Turkey with the Eric(k)s
Turkey Trot time! I ran the 5-miler this year and finished fast enough to get a pumpkin pie (given to the first 1000 men and 1000 women finishers). Anything for pie!
Cadie ran the tot trot and unlike last year, she really enjoyed it (no sitting down in the middle of the road in tears as soon as the horn went off). She especially loved jumping in the puddles with Dad while waiting for mom to finish the race.


We headed to Cincinnati for Thanksgiving with Summer and Erik, friends from Brighton High. They had other friends over as well and that husband was also an Eric! Poor Gunnar (age 9) was the only male not named Eric and he had 6 little girls following him around. Eric T spent some quality time with him on the Nintendo 64.

We chopped down our Christmas tree at a local tree farm. Cadie loved a little tree a little too much and got a scraped face.
Luckily there was a farm cat to make things better.

This girl can not get enough of cats. Notice the kitty hat (with it's own sunglasses), and the hello kitty gloves. Unfortunately she, as well as both Eric and I, are allergic so she's stuck with boring old Molly-dog.
Carrying the final choice back to the car.

A Birthday Post
Kitty cat birthday party! Cadie turns 3!
There were strawberry mice:

Kitty cupcakes:

And lots of kittens:




With all eyes on her, Cadie refused to blow out the candles. We'll have to practice that one.

And someone, who will soon have her home toilet-papered, gave Cadie makeup (just you wait until W's b-day!).

Please, don't grow up any more sweet Cadie.

The Halloween Post
I spent some serious time preparing for Halloween this year and then didn't document much at all. Here is Cadie the dragon and Eric the black knight, "none shall pass."

We won the family costume contest at our community Halloween party! $25 in an account at the local credit union. AND a way cool plaque that Cadie has been carrying around:

Next year I'm sticking to store-bought outfits.
We had 256 goblins, ghouls, and cheerleaders (next-door neighbor's scientific count) show up for treats within the 2 hour designated "beggar's night". A little crazy but fun. I may post more pictures if I can scrounge any from friends who were more organized than myself.

As promised
I had a hard time getting this video to post - finally had to downsize it but hopefully you can tell which ballerina is Cadie (the one who wouldn't take her jacket off).

She is also taking tap lessons because a) her friend Kelsey is in the class, b) the shoes are really cool and make lots of noise, and c) it didn't cost anything extra! Ballet and Tap are back-to-back and it is a struggle to keep her in line for the full hour but Ms. Irene does a great job.

Camping: Wayne National Forest
We found an awesome campground near Burr Oak Reservoir and enjoyed a short stay in the Wayne National Forest. We cut the trip short due to forecast of heavy rain and cold temps but will be on the watch for a warm and dry weekend soon to make a repeat visit - anyone want to join us?

Cadie was so excited to sleep in her sleeping bag (thanks Micah!).

We woke up to lots of fog and chilly temps but before lunch it had burned off and we enjoyed a sunny day.

Molly dog at 11 years old is starting to slow down but she still had to try to fetch anything that was thrown in the water. Cadie soon figured out that even rocks would get Molly jumping around in the water and we finally had to separate the two of them for the health and safety of both.

Kitchen Remodel
Before:

After:


Don't look too closely at the paint job - but I'm pretty happy with what a few cans of spray paint can produce. [Buckeye coloring was not intentional - C wanted red and I wanted stainless, with granite countertops].

Ballet!
More of higher quality to come... I will definitely take a real video camera to the next class. Little girl ballet class has replaced the baby panda as my ideal of "adorable!"

Cincinnati
We spent the weekend in Cinci visiting my high school buds Summer and Erik and their 3 cute kids. First stop: Newport Aquarium (Newport, Kentucky! not to be confused with the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, Oregon).
The shark tanks were awesome but my favorite was a huge octopus that was getting fed and enjoying a head/body rub from an aquarium employee.

We all went to a Red's game Saturday night. The stadium was amazing and the fans were really feeling it. The kids and their dance moves were featured on the jumbotron so our evening was fufilled.