Mini Christmas tree & our giant

We have just begun setting up some Christmas decorations this weekend and Melissa has been very excited to set up our 3' fiber optic tree... and most importantly get her picture taken with it (as she has the last three years: 2008, 2007 & 2006).

Kinda of an illusion with the mini tree & the wall rail... makes her look like a giant!

Dino Dig

This morning Melissa's preschool when on a paleontologist adventure as they are studying dinosaurs this month. They walked to a local student's backyard where various bones were buried for the kids to dig up, and then later take back to their class to clean & put back together.

The wet rope walk...

There were "clues" along the way... dinosaur tracks!

Digging for bones...

One of many bones Melissa uncovered!

Art

Melissa has become very interested in writing & drawing since preschool has started again. It has been fun to watch her art progress into what it is today.

Here is a picture of herself (bottom left) out trick-or-treating, (house bottom right) thinking of me at home with a chair. There seems to be some sort of snake on the ground in front of her.

Here is a picture of Melissa gardening, planting a seed. She says that is the house behind her, where I am looking for clippers for the tall plants in front of her.

This is another picture of Melissa gardening, this time planting sunflower seeds with Pepper (our cat).

Costume Day at Dance Class

A few days before Halloween, Melissa's dance class had costume day.

Doing their warm-up rounds with the magical wands...

The choo-choo train...

Individual technique development...

Keeping her knee high...

Class photo (a couple of girls were missing this day)

Silly photo!

Boo Shoot

On Halloween Melissa had her photos taken in costume by Revival Arts Studio.

Halloween

Yesterday was a much anticipated day!

Nana & Pop came by with a bag of goodies for Melissa... a very abundant bag of loot! Here she is examining item by item with great responses for each favorite :)

Sitting (at times rolling) in the pile of goodies...

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As dusk settled in, we were joined by some friends to trick-or-treat in our neighborhood. One of our first stops was Kim's house, where Melissa (Munchkin as he calls her) was treated to a special bag of candy!

Riley (the cow), Kiera (Snow White) and Melissa (the cat) on the move...

Melissa & Kiera certainly had evolved from years past, they were ahead of the pack, running from door to door...

I had to stop them from time to time for photo-ops to let the littler ones catch up...

It didn't take too long for Chase to see what the girls were up to, and he did his best to keep up with them...

Batman and a tuckered "Robina"... she had had enough candy pimping!

Back home the kids dumped out their loot, and did a little sampling!

First Visit to Dentist

So we may be a little behind on this one, but I didn't have any dental concerns for Melissa & I know her personality enough to know that going sooner wouldn't have produced a good scene. So today we took baby-steps and Melissa got her teeth counted at the dentist's! She was very excited by all the loot she came home with, a Piglet toothbrush, tootie-fruitie dental floss and a ring. She was rewarded for her good behavior with lunch at ('Old' as she calls it) McDonalds.

Here is Melissa on the chair with Shawna, getting the low-down on all her dental gear...

Pumpkin Carving

Melissa digs in for the first time, not really sure about this...

Excited about all the seeds...

She didn't like the feel of the pumpkin goo all over her hands & arms, so she opted for the spoon...

The final masterpieces...

Lit up...

Field Trip to the Apple Barn

On Friday Melissa's preschool class went on a field trip to the Apple Barn. The weather was nothing short of a spectacular fall day!

The kids watching a demonstration of a machine sorting apples...

Visiting the goats...

On the hayride through the orchard with friends Nayimah & Autumn...

A trip down the long tunnel slide...

The highlight of the trip was this huge bouncy pillow!

Garden Harvest

Back in May, we planted a simple garden at my parent's house (see post). The time had come to harvest it to make way for a new crop of cedar shrubs.

Here is the fully grown corn patch...

and our happy pumpkin patch...

Papa pulled out the relic little red wagon from my childhood, and Melissa was happy to get a ride in it!

Loading in some pumpkins...

Digging up the potatoes... Melissa was impressed to see so many had come from one seed potato!

We kept finding crazy shaped potatoes, the kind that never make it to the supermarket... and this potato Melissa said looked like a rubber ducky :)

Picking an appropriate sized pumpkin...

The parade of pumpkins...

Lastly Melissa joined Papa on the tractor (a brave first!) to chop down the plants before tilling them under...

This was such a great learning experience... and what is more fun than eating your own grown veggies! Hopefully there will be an opportunity like this again next year!

Lantern Festival

This weekend we went to the Lantern Festival, put on by Spirit of BC,

at Mill Lake. Melissa showing her lantern...

She decided to get her face painted...

(some venues she will, some she won't!)

Once dark enough the walk commenced...

and it was followed by a rather impressive fireworks display.

I haven't ever experienced fireworks up this close!

Ballet Class

Melissa has been very consistent in asking to be in a ballet class again after she had her first taste of it last year. So today was a very exciting day for her as it was her first class. Later in the year she will learn tap & jazz dance as well.

All the little ballerinas in a circle...

Checking herself out in the mirrors behind her...