Happy Halloween!!!!!!

We had a yummy start to our day - pumpkin flavored pancakes, cut into cute shapes accompanied by 'mummy sausages'. The girls loved them! Lunch was not be overshadowed by the earlier success, so we made grilled cheese sandwiches in the shapes of a kitty, a bat and a half-moon (no photo - eaten quickly!). Not to be outdone by the earlier meals, grandma provided dinner. We all dined on 'worms & sauce', followed by pumpkin cookies and of course, some of the booty.

Off to trick-or-treating! Olivia, having the choice of three costumes, dressed in Emma's ladybug outfit from her second Halloween. She was very cute and personable - she managed to fill up her whole bag with goodies!

Emma was the best kitty ever! Another bag of loot from her...she was quite pleased with her take this year. We had our doubts when we started out, but it did turn out to be a prosperous evening.
Not to be outdone, we all dressed up this year. It was totally worth it - I have never had so much fun at Halloween.

The Chefs, Queen for Day, Waiting for Daddy & Lounge Baby

Finally, a chance to post my pics from the last couple of days! It's hard to carve out time every day to do pictures, but I am going to try.

Thank you to Memere Croy in RI - the girls are the lucky recipients of matching aprons - they were so cute in them together! Emma loves to help cook and has been a 'Lil Chef' for quite some time. It does help that daddy is a pro :)
Emma has been on a mission of card making, coloring and 'projects' for the last few days. Her latest creation, a queen's crown, was inspired. She has been dancing and singing for the last couple of hours with this hat on - an Emma original. I am humbled in her presence.

Riley, one of our many four legged residents, has a ferocious bark - the poor UPS man should just throw our packages and save himself the onslaught of teeth and barking. However, when it comes to waiting for 'daddy' to come home, she looks pretty docile and quite honestly, a little pathetic.

While I was getting lunch together, Olivia was apparently bored, tired, who knows. She took it upon herself to go and retrieve one of her lovely knit blankets and take up residence on one the recliners (soon to be replaced!!!!). It's nice that she can take care of herself so well already. The process has begun...I will not be needed for everything...Emma became independent so early on that I am secretly hoping Olivia stays 'little' for longer. This is when I start to think about one more...I miss the baby/infant stage - crazy as it can be at times, I miss it.

Music to my Ears

Wednesday's are so much fun. Olivia and I head off to Music First class and then after we pick up Emma, it's off to story time at the local B&N. I love my Wednesday morning - I get to see the girls enjoy themselves and I get to have fun right alongside of them. This is our third week at music and Olivia is finally getting cozy with the setting and the 'routine'. She participated and had a lot of fun - I was so happy to see her liking it!

Story time was the busiest I've seen it - but the special Halloween event was not one to be missed. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to grab her costume and do a quick change in the car - I suppose if I weren't such a stickler for her wearing a seat belt it would have been achieved. But, there weren't that many kids in costume so I didn't feel like a total failure as a mom. At any rate, she had a great time and Olivia got her sugar fix with a candy-corn-pumpkin while Emma drank some 'warm chocolate' as the lady from the coffee joint sold it.

A perfect way to spend our Wednesday morning/early afternoon. I look forward to every day with my girl's but Wednesday has become a lot of fun.

Betty Crocker, I am not

I love the smell of freshly baked cookies. I am, however, baking challenged it seems. I try to blame it on the oven - admittedly, we have had some temperamental ovens in the past - but I must step up and take responsibility for human error. When I had my girls, I thought to myself 'oh, I can't wait to make cookies with them!' - what a great memory to create. Well, soon reality reminded me that I am not much of a baker. I love to cook and I can make a great breakfast/lunch/dinner but ask me to bake a cake, cookies, etc. and you are just asking for something to burn. This afternoon is cold, dreary, rainy, or in one simple word - Michigan. So I thought that Em and I could make cookies to make the house feel warm and yummy smelling. Smartly, I had purchased the pre-made cookies that are basically idiot proof - a freakin' monkey could break off the little blocks of dough and slap them on a cookie sheet. Well, I have managed to burn them before - but today was different! They came out looking like cookies - I was shocked and amazed. I am proud of myself for not igniting the little buggers and having to scrape hockey pucks off of the cookie sheet into the garbage as I grumble at myself for once again screwing up such a simple task. Martha Stewart would be appalled.

