Baby dolls, Barbies, and...Boys?

A has a little friend from preschool over to play today. This is not the first time she's had a playdate with a friend from school but this is the first playdate with a friend from school who also happens to be a boy.

When R would bring home a friend from preschool I knew that - whether it be a boy or a girl - things would work out fine because there were plenty of gender-neutral things for them to do together. In fact, R seemed to gravitate toward the boys at that age and always wanted to invite the boys over to play and they had great times. She almost never invited girls - I think because at school they showed their love for baby dolls, barbies and playing house which R was not exactly excited about. R loves animals. She loves art and drawing. She loves building with blocks and lego. She loves nature (although she's not very keen on getting dirty - go figure). And at that preschool age there was always the Thomas train set that she and the boys loved to play with.

A is definitely a girly-girl. She loves to play barbies. She loves dress-up. She loves anything to do with princesses and ballerinas. She will also play with matchbox cars, trains, and blocks but they are certainly not the preferred items of interest. She had a great year at my neighbors daycare last year where she spent Tuesday and Thursday mornings playing with a gaggle of girls all within the approximately 1-4 year range. They played with babies, princesses, dress-up and would create very intricate, very girly, pretend play scenarios. This year at school she's made some friends with a few choice girls and there have been a few playdates where they do their typical girl-play of babies dolls, barbies, and the like, and they have so much fun together. So, when she first suggested that we have N over to play I thought it was a great idea since it was the first time she wanted to invite a little boy to play. One morning we were walking into school with N and his mom and A turned to them and said "My mom said N can come over to play with me and we are going to play barbies together!" N looked less than enthused by the barbie idea and I quickly added that we had plenty of stuff to play with at home and listed off a bunch of things that he might find more enticing and I think that helped sweeten the deal a bit as far as he was concerned.

So, earlier in the week I touched base with his parents and we worked out a playdate after school for this afternoon. All week A has been anxiously awaiting the 'big day' when N would be coming over to play. She kept talking about how fun it would be and that they would play barbies or maybe with the plastic Disney princess figurines. I hated to burst her little bubble but I explained that different kids like to play different things and that barbies and princesses might not be all that interesting or fun for him. I told her that she could ask him but that it was OK if he said no and I'm sure they could find other things to play together. She seemed at first to agree with that statement but added with a hint of desperation in her voice "maybe N likes to play with boy barbies!"

At school I think A asked N about barbies because in the car on the way home the subject came up again. N reported that he "only likes boy barbies" and that he has a "pirate barbie at home that came with two guns and a sword, but the two guns got lost." I have to wonder how much good ol' mom had to do with the guns mysteriously getting 'lost'? I know that on occasion around here certain undesirable items have gone missing overnight. ("Gee, honey, I don't know where you could have left it. I'll keep my eye out for it and let you know if I find it." Heh.)

So, this afternoon they had a great playdate together. They actually did play briefly with the barbies and N was given the lone boy barbie (Adain from the Barbie movie with the Pegasus in it) - unfortunately they couldn't find his pants so he was half naked. But, N was a good sport and they did play barbies for a short while. They also found plenty of other things to do - building with legos and blocks, playing with matchbox cars, and even a bit of dress-up:



I was changing E's diaper in her room when I overheard the following conversation between A and N on their way to the basement playroom.

A (dressed as Queen): Let's go downstairs and play, N.!

N (dressed as King): Ok.

A: We'll pretend we are going to a ball, right? And we will dance at the ball.

N: No, we're not going to dance.

A (hopeful): We'll be singers at the ball, then, right?

N (indignant): No we will not! We are just going to watch!

A (persistently hopeful): We are going to watch a prince and princess get married, right?

N: Yeah. Sure.

