Bella hearts Auntie Sissy

My sister came this year during Bella's birthday. Bella adores her Auntie to death. They have so much fun together. Most of what we did revolved around the party, but I had a few pics that I wanted on her blog.

"I wanna be just like my auntie when I grow up."

Bella and Auntie Sissy always make up the most interesting games. Here is just an example of the fun they have.

Our Little Einstein

Bella has always loved books. From the minute she could make a sound, she was always "reading" books. In the beginning, she would speak jibberish, but the pausing was so sophisticated for her age that it actually seemed like she was reading. Nowadays, she insists that she read to me and makes up the best stories. But, today, November 6th, my 3-year-old actually READ her first book. This past week, she had been passing by signs and saying, "Mommy that says, 'the'" (or 'on'" or the small sight words we occasionally study). So, I thought I'd pull out my first leveled reader and to my surprise, the sweet girl read it! I was so amazed and proud. She was too, but it was short lived. She much prefers to tell her own stories than read the words. So, she is not as excited as mommy is with her new skills.

On another note, I was driving Bella to a friend's house this weekend and we were talking about something. (she's a fabulous conversationalist) Anyhoo, for some reason, I decided to try and teach her our phone number (she can already tell you her full name, our names, her birthday, and her age). Within 6 minutes, she memorized it! Later that night, I had daddy ask her and she still remembered it. (plus, I just asked her again for confirmation) I wish I could learn something that fast.

Lastly, she did her first button. She just came up to me and buttoned my PJ's.

I can't imagine what's next! She never ceases to amaze me.

My baby is THREE!

So,here I am again, catching up on the blog. These pictures were from October when she turned 3.

This birthday, Bella knew exactly what she wanted.....a pink scooter.



"C'mon Dad" Daddy couldn't put it together fast enough!


Here's the birthday girl, ready for school on October 26th..her real birthday.






Bella with our cleaning lady, Elsie. Elsie has been with us since Bella was a little baby.


We delivered some birthday balloons when we picked her up from school.

Skyping with Nana....opening the birthday gifts from her. A new instrument, yahoo!


A new Little Einstein video!


A Monkey game!

Annual Pumpkin Patch Trip

This year our trip to the Pumpkin Patch was extra special because we had Auntie Sissy with us. We went the day after her big birthday party, on October 23rd. It was a gorgeous day. Basically, Bella liked picking up pumpkins and running around them....as you will see. She also had the opportunity to have her FIRST pony ride.









Meet Pikachu---yep, the Pokemon...Bella was so scared at first and then loved it.


Last but not least.....a balloon flower with a ladybug! Fun!

Jack o' Lanterns or something like that

Halloween was very low key for us this year. Bella has yet to go Trick-or-treating. Yep, very deprived I know. We didn't even get her a costume this year. Last year she didn't even wear hers for more than 5 minutes. She has such a huge bday that Halloween gets overshadowed. Anyway, we did do our pumpkins, though. We even tried something different---felt.

This is the little pumpkin Bella picked out when she went to the Pumpkin Patch with her school. It's just perfect.

Here's our boy pumpkin. The blue is a hat.


Then, we attempted Mickey Mouse.


Curtis carved the pumpkin on the left with a lot of creativity...can you tell. Geez...... I did the one on the right. But, I got so tired that I couldn't do the other eye, so I made it wink. Very innovative don't you think!

Very diverse group this year.

Bella's Latest Obsession

For the past couple of months Bella has taken a huge interest in games of all sorts. She comes inside the house, goes to the shelf and grabs a game to play. She is such a fabulous game player. Not only does she understand games but she is so good at taking turns and letting others go first. I know I am bias, but she truly amazes me. The best though is Curtis still tries to beat me when we are playing a nice family game. His competitive nature runs deep. One night he was so smug about being on the LAST square in Candyland while I was half way back on the board. Well, his next draw was the card that took him ALL THE WAY BACK to the beginning. And my next card took me ALL THE WAY towards the end. With another card, I won. Needless to say, he wasn't smiling anymore. I didn't think a sweet game of Candyland could be so fierce. Only in the Briggs' household. Thank God Bella doesn't care about winning.

This is a super fun game called Dr. Seuss' Super Stretchy ABC that I bought for Bella's birthday party (which I forgot to bring) It's basically like twister but only one person goes at a time. You have to put your hands, feet and one ear on different letters all at once. For each one you complete you get a token.






This is Cariboo Island. I love this game. Basically, you hide coins by pushing them through a hole in the back of the treasure. Then, each player picks a card. On the card is a number or letter and you can open up a compartment that starts with that letter or has that many objects. Inside the compartment you might find one of the coins. The person to find the last coin gets the treasure.




Just lining up the pattern blocks. She lines up EVERYTHING. OCD for sure.

Another favorite: UNO MOO. Although she doesn't like to play the real way. She'd rather line them up in patterns.

Another game for the party...Cat in the Hat: I Can Do That! You pick one card from each pile and try to complete the task. Very fun!

Curt had to CRAWL UNDER THE THING-A-MA-STICK WITH THE BOAT IN HIS CLOTHES

Bella had to SKIP to the KITCHEN with the BOAT UNDER HER CHIN