For Halloween, Anna was a giraffe, although she was mistaken for a horse by several people. Our trick-or-treating consisted of walking to a few houses with our neighbors, Jenny, Travis, and Carly (the 19 month old wild cat in the picture).The girls didn't really seem to care too much, but it was fun to see them stand at the door of the neighbor's house while 14-year-old Angie answered it and gave them both candy.
Anna also got to try her skills as a cheerleader this weeked. Grandma Barb gave Anna a Packer's cheerleader outfit the last time we went to see them and we figured that since she probably wouldn't wear it too many other times, she got to sport the outfit on Sunday at church.
Of course, being in prime Packer country up here, she got many compliments on the ensemble :) But really, who can resist a smiling toddler running around people's legs after church trying to find someone who will play peek-a-boo with her around a couch. Too bad she hasn't really ever been up much to see one of the games. Maybe if she were they wouldn't lose in overtime!
Anna really got the easy weekend of the three of us this weekend. We decided that with the gorgeous weather (60s and 70s at the beginning of November?!?!) we needed to do our winterizing. That meant that on Friday (Matt had already taken the day off), we hauled 4 truckloads of firewood into the basement. Of course Matt had done all the prep work over the past few years (you know, cutting down the trees, sectioning up logs, splitting and stacking the wood), but we still had to load it all into the truck, drive it across the yard, drop it down the window well chute into the basement storage area, and then stack it. Anna's favorite part was riding around in the truck :)
Then on Saturday, we deposisted somewhere between 10 and 15 cubic yards of manure on our garden to help "feed" it for next year (as the farmer down the road says). This entailed Matt manually loading up the truck with rotted, yet still pretty wet and heavy, manure; using the truck unloader to dump it on the garden; and then I put on the "yuck" boots and pants to shovel it around the garden. Again, Anna's favorite part was riding in the truck :)
The reason I share these two stories is because by Saturday night Matt and I were EXHAUSTED and didn't have the energy to do much but lie on the floor in the basement and watch Anna play. Somehow it all worked out; we'd just cleaned and moved some of her outside toys inside and she ended up playing with her slide for at least an hour. All manner of toys were brought to the top and pushed/thrown down. She'd follow them down, find another, run back to the stair and start the whole process again ... for an hour. By the way, muscles we had forgotten we had are still pretty sore today.
