Kindness Begins with Me

The Fairy Princess Dress-A Gift For A Friend

Today my 3 foot munchkin made her 5 foot mother proud.

Cassidy had her friend Emmeline over while her parents went to the Temple. These two little girls were dressed up all afternoon in fairy dresses. Unfortunately, their play date had to end and it was time for Emmeline to go home. But before she left she expressed to her mother that she wished for a fairy princess dress just like Cassidy's. Emmeline explained to her mother what she wanted exactly, the sequins, wings, and the pretty pink skirt. Her mother agreed she would look for one, Emmeline was hopeful.

Then out of nowhere Cassidy quickly said, "Emmeline can have my fairy dress!" And she ran back to her room to get it and to find the wings too. Tiffany (her mother) looked at me as if to say, "Are you sure?" I said, "It's up to Cassidy." This meant so much to me than my little girl keeping the pink fairy princess dress. When Cassidy handed the dress over to Emmeline she looked as if she just won the lottery. It was so sweet. Cassidy continued to say, "I will grow out of it soon." Which I think she easily could fit in that dress another year. My cutie pie does not grow very fast, at least in inches. I could tell it made Cassidy feel so good inside to do this for her friend. After our friends left I had to scoop her up and give her a giant hug.

After dinner Cassidy went with me to Target. Whenever we go to the store I let Cassidy check out the toys at the cashier aisle. This time she was playing with one of those candy sticks with a fan on top. Cassidy is really good at when I tell her it's time to go she will put the toy/candy back without a fuss. As we were walking away...the lady behind me asked if she could buy that candy stick with a fan on top for my daughter. She went on to say that my daughter was enjoying it so much and that she wanted to buy it for her. At first I felt bad like I was a scrooge for not buying it myself, but I knew Cassidy was content without it. But I was caught by surprise by this nice gesture. All I could say was that she didn't need to do this but without a another second she quickly added it to her bill and told Cassidy to go grab one. Cassidy didn't know what to do, I think she was a little confused but I reassured her that the lady already paid for it and that she could go grab one. I gave the lady a hug and we both said thank you. What a lesson she taught all of us and her son who was around the same age.

It reminded me of the song, "Kindness Begins with Me" from the Children's Songbook. The words are: I want to be kind to everyone, For that is right, you see. So I say to myself, "Remember this: kindness begins with me."

Cassidy and I had a great chat on our way home about what this sweet lady did for her and she didn't even know her. We also talked about what she did for her friend Emmeline and how we are blessed when we do nice things for others. This time the blessing was receiving a candy stick with a cool fan on top. :) Although, I know that the feelings that Cassidy felt after she did what she did was a good enough reason to do it again.

I was so touched by what occured today. My little girl and that sweet lady were great examples of kindness and love. Now I can't wait to return the same gesture for another child. It really touched our hearts.

Halloween Day (BEWARE 4 Posts in a row)

Halloween French Toast with mini chocolate chips and scrambled eggs

Can you tell Derek had fun playing with his food, poor ghost

Cassidy's Butterfly pumpkin. While Derek and I went to the Temple one morning our friend Nickell carved pumpkins with Cassidy. I love it!
(Front)

(Back)

Glowing Pumpkin Halloween Night

After we passed out candy to the trick or treaters...we had a spooky Halloween dinner. On the menu: Mummy Meatloaf, Sea Creature Mac & Cheese with string green beans and olives, croissant rolls, and pumpkin cheesecake for dessert. For drinks apple juice with gummy worms on the bottom with floating pumpkin shaped ice cubes. Delish!

Same picture but Cassidy wanted it in PINK as well

Happy Halloween!

Trunk or Treat

On Saturday night at the church we had "Trunk or Treat". We invited our neighbor and her little Natalie to come with us. We all had a great time looking at all the fun costumes.

The funny part of the evening was that Cassidy and I switched places. She was the mommy and I was the little kid. I really wanted to go car to car and visit while Cassidy just wanted to hand me her bag and help daddy pass out candy. She said, "Here mom, here's my bag you can do it. I'll see you when you get back." It was so funny. My girl is always throwing me surprises. I love her just the way she is. I think she helps to balance me out and helps me slow down. :)

I did talk her into at least one row of cars to visit with friends and say "Trick or Treat" and then we hung out the rest of the night near our car enjoying watching others walk by and visiting with them.