N is such a good sport. When his mom came to pick him up she thanked us for the playdate and said she was happy that A wanted to have N over. He is the middle child of three boys (so he and A have that middle child thing in common, at least!) and she was happy that he got some exposure to girl play - just as I was happy to give A a chance to expand her play beyond barbies and princesses...well, at least for part of the time! N's mom told A that next time they could have a playdate at N's house. She's already very excited by that idea and I'm sure I'll be fielding the "when" question a lot until we get a firm date set. In the meantime, I think we need to work on inviting other boys over to play at our house for a change of pace now and then.

Procrastination...

Not feeling like cleaning/decluttering at the moment so I've done a number of things to avoid that task. I want to get things organized, dusted, and cleaned before we put up the Christmas decorations (which I hope to do with the girls on Friday) - so I have some time to get it done but I had told myself I'd do it this morning while A is at preschool. So far, I've spent a good deal of time on the computer doing a variety of things....

*I researched Christmas gift items (but managed not to melt the credit card online this morning).

*I read up on the news a bit.

*I checked my usual haunts - various blogs, message boards, and Freecycle, among others.

*I worked on our Christmas card collage - this year we did not succeed in getting a decent family picture so instead I took individual pictures of the girls and used the handy dandy timer feature to get a picture of me and Rick together. I resized those pictures and have been working diligently at making a collage that will look nice in a 4"X6" print. I even added my own little holiday message and a clip art Christmas tree. It's looking nice but still needed some tweaking. If you are among those lucky enough to be on my personal Christmas card list you will be receiving your very own copy in the mail in a week or two (depends on how much I procrastinate on getting them stamped and mailed). If you are not lucky enough to be on my personal Christmas card list you can still see the results of my labors at a later date. I want the cards to reach their destination before I unveil my creative genius to the masses.

*And now I'm busy writing my third blog entry in three days. Woohoo! Go, Jeanne, go. I don't think I could ever manage to post every day for an entire month like some others have done this month. Super duper, extra special, high-fivin' kudos to all of those who participated in NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month). Only two more days to go - well, one more day if you don't count today! It's been great reading the daily entries over the past few weeks. I hope those who participated don't become hermits for a while once the month is over (not that I could really blame them but I'd really miss them, ya know....)

Today is R's early release day (every Wednesday here in our school district) and so she'll be bounding off that big yellow bus not long after I pick A up from school. And I need to leave to go get A in about 20 minutes. This afternoon I am taking R into the doctor's office for a FluMist vaccine. I am avoiding the mercury preservative in the shot version of the flu vaccine by getting her the mist variety...unfortunately, A is not old enough for the FluMist and too old for the non-mercury shot version that E got at her doctor's appointment so she will not be getting the flu shot this year....praying that she stays healthy! After the doctor's appointment R is going to have a playdate with a former classmate from Preschool and Kindergarten. They are not in the same 1st grade class and have been asking for a playdate for a while so she's going over to his house for a couple of hours this afternoon. A has a playdate lined up with one of her classmates tomorrow - he is coming to our house. And then A has been invited to a Pajama/Slumber party for Saturday night. I have a feeling that it will just end up being a pajama party because I can't imagine many 4 or 5 year olds doing well at a sleepover! I was surprised by the invitation that she got and expect that I will just pick her up after the festivities of the evening (popcorn, movie, etc.), but we'll see how it goes! Geesh, my girls have a very active social life all of a sudden!

Ok, maybe I can get a bit of cleaning/organizing done between now and 12:30 when I have to be out the door to get A!

I seemed to have lost my motivation. Has anyone seen it? Or do you know where I can get some more?

Me again...

Hey, two posts in two days! Amazing! Will wonders never cease?

I just didn't want to give you the chance to miss me...

