I've already shared some Chuck E. Cheese photos from last month, but decided to take a few more this time since we were celebrating November birthdays with my Mom's Club, which is Bella's birthday month! This hat she was wearing stayed on for maybe 30 seconds. Before we left for the restaurant, Bella told Andy that Chuck E. Cheese was going to come out and that she was going to play with him. Andy asked me if there was a mascot that walked around. The only C.E.C. that I'd ever seen there was the puppet on stage. On this particular day, however, after we finished our pizza and cupcakes, Bella spotted out of the corner of her eye Chuck E. Cheese walking around! She jumped out of her seat and squealed, "Let's go play with him!" I ran after her and we found Chuck E. Cheese. Bella's interaction with him was quick, but she did get a big high five in there. I didn't ge my camera out in time, but here she is afterward, very happy to have met her first "celebrity". 
Shortly after seeing Chuck E., he went to the back room. I'm pretty sure that whoever was dressed up got changed. Bella thought that he was just going potty and was determined to wait for him. After a while, I told her that we could take a picture with the Chuck E. Cheese on stage. This seemed to appease her. Of course, when we got there she just wanted a picture of the puppet, so there you have it. 
Here she is all buckled up in the van. What a cheeseball! 
She's been into Mickey/Minnie Mouse these days. Fortunately, she was given a Minnie doll sometime last year before she even knew who she was. Whenever she takes a doll out with us, Bella is very concerned that they get buckled up too. It's very important to keep Minnie safe!
If I want to occupy Bella for a good amount of time, all I need to do is let her play with this puzzle. She is so content to sit and put all the letters in their place. She'll repeat this over and over. 
OUR NEW VAN
One great thing about digital scrapbooking are quick pages. Different people create layouts and then leave a space open to insert a photo. I'm just starting to collect these and take advantage of them. I think quickpages will come in handy when Jellybean gets here and I want to document lots of stuff from those early days but may not necessarily have the time to come up with my own ideas. To give credit where credit is due, this page was made by Cinnamon Designs. 
Andy finished painting the baby's room today. I love how the color looks on the walls! I made some curtains which we put up tonight! The room is starting to take shape!I feel like Jellybean is really getting cramped in my belly. I often get this feeling that he/she is trying to stretch out in there but doesn't have enough room. Just 6 weeks and 3 days away from my due date!!!
This was her first house of the evening. 
Whenever a person opened their door, Bella would say, "trick-or-treating!" We didn't really try to correct her - she was close enough. As we started to walk away, she'd immediately say, "let's go to another house!" She definitely enjoyed herself.
I started to get concerned that Bella would want to be out all night - but as she felt her bag getting heavier with candy, she was ready to head back and eat it! Before heading home, we stopped at a church family's house. Bella wasted no time digging in! 
Here I am at 32 weeks pregnant! I either hear from people. . . 
Tomorrow morning, Andy and I are getting our flu shots. Bella got hers a couple of weeks ago - she did so great. She didn't even cry! Hopefully we do just as well!
Bella was definitely eyeing up the treats beforehand. 
One of the moms brought these fun Halloween straws. . . or as Bella discovered, whistles. I don't think they were meant to be whistles; but once Bella discovered the fun sound she could make with them, it was all we heard for the rest of the day.
We made a baby purchase!!! Here's what the crib bedding for the baby's room looks like. Back when we had Bella, we lived in a one-bedroom apartment and Bella slept in a pack-n-play in the corner of our bedroom. There was no bedroom to put together. This time around, the baby definitely has its own space. We've been waiting to purchase this because I had a coupon for Babies R' Us that was only good through certain October dates. Now that we've gotten the bedding, we can finally settle on a color for the walls. After the painting is done, I think the room will come together pretty quickly. 
The new minivan is definitely our big news from the week. We've been saving up for this for what seems like forever and Andy has spent countless hours scouring the internet for information/reviews on various types of minivans. For a while, we were between the Chrysler Town & Country and the Honda Odyssey. 100% of the people we talked to recommended the Honda to us (even some Chrysler owners). We looked at this particular minivan last weekend (a 2001 with 35,000 miles) but had to walk away from it because we just couldn't get it down to the price we wanted - they wouldn't budge on the last $500. We looked around some more, but all of the cars that were in our price range had an average of 80-95,000 miles on them. After some discussion, we realized that saving over 50,000 miles was worth spending an extra $500. By Wednesday, this van was officially ours. It had one owner before us - an older gentlemen who clearly didn't drive around too much since it took him almost 8 years to put 35,000 miles on it. We feel like the car is brand new! Andy and I love driving it and being in it seems to put Bella to sleep - a trait that will be very welcomed when we travel back to Wisconsin. We are very happy with this purchase! Getting Bella into our two-door car was becoming a challenge for me with my ever-increasing belly, so it was definitely time! 
Earlier in the week, Bella and I had an extended playtime outside. While we were out in the yard, Andy popped in the house to grab something and ended up locking the door behind him and taking off to run some errands. I didn't take my keys out with me, so we ended up getting locked out. It wasn't a major deal since the weather was gorgeous. 
What child doesn't enjoy playing in a little dirt.
In case you hadn't noticed, I added a poll to the right sidebar. Do you think this baby is a boy or a girl? Vote! We're not finding out until the birth, but here are some clues:
I took Bella to Chuck E. Cheese earlier in the week with a group from my Mom's Club. She loves this place and always has so much fun. She was giddy with excitement as we pulled up to the restaurant and practically dragged me in because she couldn't wait to play games and go on rides. 
This was her favorite ride - she went on it three times in a row!
At the end of it all, she had won 40 tickets - which got her a plastic lizard.
Here is her masterpiece! I call it "Fall Leaves!" It's now hanging in the play area with some of her other artwork. 
On Friday, we met up with a friend and her little boy to go to the Aquarium. Bella and I rode the Riverline there- which was a blast for her. I enjoyed it too. There are still some areas around here that I am unfamiliar with, so traveling by train (as opposed potentially getting lost in the car) is always a welcome scenario. 
On Andy's day off, we decided to go apple picking. The only bummer was that this particular farm had some extra charges surrounding it that we didn't know about. . . so we decided to just look at pumpkins. 
We told Bella that she could pick out any pumpkin that she wanted. 
Out of all the options, it looked like this little guy was the keeper. But she ended up putting it back and didn't want to get anything. So, with no apple picking and no pumpking picking, it ended up being a pretty inexpensive family outing! 
And, she made it her personal mission to smell each flower. 
The pregnancy continues to go well. I'm officially in the third trimester now!!! We went to Babies R' Us on Saturday to make a few baby purchases. Slowly but surely, things are starting to get ready. The next big step is painting the baby's room. . . we just have to settle on a color.
