Happy Halloween!

Buzz Lightyear invaded our house this year- starting back in September! Tucker was beyond excited when he was able to dress up and actually go somewhere dressed as Buzz. Well, actually lots of places... Fall Festival at church, school, Aunt Laura's trick or treat party, and to trick or treat to Aunt Becca's and Uncle Matt's. Let's just say, that costume is finally getting the cleaning it should! Tucker had a blast this Halloween. Mr. Independent wanted to go all by himself up to doors and learned what it meant when a bowl of candy was just sitting there. He had a great Halloween! Must say we are glad the festivities are all over- we are all exhausted! Family at Aunt Laura's

Look what I got!!!

Heading off to the first house

Ready to go- light sticks and all!

Gateway to the West

We just returned (well a week or so ago) from our annual trip to St. Louis! We go each year to visit family and many favorite places. Our trip various from fall to spring or summer (skip the winter with all the snow). This year, we chose October so we could witness the marriage of Katie's cousin, Ryan and his wife, Meryl. We were able to visit with family, head up to the country for the day and do lots of visiting- especially to the zoo!! Tucker was living for St. Louis and his trip to see the elephants!

Just watching the elephants!

Cousins! The littlest ones- Abby, Chloe, Tucker and Ellen

(We stayed with Chloe and Ellen and Tucker was in heaven!)

Saving Sasha

Please check out our dear friends, Lindsay and Gary Hagler, blog. They are raising money to adopt sweet Sasha from Eastern Europe. Please read their blog and consider donating or helping in some way! http://helpsavesasha.blogspot.com/

Sasha needs your help!!

The Fair

Well, we thought since we are now residents of Walker County, we should experience the Walker County Fair. We went on a week night and Tucker had a blast. He had his first funnel cake, won his first two prizes (well, kind of, now you pay for what ever you want to "win"), had a bite or two of cotton candy, and most importantly, he rode on his first rides!! He LOVED the motorcycles, which were just perfect for his size. He wanted to go on them over and over again! Fun was had by all!

This train ride was a big jerky and made us a bit nervous- only rode it once!

Favorite ride- the motorcycles!

Excited boy going into the fair!

Welcome to the Barnyard

A couple of weeks ago, we joined some friends at the zoo for the first time since June. It was so nice to get out and enjoy the Fall weather. We not only enjoyed the zoo and good company but tried out one of the zoo classes for toddlers. Tucker had fun learning about the barn animals and making a treat for the chickens! Definitely worth a try if you are looking for something to do with your little one.

Can't seem to get my 3 yr old to look at the camera- everywhere else!

Chef Tucker

Tucker and Mommy had a day of baking planned for today. We had several things to make that we wanted to take to the river. On our list: Morning Glory muffins, chocolate chip cookies, and roasted veggie orzo salad. Just a few yummy things for us to enjoy! But Tucker added one other item: Pizza! Mushroom Pizza!

A little background knowledge... Tucker has become a fan of Calliou. Calliou is a cartoon on PBS or Sprout (which ever your choice) who is growing up. You get to see all of his adventures in growing up too. One adventure in particular has become Tucker's favorite: Calliou makes pizza. While we were staying with Grandma and Pop King, Tucker had recorded this particular Calliou on the DVR. He watched it over and over again. Unfortunately it ended up getting deleted. But we were lucky recently and were able to DVR it here at our house. Got to love those reruns! Anyhow, this morning while getting ready for school, Tucker was watching this exact show. I then found him in the kitchen making his own yogurt pizza. You'll see that he is even measuring the yogurt into the measuring cup so it can go into the mixing bowl. Well, let's just say that Mommy had some major persuading to do to get us out the door and off to school. One of those being a promise of picking up a mix that he could make into pizza dough (even though we have super yummy Publix pizza dough in our freezer). Let's just say thank goodness Mommy followed through. As soon as Tucker was in the car from school, he was talking about making his mushroom pizza. Here are a few pictures to let you see how serious this cooking was! Must say, at least our fella will know how to cook for his future wife one day! Hope she likes mushroom pizza! :)

Here you see the "first yogurt pizza" being measured out

This was my little chef before school

Then we continued after school. While our dough was prebaking, he mixed is mushrooms and mini turkey pepperoni (as all chefs MIX their pizza toppings).

Spreading the wonderful family secret pizza sauce (other wise known as Hunt's tomato sauce with basil and oregano- makes good pizza).

Must have the mozzerella (said with our best accent)!

Adding the yummy toppings!

Finished product going into the oven!

Waiting, waiting, waiting! (Not really, once it was made, he took off!)

Testing it out! He couldn't wait for dinner. Kept saying it was for lunch but I kept reminding him he had lunch at school!

Adventures in Books

For the past two years, Tucker has constantly chosen the book, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, as a nighttime read. Our routine at naptime (less and less these days) and at bedtime is for Tucker to pick two books out. Over the past two years, I have added more and more of my classroom picture books (now they are all in our "library"). Now, some would say this book is too advance for a 2 or 3 year old, but I would disagree. From the beginning, we have fully read books to Tucker. Not just little books that have shapes and small pictures (we have read those too). But we have read books that have meat too them. He loves them and whether or not he fully gets them is besides the point. The point is to expose Tucker to as much language as possible. He loves the pictures and learns so much from the new words. These days we take forever getting through a book because of all the questions. Questions he learns from!

So, that being said, this book is one of our favorites- especially the beginning where the pancake is a flying object that lands on Henry's head. We love pancakes and I think Tucker can relate to this part of the book since he and Daddy make waffles and pancakes together. Well, we knew that a movie had come out last year and Harris and I had wondered if it would be any good or even appropriate for Tucker to watch (which it isn't). And now that we have entered the land of DVR, we decided to tape it one evening so Tucker could see it. On Saturday, Tucker and I sat down to watch and see what it was like. From the beginning, Tucker kept asking about the pancake part (and yes, we did at least finally get a pancake on the school scene). And then he kept asking about who this boy was and why was he not in the book or was he Henry (no he isn't ). He even remarked that the movie was not the book- Wow! From a old teacher's point of view, this is a great start with reading comprehension!

Last night, Tucker decided we needed to read Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, along with Curious George and the Perfect Carrot (b/c carrots and meatballs go together- did you know that?). He still was comparing and looking for things from the movie. It was a great nighttime read and reading discussion. We both decided we didn't want to see the movie again and would just keep reading the book (over and over and over again)!

Am I claiming that Tucker can truly read? Heck no! Am I excited that he is getting enough from the books we read to make comparisons that help him understand the book even more? Yes! Maybe this blog is the teacher in me missing teaching (yes, this happens about this time every year). Maybe just a proud Mama. I think a little of both! :)

All I know to say is read with your little ones. Read all kinds of books- not just the little board books that they can chew on too! Reading starts so early and in ways you might not normally think of!