I took my car in for an oil change today - big excitement around here. I had been putting it off for too long. I tried to call and make an actual appointment a few weeks ago to force myself to get it done but found out that the dealership no longer takes appointments for oil changes. So, it's the luck of the draw when you pull into the dealership. I thought about going yesterday and opted to grocery shop instead (yeah, that's exactly how excited I was at the prospect of sitting at the dealership - even grocery shopping seemed more appealing). So, today I bit the bullet and brought the car in at about 9:30 after dropping A off at preschool. I was mostly anxious about how long it would take given no set appointment on arrival. I had to bring E with me and I really did not want to have to chase her all over the place for an hour or more. I packed plenty of snacks and her stroller and figured I'd ply her with tasty snacks and milk and make her stay in one spot for as long as possible. Thankfully, it ended up not being the ordeal that I was expecting. I sat in the waiting room and gave E her snacks and milk and I sipped coffee and the car was done in about 45 minutes. I think E was only restless for the last 10 minutes or so and I was able to placate her by letting her play with the tape measure from my knitting bag. Yes, I even knitted a few rows on my socks while she was busy eating - the beauty of knitting is its portability!

After leaving the dealership I stopped in at the toy store down the street. It's one of those toy stores that only carries really "cool" stuff - you know, the stuff that wins all those toy awards every year or that brings some level of education/learning to the play experience. I could browse that store for hours quite happily. My credit card is usually quite flaccid when I leave the store but it's all good stuff! Today I found a few things for my 3-year-old nephew who will be here with us for Christmas (along with his dad, my BIL). And I found some cute little activity books to put in stockings. I think there were one or two other things but at the moment I'm forgetting what they are and I haven't yet extracted them from the back of the van - that will have to wait until the girls are in bed. On the way home I stopped in at Marshall's and found even more great deals - including a Barbie Vespa for A that I had seen in a catalog! I know she will love it and it was only $6.99 compared with what I already thought was a great deal in the catalog at $8.99! Cha-ching! I love finding bargains! I also found a talking Care Bear for E (with everything that we have for the girls in this house I'm hard-pressed to find something original...trust me, it was not my first choice but I have not seen anything else that I think she'll really love and I know she'll enjoy pressing the belly and having it talk) and also an activity cube thingy for her.

I hit upon a gift-giving dilemma when I was out shopping. I saw a really nice tea set at the "cool" toy store and am not sure what to do about it. R had a Madeline tea set that broke recently (well, the teapot shattered when she dropped it on the tile floor in the bathroom). A has a tea set but it's a plastic one - the kind that comes in a little wicker carrying case. They both loved the Madeline tea set and would spend hours filling the teapot water and having "tea" parties with their stuffed animals. Only after the Madeline teapot broke did they deign to use the plastic version - and only because the other option at that moment was to end the tea party. So the dilemma is: how the heck do I get away with only buy one tea set? Should I buy it and label it for both of them and risk tears on Christmas morning because they have to (God Forbid!) SHARE. Ugh. I'm ready to just toss the whole idea because I know it is going to create problems and I REALLY detest the idea of buying two tea set to keep the peace (plus, spending double the money on the duplicate gifts seems silly). I had an idea in the car on the way to pick up A and on the way home I broached the subject of "what she wants to buy her sisters for Christmas". After a few moments discussion I casually brought up the fact that R broke her teapot recently and "that might be a great gift for her!" At first, she seemed to buy into the whole idea but suddenly came upon the realization that SHE TOO wants a tea set because hers is "just plastic." Sigh....and here I thought I'd hit upon a solution. Let A be excited about getting R the tea set that they could share! But, nope - that idea struck out. Again...it's the damn sharing issue. What would you do? This is a problem with a lot of gifts at this stage of the game because they are both interested in a lot of the same stuff. So buying something for one and not the other can be a touchy thing. But, there are certainly toys that interest A waaaay more than they do R and vice versa...but just try to buy only one and the other will get bent out of shape!

R's bus just arrived and so I'd better sign off before she decides to read over my shoulder. That reading thing is such a strange concept and I have to be careful what she sees on my blog from now on!

File this one under miscellaneous...or maybe under "long-winded updates"...

I've started to post an entry more then a few times recently and each time I lose steam or get distracted or am needed by a smaller member of the family for one reason or another. I probably should not even get this post started because I know that I will soon be sheparding two of those smaller family members off to school soon. I guess I just need to use the "save as draft" button when the time comes and hope to actually finish this entry at some point today.

