Ok so as Tinkerbell she’s hardly scary but Soph has a GREAT time trick-0r-treating this year!  We got lucky and the rain that threatened all day held off for the most part.  We met up with our friends Sara and Scott and their daughter Hannah and set off in the historic town of Lincoln.  The girls had a BLAST–except for the one “scary (haunted) house”.  After collecting treats we headed back to have some yummy dinner and playtime (for both adults AND kids!)

Oh yeah!  We got a new monkey towel in the mail today (and long awaited big girl sheets for her new bed!)   Sophia IMMEDIATELY put on the towel and disappeared, only to reappear a few minutes later as a MONKEY PRINCESS!

Check it out, wand, multi-colored princess shoes, a necklace, crown and all!  She proceeded to wear this for a good half an hour.  Gorgeous, no?

I have a feeling this is one monkey that won’t be chasing her tail!

A smile!  Well a sort of smile anyway but the best I managed to capture all day on camera.  Sophia had a ball, doing the pony rides, taking a hay ride out to the pumpkin fields, finding the perfect small pumpkin (she took home 3)  but smiling for the camera…yeah that was a game she’d rather not play.

And of course the “best” for last…seriously, she really did have a great day!

Sophia is 3!!! Not sure how that happened so fast– POOF just like the candles she blew out on here cake

Yesterday despite soaking fall rain showers we celebrated with her crew of 3 year old buddies.  She specifically requested that her birthday party include “Tinkerbell, Pirates, Birthday Cake and Balloons” so we did your best to comply

Here is the room before the mayhem….

and a close up of the “crafts” Mommy made–I think I might have gone a little nuts–but I had fun! Besides what’s a party without a pirate hat, eye-patch or fairy wand….right?

Here is the purple Tinkerbell cake–which I am proud to say got me a “Mom….this is the BEST birthday cake ever”, combined with a HUGE hug–given she hasn’t had many to compare it too–but it totally worth the effort in my book!

The kids…well they found the princess shoes and were busy doing laps around the house–they were going too fast to catch with the camera for the most part but here are a few I managed ….I know there was another camera or two out there, if I get more I’ll be sure to share!

Sunday was gorgeous so we woke up and decided to take to the road–we ended up on Skyline Drive and had a ball.

Sophia delighted in looking for animals of all kinds, in the picture above she was “looking for bears”.  We didn’t see one.  We did however run into this creature below as we were attempting a short hike after a lovely “fairy picnic” — needless to say we turned right around!

Thankfully Keith was ahead of us and noticed him–he was a 4foot long timber rattler!

We did also see animals of the more friendly variety…

And even of silly variety–this is from the parking lot of Dinosaur Land– a total cheesy tourist trap on 340 on the way to Skyline.  Sophia made us stop and loved it but she was satisfied with what we could see from the parking lot!

She LOVED it, jumped right out of the car when we got there and was ready to go. When I picked her up she was sitting at the table coloring away–I asked her if she wanted to go home, “nope, I’m coloring with my friends”.  I had to promise her we’d come back tomorrow–I think she likes it! Hope it’ll always be this easy!

We’ve been lucky to have had over a year of summer between our time in Lauderdale, our island life and summer back here in VA but now its time to say good bye–for now.  It got chilly here in the last week–we’ve enjoyed open windows and cool breezes but no last pool romp for us.  Instead we celebrated the change with….

A Harvest Moon

A trip to the Zoo ..hanging with Daddy

Feeding the goats

Checking out the gators

and touching a baby one!

Today we had a visit to pre-school and tomorrow it starts for real.  Sophia is SO excited she can’t contain it.  Oma got her a new backpack, her dress is hanging ready, as much as I thought (and know) I am ready, I’m a little sad too–our little girl is growing up and I now have to share her with a whole new group of friends.  As excited as I am for both of us I’m sorry my baby grow up so fast!

There is a local bookstore that has a great kids Storytime each week.  The girls get to listen to a few stories and sing a some songs and the mom’s get to drink some coffee and chat in “relative” peace.  Usually we’ll follow Storytime by going to lunch.

Maybe its the chill in the air but our girls were CRAZY today, nutso!  Funny nuts but boy did they have energy.  Instead of lunch we decided to hit up the new local park.  Maddie and Soph went down this slide a hundred times, almost always together, head first — feet first you name it.  They are so cute together and were laughing the whole time we heard “that was fun let’s do it again” on almost every run. If they went down alone one would call out “are you ok?” to the other, like the felt much better about doing it together instead of alone!

I think we liked watching them as much as they liked playing  and BONUS, it seems to have done the trick at wearing them out (naps are being enjoyed now )

The last couple of days when coming downstairs from her nap Sophia has brought along dresses she’s found in her closet.   Apparently after nap its time to dress like a princess–who knew?

The outfits have magically come together in the last few days, and I do mean magically, a piece at a time all with end result you see here.  The dress was given to us by a neighbor before we first went to the island, the crown was a reward for doing #2 in the potty, the wand we got at the dentists today and the shoes were a mommy find and special treat after I was away overnight.

I love this Princess climbing the fence–she has a few books she loves –”Do Princess Wear Hiking Boots“, “Do Princesses Scrape their Knees” and I just totally love that she gets it–you don’t have to be dainty to be a Princess!

The next day she pulled out an Indian Sari that Keith had brought back from his last trip.  The skirt is WAY too long and the shirt is just about too small (the body build in India is not as ummm let’s say robust as this little girl’s)  No worries though we just rolled the skirt up and went with it.  Mickey was the big attention getter yesterday–apparently he need to have a little touch of magic added to his life.

The next two pictures could be better — but I think it conveys the love — these two guys are nuts about each other!

We had a playdate with our friends at Oakland Green yesterday–great company, amazing food and the girls had a ball!