Friday Flibbitz

Oh what a joy to stumble out of bed this morning and realize that it is Friday! I dream of the weekend all week long as it is the time for the four of us to spend family time together. By the time J comes home from work, we eat, Em does homework (yes, homework in kindergarten!), both bippy's get a bath, teeth get brushed, stories are read, and bippy's are tucked in, there just isn't much time, or energy, left to do a whole heck of a lot. However, the weekend gives us complete days of 'what do you want to do?'. Sometimes we have something planned - like this weekend we'll be venturing down to my dad's to meet up with the fam to go to a corn maze. But most weekends are left to chance, mood and weather. Sometimes we just hunker down and stay home to play, create and enjoy each other in the home setting. Other times we take the girls to a fave spot or we just wing it and drive somewhere.

The gist of it is this - weekends are sacred to us as they are the only time we get to spend quality time together as a family. My girls and J are the most important people in my life and I cherish the time I get to spend with them. There are many moments during the week that are very special and near to my heart. But the weekends provide me with even more memories of us all together enjoying life and each other.

Here's to another weekend with my loves.

Christmas Lists - ALREADY!

How lucky, two posts in one day! I didn't get a chance to do anything the last couple of days, so I'm making up for it now. For anyone who has a little girl out there, beware of the American Girl catalog coming out!! Mine arrived today and oh my - I thought Em's head was going to spin around! She soon sat down, very eager to start marking her territory by circling the things that she, or her doll, thought they needed. I let her know that we would pass her wishes along to Santa and as she has said from school 'you get what you get and you don't throw a fit'. We'll see if that holds true :)

Sick Day

Ok, I may be one of the few people out there who would look forward to having a sick child at home for the day. On Monday, Em was not feeling quite up to going to school and after having a really yucky day on Sunday, we agreed it would be best. At first I thought, how am I going to keep Bippy off of her sister. But I soon discovered that it would be one of the best days. The girls stayed in their pj's and we cuddled on the couch for most of the day watching Sesame Street and Dora. Any other day and the TV watching would have been limited, as usual to one movie or a couple of educational shows (Dora, Word World or Super Why are the typical requests). But I was content with getting some time with the girls that didn't involve going anywhere. It was one of the best days I've had in a while, and it was spent cuddled up with my girls!

Congrats to Dirt Dawg & Dirrty Girl!!

A quick congrats to my brother for competing in and finishing the Columbus Marathon today! His time qualified him for running in the Boston Marathon. Congrats to my big brother, the dawg! Check out his stats:

Overall Place: 283 out of 3869
Time: 3:09:51
Pace: 7:15

My SIL, Dirrty Girl, competed in the half marathon and finished with a time of 2:17:57. Congrats to you too!!!

I'm sure he'll post an update on his blog soon - check that out at the left.

Inspired

After enjoying the festivities of the 'Zoo Boo' last night, I became inspired (sort of) to start this little venture. The whole evening, which was certainly highlighted by my dad parading around as a gecko, made me reflect on my family and the fun we have. I started thinking about how I could share our craziness with the world - in a safe, non-scary way. So, my mind went to the blogging world. My brother, the expert blogger in the fam, has been doing this for a little while and I enjoy reading his posts. It's a great way to keep up on things. And, having recently discovered some other inspiring blogs, I was resolved to the idea of at least giving this a shot.

So, for all the family, near or far, here will be my attempt at blogging. My kids will be sure to thank me in several years when they realize that they grew up being fodder for my ramblings. Asking for forgiveness in advance my little monkeys :)