October 2008 Archives

Samantha attended her first Halloween party of the "season" on Monday evening at Gymboree.  1 1/2 hours of mayhem was a little much (for all of us), but she had a good time. 

She enjoyed her costume.  She wasn't too keen on the hat until I showed her in the mirror and talked up how cool the ears were, then she had no more complaints.

Check out the expression of sheer delight in the photo with the bubbles.  This is pure joy.

Happy Halloween!

Here's the rest of the brush pile Ike left for us.  It's about 7 feet tall, and at least as wide.  Talk about a canopy cleaning.

All down our street the brush was stacked as high as the cars.  A few folks had trees on roofs or fences, but generally the damage right around us was pretty superficial.

And now, I have only one Hurricane Ike related task remaining.  Do you have any idea how hard it is to hire a tree trimming company around here these days?  But I think you'll agree that this red oak is in serious need.  Maybe a good excuse to thin out some of the rest, too.  There's a silver lining in every cloud!

The Maestro Selects

Many thanks to the Mentzers for making what could have been a very stressful week an absolute joy.  We love you!

We were all very excited to be at the airport.  With kids, nothing is guaranteed.  Samantha had roseola the week we were going, and had a high fever until about 24 hours before departure. 

That challenge conquered, she landed in Tampa with some sort of bug bites on her foot, which was swollen to twice its normal size. 

We got in too late to really do anything about it other than administer Benadryl and stay up all night staring at it, and that appeared to be just what the doctor ordered - by Saturday morning the swelling was improving and we were ready to hit the beach.

At first, SJ was a little nervous about the whole sand/water thing, and the best place to start out was in a nice beach chair with a view.

She acclimated pretty quickly, though.  She was far more comfortable with the sand than we ever expected.  She's usually not a fan of things with texture.

She loved watching the big kids play on the beach (and in the house, and on the deck).  I think she really learned a lot.  Since we came home, she's been showing an increased interest in standing and even trying to pull herself up occasionally.  Here, Dave was hard at work building a volcano with moat for the big kids and even a little baby pool for Samantha.

Elaina and Gus were kind enough to share their toys with Samantha, so she was well occupied even when taking a break from the beach.  Grandparents, take note -- Fisher Price Little People will be on Samantha's Christmas wish list!

I just loved this picture of Amy and Gus, and thought the Rice crowd might enjoy it.

What are those big people doing?!?

Another game that fascinated Sam...

Thanks, guys, for sharing your weekend with us.  We really enjoyed visiting with all of you (and making our very own SPORE creatures)!