Dancing Zoie

At the end of each month, Zoie's dance school has a "watch" day. Thursday was the "watch" day. It was wonder to watch her learning her things. Ballet takes ALOT of concentration and paying attention to details. Zoie is not quite at that stage. But she has learned to skip, a task I could not do in 1st grade. Zoie was better at tap and shuffling her feet. All in all, she is 4 and sure acts like it. The dance teacher does a great job keeping the 11+ girls on task and moving through the class.

This is "new" ballet technique. Lazy arms, wiggly body, and limp legs.

Zoie shows me her stretching routine before all the girls go there.

Zoie and her partner held hands and twirled through each other arms. They enjoyed this activity together.

Stacked up!

I made the decision on Friday night to stack up the bunk beds. The kids were thrilled. They have played together with all Zoie's stuffed dogs no stop sense the beds were stacked up. The first night was not ideal though. Vance slept all night without moving on the bottom bunk -- I was alittle worried he might roll out since he had been sleeping in the rail. Zoie, on the other hand, punked about 40 minutes after going to bed. So my large self had to climb up there, get her, clean her up as she kept puking, take off the sheets that I just put on there, wash them, calm her down, remake her bed (remember it is on the top so I have to climb the ladder), & put her back in bed. Some how about 3am, she made her way back into her room. (I had the baby monitor on but never heard he make a sound coming down the ladder). About 6am, I had had enough of her tossing and turning and got her back up in the top bunk, laid with her for a while and then went to bed for about an hour before Vance woke up. Nonetheless, I took a 2 hour nap on Saturday afternoon.

Here is half of their room, 3 dressers and a doll house.

In the bunk bed fort, Vance sits in 1 of the 3 toy boxes that fits under the bed. He is playing with an alligater.

Zoie hands Vance stuffed dogs to put on her bed up top.

Zoie saves Penny from the "swamp".

Just playing together in make believe land.

Preparing for Halloween

Ty finally picked the big pumpkins from our garden and carved them with Zoie. Vance was not interested.

Halloween party at Tiny Tot skating. Snow white with white dracula teeth. Really attractive for Prince Charming. Oh well, I have a few years to worry about that.

Let's Hit the Slopes!

I almost had to blow off the dust from my helmet and googles since it has been soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo long since I have been to the mountain pass. (I guess that is because I will have had 3 kids in 4 years). Anyways . . . Vance was all about the helmet. It did make the little boy wobblely, but that did not cause him to drop the special and sacred binkie.

The sandbox

Nearly 3 years ago, I bought this sandbox at a yard sale. The crane is broken, but Vance has started to take a liking to it. He sits on the edge and scoops the dirt into buckets and the tractor. It just happens to be that the neighbor's gravel company had a new dump of sand near our big dirt pile. . . So I took their small buckets back and forth about 20 times and filled up the sandbox (on top of the dirt and gravel that was in there). Vance played for nearly 2 hours in the sand and dirt. Then went to bed at 6:30pm and slept 12 1/2 hours. Of course, Zoie also wanted to play. We learned the hard way that sand doesn't go in the mouth -- but a big kid cup of water to swish around and spit out was the fun part of the game.

I can do whatever you can do

Now Vance likes to make funny faces. Thanks big sister Zoie! :)

Our pumpkins & fall pictures

Zoie stands behind our biggest pumpkin in the pumpkin patch.
All the pumpkins came from our yard, as well as the corn that didn't produce too well. Proud siblings.
Nana put sponge rollers in her hair the night before.
This is the "new" Vance look. What's up with it?
Princess Zoie.

My baby boy

Both kids got new pajamas for Vances' birthday. Vance loves the monkeys that smile at him on his feet. Zoie's have ballerina frogs.

The birthday party with Uncle Paul. Paul shows Vance that Percy the train lights up and makes sounds. Notice Vance's dirt party shirt. He needed to eat a chocolate frosted cupcake before the guests arrived.

Preparing for Vance's Birthday

Zoie found these "Cars" slippers at a yard sale and wanted to get them for Vance. She had to wrap them up the night before his actual birthday.


And she had to make a card. The envelope had lots of Cars stickers. He loves a variety of things -- Curious George, Cars, & Thomas & the Incredibles.
Ty got him this tunnel. Vance is rolling Zoie in the tunnel across the living room.

Kitchen Fun