More Celebrating!

Sunday evening we had Grandma and Grandma, Aunt Kate and Uncle Mike over for a family birthday celebration. The night before Tate helped me bake his cake and Sunday morning he helped me frost it. He is becoming quite the little "helper". :)

Tate is 3!!!

Time to take a break from Christmas and celebrate Tate's birthday!!! The celebrating started today with a party at Kidz Bounce in Issaquah. All of Tate's buddies came and a grand time was had by all!! Who doesn't love to bounce?!

Cookie Baking!

Look out Grandma Lesley! There is a new cookie decorator in town!

Oh Christmas Tree!

Last year we only had ornaments on the top 12 inches of our tree as Tate could not resist pulling them off and throwing them across the room. This year, he loved helping put the ornaments on the tree. He re-arranges them every so often which is fine, but he loves showing everyone that comes over the tree and explaining each ornament, "this is a purple ball, and this is my new hammer ornament and this is an apple" and so on.

Santa!!

This morning we headed downtown to Nordstrom for our annual Santa visit. We had a few tears last year but not this year! Tate was a little shy, but gave Santa a few high-five's, knuckle's and even a hug! When Santa first asked him what he would like for Christmas, Tate just whispered "toys please" but after a little more prompting he whispered "maybe some trucks". Just before saying good-bye Tate also asked Santa, "did you ride your sleigh today" to which Santa answered yes and told us his sleigh and reindeer were taking a break on the Nordstrom roof! It was a successful visit indeed!

A few fall favorites...

I can't believe I actually got a few pictures of my child smiling!! I am thrilled!

Thank-you to Great Grandma Pete for the new wheel barrow! He loves it!

We bought this bike at a garage sale this summer for $15. For the past few months he has had zero interest in riding it but last Saturday he walked into the garage and stated, "I want to ride my bike today"...and so he did...all weekend! We've got lots of practicing to do but he's getting the hang of it and having fun!

Happy Halloween!!

This year Tate told me that he wanted to be a scuba diver. After finding nothing pre-made I tried talking him into all sorts of other things but he was adamant he wanted to be a scuba diver. I got some ideas from a Parents magazine and this is what I came up with. The first night we tried it on him he immediately started pretending to swim around the house and jumping off furniture "into the water".

Halloween evening in our new neighborhood was so much fun! We had about 150 Trick-or-Treaters, more than the ZERO we had in Ballard. The three of us stopped by a few neighbors early then I headed home to answer the door and Todd took Tate up the street where Todd heard from co-workers is the place to be...and it sounds like it was. Houses with lines of kids waiting, people don't even close their doors, they just sit on the front porches and hand out the candy, multiple houses with walk-through haunted houses, multiple kids with hot chocolate stands and there was even a tractor giving hay rides!! Tate did great, said "Trick or Treat" with a huge grin at every door and had the best time. We can not wait for next year!!

Fox Hollow Farms

Tate and Cameron at Fox Hollow Farms in Issaquah. Didn't get very many pictures as it started pouring! Tate didn't mind, he could have rode the ride-on tractors all day.

Camp Korey

Today we headed to Camp Korey in Carnation with Tate's preschool class for a field trip. It was fun to get to know the other mom's and see the kiddos together in action. We started out on a hayride (which I have no pictures of because it was pouring), the kids made a rocket and got to shoot it out of a canon, they picked out pumpkins and ate smores. Tate's class is 6 boys and 1 girl. I think the highlight for all the boys was at the end they all stood around throwing dirt in the fire yelling "fire" and grunting and chanting like cavemen....boys.