Tiny Artist

Olive has been very into all things art lately, scissors, glue, glitter, paint, crayons, markers. You name it, she's done it.

Often, she gets so serious that her little tongue comes out in concentration:

Her artwork is piling up, and getting fancier as the days go by!

Pre-Thanksgiving

It's always good to practice something to make sure you're good at it. This weekend Matt and Jessica hosted a pre-Thanksgiving meal since we're all heading different directions for Thanksgiving next week.

Like any good Thanksgiving, there was way too much food:

Olive and Irene at their special table:

Cutest nephew ever at the big table:

And really, what's better after a big meal than snuggling on the couch and watching Sesame Street?

Nana and Irene on one end:

Papa and Olive at the other:

And then we napped.

Play Doh

Olive and I decided to try and make our own play doh last week. I found what was billed as a "no fail" recipe online and we went for it. It was a fun project, but the final product was not as play doh like as I'd hoped.

Ready to start mixing:

Flour and salt (we were low on salt, so maybe that's why it didn't turn out too well):

Adding the oil:

Deciding on color, originally she wanted pink (of course!), but then adding the dye was so much fun that she wanted to add some blue, too, so we decided on purple:

Mixing (see how sticky it looks? It was as sticky as it looks):

It was still worth playing with, and she's played with it several times since then:

Next time, we'll try a different recipe, and add more food coloring for a brighter color!

Tonight

Sam put Olive to bed tonight and she cried a few minutes after he left the room. I went in and she was sitting up in her bed, surrounded by about 10 stuffed animals, with a book on her lap. She said, "Daddy gave me all these guys. I'm reading my book now." I asked her why she was crying and she said, "I wanted you to come in and see my guys and my book." I kissed her and said she should go to sleep after she was done with her book. I fully expected her to cry again when I left, or after she was done with the book (she usually wants help with getting her blanket on). She didn't. But just now, 3 hours later, I went in to check on her before I went to bed, and she was asleep with her guys and her books surrounding her. All tucked in, blanket up to her neck.

Sweet girl.

Walker Fun

This weekend Olive and I met up with Laura, Levi and Irene at the Walker Art Center for some sculpture viewing in the outdoor sculpture garden, and some rockin' at a Suicide Commandos concert inside.

Olive enjoying the view:

I think this photo is some sort of rite of passage - Olive is now a true twin-citian:

Inside at the concert, the girls wore earplugs. I thought they made them look like Shrek:

Olive and Irene enjoying the concert:

And running around the sculpture garden after the concert:

Thank you, November, for providing the gorgeous weather!

Sliding and Bouncing

Olive and Sam went back to Pump It Up last week for some bouncing excitement. Sam was very impressed with Olive's ability to maneuver all the equipment on her own, especially the 90 degree angle climbing wall!

Olive loved it all:

Loved it so much she got sweaty:

Obstacle course:

Climbing wall:

Giant slide:

And a video of the climbing wall and resulting slide:

Rake-fest

Last weekend Olive helped with the raking of the yard. We had a lot of leaves this year, and they all seemed to fall in about a 3 hour period.

Olive preferred her broom for the job:

Did some jumping into leaves with Sam:

And then the real fun began when we found a worm. Ever since Sam started taking her fishing this summer, Olive has been ineterested in worms:

A video introduction:

And setting him free:

Mission accomplished.

Halloween fun

We had a full week of Halloween festivities, Olive has been very interested in all this dressing up, pumpkin carving, candy eating business.

She helped carve a pumpkin for the first time, and dug right in:

Olive dressed up as a dentist for Halloween, and she loved her costume (she borrowed gloves, a mirror, name tag and giant toothbrush from Daddy):

She checked Oscar's 2 teeth:

Took care of her patients:

Read Halloween books with a friend:

And posed with her pumpkin:

Trick or Treating was a big hit:

We even met up with some Ninja turtles (whom Olive was not so sure of, can you blame her??):

A little rain didn't stop her:

By the end of the evening, she was a pro Trick or Treater:

She is already talking about next Halloween.