Madamoiselle Butterfly

We finally let Sabrina dress up for Halloween this year. Last year we were in the midst of world travels and I didn't plan ahead to get her a costume. Of course, she is not going trick-or-treating and no, she has not eaten candy yet. But there was a shindig at the law school for children of law students and the law professors and I figured it was a great excuse to turn her into an adorable butterfly. Unfortunately, she has been having a rough week so she doesn't look very happy in these photos. We think it might be a molar coming through, but we haven't seen anything in her little mouth yet. I guess we all have weeks like that sometimes, when all you really want is a constant hug and maybe some reading time with Momma.

Learning to use a Spoon

Sabrina has been learning to use a spoon. As you can see she is really good at it. Well, maybe not yet. But she sure is enthusiastic about learning and sharing! Also, she has found a new fort to take shelter in.

Wild!

I have been patiently waiting since we moved into this apartment to have a fabulous area rug. I finally got the zebra rug I had been wanting yesterday. I think it looks fabulous, but I'm biased. And I had to include a picture of the Ikea bookcase in our front room that I love so much.

More Sabrina

I realized that the posts I just put up didn't have enough Sabrina, so I figured that before I get angry e-mails, I better put up some more pictures of our little darling daughter. First, she has taken to to playing with our pots and pans a lot, including trying to climb into them. It's cute, but noisy.
Normally we cut up fruit and veggies into smaller pieces that Sabrina only has to take a few bites from, rather than give her a whole fruit or vegetable, but Yogurl went ahead and peeled an apple and gave it to her at the table. She loved it! She was sitting there humming a happy tune and just chomping away at the apple. I tried to give her her sippy cup to drink some water, but she refused to let go of the apple to give herself a drink, so I had to assist her. It got kinda messy, and she got tired of it when there was a fair amount of apple left, but it kept her happy and busy for a while.
Our little sweetie also likes to help us unload the clothes from our dresser drawers when we aren't looking. She will then pick something she likes and try to put it on h head, which usually ends up just wrapped around her neck like a shawl. As you can see here, she got into my pajamas and found a pretty blue scarf for herself.

Chocolate and Hot Dogs

Those of you who know Yogurl won't be shocked to learn that she insisted we go to the Chocolate Festival yesterday. You might be surprised to learn, however, that she also wanted to go eat at a place called The Downtown Hotdog Company. They had all sorts of crazy hotdogs. I got the Rise and Shine--a polish sausage with egg, bacon and cheese. Yummy! Yogurl had The Chicago, a vienna beef hotdog with mustard, neon relish, onion, pickle spears, tomato wedges, hot peppers and celery salt on a poppy seed bun. They were so good that Yogurl said she would like to go back some time! That's really saying something. The chocolate festival was good too, by the way. It was a bunch of church/charity groups selling baked goods, mostly chocolate, to raise money. Since it was for a good cause, we had to buy some. The highlights where the chocolate chess pie and the flourless chocolate cake. The homemade hostess style cupcake was also delicious. Way better than Hostess cupcakes. What healthy eaters we are!

Fall Break at Colonial Williamsburg

Well, my dad told me that at some point we had to go visit Colonial Williamsburg. I thought it sounded okay, so we decided we would go check it out during fall break. It was way cooler than I could have hoped. By the end of our trip I was trying to figure out how I could convince them to hire me as a lawyer in the courthouse. What a cool place! As you walk across the bridge that leads to the historical area, it has plaques that guide you back through history. I took a picture of my favorite one. We saw all sorts of stuff while we were there. What is so cool is that the town actually functions like an old town (mostly). They build with bricks made at the brickyard, they use barrels made by the coopers, the townspeople wear shoes made by the cobbler who uses tools made by the smiths. How fun! I got to use the tool they had at the gunsmith's place to rifle barrels. I thought rifles would be rare back then, but apparently they were't that uncommon because people needed them for hunting big game. I also included a picture of the cabinet makers shop for my dad. The cabinets there were so nice, but the guy there told me they took about 500 man hours to make using the old tools, so you can understand why we buy crappy stuff from Wal-Mart instead.
Anyway, it was great fun and they talked us into buying the annual passes, so we'll be back there sometime soon.

Jamestown

Jamestown, though not nearly as cool as Williamsburg, was still pretty cool. They had reconstructed what the original fort at Jamestown looked like, though it isn't in the original location. I guess they thought Jamestown had been washed away, but in 1996 they found where it was exactly and now they are busy doing archeological stuff over there. Anyway, they had lots of activities, like firing a musket, and showing how they made canoes. There was also a recreated Indian village, though that is apparently mostly guesswork, since they don't have as much written record of their society, and what they do have mostly comes from the early Jamestown settlers. They also had three ships there to show what the ships the settlers came on were like. The lower decks were plenty small, as you can see. We had lots of fun exploring Jamestown!

Fall Break Part 3

While we were staying in Williamsburg, we took a trip down to Fort Monroe to visit the Casemate Museum. It was pretty cool. This picture is a picture of me and Sabrina in the casemate where they held Jefferson Davis prisoner. The big flag at the side apparently is the actual flag they put up in his cell while he was a prisoner to remind him that he lost. It was a pretty cool museum.
While we were in Williamsburg, we stayed at a condo/timeshare place that also does lodging in the unsold units. We paid for a one bedroom, but they put us into a two bed, two bath unit!. It was great except that there were two staircases we had to creatively block off to keep Sabrina safe. I put on of the mattresses from an unused bed in front of one staircase and the table in front of the other. She really enjoyed climbing around the furniture of a new place, as you can see.
Before we went to Williamsburg, we went up to Carter Mountain nearby for their apple festival. It turned out to be a bust. They were selling mediocre food and doing hayrides, which we weren't that interested in. Sabrina did seem to like the pumpkin patch, though. She seemed pretty determined to get this particular pumpkin and bring it home.