Daddy Got A Red Motorcycle!!!

Chloe trying on Daddy's red motorcycle helmet in anticipation of the scooter's arrival.
Chloe and Matt on his new, red scooter.

While we were in Colorado Matt received a job offer from a financial investment firm to be their Chief Technology Officer. It has been Matt's career goal to be a CTO and we are so proud of him for achieving this success. This means that he will no longer have to travel and will be working exclusively in the city. After receiving the job offer, Matt began looking for a scooter to take him to the train station (you don't have to have a parking pass for a scooter) so that Chloe and I will not have to get up at the crack of dawn to drop him off. He found a red Piaggio scooter that was in mint-condition nearby while searching the internet while we were in Colorado. When we returned home we went to look at the scooter and purchased it on the spot. It was delivered to us Wednesday.

Chloe was so excited when the man arrived to deliver the scooter (which she calls a motorcycle). She kept running around the house yelling, "Daddy got a red motorcyle!". I was talking to my mother on the phone when Chloe came running in, climbed in my lap, grabbed my face to look at her and said, "Daddy got a red motorcycle. It has a compartment to keep his stuff and a seat!". Yes, that seat is a nice feature.

Native American Princess

We left for Colorado early and missed the Thanksgiving feast/re-inactment at Chloe's pre-school. Chloe's teacher sent home Chloe's costume for the party on Monday of this week. Chloe made a necklace of pasta and clay beads, a vest with feathers, a head dress and a placemat. She was so proud of the items she made.

Fall Leaves

It has been a late fall here in the northeast. We have been waiting for the leaves on our trees to fall. Of course, as luck would have it, they all dropped while we were in Colorado. We returned home to a yard that looked like it belonged to a vacant house. Several hours of raking returned us one broken rake, several large piles of leaves and a restored lawn.

Looking out our front door at the walk up to the door. Its covered in leaves
A "before" shot of our front yard.
An "after" shot.

Thanksgiving in Colorado

We spent this Thanksgiving in Colorado this year with my parents, my sister and brother-in-law. Chloe and I flew out on Monday before Thanksgiving and Matt came out on Wednesday.

Monday was a beautiful, warm day in Denver and we enjoyed dinner at Deanna's house alfresco on her lovely patio. By the time Matt arrived on Wednesday the weather had changed dramatically and snow was on the ground.

Other than spending time with family, one of the highlights of the trip was then evening concerts played by Chloe and her Uncle John (my brother-in-law).

Of course, after their concert was over Chloe insisted that we all form a band and handed out instruments for each of us to play. Deanna played the wooden, musical pig (don't ask, I can't explain it), PaPaw played a mean accordian, Chloe was on the guitar, John played the drumsticks on a puzzle box, BeBe played the tambourine with a jangle bracelet and I was on kazoo. It was a feast for one's ears. We could not control our laughter but Chloe took the music very seriously.

On Thanksgiving Chloe and I were in charge of decorations and we made leaves for everyone's glasses. On the leaf, each person wrote what they were most thankful for. Uncle John's leaf won the prize with "Every Day I Wake".

Chloe loved playing seeing BeBe and PaPaw, Aunt Deanna and Uncle John and the snow.

Preparing for Thanksgiving

Chloe is old enough now that she gets what holidays are all about. I wanted to teach her the message of Thanksgiving and that we should all be thankful for the abundance and gifts in our lives everyday. I purchased the book below and we read it together. I then asked Chloe what she was thankful for and made a list. I traced her hand on construction paper and then wrote one thing Chloe was thankful for on each hand. We then glued the hands on to a tree that I had made on a poster board. After all the hands were on the tree we hung it on our refrigerator to look at and be thankful for each day.

Artwork

I have been more than slack in updating this blog. I just didn't have the spirit to update and now I have a month's backlog of details and photos.

I think I mentioned in a previous post that Chloe drew some pictures with our babysitter one evening and insisted that they be titled. As I was cleaning up the other day, I came across the drawing in Chloe's notebook and thought I should post them as they are very funny. Chloe loves to draw pictures of me and this is me going inside the house.
This is titled "Chloe the Clown".

Happy Halloween

Ready to go trick or treat.
I had hoped to have photos of Chloe in Halloween outfit #2, but wouldn't you know it, the outfit I ordered to replace outfit #1 (because I didn't think it would arrive by Halloween) didn't arrive by Halloween--and it was guaranteed to. I don't know how it was mailed, but apparently it was sent via horse and rider as it was mailed on October 24 and as of today has still not arrived. Halloween outfit #2 will be Halloween outfit 2008.

Chloe's cousins sent her a diva pumpkin kit and we decorated our diva pumpkin on Tuesday. After all was decorated, Chloe informed me that the pumpkin looked like me. Thanks.
Chloe and the "diva" pumpkin.
Chloe knew what Halloween was all about this year and was so very excited to go "trick or treating". We headed out about 5:30 p.m. and met the other kids and parents on our street to go door to door. We were out for about 1.5 hours. Chloe's favorite treat was a ring pop.

Daddy and Chloe heading out to get some candy.
"Trick or Treat!"
Chloe and the gang heading to the next house.

On Thursday we loaded up all the candy and left it out on the table for the Halloween Fairy. I got this idea from my sister-in-law and after Chloe had a tantrum Wednesday night when she was cut-off from the candy, we decided we would bring in the Halloween Fairy on Thursday. See, you get to select just a few pieces from your stash and then you leave the rest out for the Halloween Fairy who comes and takes your candy and leaves a present behind. Before nap, Chloe left all her candy, sans some brain gummies from BeBe, on the dining room table for the Fairy. When she woke from nap there was a present on the table. Chloe was so delighted with her present that she hasn't asked for any candy. It's been a delight.

P.S. I almost forgot to add---several people thought Chloe was a Hawaiian hula girl because of the flowers on her crown. Hmmm, yes, I could see how you could miss seeing the wings and the wand she was holding and the outfit's apparent lack of a lei and grass skirt---can you tell I was annoyed a bit? Our loud-mouthed neighbor was the first to shout out that he thought she was a hula girl. I told him she was a fairy and he told me that he thought Chloe "looked" Hawaiian and therefore she was a hula girl. Uh, she's Asian and what he basically said was if she were fair-haired he'd say she was a fairy, otherwise she looked like a hula girl. He's a moron and I didn't want to pummel someone on Halloween in front of Chloe, so I let it slide. Matt and I already sized this neighbor up as a bafoon before so it wasn't a shocker. But, three other neighbors got the stink-eye when they guessed hula girl too. ALL MORONS!