Lots of leaves

 Leaves are best dumped over the head.

 A stick!

 Ralph watches the fun from his tent.

 "My bangs grow faster than Mom can cut them.  But the rest of my hair is low-maintenance."

 Beautiful leaf girl.

before and after Music Together class

 We raked leaves before music class to enjoy the weather.

 We got to singing "The Teddy Bear's Picnic".

We walked to music class.  Ariel always starts off strong.  By the end of this class, she fell asleep.  This is her classmate, Laura, attending to her.  The class has about 12 parents and their children (ages infant-5.)  We get to dance and run around a big room at Music Together.  When we arrive, Ariel sits down and pats her hands on her lap, because that's what we do for the first song, "Hello Everybody".

autumn leaves

 When the leaves were peaking, we found brilliant red maple trees in Fort Hunt Park.

Ariel demonstrated her balance beam skills.

Fort Hunt Park is close to our house. It's very big and has old bunkers.  Wild animals live there, and police horses live in stables.  It's a good place to run, walk, bike, swing, and watch people play with their dogs.

Halloween night

 We arrived back home after the hurricane on Halloween.  Our neighborhood seemed fine, and trick-or-treating was a blast.

 Ariel dressed as a "cowgirl-Indian girl" (Native American, that is.)  The hat was Grandma Alice's as a kid, and the Indian outfit came from a consignment sale at her preschool.

 Ariel gets into trick-or-treating, and learned to take plenty of candy and put it in her bag.  She also liked knocking on everyone's door and trying to go into their houses.  Scary ghosts & goblins didn't scare her.  We had one street that was blocked off by police because one house had such elaborate decorations (including Star Wars, E.T., and zombies working on vintage computers.)  Two brothers who are electrical engineers live there and put on the popular display every year.

Sweetie-Pie Schmig and her Dad

evacuation from Sandy

 Ariel, the cats, and I spent a few nights in western Virginia when Hurricane Sandy came through.  Jeff stayed home because he'd be needed at work if the damage was bad.

 We had fun at a couple Mexican restaurants (something we missed in Japan.)

 Nene and Ralph kept us cozy at the Ramada Inn.

 The night of the hurricane, our hallway filled up with people and their pets.  We liked it that way.  The hotel had a game room where we played Donkey Kong and other video games from the '80s.

Ariel & I went exploring in the rain and found a Toys R Us.  Look who was there!

trying to catch up on photos

 asleep in the car after reading The Teddy Bears' Picnic

 asleep on the couch

She is pretty active, so deserves every nap.

Ralph in the new cat tent.

a big weekend

Yesterday Ariel had her first swim lesson.  It was a "parent-and-preschooler" class, so Jeff & I got to participate with her.  She loved it and was thrilled to be back in the pool after a few months without it.

Today is Jeff's birthday!  We are going out to a fun place to celebrate.

Tomorrow is Ralph's adoption day.  So really, it was 10 years ago today that we found him in the shelter with Uncle Dave along.  And the next day we officially adopted him and brought him home.

3 years and 3 months

I'm still behind on editing and posting pictures.
But just writing is easier for now.  Yesterday, Ariel turned 3 years and 3 months old.

She's been sleeping in her own room for about a month now.  She seems to prefer it - she has more space, and her room is so relaxing with mint green walls, nice stuffed animals, good books and toys.  She has a queen-size mattress & box spring with Dora bedding.  Our Japanese futon mattresses & bedding are on the floor for optional adult sleepage, or if she chooses to sleep down there (as the cats often do.)  The cats seem to prefer her room, too.  During the day, the window view is of pretty trees, our backyard, and our neighbor's backyard.

She has a bear named Keller, made by friend Sylvia (mom of my friend, Margaret), who she likes to cuddle with and have him do pat-a-cake with his floppy arms.

She is into books with flaps, Clifford books, play animal figurines (especially horses and unicorns), and books about Dora and cats & kittens.  She has a flap book about animals riding on a school bus that she likes.

Hopefully soon she'll start a special preschool.  Friends whose kids have gone to it say a bus will pick her up, and the kids love it (although we could even walk there.)  So we're trying to get her used to the school bus idea.

Right now, she is loving Aldersgate preschool (2 mornings a week) and all her activities.  She marches to the beat of her own drum, though, and is not like the other kids.  Luckily, the other kids still love her.  How could they not?  I'll try to get pictures of her with her classmates.  She had school pictures last week, so those should be ready soon.  Ariel has the best teachers: Mrs. Mertins and Mrs. Garden.  We will miss them when she changes preschools.

On Election Day, we joined our neighbor, Mr. Dalal, at his house for Indian food. We watched tv as the polls closed.

The next day, Ariel stayed awake all day for the first time ever. She was so tired by evening, and fell asleep by 7 PM.

Today she had preschool, school pictures, playing on the school playground afterwards. Then we went to JW Tumbles for open gym time. That's where she has a "gymnastics" class on Mondays. She had a great time. But as I sat her down for a good meal, she fell asleep.

Sent from my iPad

Delaware adventure

 We joined Grandma Alice at a hotel in Dover.  She was visiting her sisters and joining a friend's class reunion.  Ariel acquired two new hats: this red cowgirl hat that was Alice's as a girl, and a brown man's hat that was Alice's dad's.  The hats have been popular accessories with Ariel.

She arrived at Aunt Grace's just in time for a nap.

 Swinging with cousin Charlene and many other cousins.

 Grape snack!

It was a fun visit with relatives we don't get to see often.  And it was Ariel's first time meeting most of them.

new technology frustrations

So, my blog updating is very slow.  Mainly because we have other things to do than sit at the computer.

The other reason is that now we have photos coming from our new phones, as well as the camera.  They go to different locations in the computer that I can't always find.  And we have a new operating system on the computer.  I am slowly figuring it out, but as I type, it's a beautiful fall, sunny day.  Ariel & I already went running with our little early morning group, the Squirrels Club, and we voted.

So it's time to get off the computer and outside!  Thanks to all of you for your concern during Hurricane Sandy.  We had very little damage in our neighborhood, and things got back to normal quickly.  But for Sandie, who lives near Princeton, NJ, she's helping with recovery efforts in her state - people and pets who are displaced.  She luckily didn't have any damage.  We got to talk with her frequently as the hurricane passed through.  The boardwalk amusement areas at Seaside Heights and Point Pleasant, New Jersey were hit hard.  We have a lot of fun memories there.  

Jack-o-Lantern train

 We met Granmda Alice in Delaware, and had a day at Fifer Orchards Fall Festival.  We have more photos from that visit that I need to locate.  Ariel enjoyed a ride in the Jack-o-Lantern train.

In her new favorite cowgirl hat that was Grandma Alice's as a girl.

She is studying her Dora's Halloween coloring book (she studies it a lot!) in preparation for Halloween.

Just hanging out

 Playing with friend Brandon, who lives nearby.  We know Brandon's family from Yokota.  He was just a bun in the oven when we knew him there.  He has a dog sister, Dolly Jo, and a rabbit brother, Flash Bunny.  It's nice to have his parents, Shari & Tim, nearby.

 Reading Personal Penguin in bed with her Aldersgate Day School t-shirt on.  We didn't have to order a shirt because we found this one at a thrift store.

 Playing at Chessie's Big Backyard during a Daddy-Daughter outing.

A good cat nap.

Fairfax Fall Festival

 A few weeks ago, we went to the Fairfax Fall Festival.  Ariel dressed for the occasion.

 Hayride!

 Petting the horses who pulled our wagon.

 Picnic break on a nature trail.

 Ponies!

Dancing with the Cloggers.