Goodbye Grandma and Papa!

It was a great long weekend, but today it was finally time to hit the road and head to Ohio.  Of course, this means I won't get to see Grandma and Papa Roslewski as often anymore.  It has really been great living just a couple of hours away from them for so long, and we will miss them a lot.  But you know what?  We'll be back in a couple of years!

I got in a lot of good hugs, especially since we all said goodbye inside but then realized that Daddy hadn't hooked the trailer up to the truck yet, so we got lots of hugs outside too!

Thanks for everything, Grandma and Papa!

I'm a great hostess

I am becoming quite the hostess, as you can see by how I set the table for our "snack"!

Millions of Christmas lights!

Tonight Mommy, Daddy, Grandma and I went down to see a huge Christmas light display at a church in Broken Arrow, OK.  It was amazing!  This was my expression when we got out of the truck and I first saw all the lights. 

They literally have millions of lights there, and I had a great time walking all around looking at them.  Here I'm leading Grandma to see more lights.

As we were walking by a gazebo near the lake, we found out that Santa Claus was going to be there in just a few minutes.  So we were some of the first few groupd in line, and when I saw Santa walking down the path, I ran right over and gave him a big hug!  Not shy at all like when I was younger!

When it was my turn to sit on his lap, I jumped right up with no hesitation.  He asked me what I wanted for Christmas, and having just seen another child with a candy cane, I replied "a candy cane"!  Needless to say, this was very easy for him to do, since they were giving them out at the exit anyway.  Made me a happy girl!

One way I am just like Grandma Roslewski is that I love to stomp in dry leaves.  And they had a lot of them there.  So we stomped around for a while, then we started throwing them at each other!  Grandma got me really good!

But I got her back!

What a bunch of fun we had!



I said "grace" tonight!

As we were all sitting down to eat dinner tonight, Mommy and Daddy told me to wait before eating, because we were going to say grace.  Right away, I asked "can I say grace?"  They said yes, so we all bowed our heads and held hands, and Mommy helped me out with what words to use.  I repeated after her really well, and everyone was very proud of me.  I did a great job!

Happy Thanksgiving, we're at Grandma and Papa Roslewski's house!

As the first part of our move to Ohio, yesterday Mommy and I drove up to Grandma and Papa Roslewski's house while Daddy flew the plane up.  I was a good girl for the drive, which is great because Mommy was towing the car behind the truck and didn't need any distractions.  So I mostly just watched some movies and behaved.

Today I had a lot of fun with Grandma and Papa.  Papa helped me finish a 100-piece puzzle (Mommy and Daddy and Grandma helped some too).  We were making silly faces at each other, I think when I told him I now wanted to take the whole thing apart!

We then watched a parade, and at the end, Santa Claus came to town.  And he even blew me a kiss!

I even helped Grandma with some crafts.  We made Christmas magnets!

At Thanksgiving dinner, there was a lot of food, but I only wanted turkey, corn, and a roll.  But at least I ate everything on my plate so I could have some pumpkin pie.  I had no problem eating that!

Present and helping pack

This is our last night in the TLF at Tinker AFB, so we had to do a little re-packing tonight.  But first I got to open up a present from Mommy's coworker Carol.  I like presents, and was very excited about this one!  It was a fun Disney Princess drawing pad/activity set.  I wanted to play with it right away.

Mommy and Daddy were busy packing in the bedroom, and when Daddy came out he couldn't see me anywhere.  He was a little concerned because I've shown that I know how to open the outside door, but he also knows that I love to hide.  Well, he saw one of the suitcases wiggling a little, and when he opened it up, guess who he found!

Sneaking cookies and lifting myself up

Daddy caught Mommy and me having cookies in the morning!  We were trying to be sneaky but he must have wondered why it was so quiet...

Later, I told Mommy I was going to pick myself up in this plastic bag.  As hard as I tried, it didn't work!

Omniplex, fire, lunch, park, bowling!

What a busy day!  Last weekend Mommy and Daddy promised me we'd get to play together this weekend, since they were so busy getting ready for the movers we didn't get much time to play.  Well, they were right, and we sure did a lot today!

Of course I wanted to take one last trip to the Omniplex.  This time I told Mommy that I'd take her to see the science show, where they blow things up.  Daddy and I have been to it a few times, but Mommy hadn't seen it yet, so I told her I'd make sure she didn't get scared.  The science show was going really well (and I was jumping up and down yelling for them to "pick me! pick me!" as a volunteer) until right after one of the experiments, the fire alarms in the building went off!  We thought it was just a false alarm at first, but as we evacuated the building we could smell and then see all the smoke.  It had nothing to do with the science show, but it was very good timing.  Some roofing materials behind the building had caught fire, and some propane tanks were nearby too.  It sure made a lot of smoke!

Since we figured they wouldn't be letting anyone back in for a while, we decided to go try to find some ducks to feed.  Right around the corner from the Omniplex is a little park, and although we SAW lots of ducks, none of them came over to eat what we were feeding them.  So after trying for a while and getting a lot of walking in, we went to lunch instead.

