October 31, 2009 by Dad.

Saturday was the day Ouma & Oupa left and went back home - to Africa. After Cezanne and I took them to the airport we had lunch and played next door in the leaves. Later that afternoon we went to Chloe’s house for “Halloween” aka “Dress Up Candy Day” since that is really all it amounts to. I look at it like the most agnostic people look at Christmas or Easter - I could care less about the “meaning” behind it and really only care that it is an excuse to dress the kids up, have fun and score a little free candy along the way.

It was very cold, about 45F, the kids never felt it but eventually the parents who chaperoned the herd decided we were cold and the candy haul was sufficient.

Our herd consisted of one Cinderella, one Ariel, one Minnie Mouse and a pair of pirates…

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October 31, 2009 by Dad.

Our wonderful neighbors were away for a few days and they have a great big Maple tree in their back yard which dropped all its leaves in a matter of a day or two and so there was a huge pile of beautiful yellow leaves. Cezanne and I decided to “trespass” and play in the leaves…Cezanne decided that she needed to make her own leaf pile to jump into and so ended up picking up piles of cold wet leaves and running down the hill to an open patch of lawn where she assembled her “pile”.

I took a few pictures of the fun.

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October 30, 2009 by Dad.

Cezanne is now in the 3 year old program at the Kensington School of Naperville and her teachers, Mrs Powel and Mrs Russel are great. This week it was the Autumn Concert and all the kids had to dress in their Halloween costumes. Cezanne did a great job of singing and doing all the actions - this really is her “passion” at the moment - anything with singing or dancing or performing. Honestly and unbiased I have to admit she was the only one of the twenty in the class that did all the actions and knew all the words to all the songs…

In they come…	Singing songs…	…more singing…
…and some more.	Boo !	“Trick or Treat !”
The entire class from left to right in costume…
Cezanne & Sophie (BFF)	Cezanne & Mrs Russel	Cezanne & Mrs Powel

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October 29, 2009 by Dad.

After having been away for a week and then trying to catch up on my Daddy duties to a 3 year old and a new born, I am a little burned out so forgive the delay in providing up-to-the-minute updates on our family and its new expansion…

Anyway, ranting aside, here is what we did today…

We have a new evening routine, we now bath first at about 5pm and then eat dinner and then brush teeth and then read stories and then go to bed…

This new routine has been a bit hit and miss, and so we have concluded that no matter which way round you do things, at the end of the day Cezanne is tired and we just need to be considerate of the fact and help her along the path to bed so as to avoid any potential melt down events.

Tonight, after bath and while I was trying to get her dressed Cezanne decided that she needed a crown. Not just any crown mind you, a panty crown. Here is what she looked like… Yet more proof that this child must have a little alien in her…

Please be sure to read the last few days worth of posting and catch up

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October 25, 2009 by Dad.

While chatting to my parents over the weekend, Cezanne decided to draw a picture of Etienne for them.

We were on our way to Trick or Trees ( see posting ) and both kids were dressed in their Halloween costumes. Etienne was dressed as a cowboy with boots and hat.

Here is Cezanne’s first drawing of her brother. She included details like his lips and his tongue.

Original	Marked Up Copy

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October 25, 2009 by Dad.

Just like the Zoo, the Morten Arboretum has their own special Halloween program called Trick or Trees.

We dressed Cezanne in her costume again ( making sure to get good value for money out of it ) and headed out to a very busy Arboretum with high hopes of a fun day out, possibly one of the last sunny and mild days before the arctic freeze sets in.

We saw so many wonderful costumes and made our way through the Children’s Garden trying to find the play group. We stopped to paint a pumpkin and then moved on to the rope bridges in the trees.

This is where Cezanne let us down. She had a potty accident we decided to leave despite the fact that both Lanelle and I were having a good time. ( We figured it was a fitting punishment for a big girl who should know better and who by now should be able to say when she needs to go potty ). After we got home and later looked at the photos I felt bad having missed photographic evidence that she needed to go…

Photos from the outing

Happy Fall 2009	The missed clue !!	Pumpkin Princess

Cross w/ Care	Pumpkin Painting Fun !

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October 18, 2009 by Dad.

We are now members at the Brookfield Zoo and they have a fall program called Boo at the Zoo where the kids go in costume. I think it is really more for the older kids since most of the really cool things seem to come out at night. We went mid-morning to meet up with the play group. The sun was out for a change but it was quite a chilly day and many kids were not in costume or were in jackets that covered most of what they were supposed to be. Cezanne was brave and stayed in her Cinderella dress and received a lot of compliments from other Zoo visitors saying how beautiful her dress was.

After a while we parted from the group because we wanted to see the bears while they went to see the monkeys and we now had Mr “I’m Hungry Now” to keep in mind.

Cezanne loves the Merry-Go-Round or Carousel and so as a treat before we leave each time we have a ride. This time on a kangaroo…

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October 12, 2009 by Dad.

Yes, Cezanne is very loving towards Etienne.

Sitting on the sofa with “Baby Etienne”.

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October 10, 2009 by Dad.

The annual play group Halloween party was on Saturday and Lanelle was able to get Cezanne to agree on what she wanted to be a few weeks ago and so was able to find a dress that would act both as costume and then after wards could be added to the dress up box. The costume for this year was Cinderella and Lanelle found a perfect dress online for a steal. Cezanne loved it because it was a wonderful “twirling dress”.

The party was again at Kim’s ( Jeffery ) house and she setup a few games for the kids to play this year which actually worked really well now that they are old enough to understand. One in particular that was lots of fun was the skeleton that had lost all his bones and the kids had to find the missing bones around the house. Once the skeleton was complete the kids turned the game around and each one grabbed a bone and then hid the bone and the game started all over again.

Cinderella Cezanne	Happy Family	Bone Collector
The dress	Dancing Divas	Tada ! Splits
Ready, Steady, Candy !	Pulling the Pinata	Sugar Rush !

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October 5, 2009 by Dad.

Check Sept 20 for posts we missed due to the arrival of the baby brother…

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