It's that time of year again...

...the time of year when my kids ask and beg and ask some more to make sugar cookies until I finally say yes. First we have to make the dough, cool the dough, let the dough warm up a bit again, roll out the dough, cut out the cookies...

...this is Colin's favorite part -- really! He actually dug out some cookie cutters from the play kitchen and brought them over to us so he could participate in the cookie-cutting. And yes, we let him use them...

... then bake the cookies, let the cookies cool, and THEN (!) we can finally do the girls' favorite part: decorating the cookies.

But it's all worth it because I have some budding artists here, just waiting to express themselves with beautiful cookie-art.

Leaves

It's cold outside. REALLY cold. The wind is blowing and there are snow flurries in the air. BRRR!

I got to looking at our photographs, though, and discovered I had never posted any of our cute "autumn leaves" pics. Doesn't it look lovely and WARM in these pictures?

Maddie begged to rake the leaves. I promise. We don't actually force our children to do manual labor. Yet.



I think she had an ulterior motive for putting those leaves in a pile, though.

Pretty soon her siblings looked out the window and decided to join in the fun.

Then I did the unthinkable and FORCED them to take a few cute pictures.



I'm such a mean mommy.

But I've got some pretty cute kiddos.

OK, OK...

I know I haven't been blogging much lately. What can I say? The mood has not been striking me. It's not my husband's fault. He has been dutifully downloading pictures for me on a semi-regular basis. That's very nice of him and all, but it definitely ruins my I-don't-have-any-photos-to-post-and-no-on-wants-to-read-a-bunch-of-words-from-me excuse.

Anyway, since I don't have many words to say AND since I do have some cute photos just sitting here... Well, here you go:

Colin is the e-trade baby

And he's stylin' too, yo

But I guess he really is an Oklahoma native at heart.

Grandma and Paw-paw

Finally! Here are some highlight photos from my folks' trip! As always, more photos are available for your viewing pleasure by simply clicking on a picture. Phil's not here right now to make it link directly to a neat-o slideshow, but I promise they're there somewhere. :) (edit: Phil's home so the slide show should work!)

Gratuitous Grandma-Reading-Bedtime-Stories photo

Gratuitous Colin-Sleeping-on-Paw-paw photo

At the Clara Barton schoolhouse in Bordentown

Paw-paw and Maddie get silly with a Thomas Paine statue

Buddies

Birds of a Feather

Shannon and Dan came down for a visit! Doesn't she look great with a baby in her arms?

Princess tea

Our little Claire FINALLY had her 6th birthday. Of course she's been planning her party for months, thanks to the lovely folks at Party Express and the catalogs they send us on a regular basis. She settled on a Cinderella theme and then I had to come up with activities to keep a bunch of little girls busy. Inspired by a party Claire attended at a local boutique, I decided to do a tea party here at the house. With my good china. Using our white-upholstered dining room chairs. Perhaps I was a wee bit crazy, but it seemed like a fun idea and much cheaper than the cute boutique.


The girls each came dressed as their favorite princess. They used their best princess manners and there were NO spills or broken china! They were all so cute and the party went really well. And it wasn't nearly as chaotic as I thought it would be (mostly because we had both of my parents here helping to keep the girls organized!). Now both girls are planning their parties for next year...

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!

Bye-bye Baby Curls

Baby Mullet

My little baby is growing up WAY too quickly. He walks. He talks (well, he says words...). He has a mouth full of teeth. And now he's gone and gotten his first haircut.

Before (look at those cute curls!):

His daddy took him to the barber and they each came out with a haircut (though Colin had quite a bit more to cut than Daddy). Colin was still groggy from his nap when we got there (read: cranky), so he sat on my lap and watched his daddy get a haircut first. By the time Phil was done, Colin was feeling more at home in the barbershop and was ready to sit in the chair.