After lunch we decided to try to find some hungry ducks at another pond.  At this one we did see some turtles, but they weren't hungry either!

So we went to the playground that's near our hotel room on the base.  I had a lot of fun running all around (especially when being chased by Daddy the big monster).  I made friends with an older girl (she was 7) and we started piling up some leaves to jump in.  I was really getting into it, and doing a good job getting the leaves!
 

After a while, I had to go potty.  Well, right next to the playground is the base's bowling alley, so we went there.  And naturally once I was done, I sure wanted to go bowling!  They were having a special price today, so Daddy and Mommy thought that sounded like a great idea.  I liked my fancy bowling shoes and got my own ball.  At first I started out rolling the ball between my legs, but when I saw how Mommy and Daddy held the ball, I wanted to do that too!
 

They even had some "dinosaur" ramps for us kids to use.  I tried this a few times, then went back and forth between rolling the ball and using the ramp. 

I was having a good time, but by the end of the game I was losing interest.  So we only played one game.  By then it was time to get ready to go out to meet Mommy and Daddy's friends Steve and Brittany for dinner!  Ms. Brittany is pregnant with their first baby and I had a special present for him or her, my Mickey Mouse airplane that Grandma and Papa gave me when I was really little.  I really liked it, but am far too big for it now.  I was happy to let someone else enjoy it!

After dinner we stopped by the house to take care of a few more things, and then we stopped by two of our neighbor's houses to say goodbye.  By this time it was getting pretty late and so we headed back to the base.  What a busy day!  But we were all together!

Our house is empty!

When Daddy picked me up today, he told me that the movers had come and loaded all of our boxes onto a big truck.  It's going to take everything to Dayton for us.  So he warned me that when we got home, the house was going to look a little "silly".  And he was right!

But first before we went inside, I wanted to help him move the tow dolly into the garage.  What a big help I was!

Then we went inside.  He was right, the house sure was empty.  So what do you do in an empty house?  Apart from yelling "HELLO" and listening for the echo, I thought it necessary to dance in every room (and insisted on closing each door before we did)!  I got Mommy and Daddy to dance some too.  We were being pretty silly!

We packed up a few more things, went to eat dinner, then headed up to Tinker AFB where we're staying in the Temporary Lodging Facility for the next several days.  I get my own big bed!

It's our last day in this house

Today is our last day in our house.  Everything is all boxed up and the movers come tomorrow to load it on the truck.  I am pretty excited to go to Ohio, though, Mommy and Daddy say there will be lots of snow to play in!  I'm looking forward to the new adventure.

Tonight I got to teach Daddy how to play "Disney Princess" Crazy Eights with my Princess deck of cards.  Mommy and I have played it a few times, but not with Daddy.  So I had to show him how it worked.  And he won!

Daddy has a lot of boo-boos

I sure do like to scare Mommy, but usually it's with Daddy helping me do it.  Tonight, though, I sure scared her good when she saw me walking around holding a permanent marker!  But Mommy's pretty smart, she suggested that instead we could draw with crayons on some of the big boxes we have in the house now.

So I was having a lot of fun drawing with crayons when I noticed that Daddy sure had a lot of boo-boos on his hands.  He's been working on the house a lot lately and just seems to get a bunch of little scratches.  Well, when I saw them all, I told him to stay right there and I'd be back with some boo-boo ointment.  Once I came back I went right to work taking care of him, putting ointment all over his scratches.  I told him I was "Doctor Piper" and that "I'm a girl doctor, so I take care of everyone's boo-boos!"

I must have done a good job, because Daddy gave me a big hug and said thank you!

Our house is in boxes!

This past weekend Mommy and Daddy had warned me that they were going to be very busy and I'd need to play by myself a lot.  They needed to get the house ready for the packers who came today.  And sure enough, they were running around the house all weekend getting things organized and doing everything they could think.  I was a really good girl the whole time, and I mostly seemed to understand why they couldn't play with me all day.  But they promised me that next weekend we'd spend the whole weekend together doing things as a family!

This morning I went to school before the packers came, and when Daddy brought me back home, the whole house was in boxes!  It was weird!  I kept looking around for things, but it turned out they were all packed up.  So Daddy and I played on the bed a little, him throwing me around and me having a great time.  At least that wasn't packed up!

The packers will finish up tomorrow, and then Thursday everything will be loaded onto a big truck!

Thank you Ms. Brooke!

Daddy and Mommy's friend Brooke make beautiful bows as a side business, and she sent me some!  I was very excited to open the package (I love presents) and said "Oooo - bows!" with a big smile on my face!

Of course I insisted that Mommy and Daddy wear some too, and they did!  Daddy especially looked pretty silly, but he sure must love me.

Lincoln Logs!

Tonight we broke out the Lincoln Logs again.  I built a few different houses, including what I called a "horse house" which Mommy let me know was called a "stable". 

This was one of my earlier creations.  I sure am having fun with Daddy!

