princesses got top billing

Every week the kids in Erin's class prepare a "sharing" topic and stand in front of the class to present it. Here's Erin practicing this week's topic: "Something You Are Thankful For"


It might be hard to make everything out with that background noise. She says, "Hello class, my name is Erin. Today I'm going to talk about what I'm thankful for. I'm thankful for princesses, my bed, spanish class, halloween, my family, and my friends Maia, Mary, Mayangelie, and Belinda. Thank you for listening."

Obviously in descending order of importance.
Two turkeys:

A couple of days ago K&A put on hats and backpacks and announced to each other that they were "going to work." Then they took off to opposite corners of the house, waited a few seconds, then returned to the entry way and hugged and greeted each other, "You're home from work! I'm happy to see you!"

Then it was "time to go back to work!" again, followed by the same return greeting. This went on at least 8 times before I finally grabbed my camera.


We're off to florida tomorrow morning so watch for us on this week's inevitable stories of horrendous airport security lines, stranded travelers, and/or people who get thrown off their flight because of their rowdy children. I'll have about a million photos and maybe a story or two to share in a week.

movies for opa

Today is my dad's birthday (opa to the girls) so we chatted on the phone for a while and oma commented that they particularly enjoy the videos here. So I kind of went crazy today and took several. Here ya go, opa.

I don't think Kate quite has a handle on what it means when I say, "I'm going to take a movie of you, what would you like to say?"




Never let a happy birthday performance interfere with an opportunity to shove your sister repeatedly:


Once Erin was home from school, I thought I could get better subject matter from her:


This is Erin's placemat. She's always been interested in learning the states and likes to review who lives in what state fairly often:

our bobbsey twins

Before:


After:

halloween parts II,III,IV

Halloween part I was the pumpkin patch the other day, I figure. Yesterday Erin's school held one of it's semi-regular "lunch on the lawns" where parents can come to school at lunch time and spread out a blanket and picnic with their kids. And if your kid's friend's parents can't make it they can join you too. So I had Erin's friends Maia and Mary with us for a total girly gang giggle-o-rama on tha grass. The twins really loved being able to be at school. "Are we going to a picnic today? At Erin's school?" they asked me umpteen times all morning. And they especially enjoyed the "big kid" kindergarten playground after eating.



This was a short day at school so a little while after lunch the kids were dismissed and everyone got into costume for a halloween parade on the playground. "Princess" was a very original costume choice in Erin's class.



Erin and Maia, a powerful and now royal team.



This is one of Erin's classmates and I couldn't resist taking his picture. Because his name is Elvis. Really.



Last night I was busy getting our decorations together and John and the girls prepared the pumpkins for carving. John left carving the faces to me. So Erin and I sat down and discussed what kind of jack o lanterns to make.



"I'd like a very pretty girl pumpkin with heart-shaped eyes and beautiful hair," she announced. Good grief, Charlie Brown. "Jack 0 lanterns don't have hair,'" I countered. Kate decided, "I want a scared scary face pumpkin!" I did my best to accommodate all requests. Erin's pumpkin is on the left, she named "her" Emily.


Today Maia's mom picked Erin up after school and took the girls to a halloween party/carnival at a local community center. She came home with a pumpkin balloon and a good amount of candy and stories of a gigantic slide that she and Maia rode down about a hundred times, which was about a hundred fewer times than she wanted to ride it, according to Maia's mom.

Then when it got dark Maia joined us for trick or treating in our neighborhood. People with all signs of willing to participate in this mayhem (by having porch lights on and such) seem slightly more annoyed at this whole process than I remember from my childhood. I think maybe our crowd of four rang the doorbells more than once each time. And when the people opened their doors Kate and Allison always rushed in toward the candy. I guess overall their halloween etiquette needs some work.


And now it's over. And we cut the girls' candy sampling off about an hour ago. And Allison has been in one powerfully bad mood ever since. And I wish they'd fall asleep already.

the ladybug princess

Busy weekend. Erin had a birthday party to attend yesterday afternoon, Danielle took all the girls to a live show today (it was her birthday present to them, though, really, it felt like a birthday present to us). She had them with her, out of the house, for over 5 hours. The silence around here was deafening. John and I had planned on seeing a movie during our respite but looking over this weekend's options, there wasn't anything we wanted to see. I guess because it's been, well, years since we've been home at the same time and the kids haven't, we just didn't know what to do.

