Walking Like a Naked Bear

While waiting to go into her dance class one Thursday, Meredith announced to the whole waiting room, "Jillian likes to walk like a naked bear!" I got lots of confused looks, and boy I know I had a confused look on my face! I was racking my brain trying to think if there was a tumbling move or something that she might be thinking of. Then I remembered that just before we left the house, Meredith asked why Jillian didn't need special shoes for tumbling (like her ballet and tap shoes). I told her that in tumbling, the girls are barefoot, which I guess translates to walking like a naked bear in a little 4 year old's mind! :)

Pow Wow

Last week Meredith's school put on a "Pow Wow" for the parents. Meredith was very excited to call Grandma to invite her and kept talking about how she was coming to see the program - even when I dropped her off that morning, after her teacher said good morning, Meredith replied "My Grandma is coming today!"

The kids all had headdresses and necklaces and new Indian names - Meredith's was Yellow Daisy. She made sure to tell me that her real name was still Meredith, she would just be Yellow Daisy during the Pow Wow. They paraded into the room, then sat while one of the teachers told a story about the lives of Indians. The story included a song that the kids acted out for us that was very cute.

Yellow Daisy parading in!
Waving to her fans!
When we first got to school, Jillian was not very happy that we were not going down to Meredith's room - I guess she thought it was time for her to come home to play! But once it got started, Jillian loved the program - she spent the majority of it waving and talking to her sister who was across the room.
Listening to the story

Acting out how to walk very quietly when hunting during the song

Then each of the classes had prepared some songs to perform. The Turtle class seemed to have a tiny bit of stage fright, but they did a super cute job with their songs, too!

Meredith and her friend, Kelsey singing one of the Turtle's songs
"I love my mom and I love my dad, but don't let those turkeys look so sad..."
After this part, they do a cute dance complete with making their hands into "tailfeathers" and singing "Turkey, Turkey, Turkey makes me go berserkey, berserkey, berserkey..." While turning in a circle!
Yellow Daisy with her class
A fun break in the tee pee
The Turtles

The kids then paraded back out and Jillian tried to follow Meredith out. When she couldn't go too, the very sad sister, showed how she felt! She sure loves her sister! Luckily, we talked Meredith into skipping the end of school with us to go grab some lunch - making everyone very happy!

Trick or Treat!

Halloween was a very busy day - we went to church, came home for lunch, napped a bit, and then the Halloween fun started!

Before lunch we had a little modeling session with our pumpkin in their cute Halloween church clothes

After naps, we got up and got costumes on to hit up Bubbie and Grandad's house before going to First Fest, which is our church's annual festival.

Strawberry Shortcake and Custard posing and ready to go!
Trunk or Treating at First Fest. Jillian mastered saying "eeet!" For "Trick or Treat" and also Thank you! All because there was candy involved! She liked getting to pick her own candy and was very deliberate about which she would take.
Suckers were of course a favorite!
She loved this Mickey Mouse themed trunk!
So did her best bud, Caleb (or Bub Bub) the "fireguy"
Meredith, Jillian, and Landon loved playing a high-five game with Uncle Neil while waiting in line for one of the many bounce houses. The big kids of course had a blast in the bounce house. Jillian could not be deterred from going it, but was a little hesitant about all the kids. Luckily there were workers in the house that took her around and helped her down the blow up slides so she had a blast!
Ready for her turn!

We left church and headed to Gigi and Papa's house for our annual trick-or-treating in their neighborhood

Jillian, Katie and Meredith ready for their first house!
Waggoning was the choice transportation
Jillian was certainly a pro at Trick-or-treating! Now, whenever she sees her bucket she gets excited but then looks inside and sadly says "tenty!" (meaning empty)
Look who found a sucker!
The big girls loved pulling Jillian and Landon in the wagons
Looks like Jillian didn't mind being pulled either!
Sweet sisters giving congratulatory hugs on a good job trick-or-treating!

1 little, 2 little, 3 little pumpkins!

We took advantage of a beautiful Saturday afternoon to carve our pumpkin outside! Not only fun, but a whole lot easier on Mama for cleaning. And the past few years this fun activity has only held Meredith's attention for a bit, so I also broke out the paints so the girls could paint some of their little pumpkins.

When I offered to let everyone feel the insides of the pumpkin, Meredith of course was grossed out! Jillian was happy to touch it even though it was "icky"
Dual activities seemed to work - maybe next year I will try to be in their general vicinity so they can actually experience what I am doing a little! :)
Meredith's finished "Rainbow" pumpkin
Our finished pumpkins! Meredith insisted we make a Strawberry Shortcake pumpkin, which I was stumped by. Then she remembered that she has an Ariel costume set for a dog she made at a Build-a-bear party that came with a bright red wig that looks just like her Strawberry Shortcake wig, and voila - Strawberry Shortcake in pumpkin form!

Then it was so pretty that we decided to ride bikes for a bit!

Testing out big sister's ride and very happy about it!

Merrryhill Halloween Carnival

Every year we head out to my mom's school the Saturday before Halloween in costumes for some fun games and getting to see her co-workers.

Custard the Kitty, loved carrying around her bucket - and then loved it even more when we added candy to it!
There were lots of fun games that Meredith loved to play. Jillian humored us and played them at the first few games, then just stated going straight for the candy prize stashes.


Sweet Strawberry Shortcake. She loved this costume from the start and insisted she have the "hair" too. She is also really into her God-given freckles, but really wanted hers to be bigger to look just like Strawberry Shortcake. The necklace that she has on is actually a name badge Neal got from a work event he went to earlier in the week, but she really thought it added to her costume!
I liked the idea of the girls costumes coordinating, so I toyed with finding Jillian another Strawberry Shortcake character to be, but then decided on Custard, her pet kitty. I found this costume online, and showed Jillian a picture of it - she immediately started laughing at the baby in the picture and meowing at her, so I was sold! She loved wearing it and the best part was she would walk around meowing and petting her own head! We did add a green collar to make her more Custard-esque!
Fishing for prizes
And a bean bag toss
Daddy and Meredith played the wrap the mummy game - Daddy definitely got into it!
Strawberry and the Mummy
Time to bowl
Deep in concentration so she could win her tricycle race
Meredith was really excited to get a baseball painted on her face. We tried to talk Jillian into a little face painting too, but she as just wanting to stick to her candy!
Landon got to come meet us too, what fun to see him so much!
This was Jillian's favorite activity of the carnival - just sorting her candy and occasionally sneaking a sucker
Inspecting the loot!