Emma is 4!

Emma is 4 going on adult- at least according to her!

The celebrations started with a visit last weekend to Great Grandma's where she served up Emma's requested foods. On Friday Great Grandma made apple pancakes for lunch (with two-bite Halloween brownies for dessert). For Saturday's celebration lunch she served raviolis (with meatballs, garlic bread and salad) and chocolate cake with raspberry filling and vanilla frosting. Emma and I stopped at Jewel on our way into town to pick up the cake, and we left the store without paying for it! Grandma laughed but I think she was also mortified that her name was attached to the cake "reciept." I went back to the store and confessed. They had no clue but happily took my money. :) Emma enjoyed her visit with Great Grandma and Sandy. When we left she said she wished she could stay at Great Grandma's forever.

While we were enjoying the Halloween brownies that had ghost and pumpkin sugar sprinkles Emma was making jokes about their being ghosts in the room and finding it all very humorous. At one point she giggled, "I love ghosts! They are my favorite flying animal!"

I went to Emma's preschool for her birthday celebration on the morning of her birthday (the 19th). I shared a lot of stories and pictures and Emma walked around the sun for every year. The kids loved the homemade applesauce and butterfly spritz cookies.

That night we had our family birthday celebration with mashed potatoes (requested menu item that Great Grandma and I didn't think went with raviolis) and squash. For dessert I made and decorated insect cakes because there were 4 different insect shapes and they all have 4 wings (or wing parts). Emma loved it! She told everyone that she had insects for her cake because they have 4 wings and she is 4. Too cute.

Friday lunch was Culvers, cousin Patrick's treat. Friday night we had another celebration with Aunt Margaret, Uncle Dominic and Baby Patrick. This time we had some delicious ice creams and chocolate chip cookie bars.

Then on Saturday after celebrating with Madison who turned 9, Aunt Darcy and family had a cake and presents for Emma at their house.

I think the celebrations are over for now, but the presents are still arriving!

Perfect Fall Day- take 2

We had to make up for a lost fall day so on Saturday we all loaded up and headed in the direction we had tried to go on Friday- Cross Plains. We opted for a different farm, though, because we also wanted to pick our own apples. When we pulled in my hopes fell. The pumpkins were already picked for us and grouped into large and small "patches" on the ground behind the hay wagon and tractor. But again Emma piped up with, "That is a pumpkin patch!"

Inside the small shop Emma was taken with the apple pies and really wanted us to buy one. We opted for apple donuts instead. Emma also helped Aunt Susan pick out some soaps for a present for someone. Outside we sat at a picnic table and feasted. Aunt Susan bought some apple cider and the snack was enjoyed to the last drop.

Emma borrowed a wagon and picked out pumpkins for our relatives coming for a visit next week. We thought we could have a pumpkin decorating day with Emma's cousin. We filled the wagon and then went on the hay ride. Emma was timid at first, but then she seemed to like it. She helped answer the questions about bees when we stopped at the hives! (Steve stayed behind, and when Emma saw him napping on a bench she promptly ran over and woke him up.)

We picked lots of yummy Empire apples and some Red Cortlands. Emma decided that she didn't want to try the tire swings under the oaks. Then before leaving the farm we bought some cider brats with apple-onion relish to-go.

The drive to Blue Mounds State Park was beautiful. Although she repeated what I had said earlier it was still adorable. "Look at this beautiful country-side we are driving through!" It was followed closely by, "Can I have a snack please?"

At the park we found this awesome oak and maple shady spot with picnic tables and sat down to feast. We had the cider brats (delicious!), fresh apples (yummy!), and some cheese from home. Emma then enjoyed her caramel apple that she had convinced Daddy to buy when they paid for the 19 pounds of apples we picked! Check out the video.

The day ended with some swinging and a quiet ride home. It was the perfect fall Wisconsin day! (Now we just need to find a real pumpkin patch.)

Perfect Fall Day- take 1

On Friday Emma and I had this great plan to spend part of the morning picking pumpkins from a pumpkin patch. So we hung some laundry on the line, had breakfast, packed a snack and finally loaded up in the car. While I was doing these chores, Emma was telling all of her stuffed friends and babies that we were going to the pumpkin patch. She was very excited.