Part of the reason for my absence from my blog is laziness and part of it is just that there really isn't all that much to report. We did have a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration with Rick's parents last week, though. And we were happy to not be traveling on such a gray and rainy day. All we had to do was load up the kids' wagon with our stuff and walk two doors down. We brought the potatoes, the cranberry sauce, and the apple pie and ice cream and my mother-in-law took care of the rest. It was a very nice day and the girls enjoyed playing with all the toys in the spare bedroom at grandma and grandad's house. We I missed the hubbub associated with the larger festivities that is part and parcel of a celebration with my family due to the largeness of our numbers - but only a little bit. It was a nice change to have a small gathering this year. I'm sure my kids would've enjoyed seeing their cousins, but I think they still enjoyed the day. And we did visit my sister and her kids on the 18th to help my sister celebrate her birthday so they did get some cousin time recently. In my mind I had been thinking about the possibility of a pre-Christmas vist with my family but the month of December is already filling up so much that I think we are just going to do the usual post-Christmas visit in late December. My oldest sister is going to host a party on the New Year's weekend when we are planning on visiting my family.

R and A joined the youth choir at church this year and this month had their first two performances during service. R did well considering how fast the choir director expects them to learn the songs (she and A are just about the youngest two in the whole group). A doesn't sing much but looks very cute standing up there in her choir robe and waving to people she knows. Everyone commented after the first performance how very cute she was up there waving away and how it made them smile. The older men and women at church always comment on my girls and how pretty they look (they love getting dressed up for church so I let them pick their own clothes and they usually pick their fanciest dresses for the occasion) and how they love watching them grow. And they have more than a few doting "aunties" among the women in the Crafty Ladies - a group that makes homemade items for the church bazaar in November and of which I have been a part of since I first started to attend that church. I started going when I was 8 months pregnant with R and she was actually baptized at church a couple of months before I officially became a member. So, the church members have known all my girls since birth (and their births were announced at church the Sunday following their birth - or in the case of A, the Sunday of her birth because I called my neighbor to tell her the good news before she left for church that morning). I love having a 'church home' and that sense of community, sharing, love, and acceptance that comes along with it. I love that my girls will have that wider community to accept and love and nurture them as they grow and I especially love that our church youth group is currently in a stage of rebirth and growth that is wonderful to watch and I look forward to the time when my girls are old enough to join in (the Reepicheep League/Jr. Youth Group is for 5th-8th grade and Youth Group is 9th-12th). Last year we hired a Youth Group Coordinator and he and his (now) fiancee have been a huge part of the rebirth of the Youth Group and have been doing a great job. They are enthusiastic and have lots of youthful energy seeing as they are not that far out of high school themselves.

The girls are also taking part in the annual Christmas Pageant at church this year. They will both play the part of barnyard animals of one kind or another (an appropriate casting when you consider the number of times I've had to say "Close that door! Do you think we live in a barn?"). This will again be a first for both girls - it was not something that R showed any interest in until this year and because R is interested, so is A. A tends to be the more out-going of the two so it makes sense that she would be starting early and be right in step with her big sister when it comes to this kind of thing. So, between choir practice and pageant rehearsal, I think we'll be spending a good deal of time at church in the next few weeks!

R is continuing to enjoy her 1st grade experience in the combined 1st/2nd grade classroom. She is pretty much keeping up with the 2nd graders in the classroom in both reading and math. Her homework every night is to read to us from either a book that is sent home in her Home Reading Program folder or from a book of her choosing if there is no book in her backpack that day. She has been reading some of the Magic Treehouse series books to us - 2 chapters at a go - and I'm amazed at how quickly her reading has progressed just since August which was when it really clicked for her. Her favorite subject at school is still art and I think she is really enjoying the curriculum unit on dinosaurs that they are currently working on in the classroom.

