Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Bella's dance class tap danced to "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" on stage at the Riverwalk. They were much more animated when they practiced during class, but I think the huge audience overwhelmed them. Bella did a great job, though!



This is Bella's sweet friend, Raigen. She is in her ballet/tap class and her preschool class. She is always so friendly and full of hugs. She held Bella's hand as they were getting on stage, which I am sure helped Bella feel more comfortable.

Snow White and the Lucy Dwarf

Bella dressed up as Snow White for Halloween, because Snow White is one of her favorite movies right now. And Lucy, well, she didn't have much of a choice. It seemed that the obvious thing to do was to dress her up as a dwarf. However, there are no girl dwarfs in Snow White. So, her costume was "girlied" up with a big red flower on her hat. She was mostly Happy, with some glimpses of Sleepy, Grumpy and Bashful.
These costumes were created by my mom. She can make anything, and make it extra cute with perfect details! She did such a great job creating these costumes for the girls- they are even lined with soft fabric so that they are comfortable. Both girls had multiple fittings just to make sure they were perfect! There were even plans for an apple (as in the poisonous apple) treat bag, but that didn't happen thanks to my mom catching the stomach bug that we all had and most likely gave to her.
Thank you Mom/Momo!

All Things Pumpkin

Other than Bella's birthday party, we went out to the Pumpkin Patch a couple of other times last month.
All four of us went to the biggest Pumpkin Patch in early October. Bella loved getting a wheelbarrow and filling it with lots and lots of tiny pumpkins. It was a little hard to tell her that we weren't actually going to buy all of them. She enjoyed getting to feed the animals at the petting zoo and ride a pony too.
We ended up back at Pumpkin Town again the day after Bella's party to look for a missing bracelet. My parents gave her a little beaded bracelet with a "3" charm on it. When she opened it, she wanted to wear it immediately. I didn't think about it again until later that night, but it wasn't on her wrist anymore. She said she didn't know where it went, but that maybe Jack ate it. Instead of calling Jack's parents and asking them to watch for Bella's bracelet to (yuck) come out, we decided to go looking the next day. Sure enough, after we had almost given up, we found it covered in a little bit of hay not far from where the party had been. It was just a little easier than finding a needle in a haystack, I suppose!
Finally, we carved a pumpkin a couple of days before Halloween. Bella's favorite and most anticipated part of that was getting to blow out the candle after we lit up our Jack-o-lantern for the first time.







Bracelet hunting!


Pumpkin carving:

Pumpkin Town Party

Bella's friends and family joined us at Pumpkin Town for her birthday party. She was a little grumpy at first since we had to wake her from her nap, but pretty soon she was loving it! So many of her friends and family all at the same place- how great! We had cupcakes, picked out pumpkins, played in the hay and on the big toys, and rode the train. Bella loved opening her gifts- and her friends loved helping her! Finally, we broke open (with strings that you pull) a "3" pinata.

*more pictures in the slideshow below*

Halloween Party

Brian's family traditionally gets all of the kids together for Halloween. This year we got together a few days early- actually on Bella's birthday. It was neat because the whole family got to sing Happy Birthday to Bella. Bella got to sit in the most important spot at these family gatherings- on Granny's lap! Brian's Aunt Mary and Uncle Steve set up games and even face painting in their garage, and the kids even got to trick or treat at a couple of houses!