HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Very Thankful for so many things this year. Love that the kids are starting to understand that too. Last night before bed, Ethan and Elena were actually allowing each other to hug each other and gave each other a kiss on the cheek before bed. Then Elena says to Ethan " I am thankful for you Ethan, I am lucky to have you for a big brother" Instead of pushing her away or being mean to her, he gives her a big hug. It just melted my heart to see that even through the day to day squabbles, they really do have love for each other.
Here is Elena before her Thanksgiving feast at preschool. She loves to dress up and could hardly wait to get to school that morning. They had a regular thanksgiving meal for the kids. Turkey, stuffing, potatoes etc. The moms were talking about how funny it was to serve these things as most preschoolers won't eat these things. To our surprise many of them ate quite a bit! One mom had the theory that if they see other kids eating that maybe by Turkey day, they will recognize some things and maybe try new things. We'll see how that works. She did eat her Jello jiggler first and that is something she never will touch at home! Go figure! Ethan had a feast at school with the first graders. The kindergarteners were the native Americans. They got to watch a movie and have popcorn and apples. He is so excited for Thanksgiving and having grandparents come over. He woke up about 7:00 and started clearing off the table, when asked what he was doing, He said" Getting ready for Thanksgiving!"
Natalie was my helper while I was making the pies. She just kept reaching for everything. So finally she pulled up a chair and stood there watching me. The pie crust wasn't really the taste she was hoping for. I think she was looking for some cookies ;)
She did have fun playing with the extra crusts.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Kitty Love

I have posted pics of our kitty Madison before, but lately the girls have an obsession with the poor old guy. He is getting older and slower and pretty much just lies around, the girls take advantage of this by laying on him, pulling on him, etc. Despite all the times he snaps at them, they think he is still playing around. Most days I have to put the cat out on the porch or hide him in a bedroom just to save him! But the minute they find him, they are all over him! the other day I walked into the dining room and there is Natalie sitting on the cat like a pony, holding onto a chair bouncing up and down!! Madison just looks at me as if saying HELP!!! I missed a chance to take the dining room shot, but here are a few of what he puts up with all day long.




I don't know how much longer Mr Madison will be with us, every week we say it is the last, he has to go, but the truth is we do love him too much. I couldn't imagine not having little "key" to pull the baby off of 300 times a day :)

Beary Birthday!

This year for her birthday Elena wanted to go to Build-A-Bear workshop. Her cousins birthdays are close to hers, so that was their birthday present this year as well. This was the first time for all of us to come here and they were all very excited! Little did we realize what a tough decision this would be!!
As you can see here, Emma and Abby are really thinking about what outfits to select for their bears... We had to stop and go get some ice cream to think this over, there were so many choices... Chocolate and vanilla do wonders at helping you think things through :)
Here Elena was telling the stuff and fluff man she is three years old. After they sang happy birthday and announced her age, she is convinced she is 4 now. (her actual b-day is later this month) There is no trying to explain it any other way! She's 4 now ;)

Here the girls had to sit on the counter and be sung to hee, hee :)
Click on the thumbnail to see them being embarrassed..

And the finished products! Cinnamin, Koala and Daisy have been born!!

Uh-Oh!

This is what happens when you leave an almost 18 mth old alone in the room for a minute and forget to put away the liquid baby powder..........

Natalie has an obsession with putting bottles or anything with a lid she can pop open with her teeth in her mouth. Crazy little girl!

Of course I had to snap a pic before I said "no, no" So she probably has no idea if it was a good thing or bad thing to do. Mom will just be sure to put up the bottle when we are done in the future ;)

Trick or Treat

These are our Jack O' Lanterns from this year. Jasons is on the left, Elenas in the middle, and Ethans on the right. They were soo excited to carve pumpkins, but once the pumpkin was cut, they would have nothing to do with scooping out the pumpkins. What party poopers! That's the fun part!
We went Trick or Treating on Sunday with cousins. Elena was a Lady bug. Here she is with her cousin Abby who wasn't completely in costume yet. She was a spooky witch.
Jason was too cool to Trick or Treat this year, so he just walked around with us and went through the other kids candy to "inspect" it. Silly tweenager! Ethan was the race car driver for school, but decided that for trick or treating he wanted to be the Tootsie Roll! That costume has been in our box for years and noone has wanted to wear it! It was a big hit, everyone thought he was so funny (of course, so did he!) Natalie was a sweet little bumble bee who loved to get treats! I let her hold her bucket for a bit and when I looked down, she was eating the candy through the wrapper!! So I had to just give her a sucker instead which she was very happy with!
On Halloween night in our town is trick or treat, so we just pass out candy. The kids got into their costumes again and went to Great Grandma and Grandpas house so they could see them in their costumes and they came home and helped me pass out goodies. I think they have more fun doing that than the actual treating! I didn't get too many good shots of them this year as my camera batteries wouldn't hold a charge, so my sil took some and my grandparents. So I may have more pics to share later.