls knew the "stallions" weren't real. Finally, Sofia figured out they were in costume by looking at their feed where she could see tennis shoes. After a bit, they threw off the horse costumes and danced around in grass-skirt outfits. It was very interesting and the girls were just as fascinated.

After the "stallion" show we walked back over toward the petting zoo because I really wanted to see the Pig Races. Unfortunately, we missed the start by a few minutes and couldn't get into the arena late. Olivia fell asleep in the stroller so we decided to let her sleep and catch the next show an hour later. While Olivia slept, CK hung out and watched one of the bands perform while Sofia and I walked over to look at Big Tex's Barnyard which highlighted different farm animals and how farms are run. At the very end of the exhibit there was an area of farm toys which Sofia loved playing with for 15 or 20 minutes. Later, she said it was the highlight of the fair visit!

We joined back up with CK and sleeping Olivia and went into the arena to watch the pig races! They ran a few different heats of small pigs and it was pretty cute, but after seeing one group of pigs run, I think you've pretty much seen pig racing. It was not really worth sticking around for an extra hour but I'm glad we did see it. After the pig races, we walked back to our car and headed home after a very fun day!

Our little cowgirls are all ready for the State Fair!