A loves preschool. She is so at home in that environment because she was there for every pick-up and drop-off for two years when R attended that school. She knew most of the teachers well and the new teacher this year has actually become her favorite. Her teachers have nothing but positive things to say about A - she is kind and thoughtful and very loving. One day when I went to pick her up her teacher pulled me aside and asked if we could just clone A because she wished that all the kids were as sweet and well-mannered as A. I know I'm bragging here but it's a mother's perogative, it's MY blog (heh) and it really is such a wonderful thing for a mom to hear about her offspring. So, just bear with me.

E is funny and opinionated and a full-fledged walker now. She lumbers about the room exploring this and that and getting her hands on everything within her reach that she is not supposed to have - from tiny stickers left on the floor by older siblings to pencils left too close to the edge of the desk to the baby monitor which she actually got her hands on and chewed a hole right into the antenna! She's a rascal - but she's also a keeper. In the last week or two her receptive language skills have really taken off. A great example happened last night when I look at the back of her head and noticed all manner of small bits of who knows what stuck in her hair - most likely pieces of pasta, tomato sauce, and dried up yogurt - and said more to myself than to her "would you like to have a tubbie tomorrow?" I didn't really expect that she understood yet she dropped the unopened bottle of water that she had been intently playing with and gave me a look as if to say "well, c'mon then!" and headed straight for the hall that leads to the bathroom. I followed her into the kitchen and she proceeded to whine and shake the gate until I opened it for her, at which point she made her way into the bathroom and shrieked happily in front of the tub. At that point I figured I'd better give in or I'd be in big trouble for even mentioned the 't-u-b word' that she loves so much (I shoulda known that she would soon enter the phase where "spell-speak" would become necessary...little did I know that she would enter that phase just as it became a moot exercise when talking around the eldest daughter who can now figure out what we are saying when we use the formerly cryptic "spell-speak"!). So, E splashed contentedly in the tub for a while and then shrieked unhappily when I took her out to get her dressed. It will be nice when there is a little less shrieking and a few more words coming out of her mouth. But, she's my third - so I know better than to think that the shrieking will cease or even decrease dramatically once the words are there. I'm in for a lot more years of shrieking, I'm afraid.

CMAD update. Part of my 'busy-ness' of late can, of course, be attributed to my incurable CMAD. I have been working diligently on my mutli-colored socks. So diligently, in fact, that I finished the first sock only to decide that it was acutally a little too loose for my liking. So, I started the second sock, not once but three times before I got a good gauge and stitch count that I thought would make a comfortable fitting sock. Then I ripped apart the first sock - yes, I'm nuts - so that I could re-knit that one to match it's better-fitting counterpart. They really do stitch up quickly and I wanted to end up with socks that were actually comfortable to wear so it was something I felt the need to do. Call me crazy. But, after a few weeks of starts and restarts I now have one completed (and comfortably fitting) sock and a second one that is nearly half-way to completion. And now that I know what I need to do to make comfy socks the next pair I make will be that much quicker! And you betcha I have more yarn to make those additional pairs - I bought them a while back and they are just sitting in my oversized pile of yet to be started projects just waiting for this first pair of socks to be done! However, I had a thought just the other day that may delay the use of that other yarn. I looked at the little ball of yarn left over from the first sock (it takes one ball per sock and there's a bit of extra left over) and I wondered, as I stared at my sock pattern which includes sizes from infant through XL adult-sized socks, whether I could use up that last bit of yarn from each ball to make a matching pair of socks for little E! Wouldn't that be so cute?! I am going to give it a shot once I get my second one finished. If the socks for my big ole feet (size 9) take not that long to knit up I should be able to finish socks for E's little feet in an evening or maybe two! I'll be sure to update and take pics of us in our matching socks if it all works out the way I hope.

Ok, although I felt like I didn't have much to say, I said a whole heck of a lot. I'll stop here for tonight and try to be better about updating on the mundane and perhaps not-so-mundane on a more regular basis!

