The week before Halloween

Last weekend, we had our neighbors Mark and Karen over for dinner to thank Mark for installing our new cable jack. We were having seafood scampi, and this was the first time Avonlea Jane was aware enough to want to interact with a lobster we brought home.

She was interested in the lobster...until it moved toward her.

Avonlea Jane has been affectionate lately, requesting lots of hugs, kisses, hand holding, and snuggle time. She's taken to hugging and kissing all of her friends goodbye.

Hugging Alma goodbye at her weekly play date

Hugging Violet goodbye

Getting ready for her last swim lesson of the season

Some weeks, Avonlea Jane has just Daddy in the pool with her, just Mommy, or both of us. This week for her last lesson, we had just Daddy get in so that Mommy could take pictures.

Practicing getting out of the pool

Taking a ride on Daddy

Normally, Avonlea Jane is a very neat eater, but she was very hungry after swimming.

Avonlea Jane loves to take pictures of her little pumpkin with her toy camera. On this day, she asked to have her hair put up. I told her I needed to go grab some ponytail holders before doing her hair. When I was done putting it up, she looked at me questioningly while tugging on her hair: "horses?" It did not occur to me that she would, of course, not understand the term "pony tail."

On Thursday, we headed downtown to meet her friends Abby and Cad for the Halloween carnival. The pedestrian mall has been nearly impossible to walk down on the weekends this month, but it wasn't that crowded on Thursday night. We've needed to avoid the pedestrian mall though, because Avonlea Jane is terrified of the giant copper witch who you can see standing in front of the building to the right.

Talking to Caddy while his mom buys the final touches for her park ranger costume (to match his bear costume).

Stopping at the bakery for a drink before heading to the carnival

Abby, Avonlea Jane, and Cad

Getting on the carousel with Abby

Avonlea Jane and Violet taking a rest from shopping at IKEA

We went to IKEA to get some things for Avonlea Jane's birthday party next weekend, about which she is very excited. She keeps telling us about presents and "happy cake" and naming all of her friends who will be there.

When we got home from IKEA last night, Violet and her mom Niccole stayed for dinner. While the adults were getting dinner prepared, the girls were watching a little bit of the movie Babe. In addition to paying attention to the animals in the movie, they were kissing each other's boo-boos. Avonlea Jane loves to make up boo-boos for us to kiss, and the boo-boos move around: "No, other toe. Other toe. Other toe. No, Avonlea Jane's chin." Apparently, this is something Violet likes to do as well. They spent a couple minutes doing this before I was able to grab the camera.