Enjoying Fall

We have gotten to do a lot of fun things recently. Yesturday we did a Pirate Murder Mystery. Benjamin was Dr. Jim Jones "Redbeard" and I was Black Bones Sadie. It was fun to see Benjamin in his theatre mode. He did plays in high school and his skills were appreciated by the group.











HALLOWEEN!!!!!!

We went trick or treating in a friendly neighborhood where Abigail warmed up very quickly to the idea of getting candy for the magic words of, "Trick or Treat!" At first she said she didn't want to say it very loud, but by the end of it dropped her shyness and became an old pro. The next day we did the ritual sorting of the candy with her and daddy has been more than pleased with her generosity in sharing her loot. The people you see in the pictures are our good neighbors the Belliston's and Sandy and Megan.

As you can see, Abigail decided to be a disney princess, but she wasn't Snow White even though you might think it from the dress. Instead, she was Cinderella. When Emily got the dress for her at a garage sale, Abigail promptly put it on and grabbed a spare broom which she called a "mop" and started mopping our carpet. She has the story down!

Here is a video of Abigail doing her best Cinderella impression in preparation for the Halloween festivities!

We got to carve pumpkins twice with Abigail. Once while Emily's parents were visiting us and another time on the day of Halloween. As you can see by Abby's facial expressions, both attempts were complete successes!

Wednesday's are Benjamin's busiest days and besides a 20 minutes stop in for dinner he doesn't get to see Abigail because she is asleep by the time he gets back from mutual. So one Wednesday Benjamin decided to do a scavenger hunt for Abigail using starburst candies as the prize. It was a complete success! This picture is of Abigail discovering the first clue taped to the bathroom door. Since the completion of her first scavenger hunt Abigail has had both of us go on mini hunts for toys and candy and trash, usually hidden in shelves and under the couch. Good clean fun!

There is a children's museum here in Lansing called "Impressions 5" and Emily went with a bunch of friends there one day. As you can see Abigail had a great time. Emily is very good about taking Abigail out to all kinds of things like this. She has a play group on Tuesdays and reading time at the library on Thursdays. Daddy tries to take her to open gymnastics time as often as he can as well.

The weather is getting cold here in Michigan! It was in the 30's and even 20's at night! It's warmed up a little bit since, but the winter clothes are officially out of storage!

We're about half way through our marathon October blog posting so for an intermission please enjoy a few random pictures of Abigail...

Emily's parents came to visit us and we had such a grand time! Dennis (Emily's Dad) did a lot of fixup work around our apartment and even made a new guard for Abigail's bed. It is the perfect blend of form and function.

Anna Margaret (Emily's Mom) kept Abigail busy from the moment she arrived and all the way back to the airport. It's hard to say who had more fun, though. Abigail loves her grandparents!

One day while Emily's parents were visiting we went out on a nature walk at the perfect time to see all the leaves changing colors. We got to go to a nice restaurant right before the walk and we misjudged how much food we were going to get. The walk was a very welcome end to a huge meal. Great food, great friends, great lakes, great times...

Well, thanks for reading our gigantic blog posting! Hopefully we'll have more bite-sized installments in the coming months! We've been wrestling the formatting on where the pictures and text go so please excuse the disorderliness!

End of summer

Over Labor Day we got to go to a Detroit Tigers and Yankees game in Detroit. They had a tiger carousel and our seats were in the shade. These things combined to make a great day.

One of the big grocery stores here in Michigan is called Meijer. Abigail loves going there because they have a horse there to ride on. I like it because it only costs a penny for a ride. Ever since Abbie was little we have had the tradition to let her ride the horse when our shopping is done. We sing:

"Horsie, horsie on your way. We've been together a many a day. So let your tail go swish and your wheels go round. Giddy up! We're homeward bound.

I like to take a horse and buggy, when I go traveling through the town. I like to hear that good old clip clop. I like to see the wheels go round."

She loves it. Her new thing is that she kisses the horse when we are done. Its our little form of idle worship. My uncle Lee has a farm and she has ridden horses there before. Abigail really loves horses. She has some plastic ones and really enjoys playing with them.

We have a pool at our apartment. Abigail and I made good use of it this summer. Some weeks we went 6 times! It is only about 100 steps away. Often there would be nobody else but us, so it felt like our private pool. Awesome. We started going in May and it just closed a week ago. It was heated, so we went sometimes when it was only 60 degrees outside. In the beginning Abbie would just get her feet wet and play around it but not get any deeper then up to her stomach. By the end of the summer, she became a little fish. I eventually remembered that we had a swim suit with a life jacket thing in it. She is quite the daredevil, so it eased my stress level when she started wearing it.

Abigail has gotten really good at dressing herself everyday. She also loves to dress up.

The Forsyth family has a wonderful tradition of making Pumpkin muffins on October 1st. My mother-in-law Jamie gave me a beautiful bundt cake pan that I used instead of muffin tins. It was delicious. Abigail took the picture of me next to the cake. She has been taking pictures lately. You can see the great big chunk of cake that Abigail grabbed when I wasn't looking. At least I know she liked it.

A little update

We are all well, but we are having technical difficulties with our camera. I thought I would just write up a few things while I have a minute.

The other day we were going to the swimming pool and I saw a daddy-long legs. I showed it to Abigail and told her what it was. She was interested and we watched it awhile before we started to swim. A few minutes later she tilted her head to one side and asked seriously, "Have you ever seen a MOMMY-long legs?" It was very cute.

Yesturday I was on the couch reading to Abigail. She jumped from a nearby foot stool and bounced off the couch and went head over heals OVER the back of the couch and onto the floor. I was really surprised and waited for her to start crying, but she walked around the couch and came right up to me and said with furrowed eyebrows, "It was a hand over." I guess meaning like a back handspring or something...so funny.