Opry Mills with Grandma

On Sunday morning, the "ladies" all decided to head over to Opry Mills to do a little window shopping and entertain Julia (Both Pap Pap and Great Pap Pap were at the Titans game). Julia had a good time looking at all of the fish and animals outside of the rainforest cafe and Grandma took us to lunch at the Aquarium Restaurant before we headed back to Knoxville. The Aquarium Restaurant is really cool and we were lucky enough to see a scuba diver feeding live fishies to an eel while we had lunch ( =

Visit with Grandma and Pap Pap...

On the morning after Halloween, I decided to take Julia to Springfield for a visit with Grandma and Pap Pap to avoid the Football Saturday Extravaganza. We got there in time for a late breakfast and enjoyed spending the day outside in the yard. We also went to dinner that night where Julia discovered she enjoyed Mommy's filet mignon much more than her own chicken ( =

It was a dark and spooky night...

No, actually it was a gorgeous fall night on Halloween. The air was crisp and clear and the moon was pretty and bright (although not full). We took Julia for a walk around our neighborhood but only actually knocked on a couple of doors. Mostly, we just wanted to show off her costume and to let her see all of the other kids.

After we walked around our neighborhood, we put our big bowl of candy on a chair on our front porch and went over to some friends' house whose neighborhood really goes all out for Halloween. It was fun to drink some spiked coffee on the porch and watch all of the kids troop down the street in their costumes. Julia was wide-eyed looking at everything and seemed to enjoy being out that night (although there is one grumpy pumpkin picture below when she started to wear out!).

Halloween Party...

Some friends of ours had a Halloween party at the clubhouse in their neighborhood, so we took Julia for a while. Their little boy Victor was also a pumpkin and they were both adorable ( = Julia was super excited about the free pizza and dug right in (as usual).

A little artistic expression...

Since she had so much fun with the pumpkin (and I already had the paints out) I let Julia make her first creation for the refrigerator (and don't worry about the mouth smears, folks...it's all non-toxic and non-lead!).

Carv...err, painting a pumpkin ( =

Well, Julia helped us pick out a great big pumpkin to carve, but I wanted her to join in on the decorating fun, too. Since she's not yet ready to wield sharp knives, I bought some finger paints and let her go to town on a mini-pumpkin ( =

Our lil' pumpkin!

Today we took Julia to Maple Lane Farms to get a pumpkin, take some pictures, and just enjoy the fall weather. Since we were surrounded by pumpkins, I just had to put Julia in her Halloween costume and do a little photo shoot (but I forgot her green sparkle booties!!). She would have been subjected to many, many more pictures except our camera batteries pooped out too quickly ) = Anyway, she was adorable in costume and we had a great time.

Curly Q's...

Julia's hair is finally long enough to leave curly without it looking like she just woke up with a crazy mohawk (= Her curls are adorable and I can't wait until I can start putting little hair bows in it (I think we're getting close...).

Meeting my cousins!

Julia's Uncle Mike and Aunt Brandi drove back to West Virginia after a three year tour in Arizona. They stopped for a couple of days in Springfield and Julia was able to meet her cousins, Kaitlyn and Eliza. Julia was fascinated by the "big girls" and Kaitlyn and Eliza enjoyed playing with their baby cousin. They all especially had fun playing dress-up (although Julia was absolutely freaked out by fairy wings...no idea why...).