Trick Or Treat! Halloween 2007

Synopsis of Halloween, 2007: Maggie really enjoyed Halloween this year. Last week we went to a retirement community for her to "learn" how to go trick-or-treating, and on Halloween our church has an alternative to going out. CBC's Fall Festival is SO much fun! Shirley Haskins makes her homemade donuts (enough to feed 400 people!) - think Krispy Kreme sweetness in a thicker donut. MMM MMM MMM!

My pumpkins this year. I didn't have a lot of time, so they aren't as ornate as years past. Maggie's chicken costume. Notice the blurriness of her basket. She was whipping that thing around like crazy. Looking forward to some candy, I guess. Here we are at the Fall Festival. Tyler and I went as chicken farmers for Maggie's costume. Note that BOTH Daddy and Maggie have their hands in the candy. Our friend Matt and son Bob the Builder - I mean Jake. Zayli and Maggie and Tyler. Zayli was a farmer, too! You know those moments when you child slips away from you in a big crowd and you can't find them? Don't freak out, just look for the duck pond! Maggie got away from me in literally 2 seconds, and there she was, fishing in the duck pond. I know it's a bad angle, but look at the smile on her face! Here we are at the fishing booth. That big smile on my face is because we got a coupon for a free Chik-fil-A sandwich. Yum! Maggie & Zayli thought our props were fun toys. I put some smarties in one of the eggs, and that kept Maggie entertained for about 5 minutes. Zayli was looking at her mommy wondering if she could have some more candy. =) And, our fam. Seriously, does anyone know how to get your child to look AT the camera of the person taking the photo???End of the night. Her costume was so darn hot, she was just sweating! Look at that messy hair! I brought a shirt so she could take the top part of her costume off and still run around in her chicken legs.

Dancing from the Wedding Reception

Here are two short (less than 15 seconds) videos of Maggie dancing at the wedding reception yesterday. Hilarious!!!
Really Groovin' on the Music:

The Sugar has KICKED IN!

Beautiful Wedding, Cute Kids

This afternoon we went to a church wedding (someone at our church got married, whole church was invited). I got to do the flowers, and that was great. I love being able to serve the families in our church by doing the flowers. Amber, the sister of the bride, was in my high school small group for 3 years, and babysits Maggie. Here are some pics:
Kristen, the bride, and sister Amber made a stunning duo!
I did two of these arrangements for the altar.
The cake. Don't you LOVE that ribbon?!?! The colors were great.
At the reception all the kids had a great time. Jack Cook got a bottle of bubbles and Maggie and Zayli couldn't stay away. They were so darn cute following him around. It's a good thing they are only 21 months - almost 3, and not 12. It won't be cute at 12.
Jack, Maggie & Zayli (please note: Tyler got Maggie dressed for the wedding, not me. I had flowers to do all morning and afternoon. I asked him to dress her warm since it was an outdoor reception, and he picked pants.)
Zayli, Maggie, Jack & Leah

Potty Training Update

Scroll down to next post on trick-or-treating if you don't want this update...

After this weekend we've determined several things: 1) Maggie LOVES to use her potty chair. 2) She KNOWS when she's got to go (both kinds). 3) Naked in the house is the way to go. 4) M&M's are a good incentive to learn quickly. 5) Maggie does not understand that panties do NOT equal diapers. Therefore, she's got to wear a diaper when we're out and about or even if she has pants/skirts/dresses on at home. Several times now she's pulled on a skirt or her PJ bottoms and promptly peed in them. I think maybe she thinks if her bottom is covered that is a diaper to her? We'll have to work on this one.

So I guess this means she's sorta trained. We just take off her pants when she is at home and everything works wonderfully. She kinda tells me if we are out somewhere, but not soon enough for me to run her to a toilet. I think she just likes watching "Lady and the Tramp" ("puppies, puppies!" she cries) over and over - she thinks it's fun to watch, we like that it keeps her on the blankets in the living room.

And, a picture of the state of our living room. The area rug is covered with a big blanket and several towels. Potty chair strategically placed for optimal viewing of "Lady and the Tramp", traffic flow, and reciept of M&M's upon proper usage of potty chair. The jar of M&M's is on top of a bookcase next to the TV, and she can see them from her chair.

Trick-Or-Treating for Old and Young

My friend, Kathy, invited Maggie and I to go trick-or-treating at the local retirement community Tuesday evening. We dressed up our girls and had a great time! The residents all sit in their doorways and hand out candy to all the little kids that come through. It only took one nice lady to put candy in Maggie's treat bag to understand what was going on. But, she couldn't get out "trick or treat" so I had her say "please" (and the corresponding "thank you" upon receipt of said candy) to each person handing out candy that I have no intention if giving to her.



As you can see, Maggie went as a chicken and Aaralyn went as a scarecrow. She LOVES that dang costume!!! Unfortunately it is so poly-filled that even when she only wore her diaper underneath it she was still sweating after only 45 minutes in it. I only got Maggie to cluck for one grandpa there, otherwire she pretended to be deaf when I asked her "what does a chicken say?" the other 100 times. This was Maggie's first trick-or-treating experience, and I'm glad she had a good time. It's also nice to know we brightened up someone's day with out visit.

