Pumpkin Carving

Friday was a fantastic day for Lauren! She was able to have a Halloween party at Mariah's house and even take a long walk over to the local preschool and watch their costume parade. Lauren was so tired from all these activities, she was still sleeping when I arrived around 4pm to pick her up! Mariah said Lauren loved dancing all around with her skunk costume on. Oh, to be two again!



Carving pumpkins with Daddy.



Modeling for the camera



Lauren was so proud of the pumpkins Mommy and Daddy carved for her. In fact when she woke up this morning she immediately asked me where the pumpkins were.


One tired little girl!

The Great Highwood Pumpkin Festival 2010

Our little town of Highwood has been buzzing with excitement this past week. We were trying to break the world record of just under 30,200 jack-o-lanterns lit at once by lighting 32,000. This means all of the businesses, schools, and community members have been terribly busy carving pumpkins the past week for the great lighting last night. Along with this great jack-o-lantern lighting, there have been numerous activities to participate in as well. I'm so proud of our little town for coordinating and accomplishing all of this!


Our little skunk showing us her pee-you face before we went trick or treating to the local businesses Friday evening.



Geoff carving two pumpkins in honor of Lauren. He carved a L in one and an H in the other pumpkin. The town was so smart to have all of the pumpkins pre-gutted and for sale for only $2.50. There were carving stations all around town where people could carve right on the streets and then put their pumpkins up on the scaffolding.



A view of one pumpkin wall early Saturday morning.


We were up and in town so early Saturday morning because Geoff ran in a 5K race. All of the runners were encouraged to dress in costumes, so Geoff wore his marching band gear. Lauren and I were so proud to watch him round the final corner and finish with a time of just over 26 minutes. Way to go, Daddy!


After the big race, Bridie McKenna's, a local irish pub, provided a huge breakfast buffet for all of the race participants. All three of us enjoyed this wonderful breakfast. It started to sprinkle a little bit on the way home and Lauren just broke out in song! Thank goodness the rain did go away for the afternoon and evening. We had a storm come through around 8, but most of the rain held off for the big festival.


Mammie and Papa stopped by on their way home from South Dakota. We tried to hard to get Lauren to pose for a fall photo, but she just wouldn't look and smile at the same time.



Lauren's pumpkins all lit up waiting to be counted!



The main wall all lit up.

Even though we didn't beat the world record, currently held by Boston, the community feel around Highwood this past week has been fantastic! The unofficial count was 26,000 pumpkins lit this year. I KNOW we will beat the record next year!


After we returned from the jack-o-lantern lighting, we celebrated Aunt Stephanie's birthday with some gifts, singing, and caramel apple pie. What a wonderful family afternoon and evening we had!

Fall Fun

Showing off her new Elmo slippers.



Last Monday I had the day off so Lauren and I met a few friends at a local pumpkin patch. The kids had so much fun climbing on the pumpkins.



Lauren and Logan had so much fun riding on the car ride at the pumpkin patch. Once they located the horn, they really had a blast. Logan is the son of the woman I was able to job share with last year. Boy do I miss that arrangement! Glad we can still get together with our kids though. Lauren and Logan love playing together.



Geoff was able to be home a bit earlier last Thursday, so we took a family nature walk. Lauren found this huge stick and enjoyed walking on the trails with it.



Lauren made this kitty cat mask at day care last week. She was so proud of it and loved modeling for the camera. She also made a ghost, pumpkin, Happy Halloween sign, and a spider. Her artwork is decorating all of our windows.



Lauren is becoming more and more interested in playing dress up. In fact, Lauren used a sand bucket for a hat this morning and even brought one over for me to wear! Geoff's aunt got this hat for Lauren and she loves wearing it or asking others to wear it.

Happy Birthday, Aunt Stephanie!

Big Girl Room

Friday evening was a major stepping stone in the Hanson Household. Lauren slept in her new big girl room for the first time!

Geoff and I have been so busy cleaning out the old guest room, painting it, and then setting up new furniture to make it a new big girl room for Lauren. My parents helped a few weeks ago with taking out the old furniture and bringing my old bedroom furniture over. Aunt Stephie is in the process of painting my old furniture to freshen it up and make it new for Lauren.

Friday was the big switch. We tucked Lauren into, not only her new room, but new toddler bed as well. No more crib for our big girl! I checked on Lauren right before I went to bed and noticed she was lying perpendicular in her bed and her knees and feet were completely hanging off the bed. So Geoff came up and moved her legs back into bed. Not only did she sleep through this, but through the entire night as well!

Our first difficulty came during Saturday's nap time. Lauren didn't understand that she had to stay in her bed during nap time. So after about 45 minutes and three or four times of me going up to her room and explaining this to her, she finally fell asleep. However, after only sleeping for about an hour, (she normally sleeps for about three hours on the weekends) her paci fell on the floor and woke her up. Saturday night was great though! Another night of sleeping all the way through the night in her big girl bed.

When Geoff got home this afternoon we ran some errands to pick up some black out curtains for Lauren's room and a larger rug. I am hoping both of these items will help her nap better. Maybe if it's darker she will fall into a deeper sleep and with a new rug under her bed if her paci falls, hopefully it won't wake her up. We will see!

More pictures of Lauren's room coming soon. There are still some decorations I would like to hang on the walls before I take the final photos.

GO BLUE!!

A quick photo with Daddy before he left for the big game.

Mammie's Birthday Weekend

We spent last weekend back in Rockford in honor of Mammie's birthday. We had a full schedule, not only filled with family celebrations, but lots of adventures as well.


We spent some time in downtown Rockford Saturday morning checking out the Harvest Festival. As we were walking by the river Lauren noticed this statue of President Lincoln, called him a "silly guy" and then climbed up right next to him.



A beautiful fall photograph taken near the Rockford Dam.



Fall Family Fotograph



On Sunday morning, after a birthday breakfast celebration for Mammie we all headed to the apple orchard. Lauren loved playing in the corn crib. It was like a sand box, but filled with cord kernels. She loved using the shovels and filling other containers with these kernels. In fact, she want back time and time again.



Selecting the perfect pumpkin with Papa.



Taking a little break in the wagon. We couldn't believe it when we looked back and Lauren had arranged her feet this way!



Sampling the fresh apples.



Picking apples with Daddy.

ArtPrize 2010

This past weekend we traveled back to Grand Rapids for lots of family fun in honor of my Mom's birthday. On Saturday evening we went downtown Grand Rapids to see ArtPrize. ArtPrize is a collection of all types of art from paintings to sculptures to art on toast made up from 1713 different artists. The exhibits were amazing and just being downtown in such a festive atmosphere made for a fantastic Saturday evening.


Sculpture of Martin Luther King Jr made of Rubix cubes. I love all of the expression shown in his face and can't believe someone could do this using Rubix Cubes.



These were three elephants whose heads moved up and down with the wind. Lauren loved them!



Sculpture of Creation made strictly out of used crayons. A principal designed this and then students put it together.



This sculpture is called A Matter of Time. Each time I look at it I am able to find more animals. Amazing that a man can sculpt with so much detail.



Taking a break for a short carousel ride. I think Daddy and Uncle Jon Boy enjoyed it as much as Lauren did.



This was a drawing using only pencil. Far away it looked like a black and white photograph, but up close you could see each of the individual pencil stokes. I can only image how much time this took!

I still don't know if my favorite is the Cavalry pencil drawing, A Matter of Time wooden sculpture, or the Rubix Cube mosaic of MLK jr.