Indoor playground

When it’s cold and snowy outside, daddy does a great job of taking constructive measures to divert boisterous energy.

Fun stuff!

A happy Halloween

It was a busy Halloween weekend at the St. Alonzo house!

Zoe was totally revved up for the festivities this year – much more participatory and anticipatory. Next year, maybe, she’ll get get the full spirit of the holiday and choose a different costume inspiration.

Friday, the girls dressed up for a bash with the kids at Michaela’s house.

Saturday, the girls rallied for a Halloween-inspired fun fair where Zoe won at the cake walk and Maggie nearly climbed the bouncy slide!

Sunday, the big day. After a morning visit from Nana and Pepere and a trip to the library and to the park (hey! I was killing time with diversions!), we finally packed up for a jaunt to the much-awaited Central Market Halloween Open House, followed by a short but sweet stint of trick-or-treating at a few of our neighbors’ houses.

What a difference a year makes!

Zo serious.

Smiley Moo

Finally some smiles from the fairy butterfly!

While all in all it was great, by Sunday night, we were all ready to let the sun go down on this one, I think. Zoe didn’t even ask for any candy this week!

Sisters

Lookin’ mahvalous. (with ‘tude)

Potty time

For weeks now, Maggie’s been talking about ‘poop’, - in that hopeful, good way that gets you thinking it’s not a bad idea to dust off the training potties.

It’s no wonder; we’ve been reading “Everyone Poops” (*lots* – what is it about that book that kids love??) and Payton, her closest pal at daycare has been using the potty for a few months now. But up to now, despite recently going so far as to have us remove her diaper before sitting, her stints on the potty have been fleeting at best. I’ve not hung up any huge aspirations for an early adopter; Zoe killed those hopes with the 1.5 years it took to fully make her transition.

But tonight, after dinner, I was pleasantly surprised by Maggie’s interest in actually hanging out on her potty – for more than two seconds! – repeatedly! – for a total of about ten minutes. There was a bit of distraction, mind you, what with the gathering of proper reading materials and the sudden company of her big sis in the stall next to hers, but I’m not gonna complain about a girl who wants to talk poop and hang in the bathroom!

I figure if we can get her to actually go on the potty by February of 2012, we’re doing OK… ;)

Big changes for the big girl

We were starting to notice that our considerably tall (for a 3.75 year old) Zoe was taking up more and more room in her toddler bed, so I became inspired to finally put into action my plans for her big-big-girl room.

I’d already been batting around paint combinations and furniture configurations for months, so it was easy for me to quickly launch into action – especially when I located the bunk beds of my childhood dreams on Craigslist. I already had my Friday off, supposedly to weed, but after about an hour I was so excited with the prospect of some non-white walls in our house (only 2.5 years after moving in!) that I dropped my garden gloves and ran to the hardware store.

It was a lot of work – we have TALL ceilings! – but SO worth the joy of Zoe’s pleasure with her new digs.

The (pre-paint) unveiling

Zoe up on top

First slumber party guest?

And a peak into our future…sigh ;)

I can’t wait to get going on Maggie’s big-girl room!

Labor Day weekend, 2010

For the long weekend, Dave, the girls and I joined the Alonzos 4 (Brian, Tammy, Hannah & Cameron), Dave’s dad and more of his extended family (including the GPs from his mom’s side!) down at the Alonzo family camping plot in Long Beach.

It was a great time hanging with the crowd. The girls *love* camping (well, our definition of it, anyways ;)) and had a blast kicking around with the cousins on the beach. The weather was fairly cooperative. It was not terribly warm, but according to all accounts, it was the best weekend of weather the coast had seen all this sucky summer. Some shots of the fun:

Beach, baby, yeah!

A bit of sand (in places we don’t want to find it), a bit of surf?

Camping grub. Fireside sitting…and knitting, of course! :)

Cousins and the Long Beach Skillet (?!)

The making of a family photo:

And a shot of a family who has their act together ;)

Gotta love ice cream on those “warm” northwestern summer days…Brr!

And more camping hang time, complete with heat reflectors ;)

Thanks, Alonzos, we had a great time!