Halloween in CB

A brief look at Halloween festivities for our family. As a special treat, Grandma was in town from Virginia for the weekend. This was extra helpful, as we are juggling renovation craziness since our hot water tank burst this fall. Boo. At least we are getting things cleaned up and lots of new stuff. But the Halloween activities are the fun stuff...

Friday we went to the Halloween party for Ava's school, at the park in our neighborhood. I have never seen so many kids under 5 at the playground at the same time. The girls had fun, even if they hardly ate any of the snacks available because they were so excited to play with friends. It was fun to see Rachel as one of the older kids in a scenario, too. Ava was particularly excited, because Grandma managed to score her an Elsa costume at the last minute. Ava (and many of her classmates) are obsessed with Frozen and Elsa this fall. In case you weren't aware, "Elsa is a great climber, Daddy."

This weekend we carved our pumpkin and Rachel decorated mandarins to take to school Monday.

Today Rachel's school held a parade, where all the K-12 students gathered at the track, then walked one lap around so they could all see each others' costumes. Dozens of parents lined the track as the kids showed off their costumes. Rachel is so excited about her Triceratops costume, beautifully handmade by Nana!

After wearing her Elsa costume all day at school, Ava changed into her Panda costume for the cooler evening weather. Mom scored this one used in Victoria during Fall Break, and it is nice and warm, if a little big this year! Panda Ava was definitely a crowd favorite as we made our way through town. She was also the first person in our family to ever trick or treat for pizza! Thanks Secret Stash for giving out mini-slices of pizza.

Starting at the "top" of Elk Ave, we walked down through town, eventually turning onto 5th, continuing right past Mommy's clinic, and ending at the Library!

As an added bonus, the Halloween festivities included Batman and Catwoman staging a battle while rappelling off the Library roof!

Ava is one amazed little Panda!

Three Lakes Trail - A Family Hike

So we haven't posted in a while, and a lot has happened since we last posted. We'll have to review that later. For now, come join us on the family hike we did today! First, we drove over Kebler Pass, past East Beckwith Mountain, making frequent stops to try to capture the fantastic yellows of fall aspen leaves.

East Beckwith Mountain

Aspen on Kebler Pass

We arrived at Lost Lake campground and the trailhead, where Rachel promptly read the three hike options listed and announced, "Can we do the 12-mile one?" When told no, she was quick to suggest, "Well, how about the 7-mile option, then?" After packing the necessary snacks and water, we set off on the 4-mile option, Three Lakes Trail.

The trail skirted the edge of Lost Lake Slough, then climbed toward Dollar Lake. We were both impressed by the girls' hiking abilities, and enthusiasm for the adventure. Rachel led the way as her imaginary dog self, "Pitter-patter," scampering back and forth to report on the upcoming trail conditions: "Rocky curve up ahead...sunny flat viewy part..."

girls with West Beckwith Mountain and Lost Lake Slough

Our two super hikers

Eventually we made our way up to Dollar Lake. After our snack break, Ava decided she was done hiking, then rode in the backpack for about 100 meters before announcing she wanted to get out and hike again. Thanks to Meggs for carrying her for much of the hike!

We descended the trail from Dollar Lake, and enjoyed a nice visit to the falls. Rachel could have stayed there all day, dropping sticks in the water, watching them get stuck, and then rescuing them to continue their journey down the creek. 

Our fantastic explorer

But Ava was getting tired, so we pressed on in hopes she would fall asleep, which she did before we reached Lost Lake. This allowed us to explore all the trees piled up along the downwind side of the lake, while she crashed in the carrier.

We found a few more awesome aspen groves on the way to the car, and everyone declared the adventure a success upon returning to the car for sandwiches!

Rachel: thumb, skiing, reading

So our girls are growing and things around here are shaking!
All is well and we are thankful for what we have.

Thumb
Rachel stopped sucking her thumb!  We worked with an awesome SLP who helped us through the process.  It was a really big deal and took a lot of work on Rachel's end.  Actually, it took a lot of work on everyone's end.  We weren't sure if we wanted to pursue intervention or not, but we decided that it would be best for Rachel's teeth/mouth to stop.

Rachel gets her nails painted as a reward during her stop-thumb-sucking-program.

On Feb 1, we had a big party to celebrate 60 days of no thumb sucking.  She hasn't sucked it since and she seems so grown up.  At her party, she earned a big reward of a 'pet' dog (battery operated stuffed animal that looks pretty real from Nana), that she named 'Fishy'.



















Note - if you want an interesting TSA experience, try flying with a pretend dog in your carry on luggage internationally.


Skiing
Rachel has done the Breck Bombers program for 7 Sundays this year.  She and a group of other 5 year olds had the same instructor throughout, and she loved it.  She skied from 8:30-3:30 and had a blast.  She can independently ski greens and blues, loves going on small park obstacles and in/out of trees, and has even done a few ski races!  Big skills this round were learning to 'hockey stop' to either side and 'side slipping' to either side.  I think her favorite part was eating lunch in the lodge restaurant, where she got to eat things like cheeseburgers and french fries.


Reading

Rachel continues to learn to read.  In this video, she reads a new book she's never seen for the first time and figures out some new words.  It's an amazing thing to watch as a parent, and it's really fun.  It makes us realize how cool reading is, and how difficult the English language is.  Rachel is pretty hard on herself and can get very frustrated, but overall we are very impressed.



Our girl Rachel is really growing up!!