Here he is sporting the new 'do:

One cool dude

Just a few pics

I've been a little slow on the updates, so here are a few pics:

Colin's new favorite place to nap:
OK, so it's not new. Now it's just the only place he'll nap. He marches to his own drum! Sure wish that drum was nearer to his crib...


...and here are the girls after their bath tonight. Claire wanted wavy hair tomorrow, so she asked for a braid. Of course Maddie wanted a braid too. Usually Maddie's hair is too wispy from all of her twirling, but not tonight. You're looking at Maddie's first french braid, ever! She has been doing a great job of NOT twirling her hair and there was enough there for me to braid -- just like her sister's. Hooray for Maddie!

Fun Things This Fall

We've done a few things around here to ring in the new season. First, the girls noticed that there are lots of acorns all over the ground. My girls, who both love to collect various oddities (rocks, leaves, stickers from the dentist, junk from birthday party goody bags, Happy Meal toys, etc), insisted that they gather a bunch of those acorns and keep them. So I took them over to the big oak tree and had them gather a few there.


No, we're not putting them away to sustain us through this coming winter. We're trying to sprout them. Don't ask me where we're going to plant 15 or so oak trees. We'll figure something out. Do oak trees grow in pots? I'll have to investigate that, given our current move schedule.

Next we went to a pumpkin patch near Princeton. We petted goats, kitties, and a horse, we found our way through a corn maze, we ate apple cider donuts, and we found some pumpkins. I'd call that a successful trip.


Then we went to the other side of the farm and picked apples. Yum! I was going to use some of them for applesauce and a pie, but I'm not sure if I'll have any left over after the kiddos get their fill. I think Maddie ate four whole apples by herself yesterday! And Claire isn't usually an apple-eater, but she had so much fun picking them that she decided they're not too bad. Even Colin enjoys them when they're cut up.

(Click any of the photos above for more shots from the farm!)

So, hooray for fall and fun things to do!

Kiddo Parade

I've been wondering why I've had such a headache every evening for the past month or so. Maybe this has something to do with it?

Boy crazy? Seriously?

Lord help me. I picked up Maddie at her sweet little preschool today and as we were walking to the car she waved good-bye to a little boy in her class. I thought nothing of it until the following conversation occurred in the van:

Maddie: See Mommy? 'Dat's the boy I was telling you about. He's my 'paht-nor 'dis week."
Me: Oh! That's James!
Maddie: Yeah. He's my new 'boy-fwend.

Back story: Maddie had a little boyfriend in Oklahoma. His name is Kason. We have sent him letters and pictures, one as recently as yesterday. Apparently he has some competition.

Me: Your boyfriend?
Maddie: Yeah. We 'pwayed together in the kitchen and I cooked eggs and he 'pwe-tended to eat 'dem. And 'den we laughed 'cause 'dat's so 'sih-wee.
Me: I'm glad you've found a new friend.
Maddie: Yeah. I'm going to 'meh-wee him.

So she's ditching Kason and she's going to marry her first rebound guy because they laughed together once? Young love is fickle.

Then Claire piped up from the 3rd row of the van:

Claire (rolling eyes): Maaaddieee. There are lots of boys in the world. You should meet some more of them before you pick one to marry.

A voice of reason! I patted myself on the back for my women's studies minor and the obvious impact it has had on my oldest child. Then Claire continued with a little story about her school bus:

Claire: Victoria only sits next to me for a short while. She gets off the bus right by the school. Then I'm lonely in my seat with nobody to talk to.
Me: Does anyone sit in the seat across the aisle from you that you could talk to?
Claire: No. Just a boy, but I don't like to talk to him.
Me: Oh.
Claire: But I do like to look at the boy who sits in the seat in front of him.
Me: You like to LOOK at him? Why?
Claire (a bit dreamy): Because he's handsome.

Seriously? I have one planning to marry a boy because they played together once and the other staring dreamily at boys on the bus. Awesome. Can't wait until they're older.