On the way Emma started coughing, the remains of a stubborn cold. She also started snacking and drinking some water. Do you know where this is going? She started to have a tear-jerker coughing fit somewhere along the Beltline (the east-west highway route). and then I looked back in the rear-view mirror at one point just in time to see the foamy, spit-up flowing out of her mouth. The Beltline is always crowded so it was hard to get over and we had just passed an exit. So I tried to get her a wet wipe, merge, and then exit all at once. (There is no place to pull over on the shoulder along that stretch.) I was frazzled because I wanted to stop, wipe her down and give her a big hug. She was obviously upset because spitting up is no fun and her clothes were all wet and icky. Of course we had no change of clothes so we had to get right back on the Beltline and head home. I made the mistake of saying we wouldn't be able to go to the pumpkin patch because we wouldn't have enough time after changing her clothes. Emma started balling and sobbing. I feared for another spit-up incident. I finally calmed her down. At home she changed quickly and I decided to try following these pumpkin signs I remembered seeing on the other side of our neighborhood.

Emma was happy that we were at last going to a pumpkin patch. We had a beautiful drive out past Cottage Grove in the countryside along a road we had never been on before. But the pumpkin patch was a complete disappointment (to me). They had a box to drop your money in and neat lines of pumpkins in size order. That was not a pumpkin patch! And then I realized that I only had $7 in cash. Since Emma went right for a good sized pumpkin we could only get one pumpkin. When I said I was disappointed that we didn't go to a pumpkin patch and that we only got one pumpkin, Emma vehemently replied, "That was a pumpkin patch!" and then, "Maybe we can get more pumpkins later after you get some more money."

No More Scissors

About a month ago this was the verdict I gave to Emma. And i will say it again. No more scissors!

Emma has a fun craft area set up right near the computer desk, with the idea that we can see it (mostly) from the kitchen and desk area. It should work out so that we know what is happening in the craft area. Because let's face it, a preschooler won't ask for permission to do inappropriate things with the art supplies! :)

So I know that Emma has scissors and that she was making a giant mess by cutting paper after paper into small bits. And then I got distracted. When I finally checked back in, I noticed that Emma was using the scissors to cut the ear fuzz off my stuffed koala bear. Of course I got mad but tried to keep my cool. That worked OK as I walked the scissors over to a high shelf and said no more scissors, you know that scissors are for paper only. That's when I spied the pieces of a dress on the floor, next to the dress that had been pulled from the drying rack. And then I noticed that some spider plant leaves were lying on the floor. So I lost my cool a bit and got pretty mad. Thankfully, my friend called me on the phone and helped me find the funny in the situation. Later that day, I noticed that Chloe was also missing some chunks of hair that I found in a pile in a corner when I went looking for them.
That was quite the cutting adventure! Hopefully for the last time.

Except that I forgot to tell Steve why Emma's scissors were up high. He gave them to Emma when she asked for them one day while I was out running errands. I came home and found that she had again cut up something she shouldn't have. I guess it is a good sign that I can't remember what it was!

Frances

We're playing...

...Frances family.
...Winnie the Pooh family.
...Strawberry Shortcake family.
...Peter Rabbit family
... any family she can think of that is not our family. Except when Emma plays Mommy and the rest of us are somebody else. If we are lucky we get to play ourselves.

Right now we are playing Frances family. I am Frances. Emma is the teacher. Chloe (our dog) is Albert, and a blue stuffed bear is Gloria. We had morning meeting on the kitchen floor where we shared our pumpkin pictures. (This was a sign left over from my graduation party that I put in her craft area earlier today. Emma traced all of the letters and the jack-o-lantern and added her own pictures of her mom, dad and Gloria.)

Just a couple of minutes ago we hung up some circles to mark the passage of days (like they do in Emma's preschool). Getting circles of paper for this project was an ordeal! Emma tried tearing circles but that didn't work. After whining and crying for a bit she was finally able to ask nicely for her scissors (see the next post titled "No More Scissors"). After littering the floor with failed attempts she asked me to cut out circles. She still wanted me to do it after I drew circles for her to cut around. Circles are hard to cut out! Since I was Frances I hung the circles on the wall (cork board) while she explained the whole process in preschooler-English.

She just told me that she is not the teacher and she wants to play on the playground. I am the new teacher I guess! And what is the playground she is talking about? The couch! We turn up the cushions so that Chloe doesn't sleep on the couches, and they make a great pretend playground. I suppose it is a softer landing than outside on the play structure!