On Halloween we'll be at our church's fall festival with her all chickened-out, so she won't go out that night, but will collect PLENTY of candy from all the booths they have. I'll be painting faces again this year. And FYI: the favorite logo that kids want down here is the Tennesee Titans Logo:
Crazy sports fans!

Peepee in the Potty!!!

This post is really for friends and family who are interested in potty training. If you don't want to hear about pee or poop, please come back in a couple of days for a new post.

As some of you know, Maggie is interested in "going" in the potty since her friend, Zayli, was potty trained in August. Well, I've actually got a free weekend (Friday - Monday) this weekend, so I thought we'd do the naked thing on blankets and towels in the living room and see if she gets it. Tally so far:
Friday after nap to bed time: 4 1/2 peepees & 1 poopy in the potty chair, 1 1/2 pee accidents on the floor
Saturday morning: 3 1/2 peepees, 1 1/2 pees on the floor, 1 poop on the floor (it wasn't a big mess, thank goodness!!!). ONE PEEPEE ANNOUNCED BY MAGGIE AND SHE WENT SAT ON HER POTTY CHAIR!!!!! I am hoping this is real progress for her.

And, if she doesn't get it this weekend, it's not a big deal. We'll try again the 2nd week of November when I don't have a wedding.

More Visitors

John & Amron came out to visit this weekend. Monday we went to a local pumpkin patch for Maggie. We drove there first thing in the morning only to discover the patch is only open for school field trips - so we turned around and went home. Then, Maggie couldn't take a nap (A: too exciting that Gaga and Papa are in the house and B: she's got a cold that makes her cough a lot when she lays down). So, at 2:45 we headed back out for the pumpkin patch hoping she would enjoy it and not be a pill. What does she do? She falls asleep in the car on the way there - didn't even wake up when we took her out of the car when we got there. We walked around for a few minutes while she kept sleeping... but I couldn't take it much longer so I went over to the petting zoo area and woke her up.
She had a GREAT time!!! She pet the calfs and piglets and tried to feed the goats. Then we went over to the grain area where they had big troughs of grain the kids could play in. We came home with a big pumpkin and some squash I cooked up for dinner.How can you not love a snarky face?!?!?

What happens when I'm not paying attention

When I've got something to do on the computer and it's not during Maggie's nap, I usually sit her down on the floor with crayons and paper, or pens and paper. This is what I get for not watching her more closely: pens on the face. This was after I'd told her about 100 times NOT to draw on the floor and wall! You remember a previous post where she drew all over her belly. Did I learn?!?! No. Darn it.

Weddings, Weddings, Weddings

I've just started a busy month of weddings. Check out my flowers blog for pictures of those periodically. Here's the link to that (it is also down below in the left column): Melissa's Flowers

The funny thing is, I look at my flowers blog, and I still can't believe I, me, Melissa Marie Spaid, wife of Tyler, and mother to Maggie, actually did them. When I look at my friends' wedding albums (the ones where I did the flowers) it still takes me a while to realize that those good-lookin' flowers were done by me. I'm not trying to be prideful or boasting, either. I am just so THANKFUL to God for this hobby and talent. It is fun to do even after all this time.

Family Visit: Mormor & Hilmer

Tyler's grandma Mormor and husband Hilmer came to visit us this weekend on their way to a boat cruise through rivers of the South. Maggie has learned 2 new words: Mormor (moh-moh) and papa for Grandpa Hilmer. She uses them frequently!

Friday Tyler took them to the Carter House while I did flowers for a wedding. The Carter House was a plantation in the 1800's that was involved in the Civil War's Battle of Franklin. It is a really cool tour: the house is still in it's original state & there are bullet holes all over, you get to see and hear all kinds of fun stories, and the tour guides are still bitter about the "War of Northern Aggression." It is by far one of the most informative tours I've ever been on.
Bullet holes from the battle still scar the boys' dormitory.
The Carter House with Mormor, Tyler & Maggie.
Saturday morning we went to the BelleMeade Plantation. It was a horse farm mainly. You can tour all the grounds for free (costs to go inside the mansion). We looked at the original home before the mansion was built, the smokehouse, carriage house (which was bigger than the house) and the slaves quarters. It is really interesting.
Tyler, Mormor & Maggie on the BelleMeade Plantation.
Maggie & Mormor in front of the carriage house.
Me & Hilmer horsing around.
Backside of the mansion (didn't take a front picture...)
Mormor, Maggie, Me, Tyler & Hilmer.
Mormor & Maggie on a walk.
The slaves quarters (these are not original, they were brought down from another local plantation as no slaves quarters on this plantation are in existence). This is a very real reminder of the history of this area of the country, and around the world for that matter. Let's not forget where we've been so we don't repeat it!

To the Zoo

Last Saturday (I know, late in posting) Tyler whisked us off to the Nashville Zoo, which is only 10 minutes from our house. It's not a very big zoo, but a lot of fun. Maggie really enjoyed the elephants,meerkats and the parrot house, I loved the giraffes and big cats. We decided to get the annual membership, because it is $2 cheaper to get that than to visit twice. Now that Maggie is a toddler, I'm sure we'll spend a lot more time visiting the zoo.

Maggie with her lamb and a real sheep in the farm area.
Maggie & Daddy.
Gotta love elephants!
The giraffes were so cool!