Halloweeen Hit the Mark!

I think that the older Allie gets, the more fun Halloween becomes. As Chris often says, 'She has your holiday gene.' This kid loves a good celebration and holidays top the list. We kicked off the fall celebrations with our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. I remember propping her up against a pumpkin the first time we went, times have definitely changed...

Al and Olivia...never gets old.

She found 'the one.'

And the two...

Seasonal selfie.

 She was very excited to carve her pumpkin...no matter how small and how under-ripe.

Daddy made it happen.

We also toughed out the lines at our community town center's Fall Fest and were rewarded with a painted face and huge smiles.

Rainbows AND unicorns...somebody pinch her.

Pre-blown-up-dragon-bounce-obstacle-thing excitement.

When you work in a high school, you have a few more 'seasons' than others. Homecoming season is one of them. This year, I picked up Allie early from her school and brought her back to Heritage with me so she could witness the madness...Powder Puff cheerleaders (boys dressed as girls in fishnet tights and tutus doing cheer-leading 'routines') and all. She loved it.

After the pep rally, we went to work to help the SCA prepare for the Homecoming tailgate, tailgated, and then headed over to the football game, or as Allie experienced it, the cheer-leading-game.

'What? These are all for me, right?'

Getting all tatt-ed up for the big game.

As if we needed any more excitement, this was Allie's weekend to take home the class dolphin, 'Echo.' So naturally, Echo came to the football game with us.

Here's Echo...right before...

He was tossed aside for 'poms.' (Apparently over the past 20 years, they have dropped the second 'pom'...who knew?)

Allie has taken a huge shine to the cheerleaders and they have been so sweet to her every time we go to the games. She hops out onto the track right along beside them and this time, they lent her her very own set of 'poms' and tried to teach her a cheer or two. She's got the spirit part of the gig in the bag, the moves...are a work in progress.

Al wrote 'all about it' for her homework page about her weekend with Echo.

Pre-K homework pride.

Daisy was mesmerized by her work.

And...

by that...

fake nose.

The last dance class before Halloween is the 'spooooo-ky dance performance' class. (Really, it's a normal class where all of the girls wear their costumes, but Allie has a tendency to add dramatic flair to events, so she renamed it...this probably does not surprise you at this point...nor does the fact that every time she mentioned it, she made ghost noises and waved her hands back and forth to set the scene.)

This year's Halloween costume was Merida, the spunky, headstrong, and fierce princess in Disney's movie Brave (it came down to Merida or Wednesday from The Addams Family musical, but Merida won). We celebrated another Halloween wearing a Grandmom Wintrode original costume. The wig, well that was Amazon, but it turned out to be the most fun $16 I've spent in a while. 

Watch out, she and her arrows are on the loose.

 Allie got good use out of her costume this year. Dance class was on Wednesday, her school's Halloween party and parade were on Friday, and then, of course, Halloween wrapped up the week of festivities on Saturday.

This Merida's all smiles with her sugar-feast.
(Mommy and Daddy are the real Brave ones to deal with the aftermath.)

Allie and parades...like peas and carrots.

That hair...

 Since the summer, Allie has gotten to know our neighborhood crew, and has spent a lot of time playing outside with her buddies. This year, we actually went trick-or-treating in our own neighborhood, complete with a block-party, and an after-party dance-fest. She was on cloud nine...until it was time to go to bed...but we'll focus on the pre-bedtime fun. She had a blast.

These kids could empty our candy bowl anytime. This crew is not short on personality or sweetness. We love it.

After two hours of candy-collecting, Allie and her pup were pretty spent. 

Sister snuggles.

And an extra one for brother :o).

Falling Fast!

Well, our multi-month hiatus is a sure sign that my laptop was on the fritz again, along with my ability to stay awake past 'snuggle time' at Allie's bedtime. We blame Wes.

At this point, this is probably old news, but since he'll get a solid showing in this virtual space, I should probably make it blog-official: Wesley John Eicholtz will be joining our crazy crew mid-February. His first and official due-date is February 16th, just four short days after Allie's birthday on the 12th. Since then, February 13th and the 11th have been thrown around for good measure, so we'll just have to see how super-convenient we make it for the grandparent birthday visit, but it's safe to say either way that if this kid is anything like his big sis, February will never be short of celebration.

Allie is pretty darn excited. During tonight's prolonged anti-bedtime attempt, she declared that she wished that Wes was here already and big enough to share her room. (Have I mentioned that our girl doesn't like to be without company? ...Probably not surprising. Dear goodness I hope her brother is patient with the amount of love he's going to get piled on, like it or not.)