So........we did some yard work. Pathetic, isn't it? Beyond pathetic really. The front of our house needed some attention and with both of us working we did everything that needed doing in about half an hour. Then John suggested we"go to the mall" but I guarantee you that we hadn't been doing yard work long enough nor was it hot enough for him to be suffering from heatstroke. I wondered if there was a catch. Yep, he wanted to go to the Apple store and Palm store and look at the iphone and other new schmancy phones. Well, it was nice to just walk around together for a while and we didn't buy anything except for some leggings for Kate and Allison's costumes. Then we had a leisurely japanese food lunch and went to a couple of furniture stores because I'm interested in a new kitchen table, even though John isn't. We didn't buy a table either.

Later this afternoon, with the normal chaos of the house resumed, we headed to a pumpkin patch to join our friends for a costumed get-together. Erin won "most-enthusiastic to be dressed up for halloween" member of the family:


Kate won "least-enthusiastic":


Events of the afternoon included pumpkin power-lifting:



Ladybug lifting:

Running away from parents:


Taking pumpkins that don't belong to you:

Looking cute on command:


And the annual herding our children onto haystacks for the impossible group photo:

a day with the boys

Today an outing with John's cousin Brian and his two boys, Jacob and Brayden (ages 6 and 4) to the kids' favorite little amusement park which is having fall/halloween themed weekends this month. First thing this morning when we all found each other all the kids hugged and held hands like they hadn't seen each other in years, and they even (mostly) willingly posed for a group photo. Only one (intentionally) goofy face in the crowd. I'll take it.


The we entered the park and Jake and Erin, the ultimate amusement park veterans and leaders, started planning where we should go and what would be ridden in what order. Usually they paired up on the rides too. Meanwhile Brayden helped corral the twins quite a bit, shared snacks with them, and held their hands sometimes.

Once and a while the smaller cousins would override Jake's plans and make a run for, say, the the irresistible merry-go-round, which was way too uncool and unchallenging an experience for the big first grader, so he sometimes sat out these indiscretions.


Jake persuaded Erin to try a new roller coaster, one that she was just tall enough to ride, and she said it was fun but I could tell it scared her a little and when Jake immediately went on for a second ride she didn't go. But there is another, larger, faster, longer coaster on the other side of the park that she's ridden on several times and when we got over there she tried to persuade Jake to try it but he backed out and she rode it with me. There's no telling what scares her these days.

Not long ago at all she was always afraid to go into the tall rocky maze in the park, which this month they had all decorated for halloween and for once actually looked like something worthy of being scared of. There were cobwebs and skeletons and spiders everywhere and they were playing really loud, spooky, creaking, screaming, roaring animals, etc. sound effects. Yet when Jake headed into it she went right in with him, and I decided I'd follow along and get some of their reactions on video. And just when I thought she might be getting a little scared of all of this, she turned to me and gave me a smile:



Erin and Jake in the little kids' maze of hay bales:


Kate should do milk commercials:


In the carnival games area Jake wanted to try breaking plates with baseballs. He hit one plate, on this third (last) ball. Erin studied this carefully and when his game was over and we were walking away Erin was slightly ticked off that she didn't get a turn too. I should have asked. I just never noticed her having much interest in throwing or catching a ball so far. So Erin stepped up and with every one of her three balls she hit a plate and was awarded a large prize to Jake's small consolation prize. She threw those balls so quickly and I was so surprised by her performance that I forgot to take a picture of her. We might be looking into little league next spring.


And at the end of the day, with five tired kids with visibly tired faces, I brilliantly decided to try another group photo at the pumpkin display and sale, but only eternally-sweet Brayden would actually sit still and give me his attention. What a cutie.

back seat drivers

We have three mini magna-doodle boards in the car for the kids to play with. Yesterday in the car:

Kate: "Mama, will you draw a zebra for me?"
Me: "I can't Kate, I'm driving."
Kate: "Can you draw me a letter Z for zebra?"
Me: "I can't Kate, I'm driving. Ask Erin to help you."

A minute later...
Kate: "Mama, can you draw a doggie for me?"
Me: "Kate, I can't draw things when I'm driving. I have to watch the road."
Kate: "You have to watch the road? Why?"
Me: "Because if I don't I might crash."

Everyone, alternating:
"Oh, no, mama! Don't crash!"
"Don't crash into that green car, mama!"
"Don't crash into that black car, mama!"
"Mama, watch out for the truck for don't crash!"
"Don't crash that tree, mama!"
"Mama's gonna crash into the bushes!"
"Don't crash into the bushes, mama!"
"There's mooooooooore trees, don't crash!"
"We're gonna craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaash!"
"There's a red car, mama, watch that red car!"
"Do you see a bus, mama? I see it! Don't crash the bus, mama!"
"Don't craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaash!"
Singing, first Allison, then all: "Mama will crash into the bushes, mama will crash into the bushes"
"Don't crash into the bushes, mama, that would hurt!"

This morning in the car:
Kate: "Mama, will you draw a zebra for me?"