Life in motion

I haven't had much time to sit down and write much of anything lately. We have been busy enjoying the unseasonably warm fall days and spending time outdoors with the girls. Rick has been busy getting things battened down for the winter months - raking leaves (or rather blowing them to kingdom come with his superpowered leaf blower that he managed to snag at auction awhile ago), putting patio furniture away, building a temporary shelter for his newly-acquired-but-used-and-in-need-of-an-overhaul tractor that he bought for the purpose of regrading and moving dirt around, taking down the window screens and putting them in storage, etc... The usual household stuff that needs to happen in the fall. He also recently found some active termite damage on the outside wall of the garage. So, being the kind of do-it-yerselfer that he is, he did some research and found out how to make his own "witches brew" concoction that will do away with the termites and significantly reduce the liklihood that they will return. Yesterday, he boiled up his anti-termite brew and proceeded to apply it liberally to the affected areas of the garage. The next step in the termite wars will be to remove the oversized bushes on that side of the garage and regrade the area so that the siding can more easily dry out and thus be less inviting to the wood pulp eating little bastards. That will be one of many spring projects.

As for me, I've been busy with my many craft projects (quilting, knitting, baking) as well as general household decluttering. Part of that decluttering has been to pull out warm clothes for the fall/winter for the girls and stow away the warm weather stuff. I've organized the hats/mittens/scarves for winter use and put away the sun hats. And I've been working on cleaning out my own closet of some of my ill-fitting clothing. I'm tired of wearing stuff that is baggy, stretched out and stained. So, I sorted through my closet - I bagged some stuff that was just too old and stained to be any use to anyone else and threw it away and I filled a box with serviceable stuff to donate to my church for their holiday fair this coming weekend (they have a craft room, baked goods area, used books, clothing, and white elephant room among other things). I've been spending way too much time and money of late trying to revamp my wardrobe. But, at least now I have clothes that fit and look halfway decent (I hope!). I was even able to rid my dresser of my nursing clothing and bras! Miss E has been doing well on table food and a few weeks before her birthday I introduced whole milk. She had no reactions and has transitioned very well. In the last week or so I've been encouraging sippy cups or bottles of whole milk to replace nursing. She occasionally asks to nurse (by pulling on my shirt) but I explain that it is "all gone" and the few times I've let her try to nurse I think she has gotten very little so she is getting the hint. We were down to one nursing session a day for a while and now it's been a few days with no nursing so I think I would say that the weaning process is complete - and without any real trauma for either of us. I feel so blessed that I was able to nurse all three of my girls for about a year each (R was 10.5 months, A was actually closer to 19 months, and E was just over a year) and I feel like I gave them a great start. I loved nursing them and will always cherish those snuggly, close moments but I can't really say that I'm sad to see the end of my nursing days. I'm ready to be done! It's a nice feeling to have my body back - albiet a fair bit saggier and with many more stretch marks than I had about 7 years ago when I began my journey as a mom. So, my next big project is to go through all the nursing clothing (and also the maternity stuff that I had not yet found a moment to deal with) and wash it and sort it into a donation box and a consignment box now that my local consignment store is selling maternity and nursing wear.

I've also been getting back on track with my morning walks with my neighbor. Last week I think I made it out for our 4-mile loops through the neighborhood three times. A couple of mornings were misses for me because of a crappy night's sleep. Today starts a new week and I made it out this morning even though I was up at 12:30a with E and awoken again at 4:45 by A who needed an escort to the bathroom. Rick was kind enough to be her escort but then she kept us from really sleeping after that because the poor thing was having a coughing fit. I gave her some meds and the coughing subsided a bit so she could sleep better. Then my alarm went off at about 5:40 and I got up to walk since I hadn't really been asleep at that point anyway. I kept A home today from school and she is still having some bouts of coughing that sound a bit phlegmy but overall she seems okay. I am hoping she has a better night tonight so she can go back to school tomorrow - she was so sad to miss school today.

