Nana’s coming to town! We are excited about picking her up from the airport tonight. She’ll be here a week and a half and we have lots of fun things planned.

Madilyn’s been battling a cold this week so we hope she gets better soon so she can enjoy her Nana being here. She wasn’t able to go to school this week and Mommy’s feeling a little crazy!

Madilyn helped Mommy decorate Halloween cupcakes Saturday.

Jeff drinking from Madilyn’s sippy cup … Sometimes you gotta use whatever’s not dirty.

The family met at John and Pam’s for a big family photo, followed by dinner and Trick-or-Treating! This was Madilyn’s first year and she loved it – thanks to her big cousins who showed her the ropes. See the pictures below or look at them on our Picasa page.

And thanks to Leta & family who gave us the adorable costume. She loved wearing it!

We enjoyed the Mt. Dora Arts & Crafts Festival this morning with Madilyn’s Aunt Pam, Mimi and cousin Dawn who’s visiting from Maryland. It was so hot and we got a little sun, but the shopping was good.

Madilyn was so excited about Trunk-er-Treat tonight that she couldn’t sleep this afternoon. She couldn’t wait to be Minnie Mouse. So the time finally came for her to put on her costume and she said she felt like a beautiful princess. Her favorite part of the costume was the “big ears.”

She got the hang of trick-or-treating very quickly and was so excited about all the candy she acquired in her new Halloween bag. She loved the music and did a lot of dancing. She also downed an entire corndog. Girl can eat.

We had fun with family and friends. I love all the creativity that goes into this event every year. Jeff took some great pictures as usual, and you can see them here. Here are a few of Madilyn and us. Enjoy!

We attempted our first pumpkin carving with Madilyn this year. “Yucky” were her sentiments. I don’t blame her. Daddy did an expert job at carving the face of the gourd, affectionately known as “Elvis,” as Jeff named him. Here’s a recap in photos.

You gotta have the right shirt on for pumpkin carving …

preparing to carve ...

not so sure about seeing the innards …

harder than it looks…

not impressed with the seeds

all clean!

cool!

almost finished…just needs….eyebrows!

Elvis

Our house smells of pumpkin, but not the good-smelling kind. It was fun … now we’re all ready for Halloween!

With our first little cold snap here in Florida, we’re slowing starting to pull our our fall and winter gear. I got out some new pajamas from Old Navy for Madilyn and I noticed they say “Tweet Me Nice” on the front with a bunch of little birds, so I’m calling them her Twitter Pajamas. And of course you can’t see that in these photos, so you’ll just have to take my word for it.

All attitude!

So glad Madilyn was still able to wear this outfit from last winter. She was even excited about wearing the hat. And she brought along a purse. She’s such a smart accessorizer.

I could just eat her up!

Daddy had the day off from work so we joined the POA Mom’s Group for a morning at the pumpkin patch. We played games, sang songs, read stories, and of course handled some pumpkins! Madilyn enjoyed being with her friends from church and got to bring home a little pumpkin and a goodie bag. We had a great day!

Here are a few pictures, but you can see all 60 on our Picasa page (or in my Facebook album).

Jeff is a rock star who passed the infamous “in-basket exercise” I wrote about a few weeks ago. The final step in the Assistant Principal Pool process is a hour-long Ventures for Excellence Interview, which I think should be renamed “Adventures in Excellence,” because that sounds so much more fun. But they didn’t ask me.

So Jeff’s going to schedule that next week. We appreciate all those who have been praying for Jeff. Keep it coming, and we’ll keep you posted. Oh, and I’ve already bought Jeff two celebratory suits on sale at Dillard’s for when he lands that big-time executive AP job!

Here are some cute things Madilyn has done that I’m not sure if I’ve put on the blog yet:

• When she finds a hair … well, first of all, she can usually tell if it’s hers or mine due to the length … she’ll announce whose hair it is then if it’s hers, she’ll put it on top of her head (as if it will reroot), if it’s mine she’ll bring it to me. Gee, thanks!

• Madilyn uses her hands to eat yogurt, although she’s fully capable of using a spoon. Yes, it’s my fault for letting her do this, but normally I’m working at the computer and not really paying attention. Like right now.

• Sunday Madilyn was talking about her cousins whom we were about to see at church and said, “Brock, Sissy and Drew make me happy.” So sweet!

• Madilyn is using adjectives like beautiful and pretty now. She also uses the adverb “very” a lot. Everything’s “very hot” or “very good.”

• She likes to do as much as she can on her own and if you ask her, “Can I help you?” She’ll say, “No, my help you,” which means, “I’ll help myself!”

• She’s learning to sing along to the Wonder Pets soundtrack we play in the car. I think she seriously knows more of the words than I do. It’s so sweet to hear her sing.

• One of the funniest things she does right now is hard to describe. You’d have to hear it. If she’s in another room and I want to check on her, I’ll say, “You OK?” She’ll reply at the top of her lungs, “YEAH I’M OK YEAH I OK SURE MOM I OK” with like four or five indiscernible words thrown in the mix.