Here Comes A New Shelmet

At Zoe's school there was a tree that came down a while ago. That tree was chopped up into chunks and they were placed near one of the exits of the school. Every day when we go to leave, she wants to climb and jump and dance on them, so we let her. As some of you may know, I'm not very handy in the kitchen.That being the case, Cheryl is very excited to train a new helper that will do what needs doing while keeping out of her way. That's where Zoe comes in. Here she is giving mommy a little hand peeling a carrot. This weekend we also went to Clark Park. Zoe enjoys going down into the large "bowl" area and just running around. Her and a couple of her friends found a drain cover and were attempting to use it as an impromptu stage. Sadly, it wasn't large enough to fit all three at once, at least not with all of the dancing going on. Well, Halloween is just around the corner. I can't wait!

We went to Linvilla to get some pumpkins and hang out with the animals. There were a lot of Halloween-themed items around and our little witch posed for a few pictures. She just needs to learn how to look at the camera when she's smiling, but we're almost there. Even though it wasn't in line with the upcoming holiday, Zoe did have her first pony ride. She was hesitant at first, because neither mommy nor daddy was able to walk with her, but she made it all the way around without jumping off. After that we made our way over to the pumpkins so we could pick some out. There was a hay bale chair, as well as some wooden crates, that made for good spots to stop and take some pictures. I made sure to interfere in some of those. Once we got the pumpkins home, a few days later Zoe asked to do some painting. We wound up with a lot of beautiful pumpkin art throughout the house. Oh yeah, and there was glitter. Lots and lots of glitter. Seriously, you have no ide

Our little artist really likes to draw. Her favorite thing to draw, by far, is a rainbow. This usually involves little blocks of color all of the page that are very bright and full. They're probably some of my favorite pieces as well. However, Zoe is capable of doing lots of different art with a range of mediums. Here is a sample of some of those. And here is the artist proudly showing off one of her pieces. When Zoe is drawing I like to join in to show her that old folks like art too. One of my go to drawings at this time is to make little caricatures of each of us, put angry eyebrows on them with a pouty face. This seems to entertain Zoe immensely. She even posed with my rendition of her and made the appropriate face. If you have never seen Zoe make this face, then you probably haven't seen her much since she turned 2. You can see all of this artwork, and more, in the Artwork album on Flickr.

All three of us were able to head up to Bounce U to celebrate Lilly's Third Birthday. Even though we had Zoe's birthday there earlier this year, it was really cool to see that they changed things around and some of the rooms had different inflatable things to play on. Of course, they still had the old reliable, like the giant slides. But one of the new things that they had this time around was something called Daredevil Island. It was essentially a miniature version of the giant air beds that movie stunt folks jump onto from high up. Zoe wanted to do it so bad, but didn't have the courage to jump. Luckily, I had the courage to throw her. She was very brave and did it at least 3 times. I was terrified every time I had to jump down after her. Here is a short video clip of her being thrown. They also had air hockey, which she had played once before with me when we were down the beach. It was the single longest game in history, unfortunately Guinness wasn't

We all went to wish Hank a Happy Third Birthday. There was a bouncy house, the pool was open and there were lots of other toys to play with. Zoe took advantage of them all and really enjoyed spending time with her cousins. One of the gifts that Zoe enjoyed most was the drum set that we got for Henry. She really like jamming on that, while singing. It even looks like the cousins could start their own band! Cheryl got a bit of Zoe's drum solo so that everyone can hear just how awesome she is as a drummer. It was really great to hang out and see everyone while getting to wish Hank a happy birthday.

It is amazing to see the transformation of Zoe from the beginning of the summer to the end. When she started out in the pool this season, she was doing what we referred to as controlled drowning. But now that the summer is almost over, she has grown in confidence and ability (as well as just gotten taller) such that she is able to tread water really well and, when we're in the shallow end, stand on her tip toes. She also does this thing where she hangs off the side of the pool. She is really brave around the water. Here she is hanging off the edge taking a deep breath and then putting her face under the water. She also does an amazing job kicking around the pool. Granted, she's doing all this in her puddle jumper, but that's only because there is no way to take pictures of her while she's "swimming" without it on and keep her safe. I can't wait to see what's she capable of next year! I took Zoe for what will most likely be her last trip t