So, I've been doing a bit more walking these days and so has little Miss E. I can proudly say that she is now a full-fledged walker. She occasionally reverts to crawling when she falls or wants to get somewhere quickly but I'd say she's walking at least 75% of the time. It's fun to see her walking around - she seems so pleased with herself and you gotta love the lumbering frankenstein walk of a newly upright toddler. Here's a video of one of her first real successful forays across the living room (and a game of "take the paci from the baby and make her laugh"). She is much more stable these days, but I thought I'd share footage from those first few days of our newest biped...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZFBSdtkz2g

Fall Photo Fun!

Last Sunday we had to run out before church to hit the local pumpkin farm to pick out our pumpkins to carve. We had been invited to a pumpkin carving party Sunday afternoon and it was a BYOP affair (Bring Your Own Pumpkins). Somehow we never found a moment to get out as a family to pick out the pumpkins during the week so Sunday morning was "it" - pumpkin picking time! We got the girls in the car and headed out to our usual pumpkin farm stand only to find that they were all gone! Apparently with the heavy downpours we had earlier in the season many of the pumpkin patches were a wash and pumpkins were somewhat scarce this year from some growers. So, we drove down the road a piece and stopped at another local farm stand - one that I had driven by many times but had never ever stopped at. As it turns out we liked this farm stand location better, there were better places for photo ops with the kids, and the prices seemed a bit better than our usual place. I think we may have found a new pumpkin patch for our yearly pumpkin purchases!

Here are a couple of photos from our excursion that morning:

After church we drove out into the "hilltowns" to go to the pumpkin carving party. We ate a lot of great food, hung out and chatted with some friends, the kids had fun playing with the other kids there, and we managed to get two of our five pumpkins carved. Rick had made us some great pumpkin carving tools from some PVC pipe, a bit of wood, some wood glue and a variety of different sized saw blades that he picked up at the hardware store. They worked like a charm and he has plans to make more because he ended up giving away our set to our neighbor who was also at the party - he wants to make a new set for us and probably a few more sets to give away.

Here are all the pumpkins we carved:

My snarl-faced one on the top step, R's creation on the second step, "Boo" and A's creation on the third step, and Rick's on the bottom. If you want to see a fun time-lapse video of Rick creating his pumpkin check out this video! The video was actually viewed quite a bit on Halloween night and he got a fair number of comments....YouTube is a strange little world.

And now the much anticipated pics of the girls in their Halloween costumes! Ha Ha.
The first pic was taken on our way to a Halloween party at our neighbor's house on Saturday night. A wanted to have face paint on that first night and also wore the paint when she trick-or-treated with her school on Tuesday morning (her school is on a college campus so all the kids come dressed in costumes and they go to a bunch of campus offices to sing songs and get treats...very cute). However, she decided the paint was too itchy so she didn't end up wearing the face paint for the real deal on Tuesday night.

R and A Saturday Night:

R, A and E on Halloween Night:

The weather was GORGEOUS on Halloween night. We really lucked out this year and jackets were not necessary. I hate when you have to get the kids all bundled up over their costumes for trick-or-treating - and I hate walking the neighborhood on dark, freezing cold nights! So, this year was truly a TREAT. The moon was shining bright and had some spooky looking clouds that were floating past it. We saw a ton of kids out in the neighborhood and I think the main roads in our neighborhood had close to if not more than 150 trick-or-treaters. We are on a dead end street at the back of our development so we don' t get nearly the same amount of traffic as some people do - good in some ways (don't have to buy as much candy) but disappointing in others (not seeing a ton of cute kids in their costumes)!

We have been taking advantage of the nice weather of late and getting outside for playtime and for walks. The girls love to take E for a walk down the street in her new wagon. Her first trip out went smoothly and she stayed seated for the entire ride, however on our second outing she decided it would be fun to crawl around the wagon and pull to a stand over and over! I ended up having to carry her while R pulled an empty wagon for the half of the walk.

A few pics from our walks:

Hope you enjoyed the photo update of our fall fun. It's my favorite season! Cool, crisp air - clear blue skies with bright foliage in yellow, red, and orange - pumpkins - apples - leaves crunching underfoot - warm, cozy sweaters - comfort foods - what's not to love?