To Grandma and Papa's house with Daddy

Daddy needed to take some things up to Grandma and Papa's house to store in their attic while we're in Ohio.  So I got to go up too!  Mommy stayed home to take care of some things around the house in preparation for our move.  We loaded up the back of the truck and headed out.  On the way, Daddy stopped to look at a tow dolly he had seen for sale.  I got to help him test it by sitting on it!  Since it didn't break, I told him it was good.  So he bought it and we towed it up to Owasso.

I had a great time playing with Grandma and Papa.  I did some puzzles, and told Papa some stories, and had some books read to me, including "The Little Engine That Could", which had been Daddy's book!  Too soon, though it was time to head back home.  I fell asleep on the way home too!

Happy Halloween!

I know it's not really Halloween, but the whole city is celebrating it today instead of tomorrow.  We don't know why either!

Mommy helped me get ready, and we really went all out.  She put my hair up with bobby pins and even used mousse to hold it in place!  I was ready by 5:30 but it wasn't even close to dark outside.  So I played a little music on my xylophone.  Oops, it's upside down!

Mommy took a cute picture of Daddy and me on our front step.

Around 6:00 I couldn't wait any longer (and Mommy and Daddy were having a hard time trying to distract me any more), so we headed out into the neighborhood.  We started with our immediate neighbors before venturing out down the block.  It was still pretty light outside.

We went to a few more houses but nobody was really ready for us yet.  So we came home and had a few pieces of candy.  When it got a little darker, we headed back out.  Now we got to go to a lot of houses!  I got to practice saying "trick or treat" and "thank you" a bunch!  This was the first year where we've gone to more than just our closest neighbors, so it was a lot of fun.  We went all the way down our block and back.

When we got back home I helped Mommy hand out candy.  Trick or treaters would come to the door and I'd say "I think you'd like... this!" and hand them some candy.  Mommy noticed something funny, though - everything I handed out was a type of candy that I liked too!  Doesn't everybody like the same things I do?  I had a great time handing out the candy and helped Mommy all the way to the last trick-or-treater.  I got to stay up super late!



Carving our pumpkins!

Mommy bought two more big pumpkins yesterday, so tonight we got to carve them. This was my first time ever carving pumpkins, so I was pretty excited and had a great time. Mommy and Daddy each got a big one, and I got my Piper-sized one that Grandma Roslewski gave me!

Daddy helped me out by cutting off the top of my pumpkin.  I couldn't wait to see what was inside it!

Then I found out we had to reach in and scoop all that stuff out before we carved it.  Yuck!

But after making some cute "yucky" faces, I started to really get into it, and in no time my pumpkin was ready to be carved!

Daddy and Mommy asked me what kind of face I wanted on my pumpkin.  I wanted a happy pumpkin with square eyes.  So they helped draw it on, and then Daddy did the cutting.  I liked it!

Mommy wanted to make a silly pumpkin with teeth like "Mater" from "Cars", and I told Daddy to make a "grumpy" pumpkin with triangle eyes.  When we were done we took them outside and lit them up.  I think they turned out really well!

It was really messy but lots of fun!

Halloween party at school

Tonight was a Halloween party at school, which meant I got to get dressed up in my Halloween costume!  I'm being a princess this year in the dress Grandma Roslewski got for me.  I was very excited to wear it!

They had all kinds of fun craft and activities for us to do, like stamping on pumpkins!

And making my very own Frankenstein!

I even had to reach into Frankenstein's brains for a prize!  (It turned out to be spaghetti, but I sure didn't want to stick my hand too far in there anyway.)

I made myself a bead bracelet too, all by myself.  I was really focused putting on each bead!

It really was a fun time, and I can't wait to wear my princess outfit again on Halloween.



Fun with Daddy

Early this morning Mommy left to go to Phoenix to visit her family for a few days.  So it's just Daddy and me through Wednesday!

It was pretty cloudy, windy, and rainy today, so we went to one of our favorite places - the Omniplex!  We were there for a few hours because I was having fun (and wearing myself out).  I spent a long time at the little firehouse just going up the stairs and sliding down the fire pole - over and over again.  I was getting pretty hot and sweaty!  I also wanted to see the planetarium show.  The last time I went to this show, back in February, I got scared and we walked out.  This time I wanted to go!  While we were waiting for the doors to open, Daddy taught me the names of some of the planets that they had hanging from the ceiling.  I'm pretty good at Jupiter and Saturn, and can sometimes remember Neptune too!  When the show started, I was pretty interested for a little while.  But then I got thirsty and fidgety, so we went out.  But I wasn't scared!

We left the Omniplex and had lunch.  Then we went to Petsmart for the sole reason that I wanted to pet some doggies.  And I got to pet lots!  I even got a few licks in return.  Mommy would have been jealous.

When we left Petsmart, Daddy asked if I'd like to go to Rusty's Frozen Custard.  Yes!  I even got TWO mix-ins, chocolate chips and M&Ms.  It was yummy and I ate most of mine.

It was a great day with Daddy!

Our maple tree

It's really amazing how much our maple tree has grown in just one season.  Daddy and I planted it on 9/27/09, and it's now over 7 feet tall, growing more than 4 feet!  Compare the picture below with this picture!