Eicholtz Family Gender-Count...all tied up!

We kicked off the last month of summer with our annual Wintrode Family Reunion back in August. We were thrilled to have Nicholas Pfeiffer join us for his first reunion appearance! He's the cute bundle on the right. The furry bundle on the left is 'Crazy Daisy,' as we've dubbed her. She sure is sweet...and she sure is a lot of puppy.

The whole gang of descendants of Richard and Kathleen Wintrode. Bigger and better than ever.

The original 'kids' & co.

The grandkids & co.

The great-grandkids...and growing.

Al and Lukas, ready to take on the creek.

Grandmom's goofy girls.

A rare shot of calm.

Since then, the school year has been rolling on forward and while there's plenty to keep me on my toes, I'm grateful to have my first year 'firsts' behind me in my new position. 

I'm quite certain that these next four months before Wes arrives will fly by with so much to look forward to during the holidays. While I've slacked on my virtual documentation, you can bet we're soaking up the moments (the daily state of our house is our testimony to this) to try to be sure we don't blink and miss it.

Our peaceable kingdom...if only for a sweet moment.

Rest Peacefully, Sweet Pup

Thanks to a missing computer cord, and a busy end of the school year, it's been a bit more than a while since the blog's seen an update. Much has happened in the last two months, the toughest of which was the passing of our sweet Abs. Abby began showing symptoms of not feeling well and within 3 weeks, she was diagnosed with a tumor in her nasal passage that quickly spread to her brain. We put her to rest in late June. We could not have asked for a better companion throughout the past 8 and a half years and we still miss her each day, Chris and I especially, since she was the first to make our family a 'family.' She was a blessing to us and we are grateful to have had her as a part of our life.

******

Back in May, we were rolling on through to the end of the school year and looking forward to summer (even our modified version this year). Allie and I kicked off the beginning of the end of school year festivities with our second prom together.

She accessorized herself, hence the Elsa earrings and necklace.

And there's no accessory needed for these moves.

Secondary-School Selfie

We took advantage of the Spring Farm Tour again this year with fellow-'farmer' Riley and her parents.

BFFs (Best Farming Friends)

This year we added strawberry picking to the agenda.

See this?

It's all going to end up in my belly or on my face.

One last spring squeeze for the spring breeze.

Even though Chris and I are both working this summer, I've found that if you just pretend you're on vacation on the weekends, it's not so bad. We started off the season with a playdate with the Buehlers on one of their last weekends as a family of four. (Welcome baby Aaron!)

Not even the summer heat can melt this cheese.

Juuuust slightly below a choke-hold, but done with love.

We had a quick visit from Auntie Erin on her birthday, which of course called for cake and cuddles.

Somehow Allie figured out how to get closest to the ice cream cake.

We were fortunate that our neighborhood celebrates the fourth of July with early fireworks and festivities so we didn't miss it when we left town over the holiday weekend.

This tatted twosome is too much.

Boom go the fireworks!

We left on the first of July to visit the Chamberlains in Phoenix and check out the wild west of Arizona. With four kids under the age of 5, we made a big impact wherever we went, and we had a blast doing it.

Allie's first taste of 4-wheeling, courtesy of William Bruce and his sweet ride.
(The moms have decided we will recreate this picture and embarrass the heck out of them when they are older.)

We spent 2 nights with Sedona as our scenic homebase. While we were there, the gang took a Pink Jeep Tour through the Red Rocks of Sedona.

Check out this view! (And the landscape's not too bad either ;o)

The wild west of Sedona (a.k.a. Sheriff Callie land for all of you Disney Junior fans out there).

Jules and Jerry found an awesome house that was available for our stay in Sedona. The kids especially enjoyed the back patio during Arizona's 'monsoon' season.

This is what sheer joy times three looks like.

And this is the oft-attempted, but rarely achieved three-sleeping children in one bed trick. They slept like this all night!

We checked off a trip from our bucket-list and made a stop at the Grand Canyon. It was unbelievable. No pictures do it justice, but we'll give it a shot (or two or three...).

Grand, indeed.

This kid's definitely not concerned with the lack of guard-rails.

The whole gang minus Cy on the 4th...no amount of guard rail would convince us that it was a good idea for 1 and a half-year-old to get out of the van.

The Eicholtz Family takes on the Grand Canyon.

Frame of friends.

When we returned from Phoenix, we settled in, and then welcomed Daisy, a 10-week-old white boxer puppy into the family. She's got some pretty big paws to fill (of course she'll never fill them really, but we will love her for own paws) and the house already feels more like a home again with a pup to snuggle.