Happy Halloween

Tonight we took Carlysle to Lake Murray Baptist Church's Fall Festival. What a wonderful idea! They had pony rides, hay rides, little train rides, bouncy houses, and games. It was definitely a better alternative to the "knock on stranger's door, ask stranger for candy, take candy from stranger" Halloween tradition (which is clearly the opposite of what we teach our kids at all other times of the year). We had a great time watching our little bug play (or cling to my legs in horror).

I would just like to clear up my previous statement about Halloween by saying I really have nothing against "Trick or Treating". In fact, when Carlysle is old enough to go I will be the Mom waiting anxiously at the end of that "stranger's" driveway to see what loot she picked up. I will also be the one digging through her bag and looking at the individual packs of dried fruit saying, "What is this trash? What, she didn't have any Snickers or Reeses? Well go back and give her the smile we practiced this afternoon."

Ahhh.....I can't wait.

Halloween Sweater

My Mom (BeeGee) bought this sweater for Carlysle and she looked so cute in it so I had to take some pictures. She looked so grown up in her sweater and jeans. I almost cried.

Halloween Party

On Sunday, Carlysle attended her first Halloween Party. It was actually her friend James' 1st Birthday Party. His birthday is Halloween Day so everyone was supposed to dress in costume. I was concerned that I would look too cute and steal Carlysle's thunder so I skipped on the costume thing. Carlysle decided to be a lady bug this year. I have to say she was adorable in that costume. I wanted to leave her in it all day but I thought that would be a little cruel.

I realized later that I didn't get any full body shots of her in her costume but I did get some of her in partial costume. This picture is what she wears underneath the lady bug outfit and I thought it was just as cute. She looks like she is going to dance class. Joey said it really shows just how short her little legs are. Poor thing. She never had a chance in the leg department.

Kitchen Helper

Hello All! This is Joey (not Leslie) acting as a guest editor, if you will, for this entry. Anyway, I thought it would be cool if we included some pictures of Carlysle earning her keep around the house. I mean, for crying out loud, she is a 1 year old now and has shown that she is able to walk among other sophisticated and complex tasks so why shouldn't she be able to pitch in and get a few things done? Right? Here are just a few pictures of her hard at work in the kitchen fixing dinner while Mommy and Daddy take it easy on the couch. (In case you are wondering the meal she prepared was a wonderful prime rib with steamed vegetables and mashed potatoes with an apple pie a la mode for dessert.)...If we could only get her to stop licking the spoon while she cooks.

Pumpkin Patch

Tonight we took Carlysle to the Pumpkin Patch at Mimi's school in Orangeburg. Andy and Courtney also brought John Andrew and we got some cute photos. Unfortunately, Carlysle had been napping in the car so she was a little out of it and kind of cranky....but they looked so cute.

My child likes to carry around the strangest things. She has always had to have a toy or something in each hand. For a while it was her remote (one of our old ones that we took the batteries out of) and her teddy bear. Then it was her teddy bear and a puppy dog finger puppet. Then it was her turtle bath toy and crab bath toy. It goes on and on. Now that she got bigger, more grown-up toys for her birthday I guess she thinks she needs to carry bigger toys around.

This is what she was dragging around for the first part of the day.....it's supposed to have stackable rings on it but she takes them off and totes this around instead....

Then she found this piece that actually goes to her outside water table. It was in the corner behind her basket of toys. When I left the room she somehow managed to pull this out by herself and when I came back she was just toting it around like it wasn't almost the same size as her....