Pepe's visit

Pepe came to visit us in November. While he spent much of his time building a chicked coop (with Vienne's assistance!) we did enjoy some other outings during his time here, including taking in a Keizer Volcanoes baseball game. Rest assured, Pepe's next visit, happening in a couple of weeks, will be much more memorable: VIENNE'S FIRST TRIP TO DISNEYLAND!!

Fall!

Enjoy some wonderful photos of Vienne having a grand ole time in the season of fall. And don't forget to scroll down to the following blog post about Halloween.  :)

Halloween 2013

Courtney, our former roommate for 5 years during our Brazee St. Portland days, came down one weekend in early October to help us decorate the front of our house for Halloween. Anyone who knows me personally, knows that Halloween may just be my favorite holiday. Yes, Christmas is second to Halloween. We didn't buy any new props this year, so we dusted off our oldies, but goodies (including our beloved jumping spider), and Danielle used her creative touch to make a pirate ship scene on the porch, complete with ship port holes, a pirate skeleton, and creaky old ship noises emanating from a hidden CD player. When Halloween arrived, we first took Vienne - dressed as a dinosaur - out trick-r-treating with some friends. Then later, we watched wee ones getting the pants scared off them outside our front door!  We wrapped up the evening with Grammy's visit, and a little trick-r-treating around our neighborhood. Vienne had a blast. Something tells me that this year for Halloween, she'll be dressed as a Disney princess.

The Big One

The Oregon State Fair is affectionately known to other Oregonians as the "Big One". In actuality, especially compared to other states such as California or Texas, or even World fairs, our state fair should be called the "Medium One". Anyhoo, Vienne went last year for the first time (or at least, the first time when she was an active participant) and enjoyed a magic show (even sitting through the whole show squirmless!), the petting zoo, various really, really, really bad foods (including a funnel cake, cotton candy, and deep fried, chocolate covered lard. Just joking about the last one), the sights and sounds of the midway, and the few kiddy rides that she was actually tall enough to go on. The highlight was her journey with her Mama across the fairgrounds, high above all the other patrons, on the sky ride, similar to a ski lift. It was good practice for a Disney adventure, some time in the future.

Birthday girl!!

Little V turned 3 on August 16, 2013, and we had a party for her in our backyard that weekend. Unfortunately, since we had just moved to Salem, Vienne didn't have any little friends to invite. Luckily, in the weeks before her party, Vienne met a couple of nice boys her age up at the water fountain and they were able to make it over. It was just the 3 of them. Plus, many lovely family members, and Ya-Ya, who was still in town visiting from the East coast. It was a great time, lovely weather and food, and Vienne had an absolute blast. And she was the most beautiful birthday princess ever!

Vienne loves to Roar!!

Sometime in the fall of 2013, Katy Perry released her hit single, Roar. At Vienne's school, they began playing the song incessantly in her classroom. Roar is certainly catchy and relatively inoffensive, with some fairly empowering lyrics to boot. Vienne quickly picked up the nuances of the song, and she delighted me with her special rendition one night during bath time:

Hot child in the city

During August, we experienced some sweltering temperatures in the 90s!  Haha, it doesn't sound very hot, does it?  But to a 3-year-old, it felt like being on the sun. Luckily, just up the road from our house, was the water fountain across the street from the state capitol building. In the weeks before Vienne returned to school full-time, she spent many a day there with her mama.