Mom & Dad!!!

Sorry for the lack of updates, but we were busy with my parents in town! Yay! Actually, we weren't terribly busy . We mostly just hung around the house. I'm feeling a bit guilty for not showing my parents many of the local sights this visit. But Dad's back was hurting him, Colin was sick for a few days, we had Claire's birthday party, Maddie had a Thanksgiving thing at her school, then it was Thanksgiving, and then it was cold... But it was so nice to just relax and visit with my parents. And they got to really play with the kiddos and see them in their element. Fun!

They left for their home this morning and we sure do miss them already. Poor Colin wandered around the house all morning saying, "Paw-paw. Paw-paw! Paaaawww-paaawww..." For the record, he can say Grandma (it sounds like 'Gaamah' -- too cute) but apparently Paw-paw is his go-to grandparent phrase. I sure hope we can see them again soon. Living far away really stinks sometimes.

Here's one little preview picture, until I can sit down and do a real blog post:

Halloween

This Halloween proved to be another fun one, and we had lots of opportunities to dress up. Both girls bailed out on the Statue of Liberty costume idea in favor of princesses with hair glitter. Claire was Cinderella and Maddie chose Ariel. Colin was a monkey, which is not much of a stretch for him these days.

Dress up opportunity #1: Each of the girls got to wear their costume to school for a school parade.

Dress up opportunity #2: They got to wear their costumes again to trick-or-treat at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware with our friends stationed down there. Phil was out of town and my friend's husband was out of town, so we figured we'd team up for the trick-or-treat! The kiddos had a great time and received way more than their fair share of candy. And we had a nice visit with our friends too. (Note that Maddie has changed her costume to Sleeping Beauty):

Dress up opportunity #3: Finally on Sunday we got to trick-or-treat here at home. We joined up with one of Claire's classmates and visited a bunch of the neighborhood houses, then came home to hand out candy. Whew! We were all pretty exhausted, but the kids stayed up late to meet one last trick-or-treater. They were so excited when this guy knocked on the door:

Be sure to click on any of the above pictures if you'd like to see some more!