Cassidy with friend Natalie

Cassidy with her babysitters. They have a special friendship, Shirley and Isabell are always asking to spend time with Cassidy. It's very sweet!

Dracula with his pet bat

The Spooky Family

My spider web eyelashes

After Trunk or Treat we went to our friends Halloween Party. The kids made Halloween necklaces while the adults had fun chatting and eating yummy treats.

Garden of the Gods - Ghost at the Post

Derek was going to be working out at the gym, so Cassidy and I decided to head over to Garden of the Gods trading post for some Halloween fun.

They had trick or treat stations, a coloring contest, scary stories on the back patio, a costume contest, and showed the classic movie: "It's a Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!"

Cassidy and I dressed up as 50's girls. It was fun and everything was FREE. Here are some pictures:

Trick or Treating

Cassidy's 1st time watching this movie

Pictures in the Dark

Isn't this a scary picture?

She tried so hard to look scary...she's just too cute!

Preschool Halloween Party

Cassidy and I made Witch Hat Cupcakes for her preschool party
(Bugles dipped in chocolate sitting on a mint cookie)

Miss Teri's Preschool Class

Cassidy's Ghost

Costume Parade

Scarecrows

For 14 years, the merchants in Old Colorado City have decorated scarecrows to represent their store or business. So Cassidy and I decided to go check out the scarecrows this year. We enjoyed our girl time of window shopping and viewing all the different scarecrows. Cassidy's favorite ones were the small ones in the window displays.

The shops that were popular to Cassidy were the: Honey Cottage, Michael Garman Museum, and Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Who could blame her?


Which scarecrow do you like best?

The Salon- can you tell this lady scarecrow needed a new hairdo?

I wish this scarecrow would share his wealth

Sweet Pumpkin Family, look twins!

Cassidy tried to mimic the face on the scarecrow

My favorite one, very creative!

Happy Apple Farm

For playgroup with friends we took a drive to the "Happy Apple Farm" to pick out pumpkins from their pumpkin patch. Cassidy invited her friend Zoe to come play with us. The drive was beautiful seeing all the colors of fall.

When we got there we had the chance to ride the hayride. Then we went searching for the perfect pumpkins. Cassidy and Zoe wanted small pumpkins. I think they picked out the perfect ones. Then we picked raspberries. We also brought sack lunches to have a picnic at the farm. It was so much fun! I enjoyed pulling the girls in the wagon walking through the apple tree orchard. I love this time of year.

Cassidy and her friend Zoe

The perfect little pumpkins

Picking Raspberries, they actually still had some

Picnic Lunch with friends

Cassidy's in Preschool

Instead of doing a joy school this year with other moms, my friend Teri offered to teach a Pre-K class in her home. Cassidy has been enjoying going to Miss Teri's and she enjoys learning new things, the art projects, "Show & Tell", snack time, and coming up field trips. She goes three times a week: Monday, Wednesday, & Friday for 2 1/2 hours.

Cassidy and her friend Aly after their 1st day of school

Fall Festival

Our friends invited us to the Fall Festival at their school this weekend. We had lots of fun playing games. Here are some pictures and some video of Cassidy's awesomeness...a somersault and a shot in the basket. :) I don't have video of it but Cassidy also kicked the soccer ball into the goal. She was thrilled, and so were we!

Derek decided to do this game with Cassidy. You had to toss an ice cream beanbag into the ice cream cone. Let's just say...Cassidy continued on with her awesomeness and beat her daddy at this game. Unfortunately, daddy didn't even come close to making a shot in the cone.

The cake Cassidy picked out from winning the cake walk

The balloon guy was AMAZING! I had him make me an octopus.

"SQUIRREL"

This is Dug from the disney movie "UP". One of my favorite parts in the movie was when Dug would freeze in the middle of a sentence and say "Squirrel!" Well, one afternoon we came home to hearing our dog Oakley barking in the backyard and not just one or two barks but many. I thought it was strange since Oakley hardly barks. So I went to go see what the matter was and realized Oakley found a squirrel in our tree.

The squirrel was loud too as if it was barking back at Oakley. Cassidy and I enjoyed watching the show. I included some videos, I apologize the videos are sideways. Oh and sorry we're not that great at landscaping as you can see.

Squirrel in our backyard tree barking back at Oakley

Videos of Oakley barking at the squirrel:




I decided the squirrel had enough and put Oakley inside



This is what happened next...the scared little squirrel caught his breath and escaped from the barky dog.